2009 Short Story Competition Results

Short Story Competition, 2009 - results (2009-04-06 21:00:01)

This year’s SW short story competition celebrated the 400th anniversary of the birth of the author of Paradise Lost. Participants were invited to interpret the John Milton quote: “Subtle he needs must be who could seduce angels.” The submitted stories varied from the serious to the risqué.

Entries were judged by members of Write Your Story Writing Group, who meet regularly at the Britwell Community Centre. Chair of the judges was experienced journalist Alison Haymonds.

“It was a democratic process which we took very seriously,” said Mrs Haymonds. “For some it was a new experience judging other people’s work.”

The winner of the competition was the humorous Her Mother’s Holiday by Jenni Heward-Craig, a relative newcomer to Slough Writers.

“I would like to say the story was totally fictional,” said Jenni. “But we all know a mother just like this one.”

The results for the competition were:

1. Jenni Heward-Craig with Her Mother’s Holiday

2. Dave Smith with Getting Rid of the Devil a football themed tale.

3. Lee Taylor with Parting Shot a murder mystery.

The winners are pictured below: (from left) Lee Taylor, Dave Smith, Jenni Heward-Craig.

Radio Play Competition Results

Radio Play Competition Results (2008-11-25 23:56:46)

Slough Writers are pleased to announce the results of the summer competition to write a 15 minute radio play.

The competition was judged by Mike Walker, a leading radio dramatist and published author, and Duncan Mclarty, assistant editor for BBC Radio Berkshire.

Both judges praised the high standard of the entries and expressed how much they enjoyed reading them. The awards ultimately went to the following entries:

1. Terry Adlam with The Train Now Standing

2. Lee Taylor with Slog

3. Michael Pearcy with On The Tringham Trail

Congratulations to all those who entered.

Michael Pearcy (3rd place), Mike Walker (judge), Terry Adlam (1st place), Duncan Mclarty (judge) and Lee Taylor (2nd place).

Slough Writers welcome band leader Ronnie Smith

Slough Writers welcome band leader Ronnie Smith (2008-10-12 13:36:03)

Being arrested for driving the wrong way round Trafalgar Square and having to admit your name is Smith and that your profession is an underwater pianist is not likely to placate an arresting office. This was one of the colourful highlights that band leader Ronnie Smith revealed about his life to twenty-five members of Slough Writers at their meeting on Monday night in The Greyhound in Eton Wick.

Ronnie Smith with Slough Writers:

(Photo by Mike Pearcy of Words&Pictures.)

"It got worse," explained Mr smith, "when I had to tell the same story to the judge the next morning. But it was true. My best trick at private parties was to sink a piano in the pool and then release special weights so that I would float to the surface playing the host’s favourite song."

Among the self-mockery Ronnie Smith revealed an impressive career as a musician starting in the Army school of music where he studied classical music and the piano. He later studied jazz under the great Dill Jones and went on to become a successful band leader at the age of 23 and later musical director of The Rank Organisation.

But his career was never conventional: "I don’t know how it happened but I was a film stunt man for a time with the young Mike Reed. I worked with Gerri Halliwell at the start of her career, Rick Wakeman has become a great friend of mine through music and with my own big band I have performed with many stars including Bob Monkhouse, Lesley Crowther, Jon Pertwee, Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and Jimmy Young. Plus Terry Wogan’s and Dave Lee Travers's shows on BBC Radio One."

Ronnie Smith revealed a spiritual side to his life when he talked about his passion for swimming with dolphins and the time he made a film in which he played the piano under water to Willie the Whale at Windsor Safari Park. "They are beautiful creatures," he said.

Ronnie Smith started life as a teenage gang leader in Ladbrook Grove when it was one of the toughest areas in London and went on to write his own symphony which was recorded by Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004.

"My father was a classical violinist so my symphony was written for him," Mr Smith said. "I started it in 1988 and it was not performed until 2004 but that was one of the proudest moments of my life. It’s called Four Seasons of Woman and having been married three times I’ve leaned to appreciate all the aspects of womanhood." Ronnie Smith cannot speak for long without making a joke.

Chairman of the Slough Writers Terry Adlam thanked Mr Smith for a facinating evening and explained where these events fit into the group's activities: "We like to have a wide range of speakers because as writers we need to try and understand what makes people tick. We’ve had ex-policemen, firemen and a talk about the air ambulance recently. If Ronnie doesn’t inspire us to write it’s hard to think who could."

