Bill Hilton began by saying how much he had enjoyed reading all the entries, (which had not always been his experience as an adjudicator) and was then invited to describe his personal connections with writing as a profession. After studying for a degree in English and Music, he taught English for 6 years before starting his own business as a professional advertising copywriter for large firms. That led to branching out into training courses in writing for big businesses, so that they would be able to produce their own copy. After going back to university to do an M.A. in English, Bill turned his focus onto producing piano books and tutorials for YouTube.
When considering a piece of writing, Bill looks for the following:
1) Would he like to read more by this author?
2) Does the author display confidence in him//herself and the reader/audience?
3) Does the writing exhibit control of the structure of the piece, both overall and at sentence level?
4) An interesting subject and, particularly, an interesting title.
In random order, the entries for the competition were:
‘Family History’ by Joe Peters
‘Buried Treasure: Sutton Hoo’ by Charlotte Wilson
‘Oppenheimer: The film’ by Susan Perkins
‘In the British Museum’ by Solvig Choi
‘There is nothing like a Dame’ by Maggie Cobbett
‘Kynista’s victory at Olympia: the case of the missing statues’ by Carol Mayer
‘Deal and ideals in art’ by Sheila Whitfield
‘Next time in Venice’ by Chrissie Russell’
The photo above shows Bill Hilton presenting the cup to Solvig Choi, who had only just handed it back in after her win the last time this competition came around. Carol Mayer and Charlotte Wilson tied for second place.
Well done everyone who took part!
Joe Peters took great pleasure in presenting the new ‘Writing for Children’ trophy to Ros Swaney. The competition was inaugurated in honour of Joe’s late wife Daphne, the founder of Ripon Writers’ Group, and you can find an account of the adjudication by Claire Thompson by scrolling back to mid-July.
Competitions Secretary Susan Perkins reminded us that Claire had awarded ‘Dusty the Cupboard Monster’ first place as the story most likely in her experience to be chosen by children visiting the library. An accolade indeed!
Many members of RWG have attended ‘Swanwick’ over the years and this time Maggie was delighted to be joined by Susan. The sun shone on us most of the week and we both enjoyed the very full and varied programme.
We are indebted to Tim Flanagan of the Stray Ferret for his write-up of our 950th meeting. You can read it by following this link: https://thestrayferret.co.uk/ripon-writers-group-honours-daphne-peters-with-new-competition/
Yesterday evening saw the Group, set up over 40 years ago by the late and still very much missed Daphne Peters, reach a new milestone.
Several members couldn’t make it to the meeting, but those of us who did enjoyed a celebration cake made by Messy Buns of Ripon, cut by Joe Peters and accompanied by glasses of fizz. Unfortunately this was also the evening we had to bid farewell to Ian Gouge, whose tenure as Chairman has been short but very successful. We’re all sorry that Ian and his family are leaving Ripon and will do our best to build on the innovations that Ian has brought to our programme over the last few months.
The evening also featured the results of our first ‘Writing for Children’ competition, inaugurated in memory of Daphne, well known and respected for her many published poems for children. Our adjudicator was Claire Thompson, Outreach Librarian for Ripon and Pateley Bridge, who did a very thorough job. Claire, who has also recently taken on a part-time post at Hull Library as a Festival Producer and has a special interest in children’s literature and literacy, said that she had thoroughly enjoyed reading the entries. The pieces submitted had been so diverse that it had been difficult to compare them, but the criteria that she’d used had been as follows:
- Was the target audience obvious from the piece?
- Was there a clear concept behind the writing?
- Was it original and entertaining?
- Was the message behind the piece clear?
Claire commented on each entry in random order before announcing the results.
St. Wilfrid. This was a well-researched and presented piece of non-fiction writing, with a clear purpose. Claire felt this would be worth publishing, as the information was delivered so well.
The Extraordinary Adventures of an Ordinary Boy. Well-paced, with good use of descriptive language, a clear plot and characters with scope for development.
Man of the House. This piece had a good sense of place and a good story premise. There was a lot of conversation, which Claire felt was a good tool for revealing characters quickly within the allowed word count.
Dusty the Cupboard Monster. This employed excellent descriptive language as well as alliteration. The anticipation in the story built excitement, and the layout of the text was important to the story.
Baby Wombat. This was written for a grandchild, and was very enjoyable. It contained photographs as illustrations, took a traditional format and provided a storyline with a happy ending.
Playground Rhymes. This felt like a traditional rhyme but had modern content, seeming to be a combination of a list poem and a skipping rhyme, and gave Claire plenty to think about.
Pip’s Story. This had a very strong voice coming through it, could have been a short story or a picture book and was suitable for quite a wide age range.
In third place was ‘St Wilfrid’ by Peter Page; in second place ‘Pip’s Story’ by Ella Benigno; in first place ‘Dusty the Cupboard Monster’ by Ros Swaney. Because Ros was not able to attend, it was agreed that she would be presented with the trophy, provided by Joe, at a later date. In the photo above, Joe is flanked by Ella and Claire.
Ian invited the members to join him in thanking Claire for her adjudication, especially as she had been presented with such a diverse range of material for consideration. Maggie took the opportunity to thank Ian for everything he had done for the Group and to wish him all the best for the future.
NB Until the Annual General Meeting in November, the Committee will be working as a team to carry out what remains of the current programme.
Ian invited everyone to think of a character from legend, literature or film that was a recognised example of goodness or badness, and then depict them with the opposite attributes in a first-person narrative consisting of emails, tweets, Facebook posts or letters etc. Other members would then try to guess who the person chosen was.
After considerable head scratching and twenty minutes of writing, members read out their pieces, most of which were guessed correctly by the others. Peter chose Lady Macbeth as his subject; Ella, Alice Walker; Pam, Isambard Kingdom Brunel; Joe, Vladimir Putin; Susan, King Arthur; Lindsay, Robin Hood; Charlotte and Sheila, Cinderella; Maggie, The Big Bad Wolf (from ‘The Three Little Pigs’) and Ian, Doctor Who. Members agreed it had been an interesting if challenging exercise.
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