Ripon Writers' Group

There was much to discuss at our first face-to-face committee meeting since lockdown.

We look forward, if all goes well, to welcoming old and new members to our new venue, St Wilfrid’s Community Centre, on 20th July.

Watch this space for further details!

Memories of the late John Lythgoe

Written by Joe Peters 

It was with great sadness that I learnt of the death on May 31^st 2021 of one of our long-standing former members, John Lythgoe. When his wife Marion gave me this news all the memories of John’s long and faithful membership of RWG came flooding back. John held various offices over the years, including that of President in our celebratory year in 2003. John was a master of many skills. Fortunately for RWG one of those was that of master printer. Without John’s knowledge and guidance and sheer hard work those annual anthologies of RWG members’ writing work would not have appeared at that time.

Everything John did he seemed to undertake with great thoroughness. I never actually saw the model railway he established in his garden – but I know it would be accurate and immaculate in every detail. His encyclopaedic knowledge of all kinds of public transport, from technical features to the various liveries was spellbinding. Soon left behind by the complexity of those wonderful articles he wrote for various magazines I could only listen in awe.

Perhaps above all, John had a dry infectious sense of humour which often caused much merriment. And yet John was equally skilled as a sensitive observer of nature and the countryside, especially of his much-loved North Lincolnshire where he spent two happy years operating the mobile library service.

I’m sure those reading this who actually had the privilege of knowing John will have their own memories.

Marion too was an ‘adopted’ member of RWG. Although not attending actual meetings she always joined John for special occasions like those annual dinners, parties and days out. I’m sure you will all want to join me in offering condolences and love to Marion, our ‘adoptive’ Northumbrian.

PS: I know RWG’s founder will be casting a critical eye over this piece. I know she could have done it much better than I.

Adjudication by Jill Freeman 

Jill’s adjudication, submitted perforce in writing, was both thoughtful and thorough. Thank you, Jill! As ever, tales with a discernable beginning, middle and end had to be spun in exactly 50 words and there was a wide variety of themes.

• 1^st Place – Janet Barclay with ‘Space Quest’, a story of aliens sending Covid to Earth to wipe out the human race prior to a possible invasion
• 2^nd Place – Maggie Cobbett with ‘Living for the Moment’, a story about cattle being let out to enjoy sunshine and fresh grass after a long winter
• 3^rd Place – Carol Mayer with ‘The Treachery of Images’ concerning Rene Magritte’s painting ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’
• Highly Commended – Susan Perkins with ‘Invasion’, a story of Martians responding to an explorer lander from Earth by sending ‘Marsovirus’
• Commended –Peter Hicks with ‘A Cautionary Tale’ (an entry in verse about not sawing the branch one is sitting on when lopping branches off a tree), Ella Benigno with ‘My Sister’s Granddaughter Homesick and Stuck in Hong Kong’ (about a family wedding severely affected by the Covid pandemic) and Peter Page with ‘The Story of Ancient History’ (about the way stories of events in ancient history have been passed down leading to modern disputes about what really happened).

Roger Kendall once again agreed to judge our Poetry Competition, entries for which were sent to him towards the end of last year, and remarked as follows:

As on previous occasions, I have been most impressed by the high standard of the entries to this competition.   They cover a variety of subjects, including the recent pandemic, and a range of poetic forms from free verse and rhymed tetrameter to a perfect Shakespearian sonnet. There was a real confidence in all of the writing, poets who had found their ‘voices’and were in control of  both language and structure.  They all usedsome vivid language and some original similes and metaphors.  They explored a number of different moods, the anger ofthe  poet in ‘Nasreen,’ the anxiety of  the out-patient in ‘Breathing Space,’ the humour of the wild-swimmers in ‘Autumn.’

Such was the quality of all the entries, it made choosing a First, Second and Third a difficult task.  As always, it’s a subjective matter, but I would emphasise that every one of these poems is to be highly commended.  It was a great pleasure to read them all and I wish Ripon Writers’ Group a happy and successful writing year and good luck with the next Poetry Competition.