Slough Writers goes international

Slough Writers goes international (2008-08-21 00:00:00)

The group was represented at recent book festivals on the French Riviera and in Scotland. In June, Ted Jones was one of three Brits among the 300 authors who presented their books in “Meet the Author” sessions during the three-day Nice Festival du Livre. He is pictured with (left) Carol Howland, travel author, and (right) Elizabeth Morgan, novelist and travel writer.

A few weeks later, Ted was in Scotland, where he talked about his book, The French Riviera: A Literary Guide, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival where, together with novelist and biographer Nicholas Murray, he was interviewed by Radio Four’s Lesley Campbell. The authors' presentations were followed by signings in the Festival Bookshop.

AGM, Awards and Poetry Competition Results

The Slough Writers 2008 Annual General Meeting has closed with another round of awards, competition results and review of the year.

The chairman noted it has generally been a good year for the group and a great way to build on the 40th anniversary.

Trophies were presented to the following members:

• Writer of the Year award to Kathleen Adkins.

• Taylor Award (for services to the group) to James Corrin.

• Newcomer of the Year Award to Lee Taylor.

It was agreed that the hard work of all members continued to make Slough Writers a brilliant and dynamic group.

The results of the poetry competition were also announced by Sue Evans and Jules Bowes of Reading Town Women's Guild. The competition theme was to write a poem in the style of the Cautionary Tales of Hilaire Belloc. Sue and Jules agreed that the judging was fun and challenging thanks to the high standard of entries, but the final results were as follows:

• Joint 1st place: Lee Taylor with The Sad and Cautionary Tale of Lieutenant James Owbuthnot Mogg and Tony Matthews with How Terence had To Eat His Words.

• 3rd place: Kathleen Adkins with Herbert.

Lee and Kathleen, 1st and 3rd in the competition.

Lee Taylor shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize

Slough Writers member Lee Taylor had an outstanding acheivement when his short story, Unfinished Business, was shortlisted in the Bristol Short Story Prize. The shortlist comprised the top 20 stories out of over 1200 submissions from around the world.

Lee said he was surprised but gratified by this result as this was the first short story he has ever written.

Slough Writers Anthology Available Electronically

We are pleased to announce that The Slough Writers Anthology, produced in 2007 to celebrate the group's 40th year, has now been released in electronic form.

The anthology is the perfect way to sample the breadth and depth of activity at Slough Writers.

Ted Jones at Edinburgh Festival 2008

2008-04-11

Ted Jones has been invited to present his book, The French Riviera: A Literary Guide (ISBN 978-1-84511-455-8) at the Edinburgh International Festival of Literature (August 9-25, 2008). He will be speaking there on the evening of Monday, August 11th. The Literature Festival, part of the mammoth Edinburgh Festival, will feature more than 600 authors from over 40 countries.

Ted will be sharing the platform in the Peppers Theatre with Nicholas Murray, the famous novelist and biographer (of Bruce Chatwin, Kafka and Aldous Huxley, among others). Ted will be talking about, and reading from, his book,. The authors' presentations will be followed by signings of copies of their respective books in the Festival Bookshop.

As part of an ongoing series of events to launch the book on the French Riviera, Ted participated in a combined event featuring his book, together with an exhibition of the paintings of Bernard Payet, the illustrator of the book, at the Villa Luciane in La Gaude on Saturday, May 17, 2008. See picture below.

2008 Short Story Competition results announced

The 2008 Short Story Competition had the theme: through the eyes of a witness. The brief was to write a story in which a real historical event is witnessed by the character(s).

The result was announced by the judge, local historian and writer, Hester Davenport:

• 1st. Terry Adlam with I Was That Close concerning the 1980 death of John Lennon.

• 2nd. Tony Matthews with Right of Passage about the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

• 3rd. Roy Cecil with All Fools Triumphal relating Neil Kinnock’s last conference as Labour leader in Sheffield, 1992.

Two other entries were highly commended by the judge:

• Michael Pearcy with River of Destruction on the Lynmouth floods of 1952.

• Paul Stimpson with Waterman’s Tale concerning the death of Christopher Marlowe in 1593.

The photo shows judge Hester Davenport presenting the Story Competition cup to Terry with Tony and Roy.

Notes for "Introduction to Play Writing" online

Notes from Mike Pearcy and Kathryn Watson's evening, "Introduction to Play Writing", are now available online.

Sally East signing her book on Saturday 9th Feb

Slough Writers member Sally East will be signing copies of her new anthology MS Talent on Saturday 9th Feb. She will be joined by her co-author and her editor.

The anthology is a collection of short stories, poetry and memoirs, produced in aid of four Multiple Sclerosis charities.

