Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele (acting Chair, and minutes), Harry, Jenny, John, Kaz, Laura, Ian.
Apologies: Gill, Lesley, Michele, Pip.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
Matters Arising
Kaz asked if Ian could promote The Hound of the Baskervilles, a radio-play-on-stage which is currently on tour and is playing at the Spa on 29th April. Flyer promoted on website.
There is a Mini-Fest taking place at Glaisdale Institute on 22nd June with poetry/writing workshops, music and plays, and much more. See 2023 guide for interest, here Mini Arts Festival Glaisdale
Also, The Vicar of Dibley is currently being performed this Easter weekend at the Spa and our own John Ogden is one of the players, with Kaz being involved as well. See more information here: Vicar of Dibley
Members’ Readings
Ian — read again from his uncle’s book, Chota Sahib, recalling when he was a box-wallah (travelling salesman) in India between 1913-1916. After appearing to dismiss the idea, it seems his father did write to enquire for his son to take a position with Gore and Co., Bombay. However after a letter arrives inviting him to join, both his mother and father are deeply concerned at the prospect. Allegedly he was to be cared-for while there by the Hadden family and would only be 21 when it all finished so would still have a life of possibilities ahead. The ticket was £40. And so, with some new clothes, a suitcase and £5 in his pocket, the P&O Ferry took him across the waters. Alone on ship and naïve in the ways of adult life, he found a friend in someone his father’s age, an engineer apparently, who introduced him to whisky, took him into dinner where he was seated at a table of theatre performers who were going to tour India. After an interesting evening with them, particularly Gertie who he felt may have been the leading lady, he made his way to his bunk with still no cabin-companion in sight. On asking, he found it was to be a doctor and, in the early hours he met with said cabin mate when he fell into the room totally drunk.
Members enjoyed the way the book has been written and the story so far.
Laura — read two small extracts from her Opinion Pollster’s Diary. Firstly, a visit to Hartlepool Museum where most visitors were parents/grandparents taking children while on holiday. She was gaining opinions to the experience and, apart from some information buttons not working, most found it enjoyable and a good experience. She was assessing opinion there over two days.
The second was two afternoons in Darlington trying to engage a focus group of 5 Conservative and 5 Labour voters. This was more difficult than expected and ended up being 9 Labour and 1 Conservative. The group would come together for 2 hours and agreed to be recorded, for which they each received £70 to take part.
Members asked Laura if she intended to embellish stories and make these extracts into some sort of sequence of short stories or focus on dialect, local opinion, and fun elements, but done anonymously of course. Laura wasn’t sure yet what she intends to do but will keep writing.
Harry — read an extract from Sea Wife when his wife Beryl was on board ship. Set in 1956, this piece covers Harry’s concerns for the environment with the endless debris thrown overboard in the shipping lanes, and also the coarse jokes that tended to flow along with the alcohol in a largely male setting.
Members discussed the merits of the standing joke, and all agreed that the accuracy of the piece was not paramount while authenticity of events was more evocative for the reader to appreciate the experience of the times. A discussion ensued about creative non-fiction and how the memory changes past events with every repeat recollection. This work is a combination of factual memory and reference to Beryl’s journal.
Kaz — read a selection of poems including the following: A Hope for Peace, Epitaph for a Pet, and Facing the Demons of my Past, on topics ranging from Amnesty International to the life of a pit pony, followed by a short story about night fears based around the aftermath of an over-indulgent party.
Adele — read an extract from July 2022, from her Covid Diary. Boris Johnson has finally fallen from power, while many people are still struggling with how to live in a world with Covid problems still present. She explained the issues of working with the more vulnerable elderly in the library and the relatively immune children in primary schools after realising she had contracted Covid despite testing negatively for a week.
The meeting closed at 1pm.
Whitby Writers Group 