Sullington Windmills WI

We had a very informative and interesting talk this month from Hamish Brown MBE.

Hamish retired in 2004 as a Detective Inspector at New Scotland Yard after over 30 years with the Metropolitan Police. He is the author of the Home Office publication ‘Stalking and other forms of harassment, an investigator’s guide’ and is considered the United Kingdom’s acknowledged authority on the subject. 

Using details of historic Police cases and investigation anecdotes, Hamish explained what stalking is, or can be, with emphasis on the psychological effect stalking can have on its victims.

We learnt what lengths stalkers will go to in order to cause fear, distress and anxiety to their victims and how stalking legislation made these types of behaviours a criminal office under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Hamish gave details of a case that he investigated prior to the stalking legislation being in force and how the prosecution had to be taken forward via a charge of Grievous Bodily Harm, due to the severe psychological injury suffered as a result of the stalking trauma.

The effects of stalking should never be underestimated. Stalking can cause vast changes in a person’s daily life (although the victim may see them as an accumulation of only small changes) as well as causing the fear and anxiety that the stalker intends.

Although the support for victims of stalking may still vary across Police Forces countrywide, we left this month’s meeting with a feeling of ongoing progress in this area. As a WI, we are now more aware of what constitutes stalking and how we could help ourselves and others who find themselves in that type of situation.

Anyone who needs help or advice can contact the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, to whom Hamish has kindly donated his speaker’s fee or call the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0300.

This month’s book, Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks, was generally disliked by our reading group, although a few of us did enjoy it for various reasons.

Admittedly, we could all appreciate Faulks’ passion for his subject and his love of Paris, but some of us found ourselves wondering whether we were quite clever enough to understand everything the author was trying to communicate. 

There were many different ‘threads’ to follow in the book and it took a lot of concentration to keep up with the changes in narrator and the past crossing over into the present, and vice versa. It was not always clear what was real and what was not, or whether it even mattered.

The title of the book gives an indication that the key theme is how echoes of the past reverberate in the present. France’s past history being so present in a physical sense, with buildings, streets and stations named after historical, military and political figures. “In Paris, where almost every street name was a nod to history…”  And the author doesn’t shy away from reminding the reader that France’s role in World War II encompassed collaboration as well as resistance.

We thought that Faulks did bring Paris to life, especially the Metro and parts of the city that we don't tend to see when visiting the city as tourists (the sometimes more squalid and dirty areas). We realised that, like Tariq in the book, we don't know the stories behind the Metro station names. We also enjoyed learning more about the history of the occupation and hearing stories from the women who lived through that time.

Ultimately though we felt that the book was confusing and frustrating, especially as you don’t know what happens to so many of the characters and that Tariq never discovers anything about his mother.

Although we would happily recommend some of Faulks’ other novels, Paris Echo was disappointing.

The next book to be read will be "The Husbands" by Holly Gramazio.

This will be discussed on Friday 10th October 2025.

Every August Sullington Windmills WI holds a fundraising event to raise money for the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW).

This year we had a great evening of fun and laughter playing Bingo! 

Jacket potatoes were served at the break, with cheese or baked beans, and soft drinks were also provided. 

Some lucky members were winners of not only the Bingo but also the raffle, where prizes had been donated by our members. 

A great evening was had by all, with the added bonus of raising £183.00 for the ACWW. 

Thank you to everyone who attended, made a donation and helped to organise the event.

Well not quite! I did follow the Waitrose recipe, but my local store did not stock the required Mango & Passion Fruit Curd.

Therefore, I had to adapt the recipe slightly and used lemon curd instead. I also substituted the fresh passion fruits for raspberries and a raspberry coulis. Therefore, mine were more Raspberry, Lemon & Gingernut Tartlets.

These are quite simple to make and tasted very good. Although, I do suspect that the original Mango and Passion Fruit version would be more strongly flavoured. A nice, quick and easy homemade dessert to follow a summer barbecue.

** NEXT MONTH**

Friday 26 September 2025 is the date of this year’s Macmillan Coffee Morning, an event that has been running since 1990 to raise vital funds to support 3.5 million people in the UK living with cancer.

Therefore, I am going to bake something suitable to take along to a coffee morning event.

There are lots of recipes on the Macmillan Coffee Morning website [click here]. The one that catches my eye is the Revani cake recipe [click here] as I have not made anything like it before.

Happy Baking and Good Luck with any fundraising activities!