WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE ON ZOOM OCTOBER 16 2020

On screen: Greg, Carla, Alan, Alix, Liz, Tricia, Hilary

Apologies: Amanda, Sarah DD, Heather, Peter.

News

Liz reported that the book group had read Small Island by Andrea Levy,which had proved their most popular book so far. The group’s next meeting – on Zoom – will be on Monday 16 November, when they will be looking at The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell, recently dramatised on Channel 4.

Alan made to plea to anyone who had recently read his novel, Theta Double Dot, that was published last year, to consider placing a review of it on the book’s Amazon page.

Readings

Carla shared her poem ‘Kimono Patterns’, with its references to “the tightness of the obi”, [the belt or sash], and how a kimono should reveal the nape of the neck. There were sensual details about courtesans, passion, bites on the neck. Another work by Carla revealing her fascination with and knowledge of Japanese culture.   

Alan’s story Insufficient Progress involved dying smartphones, a breakdown in the middle of nowhere, and his usual classic place names such as Waterbourne Hubris, Long Harrowing and the very dodgy-sounding Crudgeonmass Eve – a time when you should never look upon the Roman aqueduct if there is a full moon. You start worrying when the advice is, it’s safer going through the cemetery. Alan also provided some great rural accents in his rendition of this cautionary tale, with Hilary congratulating him on finding his ‘inner yokel’.

Alix read another excerpt from her novel The Dive, a section that she titled Rachel. It involved the narrator ridding herself of Damian, and his evil-smelling cologne, and relating this to her friend Addie in a wine bar, who reacts by calling for champagne. Hilary suggested the insertion of some more dialogue to help the flow.

Liz introduced her contribution, Ruminations in Praise of Journalling Between the Covers, with a discussion of the word ‘rumination’. Her piece describes her process of writing late at night, trying to work out “the jigsaw puzzle of my mind”, and included occasional lines of rhyming poetry, and a reflective passage about walking along the canal.

In the latest instalment of Tricia’s pandemic saga, The Deadly Crown, a couple are watching an old movie where everyone is touching each other. Eventually they can bear to watch it no longer, and turn it off. They are considering moving out to the country, because neither has to work in the office any more. A father has become a conspiracy theorist. Everyone needs to have a chip installed in their arm to track the virus. The final line has the woman touching her bump, and wondering “what kind of world this baby would be born into”.

Hilary gave us a ‘cheerier’ section of her new novel. The main character is Linnet, working on the first day of her new Saturday job in a hairdressing salon. The job is not going very well, and she nips next door to a chaotic café where she used to work, that is now run off its feet trying to cope with the breakfast rush. We encounter Giorgio, “a small, sweaty, Italian whirlwind”, who with his apron spattered with tomato ketchup, could be mistaken for a Mafia hitman.   

Greg read “for Liz’s benefit, because she’d mentioned The Singapore Grip”, a poem called ‘Depend on the Enemy for Rations’, written from the perspective of a Japanese solder who was part of the invasion force that overcame Malaya and Singapore. Liz used to teach at Raffles Institution , across the road from the famous Raffles hotel in Singapore. Greg’s father was taken prisoner when Singapore fell in 1942, and with many thousands of other Allied soldiers, remained a POW of the Japanese until the end of the war in 1945.  

Next WWC meeting on Zoom: Thursday November 19

Homework theme: Remembrance