Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele (chair and minutes), Harry, Ian, Jenny, John, Suzanne.
Apologies: Gill, Kaz, Laura, Lesley, Michele, Pip.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
Matters Arising
Kaz emailed a a reminder for us to mention the Mini Arts Festival at Glaisdale this coming Saturday 22 June 2024.
Members’ Readings
…read (and handed out copies of) an extract from his memoir onboard ship, 1960, with Beryl, his wife accompanying him on this trip. Following a short visit to French Somaliland, this excerpt takes the journey across the Gulf of Aden, recounting the treachery of these waters, with great visualization of such experiences, although Beryl misses it being confined to quarters with heat exhaustion.
The group enjoyed the extract as it evoked a real feeling of danger and how unpredictable life can be. An interesting discussion ensued about the sinking of a Pakistani ship in these waters when Harry answered a distress call but they were not close enough to help. Investigations later in life led to him contacting descendants of some of those lost, including the granddaughter of the radio controller, whose father was enormously grateful for Harry’s letter explaining the events of the evening, as they had never had closure.
…read again from his uncle Charles Nida’s memoir Chota Sahib, about being a box-wallah in India between 1913-1916. In this extract, Charles had been settling in quite nicely in Bombay, and the £3 poker debt he owed actress Gertie, which was to be lent to him by crewman ‘Tiger’ Tyler, ended up being left aside for a two-month period as the repertory company had apparently left Bombay to travel elsewhere in India. Charles too was due to travel for the company he was employed by, taking only his servant Abdul and 6 coffin-like boxes of sales goods with him. While in Bombay he spent time with Tiger who explained rather gruesomely the funeral traditions of Hindu cremation. Charles was becoming quite comfortable in Bombay and his wanderlust and romantic notions of traveling the length and breadth of India had somewhat lost its appeal, when he was told by his boss he was to be sent out “on the road” for the first time, travelling South to some remote areas where life would not be so easy as in Bombay.
The group continued to enjoy the story and a discussion ensued around the continued pegging of the rupee to the £ Sterling, the release of a dead person’s conscience through the top of the skull, and how the deceased’s skull would be broken on the funeral pyre to avoid its use in black magic.
… read from the first chapter of his new novel set in the late 18th Century Lancashire hills. The protagonist, an eight-year-old boy, enjoys the natural surrounding of home including landscape, wildlife and in particularly the hidden nest of the curlew, as he was an avid egg collector. The piece was very evocative of the period but there was also a hint of doom to come, with the onset of the industrial revolution and its effect on the livelihood of the traditional weaver. The group was keen to hear more and thought this was a great storyline from what John had read out so far. Having had extracts provided by John, a few grammar points were raised, together with consideration given to POV in dialogue for better reader clarity.
…handed out copies too, and read a monologue from the female perspective of working in Guy’s Hospital in London during the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic was affecting the gay society. The piece expressed the homophobic attitudes and cruelty which came out of ignorance and fear, and the group felt it was reminiscent of how fear gripped the world with COVID-19 in 2020. In discussion, it was agreed this was a wonderfully moving piece of hard-hitting writing. A discussion ensued about Switchboard, launched in 1974 as the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, a groundbreaking helpline for gay people who often felt completely isolated. Suzanne now has access to Switchboard’s records for her writing and research.
…read a piece she has just written for the Whitby Advertiser on St Ninian’s, Baxtergate, for their next issue. This is (or was) one of only 4 proprietors churches in Great Britain. A descriptions of the lavish interior was followed by a brief history of the church since 1776 when a group of 30 local merchants, ship-builders and business people, including one woman, Alice Reynolds, put down £64 each to build the church. Jenny provided a potted history of the church through the centuries and the group all felt that after reading it they would be sufficiently intrigued to make a visit. Talk of toilet habits of the rich in church, the 1863 Oxford Movement, and how religious turmoil changed the church dramatically with steering towards a very high church in latter use. Carvings by Thomas ‘Gnomeman’ Whittaker of Littlebeck can be found among other superb examples of embellishment within, can all be seen by the public as the building is now an exhibition and community events centre. An interesting discussion followed on from the £64 each, paid by the 30 locals, about shipping shares and how 64 is often the lucky number in this field.
The meeting closed at 1:15 PM.
Whitby Writers Group 