The Suffolk Book League (SBL) was founded in 1982 and has introduced a varied programme of novelists, historians, poets, biographers and social commentators to speak in Suffolk. Our honorary president is Margaret Drabble.

Past speakers have included Deborah Moggach, Alexander McCall Smith, Julie Myerson, Doris Lessing, Francis Wheen, PD James, Louis de Bernieres, Sarah Waters and David Starkey.

The SBL is a registered charity (number 296783), the aim of which is to promote, encourage, foster or strengthen by all and every suitable means the habit of reading and the wider and more general distribution of books, by and among all people. We are involved in various community projects such as 'The Big Read'.

We also publish a regular newsletter for our members, Book Talk.

25th Anniversary Celebration

Brian Morron, chairman of the SBL, announced at the 2007 AGM that we would celebrate our 25th Anniversary with a celebrity concert of words and music on September 11th 2007 at the Seckford Theatre, Woodbridge.

Actress and film star Jenny Agutter read exerts from Jane Austen, Fanny Burney, Mary Robinson, Aphra Benn and Mary Wollstoncraft.

International concert pianist Diana Ambache played music from Jane Austen's period with oboe player Jeremy Polmear. They performed works by amongst others Bach, Teleman, Purcell and Robert Schumann. Some of the pieces were found in Jane Austen's library. The programme included works Handel, Hasse and Michael Kelly from her music books. Other music was by Austen’s English female contemporaries, such as Cecilia Barthélemon (1770-c1840), Jane Guest (1765-1814) and Maria Hester Park (1760-1813), all of whom were friends with Haydn on his London visits.

Margaret Drabble, Honorary President of the SBL, attended the concert.

About the performers

Jenny Agutter trained at the Elmhurst Ballet School. She made her debut aged eleven as a dancer in Walt Disney’s film Ballerina. She first played Roberta on television when she was fourteen, and almost three years later after filming Walkabout in Australia, repeated the role in the film of The Railway Children. The following year she played Fritha in the BBC TV film of The Snow Goose, for which she won an Emmy. Jenny joined the Royal National Theatre in 1973 to play Miranda in Sir Peter Hall’s production of The Tempest with Sir John Gielgud.

Her many films include Logan’s Run, The Eagle Has Landed, An American Werewolf in London, Sweet William and Equus, for which she won a British Academy Award. She also played in King Lear and Arden of Faversham at the Royal National Theatre, and Breaking the Code on Broadway with Derek Jacobi.

In 2000 Jenny played her own mother in The Railway Children for Carlton TV. Other TV appearances include Spooks, and as Alan Clark’s wife in a dramatisation of his Diaries with John Hurt. Her recent TV work includes Poirot - After the Flood and Diamond Geezer, and recent films include Irena P, Heroes and Villians and Act of God.

Diana Ambache and Jeremy Polmear are members of the Ambache Chamber Ensemble. This was formed in 1984 to play the music of Mozart and women composers of the last 250 years. They have since performed in Europe, America and Asia, and Polmear and Ambache have given programmes of Words and Music in the Gulf and Australia. London appearances include concerts at the Wigmore Hall and South Bank.

Jeremy Polmear has made four recordings of 19th and 20th century oboe music. He has performed as a guest player with a number of London’s chamber orchestras including the London Mozart Players and the City of London Sinfonia. He runs the CD label Oboe Classics (www.oboeclassics.com).

Diana Ambache (piano) directs her own classical chamber orchestra, The Ambache (www.ambache.co.uk). With them she has made five recordings of Mozart piano concertos and three of his chamber music, and several of music by women. She was short-listed for the European Women of Achievement Awards 2002 for her work reviving music by women composers of the last 250 years (www.womenofnote.co.uk).