Upcoming Events
6th May – Anita Lehmann
‘Show Don’t Tell’ Workshop In May we welcome Anita Lehmann, an award-winning, internationally published author of over a dozen books for both children and adults. Anita also runs courses and workshops to help writers get on with their projects, complete them and ultimately get published. She provides assistance with everything from simply
3rd June – Flash Fiction Competition Results Night 2025
Our flash fiction competition is judged on the night, in person. Simply bring a printed copy of your story, with title but WITHOUT your name on it, to the meeting on 3rd June. The word limit is pretty tight, at 250, which does not include the title. When penning your story, make
2nd September – Steps in the Search for an Agent or Publisher
Your book is finished, you’re ready to take the plunge – or are you? Siobhan Carew takes us through the process of acquiring an agent or approaching a publisher with your finished project.
7th October – Gytha Lodge
Gytha is a playwright, novelist and writer for video games. After studying English at Cambridge she became known for dark and twisty drama. Her debut novel She Lies in Wait was an international bestseller. Her crime novels feature DCI Jonah Sheens.
4th November – James Blatch
James is a former BBC Defence Reporter, he has reported from HMS Invincible, Kuwait, and the Arctic Circle. He now writes bestseller Cold War thrillers.
2nd December – Christmas Social
We’ll be having drinks in a Cambridgeshire pub. Full details to follow nearer the time…
Our monthly writers’ events are held at: Hartington Grove Meeting House.
91-93 Hartington Grove
Cambridge
CB1 7UB
Non-members are welcome to attend most events, at a charge of £3. Please contact our chairman Harry Goode if you would like to come along.
If you have any suggestions for speakers you would like to hear at our writers’ events, please contact our programme secretary, Karin Milner.
Recent Events
2nd June 2015 – Flash Fiction Competition
Competitors bring a printed copy of their anonymous entry to the meeting. Word limit of 250 words.
5th May 2015 – The Writers’ Resources Evening.
Useful aids that help with writing – discussion of reference books, writing courses, ‘learning-to-write books’ – are they any good? Writers associations (Romantic Novelists, Historical Novel Society, etc.), companies that will criticize your writing (such as Cornerstones), short story competitions, information about agents and publishers, inspiration and sources for what we write, websites and writing software, in fact anything that
7th April 2015 – Catherine Belsey
Catherine teaches at the University of Swansea. Her most recent work A Future for Criticism puts forward the case for increased attention to the joy of fiction and the way it engages readers. She supports the work of GENCAS, the Centre for Research into gender and culture in Society.
3rd March 2015 – Annual General Meeting
The proposal is to elect the Programme Secretary, Membership Secretary, Newsletter Editor, Webmaster and Publicity Officer at the AGM. The current officers are all willing to stand for re-election.
2nd December 2014 – Douglas Palmer
Douglas is a science writer based in Cambridge, England who specializes in the history of life, especially human evolution and Earth’s environments. Over 20 of his books have been published over the last 14 years with Fossil Detectives and Neanderthal accompanying TV series. His latest published works are Earth in 100 groundbreaking discoveries, Origins :human evolution revealed and Evolution: the
4th November 2014 – Jim Kelly
Jim is one of the most original and distinctive writers of modern British crime fiction. His first series is set in Ely, in the Fens, and features journalist Philip Dryden and his side-kick Humph. The books won a Dagger In The Library. His new detective series is set in North Norfolk
7th October 2014 – Sarah Churchwell
Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities. Her research and teaching expertise are in 20th-21st century and contemporary American literature and culture. She is the author of The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe (Granta 2004), co-editor of Must Read: Rediscovering the Bestseller (Continuum 2012), and author of various articles, chapters and introductions (see research and
2nd September 2014 – Making Words Work
Out of ideas? Fed up of soul-searching? Why not take a break and relax at an evening of fun and games. Without realizing it, you might go home with enough material to last you the rest of the year. Bring writing materials!
3rd June 2014 – Tessa Hadley
Author of four novels (Accidents in the Home, Everything Will Be All Right, The Master Bedroom, The London Train), Tessa teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University, publishes regularly in The New Yorker, Granta and Guardian, and has written on Henry James, JM Coetzee. Tessa will talk about her writing life and recent works.
6th May 2014 – An introduction to visual story-telling
Comic creator Karrie produces illustrated articles, graphic novels and works on art projects. Her work include the autobiographical comic strip, My Peculiar World (Guardian), the fictional graphic story, The Night I Lost My Love (The Times), The House That Groaned (Random House's Square Peg) and comic articles and reviews for The New Statesman, The Telegraph, Time Out, The Guardian, Psychologies Magazine
1st April 2014 – Clare Mulley
Clare Mulley is the award winning author of two biographies, The Spy Who Loved, the secrets and lives of Christine Granville, Britain's first female special agent of WWII and The Woman Who Saved the Children , exploring the life of Eglantyne Jebb, the controversial founder of Save the Children. She has also contributed to The Arvon Book of Life Writing (Methuen, 2010), and