Setting up a Literary Society
So this month’s interesting activity has been setting up a Literary Society in the small market town where I live.
It started so casually. An email from a local pub suggested they were interested in hosting a cultural event during one of their quiet times and would I like to meet to discuss it.
I wasn’t sure why they picked me but it turned that it was because I run our local Stanza group and my name came up in conversation with another poet.
It has always seemed a pity that a town like mine, an affluent town with a significant proportion of well educated people, didn’t have a Literary Society. The town has a thriving history society, U3A and National Trust Association, all of which are popular. There used to be an Arts Society but it closed when nobody could be found to take on committee roles and the long serving committee felt that their eightieth birthday was the time to retire.
So if there was a gap in the market, an interest that I was sure people some would want to fill, this had to be a good idea.
After that it was easy. An email to a friend who runs the local news site, who posted the information on Facebook and Instagram and within a week forty interested people had got in touch. This was both rewarding and daunting. I had thought perhaps seven or eight people would be interested and we could meet in the snug in the pub but thirty will fill the bar and forty will probably be overcrowded.
Now it’s all about organisation, making a list of the names and email addresses of the people who are interested, sending out a questionnaire to find what areas of literature they’re interested in and arranging a first meeting. That’s due for Monday. We have an agenda of sorts.
The difficulty with setting up a society is to do with ownership. It’s very easy for the people who start the society to feel they have a proprietorial interest, that it is their society and has to be run their way. I don’t want to do it like that. I want this to be a community society, so that it reflects the interests and wishes of the members. This is partly self-interest. I don’t want to be running the society for the next ten years. I want to be able to hand it over to a new committee so that I can retire gracefully
The initial survey showed that people were interested in novels, both classic and modern. Poetry came second, biography third and there was little interest in drama either classical modern or the possibility of theatre visits
I don’t know what to expect on Monday. I’m not sure how many are coming. I don’t know most of them, so I have no way of knowing how they will react to me or my proposals. I suppose that doesn’t matter. If there are enough people interested in literature in town and they find a way of getting together and organising themselves, then that’s my first job done.
Live Theatre
I used to love going to live theatre, especially in the West End, but these days I find I am less keen on the journey home on a train with occasional drunks, or arriving home very late. The journey is bearable for an outstanding show, but a lot of travelling time for a musical concert or a mediocre show.
Othello
My daughter treated me to a performance of Othello at The Royal Haymarket, a delightful old theatre, even if finding the Gents is like an expedition into the unknown. The present theatre, designed by John Nash, dates back to 1820, when the Prince Regent’s modernisation of the west end moved it from its original 1720 site.
Making Time – November 2025
This belated post is all about writing, and how other things have a habit of getting in the way. It makes me understand why writers I respect talk about making some space, physically and mentally, exiling yourself from the daily routine for an hour or two to focus solely on writing. I would, but it just doesn’t work for me, and I’ve been wondering why.
August 2025
Oh dear, such a long time since I updated my web page. And so much going on. Daughter, husband and three children visiting for Christmas, builders, new central heating, bad health, more builders, more bad health.
Seeing family, especially grandchildren is such a special privilege, especially when they make the journey from Japan with three under-fives. Continue reading …
February 2025
So, I’m relaunching my website after a bit of a rethink about what I want to achieve. I’ve decided that the landing page is going to be a monthly blog. I’m going to leave out all the blurb about what I’ve done so far, which isn’t very much. That’s in the About page if you’re interested. Instead, I’m going to focus on the way writing affects my life on a day to day basis. Continue reading
Thank you – Part 2
Starting an M.A. at seventy was a considerable challenge – exciting, demanding, and so much more difficult than I expected. It had been a very long time since I had written an academic essay. The course was managed on line with a small group of fellow poets, much younger than I was, and much better. … Continue reading
Thank you – Part 1
When I decided to devote more time to my writing, I had the good fortune to meet a number of inspirational writers through my friend, master of critique and fellow writer Sue, my writing buddy. She has been a consistent support and helper, and I owe her a great deal. Sue introduced me to Sarah Salway… Continue reading
Keep writing 