Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele, Gill, Ian, Jenny, Magda, Michele, Jan.
Apologies: Harry, John, Kaz, Laura, Pip, Suzanne.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
Matters Arising
Ian welcomed Jan to the Group, and started a round of self-introductions.
Jan has written a biography of her grandfather, a children’s story set in Whitby involving time travel, a travel diary from the 1970s, and is currently writing a sequel to her children’s fiction novel, again set in Whitby, aimed at readers aged 9-12 years.
Ian reported his visit with Adele to the inaugural meeting of Grosmont & Whitby Writers Group, which meets monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month.
Michele mentioned a writing competition by Curtis Brown called Discoveries 2025 aimed at female writers, previously unpublished (except self-published authors), with a closing date in January 2025. Sixteen Longlisted entries would also benefit from writing feedback and consultancy. A synopsis of 500-1000 words, and 10,000 words of manuscript is to be submitted. Free to enter. Full details here: https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/discoveries-2025 .
Adele updated the group on the Whitby Literature Festival (Whitby Lit Fest) 2025. There is a steering group meeting next week to discuss itinerary and try to pull together venues and authors/creatives bringing a balance of emerging, local and well-known authors, poets, playwrights, etc. to offer a varied timetable over the 4-day event, 6-9 November 2025.
Jenny was asked for a last-minute report on our Christmas lunch, booked at the Magpie Cafe on 5 December, after the ordinary WWG meeting which will be at La Rosa Hotel, 11 AM–1 PM as usual. Magpie Cafe will allow us to occupy the table from 1.30 PM, but note that this relaxes their rule for booked tables (…from 2 PM).
Members’ Readings
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. It is 1776. Mary, having just lost her husband at sea, is living in London with her lover Mr Gray. On hearing of her husband’s death she shows no regret and refuses to dress in mourning (“I look terrible in black!”). Instead she exults in being free of the burden of her marriage to Lord Strathmore and is now in control of her life and the family fortune.
Mr Gray, hoping to become her next husband, is disheartened by her insistence she will never marry again. Then they discover there’s a child on the way – which Mary immediately wants rid of. She insists Mr Gray procures the appropriate potion, which he does for love. The ensuing miscarriage relieves Mary of the misery of further childbirth.
Mary is a poor judge of character, especially her own, though Mr Gray had high hopes of quelling the gossip in the high society echelons to which Mary had aspired. He is ashamed of being linked to the East India Company and his consequent nickname: “Nabob Gray”.
Mary now talks only of Gibside and longs to return. So the pair embark on the 14-day journey back to her beloved Durham, leaving the London property in the hands of Mrs Parrish. This good lady happens to be enjoying a secret liaison with a man often seen loitering in a black cloak outside the house.
Gill —shared her ideas for a new teen fiction book about a young female ghost lying in her coffin, trying to discover how to escape its confines and roam among people above ground. She listens to the youth gangs hanging out in the graveyard as they read some of the gravestones.
Members aired their ideas and thoughts for Gill to use, expressing hope that it comes to fruition.
Adele —
read a short, humorous piece: How (Not) To Impress The Boss, about her time as a young sales negotiator. The changing world of estate agency affected her single-office, long-established firm, prompting the decision to join a county-wide estate-agency group of 14 offices, and so to acquire all the trappings of modernity through expansion, networking and computer technology. She described an embarrassing episode at a staff barbecue for the whole group. Aspiring to succeed as a businesswoman in a man’s world, plus mixing her drinks, gave her the boldness to make a lasting impression on the managing director. This had a surprising outcome, the exact opposite to what she was dreading.
Ian commended the piece and suggested submitting it to a Yorkshire nostalgia magazine such as Down Your Way.
Ian —
distributed and narrated his reminiscences of his father (‘Pop’): the violent experience of his WW2 war service and its aftermath as a pub landlord. This afforded him unique opportunities to grapple with his battle trauma. The machismo of the Scottish Borders did not encourage “real men” to seek counselling, nor did the fabled English “stiff upper-lip”.
A short discussion followed on the way things are different now, but still with all too little progress on helping battle-scarred veterans live out the fag-end of their lives.
Jan —
read the introductions to two of her published books.
The first, her travel diary, called Innocents Abroad co-written with her ex-husband about their travels as newly-weds in a 2CV in the early 1970s during a period when we had just entered the EU, Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo, and the first MacDonalds appeared in London. They bought a tent, 2 sleeping bags, a travel map, and a full gallon petrol can. Petrol cost 50p a gallon and the Hovercraft took 35 minutes from Dover to Calais.
Sounds like an interesting journey ahead, and the group enjoyed her reminiscences.
The second introduction was from her biography Before This Time about her grandfather, Lionel Alfred Wharrad. This was compiled from museum collections together with family input, including photographs, stories and anecdotes about how this short-tempered, brilliant inventor patented needles for the heavy textile industry in Wapping, the home-town of needles in England.
Again, this sounds like a fascinating read.
Michele —
distributed copies and read out a synopsis of her almost-finished novel: The Undesirables, set in Southern Africa during the Boer War, 1898-1902. The synopsis will form part of her submission to the Discoveries 2025 competition described above.
The group had a lively discussion about how character, passion and emotion might enhance the piece to catch the judge’s eye. Michele will re-write and bring her revision back to WWG for further input before submitting.
The meeting closed at 1:20 PM.
Whitby Writers Group 