Minutes |6 November 2025

Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.

Present: Gill, Harry, Ian, Jan, Jenny, Pip.

Apologies: Adele, John, Jonathan, Kaz, Laura, Michele, Suzanne.

Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.

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Matters Arising

Ian reported that today was the start of Whitby Lit Fest, which last Tuesday enjoyed excellent promotion on BBC News Look North. He invited members to look out for the pop-up bookshop at the Seaman’s Mission, and the open-mic event at the Coliseum, both this Saturday.

Jenny announced a Whitby Lit Fest Fringe Event at her home (44 Baxtergate, Whitby) this Saturday, 11 am–3 pm (see the previous post on this website). Hers is an early Georgian house, which provided the inspiration for her book: The House on Baxtergate.

Harry reported his recent experience with Goodreads, where his recent sign-up has attracted the attention of a couple of suspicious individuals who have sent him “friend-requests”. He felt he ought to warn members of the likelihood of that happening. Ian has had similar experiences with SoundCloud and other sites which host free-of-charge user-created content.

Members’ Readings

Pip — read an extract from Chapter 27 of her memoir of coming of-age in the Turks and Caicos islands, entitled Caicos Moon. Her US Coastguard boyfriend Gus leaves the island for a posting, having donated his record collection to the author. Another coastie, Tony, tries to take Gus’s place in her affections, but she opts firmly for a platonic relationship.
She describes the spectacular tropical night sky and shooting stars.
A private flying boat makes an unannounced landing in the bay. The owners are an American couple with their autistic son, who stay a few weeks.

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 returns from the solicitor having discovered that Mary’s property is now held in trust, and he can only get his hands on the income. He declares he has been tricked into marriage and beats up Mary and kicks her as she lies on the floor. He mortally injures Mary’s lapdog as it tries to defend its mistress. He then tries to cow the domestic staff with threats of dismissal into hushing up the violence.
The staff regroup and consider their options. Andrew Stoney has already brought in Anne, a coffee shop assistant he has summarily recruited into the household, to be Mary’s new lady’s maid, having set Lizzie to work in the kitchen. He has employed a new valet, Thomas, an ex-soldier, who has his eye on Anne.

Harry — handed out copies and read aloud a memorial piece about one of the first merchant ships to be sunk in WWII, a Brocklebank Line ship (Harry’s firm) named the Manaar, and its heroic radio officer, who evacuated two wounded Lascar crew members as the German u-boat U-38 sent his ship to the bottom. For which the radio officer, who lies in a war grave in Lisbon, was posthumously awarded the George Medal.

Gill — discussed the progress of her “Witches” childrens’ book, with members offering advice, especially that the main thing is to finish it, and only then begin to worry about where it might be published.

Jan — reports how her ongoing research into the history of Christiana I’Anson, an Edwardian society lady who eloped to New Zealand with the local mayor, a man called Isiah, has turned up a very different story of what went on in Tasmania from her own family’s account (Christiana being distantly related). She discussed with attendees the problem of just whose story to go with.

The meeting closed at 1:10 PM.

Links
(in order of occurrence)…

Contact https://whitbywriters.com/contact/

La Rosa Hotel www.whitbywriters.com/venue

Ian www.whitbywriters.com/ian-clark

Harry www.whitbywriters.com/harry-nicholson

Brocklebank Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocklebank_Line

George Medal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Medal

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com

Jenny https://whitbywriters.com/jenny-burns/

Whitby Lit Fest Fringe Event https://whitbywriters.com/2025/11/05/whitby-lit-fest-fringe-event/

The House on Baxtergate (2017), ISBN 978-1-786230-82-9