Friday 28 January 2011

Meeting Report: 24 January 2011

The first competition of the year kicked off with the brief ‘Write about an author whose work you particularly admire/enjoy and how they may have influenced you’ with a 1500 word limit. There was a wide-ranging choice of authors including: Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton, Isaac Asimov, Dickens, DH Lawrence, Nabokov, Emily Brontë, F Scott Fitzgerald and Virgina Woolf, amongst others. We had a very enjoyable evening listening to just what it was about particular writers and books that appealed so much to individuals and were even in some cases inspired to read-read old favourites or perhaps try something we hadn’t discovered before.
This competition will be judged by former principal librarian Brion Purdey, who will attend a meeting later in February to give his comments and results.
For more information about our group please visit our website www.hastingswriters.co.uk or e-mail our membership secretary at membership.hwg@gmail.com
Rosemary Bartholomew, Programme Secretary

Meeting Report: 10 January 2011

Hastings Writers’ Group got off to a thought-provoking start on 10th January with a trio of speakers, who described their joint venture of writing a 3-part, linked memoir. Ken McEwan, John Dowling and Philip Elms have a combined experience in local newspapers of nearly 150 years, so when ‘cut adrift’ from their careers, they decided to tell the stories behind their news headlines in a book, entitled ‘Three Men and a Quote’. Ranging from council subterfuge, through football cheating to tackling various incendiary devices and fires, most accounts are funny, while some are poignant.
At the beginning of the evening, each speaker described his background, and in the second part, they read snippets of their writing. In the final Q and A section, they gave open, honest and full responses, which provoked some lively discussion. The speakers gave a valuable insight into the function of local newspapers in a town community as well as what is involved in bringing such a writing project to fruition.
Roz Balp, Membership Secretary