A WET January evening didn’t deter members of High Legh WI from attending their first meeting of 2014.

The Christmas get together at Mere Court Hotel was a success and included the usual entertainment.

This year it was a modern and amusing version of Cinderella. Several members went by coach to the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester to see Victoria Wood’s The Day We Sang.

The next theatre visit will be to The Garrick, Altrincham, to see Love on the Dole. The group carol service in December at St John’s Church raised £140 in donations for the church.

The speaker for the evening was Shirley Dowson with an inspiring talk entitled ‘The Life and Times of George Gershwin’.

She spoke of his early years; he was the second of four children of Jewish parents and died from a brain tumour in 1937 at the age of 38.

He and his brother Ira worked together, with the inevitable disappointments in their rise to fame. She played Rhapsody in Blue, his first well-known piece and the last piece he composed, ‘It’s very clear our love is here to stay’, the words to which were written by Ira after his death.

The competition, a theatre programme, was won by Jill Murray and the annual bursary draw was won by Chris Marsland.

The flowers donated by Val Challis were taken to former president, Olwyn Brown, who broke her shoulder skiing in the new year.

The next meeting is on February 11, in the village hall at 7.30pm. ‘Through the eyes of the Magician’. Visitors are very welcome.

Janis Brind