On Thursday 3rd of November we had an excellent talk by Brick (aka John Stewart Clark) on travel writing at the start of the month which meandered into many interesting areas such as the brassy resorts of travel magazine articles, the secluded coves of discovery-through-travel, into the unexplored swamps of comics, cartoons and satire, and the wind-swept hinterlands of mental health.
Brick gave some valuable tips on travel writing, a key one being that it’s as much about the author and the people met along the way, as it is about being somewhere different. It was all fascinating and engaging and we could have listened all evening (we very nearly did) and certainly inspired some of us to consider trying our hand in this genre. The last forty minutes or so was spent on the entries for our Travel Writing Competition with Brick giving useful summaries and guidance on some ‘highly commended’ articles as well as revealing the winners and what they had done to deserve their accolades. You can find out more about our speaker at his website, Brickbats.
There was also an informal meeting on Thursday 17th where the subject was “Disappearing Act”. Then, on 1st December we had our Christmas meal at The Grove pub with crackers, silly hats, great company and a very egalitarian raffle!
The next informal meeting is on Thursday 15th December with the topic of “Swan Song” which will wrap up 2016. Early in the New Year our first formal meeting will look at blogging… more news on the next post!
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