Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele, Harry, Ian, Jenny, John, Kaz, Magda, Michele, Suzanne.
Apologies: Gill, Laura, Lesley, Pip.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
Matters Arising
Jenny reported that there was currently an Exhibition of Book Illustration in Pannett Park Art Gallery, which was due to be featured on ITV that night at 6 PM.
Jenny volunteered to organise a Christmas Party again this year, an offer that was enthusiastically accepted by all. With the assent of the meeting, she established:
- to be held again at the Magpie Cafe on 5 December 2024, after the usual meeting (11 AM – 1 PM),
- all members present were coming, and Ian would invite Poetry Group members too,
- No deposit is required, and attendees will order and pay for their own choice from the usual à la carte menu.
Adele reported progress on preparations for the Whitby Lit Fest, 6-9 November 2025. The event will be launched on Friday 8 November 2024 at Hetty & Betty, 6 PM – 7:30 PM. See the event’s website for an announcement of the launch, plus a form for requesting to be put on the mailing list to be kept up-to-date.
Members’ Readings
Michele — read a further instalment of her novel in-progress: The Undesirables, set in Southern Africa during the Boer War, 1898-1902.
We turn now to the fate of Anna’s brothers, who have become guerillas for the Boer cause. Nils is captured after blowing up a bridge, his shot brother dying in his arms. The khakis help him dig a grave on the spot, and the dead man is laid gently to rest. The khakis wait patiently until Nils has knelt and said a prayer over the grave. Nils is then sent by train and ship to a POW camp on St Helena.
Suzanne — read a short story: Night at the Museum, for which she distributed copies. The first-person hero accepts a bet that he wouldn’t dare spend the night in a small provincial museum reputed to be haunted. He passes a quiet night, seeing no ghosts, and in the morning an old man he imagines is the caretaker brings him coffee, which he drinks. The result of doing so is life-changing, something that only gradually dawns on the narrator.
Attendees agreed that this was a story with an original and disturbing twist.
Ian — read an article: (Not) selling books by “Anonymous” in the latest edition of The Author, the house journal of the Society of Authors. The article painted a grim picture of the slim chances of a mid-list author’s book being adequately promoted and sold, by even a major publisher. Giving examples from his own experience, the writer ends with a plea for publishers to be more honest with debut authors, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, who may well be discouraged by their experience.
This triggered (as expected) a lively discussion, which Ian regretfully had to guillotine in view of the number of attendees yet to read their work.
Jenny — continued reading from her period novel in-progress based on the historical figure of Mary Eleanor Bowes, the heiress of a vast fortune from the Durham coalfields.
Irish adventurer Andrew Stoney, billed as “the World’s Worst Husband”, is now living in lodgings in Newcastle, having failed to lay his hands on his late wife Hannah’s fortune. He learns from his new landlady, Mrs Blackman, that the Earl of Strathmore has died. He realises that this means Mary Bowes, living a scandalous life in London according to Mrs Blackman, is “back in the marriage market”. Preparing to flit to London to track her down, he first seduces the maid who brings him breakfast.
Harry — continued reading his 1960s seafaring memoir, Sea Wife. As newly-appointed First Radio Officer on the Marwarri, he has been permitted to bring his newlywed wife Beryl on the voyage to the Middle East and India.
Having arrived at Calcutta during the monsoon season plus a dock strike, the ship has docked at Sandheads, an “anchorage of unpleasant memory”. During the enforced wait, one of the crew “goes doolally” and acquires an invisible dog which he airs daily on deck at sundown, discussing the dog’s progress with sympathetic messmates. Soon he is joined by other officers sporting virtual dogs, giving rise to a jovial coterie of beer-quaffing dog lovers and “much sniffing of backsides”.
John — continued reading from his 3rd novel, Bugle Blast. The narrator, now an old man, reminisces about his mother dying when he was 9 years old. The funeral preparations and the actual burial are graphically described.
Magda — continued reading from her memoir of setting out on a long journey of recollection with her 80 year-old father, Bill, to his birthplace in southern India. The narrator pores over her family photo album.
The meeting closed at 1:03 PM.
Whitby Writers Group 