Knights' Ball - Saturday February 25th 2012

http://www.prestonfield.com

The Knights' Ball, the main fund-raising event of the Order of Malta in Scotland, will take place in the glamorous Prestonfield House, Edinburgh, on Saturday 25th February 2012 Tickets are available now via the Knights' Ball website.

Dundas Castle Conversazione

The Christmas Conversazione, graciously hosted by our Companion, Lady Stewart-Clark. was a huge success and has already raised more than £7000 with money still coming in. The professionals, actress Lorraine McIntosh, opera singer Ann Archibald and reader Lofty Buchanan were joined by a group of Sixth Formers from St Aloysius' College, Glasgow, to start Christmas with a bang. Many thanks to all and to Lady Bruntisfield who masterminded the ticket-sales so successfully. The money is now going to two of our Kenyan projects, the Marsabit Famine Relief programme run by Malteser International from Nairobi and the village hospital at Lamu. Many thanks to all who supported the evening in any way,especially our principal sponsors, C.R.Smith, and Margaret and Matthew Reilly of Suburban Taverns, Glasgow, who donated the wine.

Hay of Seaton Memorial Lecture

Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the Order of Malta, will give the Hay of Seaton Memorial Lecture at Aberdeen University on Monday 16th April. The lecture will be repeated on Wednesday 18th April in London. Further details to follow - the website has some background to the lectures, albeit very out-of-date: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/​hayofseaton/background.php

Christmas Conversazione - 12th December 2011

The Christmas Conversazione in Dundas Castle on Monday 12th December is fast-approaching and all the seats have been sold. The readers will be the ever-green Lofty Buchanan and the delightful Lorraine McIntosh. As well as her fame as a singer/song-writer with Deacon Blue, Lorraine is the star of Ken Loach's film "My Name Is Joe", and Lone Scherfig's "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself", as well as several episodes of "Taggart" and "River City"; she has just finished a highly-acclaimed run of "Men Should Weep" with the National Theatre of Scotland. The carols will be performed and led by this year's Kibera Companions of St Aloysius' College Sixth form, and Ann Archibald, a former principal soprano with Scottish Opera, E.N.O. and Royal Danish Opera will perform some arias. The event is generously sponsored by C.R.Smith.

Directions to the Castle, kindly lent to us for the evening by one of our Companions, Lady Stewart-Clark, can be found HERE.

Kibera Ceilidh

Many thanks to all who supported the Kibera Ceilidh on November 25th in Glasgow. More than £2000 was raised after expenses and this will be a substantial donation to the rebuilding of Laini Saba Primary School in Kibera.