Great afternoon with around 70 members, who enjoyed the afternoon's entertainment from Steve Short. Steve seemed to go down very well, with a talk about Jasper Maskelyn, who was known as the War Magician.

Jasper Maskelyn was a British stage magician in the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of an established family of stage magicians, the son of Nevil Maskelyne and a grandson of John Nevil Maskelyne. He is most remembered for his accounts of his work for the British military during the Second World War, in which he claimed to have created large-scale ruses, deception, and camouflage in an effort to defeat the Nazis.

Steve also entertained us with some excellent comedy and some mind boggling magic. It was great to see our Amy Hodson trying to cut the rope in his rope trick, the scissors would not open, but when Steve used them they did!!! He then went on to produce three lengths of rope of the same length, when they started out at different lengths. He then produced a paper hat for Amy from two sheets of different colour paper, torn into eight sheets and then produced the hat from the torn sheets, brilliant! Mark her husband, was then volunteered. Mark produced the 9 of clubs from a pack, Steve could not see this. Steve then produced the same card from a sealed envelope....Magic!! Steve continued with further tricks throughout his talk.

Once the entertainment was over, our members enjoyed tea and a chat with friends. It was good to see members enjoying looking through some old photo albums from the beginning of our club, back in 1995 I believe or there about's. Mary Taylor our Honorary President, who was one of the pioneers and the first Chair Person of our Vale of Belvoir u3a, providing her memories of some of the people in the photos.