This week's meeting had 25 members in attendance plus 2 guests ( Nik's visitors ). The themes for this week were "Divorce" or "Church Bells". Before the meeting started, Nik announced that there had been a small win on the lottery which brought the funds up to approximately 200€.
Alan started the session with a story entitled "Parting Of The Ways" and told of the appointment of a new manager in the office which leads to an affair and subsequent divorce. This was a good sustained piece for Alan as this was outwith his comfort zone.
Heinke followed on with her tale called "The Fish Ladder" and tells the story of a couple visiting a Hydro-Electric dam where the salmon, returning to their breeding grounds, have to use the fish ladder. It also concerned the couple with the male partner yearning for his youth while the female is more pragmatic. Again this was well written but it was thought that the section relating to the swallow chicks should be omitted as this was unnecessary.
Brenda took inspiration from the subject of cot death for her narrative dealing with a wife's resentment which leads to her murdering her husband. This was a very entertaining piece.
Anne G also used the theme of divorce for her item about married life and eventual breakup. This was a good piece of fiction with lots of good description.
Mary K's poem "With This Ring" used both themes taking us from church bells announcing marriage which ends up in divorce.
Mary S gave us a piece entitled "Church Bells of St. Mary's" and was about the memories of her home town she recalled while doing research into her family tree.
Ann B's poem "Divorce" was a celebration of a woman's new found freedom and provided a different slant on the subject.
Chris gave us a reworked version of "Going Home" now written from the man's point of view. This was considered to be better than the original although some members still did not get the ending.
Ann F did another letter from a daughter to her mother. This time it was the wife of Noah talking about the trials and tribulations of having to build a ship as well as catch animals. This was an extremely funny item and it was suggested that this form part of a series of similar letters.
Before commencing his reading, John McGregor announced that his book about hit time in the RAF had been published and that he did have a few copies with him. John was congratulated on his success. His reading for this week was about football matches for his employer and was specifically about a match between his team and one from the local borstal which ended up in chaos. As usual this written in John's own inimatable style.
John Major continued his tale about "Joe", the use of a certain word spoken in the presence of a child, the repitition of that word by the child and its repercussions in the family. Again highly entertaining and a story with which we could all associate.
Christina's poem about divorce provided another unusual slant on the word. This one about her being divorced from inspiration in writing. This was obviously not the case for her to provide us with this offering.
Rosemary continued with an extract from her novel "John, Dementia and Me. This was an interesting item and various suggestions that were felt could improve the piece were made for her consideration.
Ian C
No comments:
Post a Comment