This year’s event was held once again courtesy of the Golden Lion in Allhallowgate and attracted around 20 writers, including a contingent from Harrogate Writers’ Circle.
There was a fine variety of poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. At the end of the evening, RWG President Joe Peters thanked everyone who had taken part and the Committee for organising the evening.
Our adjudicator was local author Steve Toase, a well known figure at open mic nights and literature festivals. With over 50 published stories to his name, Steve was well qualified to judge ours.
After giving us some useful information about finding markets, Steve explained his criteria for a great story and then commented on each entry in turn. In third place, he put Lindsay Trenholme’s Lisette, a story set over two time periods about a pair of paintings and the sinister connection between them. Peter Page came second with Frost on Oak, a story of a marriage influenced by a painting of an oak leaf, and Susan Perkins took the trophy with A Memory: Last, Least, Lost, a story about an 80 year old woman dealing with memory loss.
Jan Maltby thanked Steve for all his hard work on our behalf and invited him to join us at next week’s Literary Allsorts evening at the Golden Lion.
The ballroom of Ripon Spa Hotel was packed for the launch of long term RWG member David’s newly published book of poems, Gestures from Fragments. Introduced by Ken Ridley, who adjudicated our Hint of History competition a few years ago, David gave thanks for all the help and support that he’d received along the way, especially from the ‘eagle eyes’ of RWG’s very own Elizabeth.
Supported by fellow poet and former colleague Paul Mills, who read some of his own poems, and a couple of highly talented guitarists, David gave everyone an evening to remember. It was particularly moving that his sons also read from the new book, which contained a moving tribute to their late mother.
There’s a great deal more to Mancunian writer Steve Hartley than his big knickers, but I suspect that the memory of those will remain in the minds of RWG members for a very long time. They were his pièce de résistance at the end of a very interesting and amusing talk about his struggles and successes. Best known perhaps for his ‘Danny Baker’ and ‘Oliver Fibbs’ series, Steve works tirelessly to promote children’s literature.
Unfortunately, there was a technical hitch and the photographs of RWG members joining Steve inside the knickers – which are relevant to his writing – failed to materialise. However, much more information about them and other aspects of Steve’s highly original output can be found at www.stevehartley.net.
Anna was present this evening to receive her trophy and read out her winning entry for the ‘Blast From The Past’ competition. For details, scroll down to the report of the previous meeting.
The 6 objects to inspire our writing for 26th May are as follows: a port bottle, a banana, a peppermint breath refresher spray, an otter, a set of screwdrivers and a slide rule. Good luck!
Gary Booth, an English teacher for 35 years, was the adjudicator this time round and began by telling us that he was judging the twelve entries as a reader rather than a writer. In addition, he had focused on the quality of the writing rather than the aspect of history chosen and tried to minimise the influence of his personal interests. He preferred the pieces with a personal angle but considered them all worthy of publication.
Gary then turned to the individual entries in random order and gave comments on each. The winners were as follows:
1st ‘Musical Notation’ by Anna Greenwood: reflections on how this has allowed musicians to connect across the centuries
2nd ‘A Most Remarkable Woman’ by Joe Peters:a potted biography of 19th century Dutch woman Jeanne Merkus
3rd ‘The Wonder of Woolworths’ by Maggie Cobbett: an account of a teenage schoolgirl’s Saturday job
Anna wasn’t present to receive the trophy, but Joe and Maggie are pictured above with Gary. Jan Maltby thanked Gary for an outstanding adjudication and presented him with a token of appreciation from the Group.
