Ripon Writers' Group

Today is our turn to be featured on the Club Focus page of the Ripon Gazette and all its sister newspapers. The limitations of an A4 scanner have made it necessary to upload the article written by Daphne and Maggie in two sections.

Following our outing in June to this historic place (see below), members were invited to write about whatever inspired them during the visit. This they have done in both poetry and prose, as well as submitting their own illustrations.

Edited and collated by Andrew, for which we are all very grateful, the Markenfield Hall Anthology is now available to purchase for a very modest £3 a copy.

Our third annual ‘open mic’ event saw around forty writers and their guests enjoy an evening of readings at Ripon’s Golden Lion. Vicky and Steve generously allowed us free use of their large (and air conditioned) function room, for which everyone was very grateful on such a hot evening.

In addition to many local writers, we were pleased to welcome contingents from Leeds, Harrogate, Nidderdale and York, including many Swanwickers (devotees of The Writers’ Summer School).

Poetry, prose and drama flowed in generous measure and we managed to fit in – just – everyone who signed up to read.

Please click on the thumbnails to see the photographs in full. We really didn’t cut off any heads, even those whose owners exceeded the suggested time limit!

For our outing this year, we decided to visit a jewel virtually on our own doorstep. Only three miles south of Ripon on the A61 (but invisible from it) lies Markenfield Hall, a rare example of a completely moated medieval manor house. Built in 1310, it has an extraordinary history and is now the home of Lady Deirdre Curteis and her husband, director, playwright and screenwriter Ian Curteis. Famous for his scripts for popular series such as Doomwatch, Crown Court, Hadleigh and The Onedin Line, Ian is even better known for his political dramas and his tussles with the BBC, particularly over The Falklands Play. At 78, he shows no sign of slowing down.

The inspiration for this event came from our Vice Chair, Lindsay, one of whose friends lives in a cottage on the estate. As well as arranging for Mr Curteis to give us a guided tour of the Hall and a talk about his long and distinguished writing career, Julia was kind enough to allow us to picnic in her garden beforehand, to the complete bemusement of the cattle in the fields beyond. For once, the weather was on our side and we had a glorious evening.

Faced with fourteen entries for the competition, Dr Roger Kendall certainly earned his adjudicator’s fee. Themes varied from the arrival of spring to the first solo flight of a baby dragon and styles included rhyming couplets, blank verse, free verse and even a prose poem.

Roger requested that each poem be read out in turn by its author or, in the case of an absent member, a proxy, and then gave individual critiques. The standard, he remarked, was very high overall.

First place went to Lindsay Trenholme for Sorry we can’t be with you, inspired by finding a discarded 50th birthday card in the tissue bin of a ladies’ lavatory.

In second place was The Maiden’s Blush by Phil Cook, the maiden in question being Switzerland’s famous Jungfrau.

In third place was Dawn Flight, Elizabeth Spearman’s closely observed description of a skein of wild geese.

Roger was thanked for his hard work and asked to read some of his own recent work. We look forward to hearing more of it at our next ‘Literary Allsorts’ evening on 9th July.