To support Slough Writers and a good cause, catch Sally at Gerrards Cross Bookshop (in the high street), 10:00-12:00, on Saturday.

Article Competition results announced

The group’s article competition for 2007 had the theme: Is religion relevant today? The two judges, Michael and Verity Elson, spoke of their criteria for evaluating the entries, mentioning the strength of rhetorical persuasion over reasoned argument in some entries. They noted some writers tackled the meaning of the word ‘religion’ while others were concerned with ‘relevant’ in the sense of beneficial or otherwise.

The winning articles were:

1st. Roy Cecil with Isms and Schisms

2nd. Tony Matthews with Ultimate Placebo

3rd. Michael Pearcy with Comfort of Firelight

Ted Jones’ launch at Cannes

Following the success of the hard cover version of his book The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers, Ted Jones launched the paperback edition at Cannes on the 17th November 2007. The photo shows Ted (centre) with illustrator Bernard Payet and clients at the launch signing. More details can be found on Ted Jones' webite.

The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers by Ted Jones

The sunlight and the calm of the French Riviera have drawn countless writers into its embrace: the Cote d’Azur has provided the inspiration and setting for some of the greatest literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The French Riviera offers a literary tour of the region, covering the lives and work of the writers who found inspiration there – from Graham Greene and W. Somerset Maugham, who spent much of their lives there; through those writers whose work it dominates such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Guy de Maupassant; to those who simply lingered there.

Ted Jones’ encyclopaedic work covers them all, including Louisa M. Alcott, Hans Christian Anderson, JG Ballard, Simone de Beauvoir, Bertholt Brecht, Albert Camus, Casanova, Bruce Chatwin, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, TS Eliot, Andre Gide, Ernest Hemingway, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, DH Lawrence, AA Milne, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, Sylvia Plath, Marcel Proust, Jean-Paul Sartre, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde, PG Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf and WB Yeats amongst many others.

The French Riviera: A Literary Guide For Travellers may be ordered from Amazon or from the publisher I.B. Tauris.

Summer Competition results announced

This year’s Summer Competition was a self-judged and critiqued story competition. The story, for this fifth running of the popular format, had to be based or themed on one of The Seven Virtues.

The results were announced by the competition administrator:

1st. Tony Matthews with Honour Thy Father

2nd. Sally East with Thrills of the Chaste

3rd. Ted Jones with The Waiting Game

The winner of Guess the Author was Sally East, who correctly identified the author's style of every entry.

National story competition win for William Campbell

William Campbell won a national competition organised by The British Computer Society (BCS) with his short-story, Computer Dating. William was chosen as the over-16 winner of the BCS WriteIT competition by cult fantasy fiction novelist Jasper Fforde (left, in photo).

“The standard of work was incredibly high,” said Jasper. “I really loved the story that won. It was very imaginative.”

After the prize-giving in Swindon, William said: “It is very rewarding to know one’s story-telling entertains and engages other people. That’s one reason for writing.” The writer is also delighted with the prize money, enabling him to leap from a Windows 98 PC to a 21st century machine.

William’s winning story is published in PDF format on the BCS website. The competition was part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the BCS, the leading organisation for IT professionals.

Slough Writers 40th anniversary celebration a great success

To mark 40 years of Slough Writers, the group pulled out all the stops for a huge celebration this weekend. Taking over Maidenhead Sailing Club, there was food, drinks and dancing aplenty as the group partied while the sun went down.

Ending with words of support from famous authors and friends of the group, a fireworks finale welcomed the start of the next forty years.

Many thanks to all those who helped make this great celebration possible.

Anthology launched at Waterstones

This weekend Slough Writers launched their new anthology to celebrate their 40th Anniversary year. The group had a display in Waterstones to present their work to the public. The anthology is the culmination of several months work and provides an amazing tribute to all the writers who've attended Slough Writers over the years.

Eton College Library Visit

On 4th June 2007 the group was invited to a private talk by Michael Meredith, the librarian at Eton College Library. Eighteen members and relatives traveled to the famous school in Eton to sit among numerous and priceless books. They listened avidly to Mr Meredith’s eloquent knowledge and amusing anecdotes.

The librarian concentrated his talk on the background to and stories behind some of the first folios and renown books in the library collection. There were samples for the members to look at and examine, ranging from Shakespeare through Gray, Byron, Austen and Dickens to Susan Hill and Harold Pinter.

Mr Meredith also expounded on samples of writers’ correspondence on display from the library. He offered insights to the sub-text in some of the letters.

The visitors experienced an extremely interesting and enlightening evening. To a person they agreed it was a memorable privilege to have handled the original manuscripts and letters.