Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele, Ian, Jan, Jenny, John, Katie, Magda, Michele, Tim.
Apologies: Harry, Laura, Suzanne.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
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Matters Arising
Ian reminded attendees that this was the last meeting before Whitby Lit Fest, which is followed hard by the Christmas Lunch. On that day there will be an ordinary meeting of the La Rosa group – the last of the year. There will be no meeting during Lit Fest, but WWG will be staging a “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” – an ongoing clubhouse for members and festival attendees, in the afternoons of all 4 days of Lit Fest (2 PM to 8 PM). During the Tea Party the tearoom will be open as normal, which means drinks and food will be available for purchase by partygoers.
Jenny invited attendees to send her any promotional material relating to the forthcoming Lit Fest, for promotion on social media.
Members’ Readings
Adele — used her spot to explain and comment on the planned Whitby Lit Fest. The programme has just been sent to the printers. Copies will be available in Whitby Library, Hetty and Betty’s, The Royal Hotel (but you may need to ask for it) plus other venues in Whitby to be decided.
Jenny — continued reading from her period novel based on the historical figure of Mary Eleanor Bowes, the heiress of a vast fortune from the Durham coalfields. After an enjoyable Irish holiday for Mary Bowes, Andrew Stoney with his party return to a crumbling Gibside. This now includes Mary Stoney, Andrew’s sister, who (very much against the advice of her father and siblings) hopes to sample London high life. But she finds herself every bit a prisoner as Mary Bowes, Andrew locking both Marys in their shared bedroom whenever he is away gallivanting. Unlike Andrew’s cowed abused wife, the Irish sister is not prepared to put up with such treatment and escapes back to Ireland and freedom.
Magda — read a prose-poem Inside Out, which she wrote from the heart, following a technique learned at a recent writers’ workshop. While its preferred genre and format has yet to gel, the meeting assured her that its content was well worth working up for publication.
Katie — read the introduction to her memoir in-progress about her career as a Spiritualist medium licensed to conduct funerals. She went on to describe her childhood as a sensitive child scared of the dark, with a grandma who “dabbled” with the planchette, scaring herself silly over the messages it gave.
Michele — continues with her story of Dr Fryer, a military surgeon in Cape Town who is actually a woman in disguise. Still on the expedition to the borderlands, Fryer takes the opportunity to bathe in the estuary. He and his black servant Solani imagine secrecy is assured, but by chance the Governor, out horse riding alone, happens on them in the estuary and, spying from his hiding place, discover’s Fryer’s secret.
Tim — concludes his narrative poem about the “Wirefolk”: a fantasy about the anodised steel wire statues around Whitby of local heroes, which come to life after dark and have adventures.
John — in his comic tale of amateur photography at Goth Weekend, gave us an acutely observed and wickedly witty portrait of a new character: Anders. Anders has a haircut once a year whether he needs it or not. He has opened a cafe called “Snap!”, whose menu is distinguished by not including fish-and-chips. Appropriately named, the cafe hosts meetings of the Camera Club, and its owner lives in dread of the “Yorkshire People’s Front” running him out of town.
Jan — has commenced a biography of her great grandfather, a hot-tempered inventor and entrepreneur, holder of several patents in needle manufacture, who lived in the late Victorian and Edwardian era.
The meeting closed promptly at 1:00 PM.
Links (in accession order)…
La Rosa Hotel www.whitbywriters.com/venue
Ian www.whitbywriters.com/ian-clark
Jenny https://whitbywriters.com/jenny-burns/
Mary Eleanor Bowes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bowes,_Countess_of_Strathmore_and_Kinghorne
Adele https://whitbywriters.com/adele-duffield/
Whitby Lit Fest https://whitbylitfest.org.uk
