Ripon Writers' Group

Retired primary school teacher Jill Freeman arrived at the meeting with a selection of favourite books from her own collection for us to look at. Although Jill isn’t a writer herself, the lifelong love of reading that she has shared in the classroom as well as with her own children and grandchildren,  has given her an excellent insight into what makes an engaging story.

Having explained the criteria she used to come to a decision, Jill commented on each entry before announcing the results as follows:
First – Maggie Cobbett with the prose fiction piece ‘Sami and Smiley’
Second – Sheila Whitfield with the poem ‘Eating the Week’
Third – Peter Page with the prose fiction piece ‘Wildlife’

Jill presented Maggie with the Daphne Peters trophy, after which all the entries were read out by their authors. Refreshments followed and then there was time for Jill to talk more about the books she had brought along. This led to a discussion of those that members had enjoyed as children and how changing times and attitudes had made some of them no longer acceptable.

At the close of the meeting Jill was thanked and given a small token of the Group’s appreciation.

There were ten entries for this popular competition, in which a complete story must be told in exactly fifty words. Adjudicator Anne Powell said that she had found it hard to pick a winner from such a strong field, but Peter Page’s A1 versus Mount Olympus was the one that, due to its wit and topicality, most took her fancy. Carol Mayer came second with Da Vinci’s ‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’, the only entry this year to be written in verse. Third was Hoodlums in the Hood by Sheila Whitfield, the hoodlums in question being magpies.

Unfortunately, Peter was unable to attend the meeting to receive the Twinks Perugini Kenyon trophy, which will be delivered to him as soon as possible. Twinks was a keen member of RWG and her daughters take it in turn to adjudicate this competition inaugurated thirty years ago in honour of their late mother.

Anne is a writer herself and read some extracts from her novella Simple Dame Fairfax. It seems that there is far more to Mr Rochester’s housekeeper than is explained in Jane Eyre and several of us have bought copies to read Anne’s interpretation. She writes under the name Anna Bransgrove and copies can be ordered from bookshops or from Amazon.

Sheila Whitfield won the competition with ‘Fare of Our Forebears’, her original take on this year’s theme of food, choosing to delve into how our ancestry might shape our preferences. Maggie Cobbett was runner up and Peter Page came third.

Leah Fletcher of the Hornblower Press did a fine job as our adjudicator, but the presentation of the trophy had to wait until its return from the previous winner.

Joe Peters, our Life President, was very happy to do the honours.

Adjudicator Ewan Craig was pleased to hand Charlotte Wilson the Janet Barclay Cup for humorous writing. I think it was the first time that any of us had heard a story told from the viewpoint of a bar of soap and ‘The Downfall of Roger Gallet’ intrigued us to the end.

This competition is always, as the name would suggest, for writing with an historical theme and this year it was the turn of fiction.

Our adjudicator, Suzanne Stirke, began by explaining that, when first drawn to pick up her pen, she had gone on a short writing course at Darlington 6^th Form College.  From there, she was  encouraged to do a University Master’s course in Creative Writing as a mature student. Since then she has written and self-published two books set around Bedale, one about a particular building set in the early 1800s and the other about the resolution of a mystery surrounding that building set in modern times. She is now working on a third book about a local woman called Dorothy Patterson.

Suzanne went on to say what she was looking for in a short story:

• A beginning, middle and an end
• Must be concise
• No irrelevant detail (in a short story)
• Assume that the reader knows nothing
• Either 3^rd person or 1^st person narrative (she didn’t mention the rarer 2^nd person narrative form)
• Not too many characters
• A good ending.

Turning to the seven entries Suzanne then made her comments on each. The entries were:

• ‘A Bedtime Story’ – Lotte Wilson – a grandfather tells two young boys a bedtime story based on his own memories
• ‘Departure and Arrival’ – Joe Peters – a young woman begins to travel the world
• ‘Great Aunt Tillie’ – Sheila Whitfield – June is sorting out belongings after the death of her husband
• ‘Private Tom Brownlea’ – Charles Lubelski – a story about a reluctant recruit in the First World War
• ‘The Big Decision’ – Peter Page – a young Irishman from the Dingle Peninsula decides to emigrate to America around 1900
• ‘The Fine Aroma of Coffee’ – Maggie Cobbett – a ghost story set in the York Castle Museum
• ‘The Star of the Sea’ – Susan Perkins – a story about a haunted pub beside the sea in Northern England.

Suzanne then announced the winners as follows

• Joint Second – Peter Page with ‘The Big Decision’ and Maggie Cobbett with ‘The Fine Aroma of Coffee’
• First – Lotte Wilson with ‘A Bedtime Story’

Suzanne presented Lotte with the trophy.

After the break, the remaining entries were paired with their authors and accompanied by discussion before Susan invited Lotte and Peter to read their stories.

Suzanne had brought along copies of both her published books for members to examine and there was just time for her to read the blurbs from the backs before the meeting closed with thanks being expressed to her for a much appreciated adjudication.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Suzanne Stirke’s adjudication of the ‘Blast from the Past’ competition will now take place on Wednesday, 17th April.