What we do: We welcome those who have an innate desire to write things down. Its purpose is to help them to write in an appealing way so that others will want to read their work. If you aspire to write short stories, poetry, magazine articles or even a book, then there will be something in this Group for you.

Perhaps you write for your own enjoyment, in which case you will benefit from the experience of others in the Group. Entertaining others with your words can be very rewarding.

If you are more serious about your writing then you will receive practical advice on how to progress towards publication.

Writing, like other disciplines, is a craft to be learnt, and the aim of the Group is to examine this in detail. There are skills to be acquired, rules to be adhered to and mistakes to be avoided.

These will be addressed in a sympathetic way in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

Our success rate is high – so far, all the members have been published.

We have about 10 (at June 2003) in the Group, half men and half women, but can take up to 20.

Members bring their work to read and entertain. We complete a limerick (given the first line) as well as an assignment for each session. This is usually a written review of: a TV programme, a short story, the exhibition at Tullie House, or whatever else we can think of.

An important feature of our Group is collective editing. A member can submit a piece and benefit from the friendly but honest criticism of fellow members. This is different from ‘Creative Writing’ groups where members’ work is often unjustly praised. It is hard to make critical comments face to face – we have to live with our colleagues. But undiscriminating praise has little value. In this Group, we discuss our work freely and constructively.

During the past two years we have reviewed most of the exhibitions at Tullie House as well as short stories from a collection by Susan Hill.

Our members are regularly published so we have examples of their work in print.

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