WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING AT ST MARY’S CHURCH, HORSELL

THURSDAY 17 OCTOBER 2019

Present: Greg, Amanda, Alan, Hilary, Chris, Heather, Liz, Sarah, Daniel, Kate, Peter, Simon

Apologies: Carla, Tricia

News

The AGM will take place at the start of the next WWC meeting on 21 November, at the earlier time of 7pm. Among the items on the agenda, it will be discussed whether the annual subs need updating and whether the NAWG subscription should be renewed, in order to ensure that cashflow keeps pace with outgoings.

We welcomed Chris, a “new” attendee who had previously visited WWC last year.

Liz reported that the Poetry Society is organising a competition for “ekphrastic” poems – poems inspired by works of visual art – of up to 40 lines for members.

Several reviews have gone up on WWC’s website, including Greg’s of a production of The Entertainer, Amanda’s of Avenue Q, and Carla’s of an exhibition of the Scottish Colourists.

The book group were due to meet at the Crown in Horsell on 4 November. The topic will be Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees.

Alan reported that his book, Theta Double Dot, is being displayed at Frankfurt Book Fair.

 

Readings

Heather kicked the meeting off with her poem, The Dispossessed. Exploring themes of the struggle between nature and human civilisation, the group praised the brutalist imagery of the piece and the haunting sign-off, “for death is not the same as rest”. Heather explained that she had been inspired to portray different forms of dispossession as a result of her experiences in prison… before hastily clarifying that she had not been on the wrong side of the bars!

Daniel read his short story, The Cost of Good Manners, which satirised the fetishisation of manners and proper etiquette. He had attempted to emulate the atmosphere of Margaret Atwood’s dystopias, and the group agreed this came across well. Some suggestions were made to improve pacing, and an alternative title of Manners Maketh Man was proposed.

Chris also read a short story, You Want to Wait for Another Hitler?, about the ill-conceived theft of a fantastic new gun. The witty cut-and-thrust dialogue was singled out for particular praise, which managed to amuse the reader without getting in the way of the pulp sci-fi-style action and breakneck pace.

Greg read St Winwaloe’s, Gunwalloe and St Mary the Virgin, Burgh St Peter, two very evocative poems relating to old churches. He captured beautifully the characters of the two buildings and the decay suffered by them, and introduced wonderful new terms like “wherry men” to the group’s collective vocabulary. In response to a question posed in the latter poem, it was agreed that Larkin probably would have been kinder to the latter church than Pevsner.

Kate also brought a poem, The Thief, which used the metaphor of an owl swooping on a fieldmouse to explore themes of fear and loneliness. She used some brilliant striking imagery to paint the hollowness of the narrator, and the absence of a guiding light moving forwards. Some small suggestions were made as to word choice, in order to maximise the impact of the powerful last lines.

Peter brought the beginnings of an as-yet-untitled story about a boy, Tommy, and his sister learning to ice-skate in inter-war London. Peter asked for comments in particular on the depiction of English anti-semitism, which sparked a lively discussion. It was agreed that the bigoted comments of Tommy’s father were very effectively contrasted with his support for the war effort, but those themes should be developed more or, if they are not to be a main focus of the piece, pruned back slightly to make room for the ice-skating plot.

Liz read two poems, What am I Like? and The Pocket Watch. The first piece was light-hearted in nature while the latter was more sombre, and inspired by a century-old pocket watch which Liz passed around the table. Both poems were admired by the group, and opinion was fairly evenly divided over which was the better of the two.

Alan read a short story, As Witness, This App, which zipped along in his trademark style with a twist – the story was made up entirely of dialogue. This enabled Alan to pack a lot of action into fewer than 500 words. Particular appreciation was reserved for his excoriation of telephone cold-callers.

Amanda read a piece paying tribute to her friend, RWR (or Red Wine Richard), who despite his illness recently threw a party in celebration of his life. Amanda wrote a very respectful account of the proceedings while capturing the essence of a larger-than-life personality. Sadly, shortly after the meeting, Amanda received news that RWR had passed away. He sounds like somebody we would all have liked to know.

Hilary read from her work-in-progress novel, a psychological thriller. The extract was gripping, ratcheting up tension by exploring the shifting power dynamic between the main character and a psychiatric nurse. Hilary reported that she has finished the first draft and is now on rewrites.

Sarah read a variety of notes she had taken in her 365 Days of Happiness book. The subject matter ranged from Alan Rickman’s diction to a “Sarah-ism” about compasses to how sad Philip Pullman looks! Truly, a note or thought for every occasion.

Next meeting: AGM on Thursday 21 November 2019 at 7pm, followed by regular session at 7:30pm.

Homework theme: “The Border”.

Jobs Chair: Simon. Minutes: Amanda. Wine: Greg. Milk and biscuits: Liz.