Our newsletter editor, Tim Love, recently unearthed this fascinating cutting from The Cambridge Insider, dated 1st October 1998!
Impressively, 1998 marked our 50th anniversary as Cambridge Writers.
The piece explains CW’s humble beginnings, as a group of thirteen men and women in 1948, who formed the group to bring some companionship to the usually solitary pursuit of writing.
Other historical gems include the original subscription fee, which was two shillings and sixpence, and that charged at the time of the article, reported as £16. Today’s subscription, twenty-seven years later, is only four pounds more at £20. What a bargain!
The piece also reveals that even way back in the beginning, we still ran separate groups for different types of writing, from poetry to short stories to novels. The group as a whole have also been meeting at Hartington Grove for many years. Interestingly, meetings were also sometimes held in unusual places. One memorable incident apparently occurred during a meeting in a supposedly haunted house. During proceedings, a member of the group jumped out of her seat shrieking, claiming a hand wearing a distinctive green ring had been placed on her shoulder. Whereupon the host calmly informed her that that was the ghost and he meant her no harm, but unfortunately she was sitting in his chair.
The publication successes of members of the group goes way back too. Tim found he was in possession of three books written by members of the club mentioned in the article, Gillian Edwards – Tower of Lions, Teresa Benison – The Arrogance of Women, and Murder in Good Measure/Fringe Ending by Margaret Moore, all pictured below. These early books have been followed by hundreds of successful publications from talented members of the group who have found the advice and feedback gained at meetings invaluable in their paths to publication.
If you have a book in you, maybe half written, maybe stalled at the second edit stage, maybe not even started, and you would like to get it finished and out in the world, maybe we can help. Have a look at how to join us, and perhaps together we can, as the article quotes from Longfellow, ‘leave our footprints on the sands of time.’
