AGM at 10.30am prompt followed by this Lecture which will be held on Tuesday 14th February 2012 at 11.00a.m. at The Queen's Hall, Narberth .

"Laura Ashley"

The name ‘Laura Ashley’ is an international byword for the classic English countrywoman living in domestic bliss. But what was Laura Ashley the woman really like, behind the façade of the family-based company that not only used her name, but was moulded on her personal image?

Anne Sebba describes Laura the astute business woman with her sure instinct for forecasting trends, her canny feel for colour and fabric and her often brilliant but perfectly simple ideas. She describes Laura the wife and mother: her relationship with Bernard, her sadness at leaving Wales and her family for life on the Continent, her conviction that her place was with her husband.

Lecturer: Anne Sebba

Anne Sebba is a biographer, lecturer, journalist and former Reuters foreign correspondent. Her first job was at the BBC World Services in the Arabic Department. She has written eight books, several short stories and introductions to reprinted novels. She is a member of the Society of Authors Executive Committee and is working on a biography of Wallis Simpson  In 1990 Laura Ashley: A Life By Design was published in UK and US and also reached several bestseller lists. This was a biography of a businesswoman, wife, mother and proto-feminist who became one of the leading influences on British twentieth century design and marketing. It was serialised in the Daily Mail and in Australia. The Sunday Telegraph described it as "a moving book. Anne Sebba has written a vivid, true story.