Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Harry, Ian (chair), Jenny, John, Laura, Magda, Michele, Suzanne.
Apologies: Adele, Gill, Jan, Jonathan, Kaz, Pip.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
Matters Arising
None.
Members’ Readings
Harry — continued reading from his current memoir Sea Wife, Chapter 30: A Streetcar named Desire.
The crew of the Marwarri take shore leave in New Orleans. They want to avoid strip joints (where the Budweiser is too expensive) until Beryl requests to see one out of curiosity. She is able to draw the men’s attention to things they might not have noticed, like the singer having no knickers on.
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.
More anonymous letters start appearing in The Morning Post, likening Mary Bowes to Lady Macbeth and other notorious women of history, each stoutly defended in print by Andrew Stoney, in pursuit of his plot to marry Mary and get his hands on her wealth. At last Andrew challenges Mr Bates, the editor of The Morning Post, to a duel with pistols in the Adelphi Tavern. Andrew’s second surreptitiously procures a quantity of pig’s blood plus white lead. Presently news of the duel reaches Mary: it has proven deadly for Andrew, who now lies “dying”, swathed in bloodstained bandages. His fervent last wish is to be secretly married to Mary before the Bishop of London in St James’s Church: an occasion that Mary hastily arranges. Afterwards Mary is escorted home by George, her loyal butler.
Laura — read a critique of the recent blockbuster movie Conclave. A lively discussion ensued with members keen to advise the RC Church on fraught questions of ecclesiastical policy such as those the film explores.
Michele — continued reading her new novel Beneath the Surgeon’s Coat, recounting the career of the fictional Dr James Fryer, who is based on the historical personage of James Barry (born Margaret Anne Bulkley in 1789). Dr Fryer meets with the Governor of Cape Town, who admits to serious worries over the health of his daughter, plus his lack of confidence in her current doctor. Dr Fryer agrees to attend her.
Ian — continued reading from his till-recently log-jammed novel: Anitra’s Petition. It is Midsummer’s Day 1994 in Esh Winning, Wear Valley. An important visitor from the planet Mars has arrived at Anitra’s humble abode. Anitra overhears her and her foster father, Peter Zwillinge, locked in fraught conversation in the front room.
In the ensuing discussion attendees reminisced on how the closure of the Durham and Yorkshire coalfields affected life in those counties’ many pit villages. Ian recalled that Esh Winning (where he once lived) was close enough to Durham City (6 miles) to become gentrified as a dormitory. Others, like Hamsteels, weren’t so lucky, and were obliterated.
Magda — read the start of a present-day fairy story. A girl with a cracked phone discovers it has finally stopped working altogether. This spells social disaster: it is all that is linking her to other people.
This piece triggered a discussion about genre and why it is so important, especially to read widely within your chosen genre.
Suzanne — read an article, The Chicken Soup Brigade, about her pen-friend Angela in Seattle, who felt the urge to volunteer at a clinic for gay men with AIDS, and her experiences there, especially when championing the rights of families being overcharged or rejected by funeral homes over unwarranted fears of how contagious the new disease actually was.
The meeting closed at 1:12 PM.
Whitby Writers Group 