Students from Deborah Tyler-Bennett’s Friday morning Creative Writing class dragged along friends and family members: twenty-five people attended – an impressive turnout given there was football on the TV that night!
As might be expected, there was a wide range of talent on display, and a wild variety of subjects covered: childhood reminiscences; fractious banter between an elderly mother and her daughter; a seafaring tale; a bitter-sweet Girls’ Night In; a wishful-thinking supernatural fantasy-whodunnit set on an allotment (yes, really) – and plenty more, including this wonderfully whimsical piece from Corinne Hannam:
What is in the shed?
There is a mower with a long lead with a 13 amp electric plug on the end. There is a motley collection of old deck-chairs, some of them very old but substantial, that would support a strong man. There are a couple of small tables, one with a pack of cards on, and a couple of plastic glasses… and then, right at the back, as if hiding in a corner, there is one green rubber boot.
Why is it there? Where is the other one?
Did someone go home with only one?
And this gardening-inspired poem from Elizabeth Brownhill:
Cutting Back
Take a mower to the turf of words; apply selective wordkiller to flowery prose;
rake out the moss of verbosity; on hands and knees weed out the modifier;
scythe through the rampant word count.
Or,
to cut a long story short,
prune.
We all agreed it would be great to hold these evenings regularly: watch this space for future dates! If you are interested in attending – or contributing to – the next evening, let us know in the Quest House office.
