03/05/2026
Another Red Letter Day for the Friends
The Sun always shines on TV, sang A-ha. Well, on Saturday it certainly shone on our annual Sally Day, when our President Ruth Hogan led a walk featuring a dozen or so locations in her best-selling book "The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes." It was a day when strangers who at the start were only connected by a love of the book made new friends, were fascinated by the walk and had lasting memories of time well spent. It was a day of flamboyant hats and red clothing.
The walk has evolved and expanded over the years, to the point where we ran out of time and had to leave out some parts such as the Strawberry Tree. Ruth gave small teasers about her upcoming book, in which dogs (one of the biggest loves in her life) feature heavily. There was a hushed and respectful section about her most recent book, The Light a Candle Society, at the cemetery’s memorial for people who have no memorial. At least one person was visibly moved by this, and for whom the day had a positive and healing effect.
Visitors were amazed to learn that although the graves in the book had been chosen purely by chance for their design or the names, Ruth’s imagined characters sometimes had remarkable stories in real life. Little Marie had in reality been a cousin of Alan Turing, Billy Bands had been the son of an RAF hero, and the cad Ezra Maltravers had actually been an upstanding pillar of respectability. Ruth and cemetery guide Adrian made a seamless and entertaining double act, with him sketching out the true stories and adding thoughts about Angels, the Saracens Head pub and the Iraq war, all of which, remarkably, were relevant to the walk.
We laid flowers at the grave of Little Marie (whose birthday it would have been the following day), celebrated Ipswich getting promotion to the Premier League, and then spent time at the chapel where Ruth signed books and we all had the Lovely Cup of Tea.
This is a very special walk on our calendar, and there was a record 76 people attending, beating Jo Roberts’ previous record for her Tree Walk ...but we’ve got a really attractive series of walks this Summer, so perhaps this record won’t last long.
As you read this, I reckon that 76 people will be saying "didn’t we have a lovely time the day we went to Sally Day." If you missed out, then perhaps next time? Written by Adrian Bean.
