Our president, Mrs Sarah Phillips, welcomed us.

We went through the monthly newsletter and Mrs Phillips told us about a talk she had been to about puffins and how to attract them to the Isle of Man.

They do come to visit briefly but, after looking around, they leave.

Puffin mating calls have been played in the hope that they will stay.

Mrs Phillips said that she had been to several very good talks and recommended that we should try them too.

We then heard about the arrangements for our participation in the Southern Show.

Mrs Phillips then introduced the speaker, Pat Skillicorn, whose subject was Hall Caine’s novel ’Woman of Knockaloe’.

She began by giving us some biographical details of the author who was one of the most popular novelists of 19th century and was considered to be on a par with Charles Dickens, although he has fallen out of favour and is now virtually unknown.

He was born in 1858 in Runcorn of a Manx father and a mother from Liverpool who was 14 years old when they married.

Her name was Sarah Hall, hence Hall Caine, although he was christened Thomas Henry.

The family of five siblings and the parents lived in Liverpool, where the environment was unhealthy due to poverty and overcrowding. So he went each year to stay with his Manx grandmother and came to love the Isle of Man.

Hall Caine went to a school for the poor where he received a very good education but had to leave at 14 years of age.

He was good at drawing and got a job in a surveyor’s office but did not like it.

He loved English literature and history and went to lectures to extend his knowledge.

By the time he was 20, he had read all the history and literature books in the library and by 21 was holding classes.

He wrote to literary people like Bram Stoker (of ’Dracula’ fame) who became a good friend. He also became secretary to Dante Gabriel Rossetti who gave him the Idea of becoming a novelist saying ’Why not be the bard of Manxland?’

His first novel was ’The Deemster’ and from that he went on the write other novels about the Isle of Man which each sold up to half a million copies, becoming internationally known.

He and his family moved to the Isle of Man where he bought Greeba Castle. His presence attracted many admirers which greatly helped the economy of the island.

He was also persuaded to stand for parliament and became an MHK but was not enthusiastic and began to spend a lot of time away in London and New York.

He was religious and a pacifist but supported the war in 1914 and wrote a book to help Belgian refugees and received a knighthood.

In 1927 he ’had a dream’ and wrote a book which he hoped would help to combat the hatred between Germans and their opponents.

The book was ’Woman of Knockaloe’ described by him as a parable.

It concerns the Crane family who are tenant farmers at Knockaloe. Some of their land is commandeered to build an internment camp.

The daughter, Mona, is hostile after the death of her brother on the Western Front but then she meets Oskar when he comes to the farm to negotiate supplies of milk for his barrack.

The camp Commandant is corrupt and abuses Oskar and others and Mona goes to court to try to help them but is attacked outside the court by a mob of women.

Later, her father sees Mona and Oskar embracing and collapses with a heart attack. Mona is boycotted by everyone so she and Oscar go to Germany to his mother.

She, however, disowns him.

They cannot stay in the Isle of Man so Mona puts all the goods of the farm up for auction in order to get a ticket to New York but she is cheated by the auctioneer so she and Oskar go to the east of the island and jump off a cliff together.

Ms Skillicorn said that at a later time perhaps the darkness of his stories and the long descriptive passages put people off.

We all enjoyed her talk as Mrs Judy Rae said when she gave the vote of thanks.

The competition - a miniature flower arrangement - was won by Mrs Judith Youde with Mrs. Judy Rae second.

Our next meeting will be held at Arbory Methodist Chapel on August 9 at 7.15pm.

Sheena Gilbert