The Asquith Society and the OC Financial Services Group convened at a historic and memorable Joint Dinner at the awe-inspiring Worshipful Company of Bakers Hall. The Asquith Society comprises leading OC lawyers and the Financial Services Group encompasses OCs that are at the forefront of London’s financial markets.

Following a champagne reception, a three-course meal and port, the Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Bakers, Alan Willis, addressed the group on the fascinating history of the Company. The Company is one of the oldest City of London Livery Companies, dating back over 800 years. The Pipe Rolls of Henry II record that the Bakers of London paid a Mark of gold to the King’s Exchequer from 1155 AD onwards. Today, the Company supports a wide array of charitable and educational causes.

The group was then addressed by the honorable guest of the evening, Alison Carnwath. Alison is one of the highest-profile executives in the City of London and has had a varied career internationally. She currently serves as the Chairman of Land Securities PLC, the UK’s largest property company listed on the London Stock Exchange. She is also a board member of Barclays PLC, Director of MAN Group and Senior Advisor at Evercore. She delivered a most captivating talk, which covered topics as diverse as her personal experiences of the economic downturn, the legal liabilities that executives take on as they take on Directorships and how to improve the efficiency of company boardrooms. A lively Q&A session followed, in which members of the group were able to discuss these topics in more detail.

The event was organised by businessman Isaac Livne, investment banker Cliff Hampton and City solicitor Martin Day. If you would like to be invited to future events of the Asquith Society or of the OC Financial Services Group, please be in touch with Isaac Livne (for contact details, please email Karen Sage at aro@jcc.org.uk).

I received this book to give an honest review.

So I was expecting a lot of the end of the world with this book but it didn't seem to really have that for me. It wasn't really action packed like I thought. 

Yes it does talk of the end of the world seeming to happen via a virus which has hospitals filling up and the military not allowing planes to take off. Kent and his family have been preparing for something to happen with our world it is just a matter of time. His family and certain friends have been stacking up with supplies and learning how to shoot guns just in case. Which I think is a good thing, as you never know what could go down. Now we only get told that a virus has been let lose and we follow Kent and his friends as they go to their cabin in the woods. Along the way they meet others who they will take with them and some that need to be threatened. 

I guess for me when I read end of the world books or what not I like to read what causes it and how people truly react. I think I like to read about chaos and how people survive it mainly. We see how some of the characters believe certain conspiracies could be about and it does make you think about things. 

As far as characters they were all pretty good I didn't relate to any of them but I did relate to their survival instinct more. 

I think the author did a good job with researching things and writing this story that will leave you wondering how will the world become now and what more will be brought these characters way. 

The scene with the drone and ink was pretty neat. I could see my son wanting something like that just because it is cool. 

I believe I read some poems from this collection when I was an undergrad (and perhaps again in my MFA program) and loved them. I've always liked persona poems and like writing them myself. It gives poetry an element of fiction and gets readers away a bit from the poet-speaker connection.

I'd compare Mr. Cogito to Henry from John Berryman's Dream Songs, except without the madness and with the context of a collective tragedy (the Holocaust). He's quite sane but lonely, searching, bemusing, and melancholy.

The poems are constructed in the same fashion in terms of craft: enjambed lines that fragment in your mind or the opposite, really: phrases run into each other in a single line. Killer endings that can punch you in the gut (like "Mr. Cogito Seeks Advice").

How are Polish poets so awesome? I've never read one I didn't like.

This novella has run the gamut in just three films. The first one used the setting, but none of the characters, and externalized the monster; the second mirrored the text in almost every way; and the third one played off the second more than the novella itself. From "loosely based" to textbook adaptation to "inspired by" -- but at least it took 60 years!

Back in the early 70s, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted on the best science fiction short stories and novellas of all time and, in the latter category, the most votes went to Campbell's claustrophobic tale of horror and paranoia in Antarctica. The SFWA wasn't wrong, either. Forty years further down the road (75 or so since its original publication), and the story still holds up.

You probably already know the plot, so just for fun I want to talk about Carpenter's adaptation for a minute, as it has to do with the hero, MacReady. The purist might quibble with the choice of Kurt Russell to play a man described as "a figure from some forgotten myth, a looming, bronze statue that held life, and walked. Six-feet-four inches he stood..." Yet, at 5'11", Russell was the perfect choice for the role. In fact, Carpenter (or Bill Lancaster; he wrote the screenplay) mitigated the need for a huge MacReady simply by changing his profession. In the story, MacReady is a meteorologist. In the film, he's a helicopter pilot. So we know right away, even though he's no giant, that he's got the chops to command.

That's a subtle point that probably interests no one but me, but if there are any future screenwriters out there, it's worth noting.