Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele, Gill, Harry, Ian, Katie, John, Magda, Michele, Suzanne.
Apologies: Jan, Jenny, Laura, Tim.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
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Matters Arising
Ian welcomed Katie to the group, and we briefly introduced ourselves in turn, as is our custom with visitors and new members.
Adele gave an update on Whitby Lit Fest progress. The festival HQ will be in the Royal Hotel this year. Keep watching the Whitby Lit Fest website for the latest festival news.
Members’ Readings
Harry —distributed copies of and read out a continuation of Chapter 10 of his memoir of life at sea in the 1960s as First Radio Officer on the SS Marwarri. The ship’s officers are still ashore at Kidderpore, and have arrived at Sheherazade, a famous nightspot beloved of English sailors. The crew order Tuborg in preference to the local brew, fearing “a dose of trots”. They are looking forward to guinea fowl curry tonight back on board, having seen the “poor little blighters” coming aboard in baskets. Harry reprises a letter home to his wife.
Katie — read reflections upon love, death and the possibility of an afterlife, in connection with her life as a Spiritualist medium, especially her work on conducting funerals, which she is accredited to conduct. Should we all write our personal story before we die? She distinguished her work as a medium from fortune-telling, insofar as her church forbids predictions.
Magda — read a poem (with audience participation): Footfall. We walk on hallowed ground, insofar as the Earth contains the history of all who have lived.
Suzanne — is writing a novel about lesbian cohabitation in 18-cent London, as expressed in the first person by the survivor of just such a marriage. It is necessary for one partner to masquerade as a man: the “female husband”. The heroine flees an unfriendly village for The Falcon in London, where she gets work on the staff dressed as a man, and meets her Mary.
Gill — continued reading her fantasy story of a girl who died of leukaemia at the age of 19 and, although buried, retains some awareness, which strengthens as she is visited, or acknowledged by other incumbents of the graveyard. A schoolgirl, abused at home and bullied at school, comes to visit her in the graveyard, and the deceased heroine finds she can accompany her friend back to her house as a ghost.
Michele — continues with her story of Dr Fryer, a military surgeon in Cape Town who is actually a woman in disguise. She falls in love with the Governor of Cape Town. They are on an expedition to the borderland to persuade a local chieftain to stop his people conducting raids on colonists’ farms. On a dangerous river crossing, the Governor bravely saves the life of a wagon driver who falls in the water.
The meeting closed at 1:10 PM.
Links (in accession order)…
Contact https://whitbywriters.com/contact/
La Rosa Hotel www.whitbywriters.com/venue
Ian www.whitbywriters.com/ian-clark
Anitra’s Petition https://whitbywriters.com/2026/05/07/clark-nida-anitras-petition/
Harry www.whitbywriters.com/harry-nicholson
Adele https://whitbywriters.com/adele-duffield/
Whitby Lit Fest https://whitbylitfest.org.uk