The results:

• 1^st – Peter Page with ‘The Plates’
• 2^nd – Kate Swann with ‘Breathing Space’
• 3^rd– Ros Swaney with ‘Autumn

Entrants were then invited to share their poems by email and the following were very much enjoyed by the membership:

•  Kate – ‘Breathing Space’ – a poem about an outpatient visit to a hospital for a scan
• Susan – ‘Looking Back, Looking Forward: a Conversation’ – a poem about 2020 written first as an acrostic sonnet and then rearranged as the competition entry
• Ros – ‘Autumn’ – a poem about a walk down to the river on an autumn evening in the course of which three women wild swimming in beanie hats are encountered
• Lindsay – ‘On not being Alone in 2020’ – a poem about a solitary person out and about who encounters a wide variety of things that seem to be in pairs, ending with a dog appearing which seems to think that he and the writer might want to go for a walk together
• Maggie – ‘Nasreen’ – a poem about a girl Maggie had known at school who, after flouting the rules in her own community, disappears, probably sent ‘back home’ to marry some distant cousin in the interests of family honour
• Peter H – ‘First Ice Cream’ – a memoir poem about an Italian ice cream vendor whose ice creams were much admired prior to WW2
• Sheila – ‘Sea Story’ – a poem about a walk on a beach on a day with rough seas and the poet’s ease in conjuring up a sea monster from myth as a result of the way rogue breakers seem to attack her
• Carol – ‘A René Magritte Moment’ – a short poem about lilac leave shifting in a breeze, sometimes revealing roof tiles behind which seem to leap into the foreground, reminding the poet of the ‘trompe l’oeil’ optical effects used by the painter Magritte
• Peter P – ‘The Plates’ – a sonnet about plate tectonics which had been previously shared with the Group.

In addition Susan shared Janet’s poem, ‘Hannah’s Song’ inspired by the story in Chapters 1 and 2 of the biblical First book of Samuel. Janet had intended this as a competition entry but it had somehow got missed.

The President’s Cup for 2020 has been won by Lindsay Trenholme and will be presented to her at the earliest opportunity.

With no possibility of a festive get together this year, a few of us took part on 10th December in a short but sweet meeting organised by Susan and held via Zoom. Everyone agreed that it was good fun and we hope to repeat the experiment during the coming months.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all connected with RWG in any way and others who wish us well!

The brief this year was to write a review and the adjudicator was Sarah Johnson, a ‘Guardian’ journalist and author. Her favourites from the six entries were:

1st ‘Book Review – an alternative approach’ by Sheila Whitfield
2nd = ‘Midsummer Magic’ by Carol Mayer and ‘National Service’ by Peter Hicks
3rd ‘The Number Bias’ by Peter Page

All six entries were shared on line as follows:

• Susan – ‘Vote for a Supernanny State’ – a review of the ‘Supernanny’ TV reality series with particular reference to one particular episode of ‘Supernanny USA’
• Maggie – ‘Van Gogh – The Immersive Experience’ – a not altogether complimentary review of a visit post-lockdown to the Van Gogh immersive experience at St Mary’s in York
• Peter P – ‘The Number Bias’ – a review of the recently published book ‘The Number Bias’ by Sanne Blauw, a short non-fiction work about the use of numbers
• Carol – ‘Midsummer Magic’ – a look at the Glastonbury Festival over the years developed from a piece written for the RWG ‘Solstice’ sharing
• Sheila – ‘Book Review – an Alternative Approach’ – a review of the novel ‘If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things’ by Jon McGregor first published by Bloomsbury in 2002, paying particular attention to reasons why one might want to reread the novel more than once
• Peter H – ‘National Service’ – a review of what National Service did for men of Peter’s generation and how that sort of experience might be applied in a more flexible form today.