Verulam Writers' Circle

In their own write

Editor: Chris Lakeman Fraser

Preface

CHRIS LAKEMAN FRASER (2002 - present) : Coming across the Circle two years ago was like a home-coming to me - a group of friendly people who didn't just talk around the subject but actually pitched into the blood, sweat, tears and joys of writing.

At its core I discovered a set of strong traditions: regular manuscript evenings with invaluable feedback from peers; competitions to stimulate and challenge; workshops and talks to give tips on content and presentation; and as Nick Cook a former Chairmen said, "a noble tradition of being the last group of people to be thrown out of the 'Rose and Crown' at closing time"

I found an astonishing breadth of work produced by members, from short stories to novels to screenplays to poetry to articles on a vast range of subjects.

Remarkably the Circle has been going for 50 unbroken years. No one has been paid for running the group. 40 members on the books, a website and new faces coming through the door every week, are a sign of a continually renewing vitality. Our youngest member is 16, who shames us by winning an alarming number of competitions, whilst one former member is in her 90's and is still writing.

Mystery still surrounds the actual date of the founding of the group but the consensus seems to point to 1954. Not so long ago - but things that were familiar then have been superseded since.

A time in St Albans before the new town hall and the Maltings Shopping Centre were built, when there were still cinemas in the town, when a house in Redbourn could be bought for £500 and where the cattle market indicated a strong farming community.

A time in Britain before motorways - no M25, no M1 even, when going down to Devon for a holiday could take 10-12 hours and you still got stuck on the Exeter bypass.

The end of post war austerity with the last rationing book being torn up and the start of the long climb towards prosperity. Roger Banister breaking the four minute mile.

An end of Empire for the French who were thrown out of Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu and immediately got bogged down in Algeria. A beginning of Empire for America who had just emerged from the Korean war and immediately plunged into the hell of Vietnam

The beginning of the nightmare of nuclear weapons hanging over us with the testing the biggest weapon the world had ever seen, the H Bomb at Bikini Atoll. James Cameron who witnessed the explosion noticed pigs running round the island. A scientist next to him said: 'I feel like apologising to those pigs. They belong to a reasonable and uncomplicated people, not without a certain grace. At least they aren't crazy.'

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In the USA Elvis Presley sang, 'That's all right Momma' and Teddy boys ripped up cinema seats in the UK when Bill Hayley and the Comets performed 'Rock Around the Clock'. Radio continued to hold its media dominating position in the UK with programmes such as what one crust BBC executive referred to as the 'Go on Show', 'Take it from Here' featuring the mis-adventures of Ron, Eff and Mr Glum and 'Hancock's Half Hour' just hitting their stride. This was a period when TV was struggling to emerge and would 'never amount to much', according to some pundits. Allan Prior, one of our distinguished former Vice Presidents, was to prove them wrong.

Kingsley Amis made us laugh out loud with his Lucky Jim, William Golding terrified with us with his vision of childhood run amok in Lord of the Flies and Dylan Thomas dazzled us with the dexterity of his delightful Under Milk Wood.

The film 'The Wild One' came out in the USA in which Marlon Brando, as a macho, scowling motor cyclist was asked what he is rebelling against: 'What you got?' he said.

New words puzzling the oldies were 'discotheque' - an occasion or place at which people dance to pop records and 'far out' - bizarre or wonderful - hip and happening.

Into this new world the 'far out' Verulam Writers' Circle made its first tentative steps. Here, in their own words, members tell the story of the last 50 years.

History

FRANK FERNEYHOUGH: In September 1953, Donald Newman, then Principal of St. Albans College of Further Education, introduced a new weekly evening course "Writing for Pleasure". Tutor was Philip Heather, then English master and later deputy headmaster of St. Albans School, himself the author of English textbooks.

His students - adults, of course - were keen. But with only ten of them to start, dwindling attendances closed the course by Christmas. One of them, Lisbeth Phillips, among the few remaining enthusiasts, continued the meetings at her Radlett home. Out of those early evenings the Verulam Writers' Circle was born, its first president the Earl of Verulam. Older members will tell you that if any one person could be credited with getting the Writers' Circle rolling, it is Lisbeth Phillips.

JOAN RICE (1954 - present): When our paths first crossed Elisabeth was living in Radlett with husband and adopted daughter. I was given her telephone number by a fellow reader of a correspondence magazine for would be writers. My timing was fortunate, Elizabeth explained that the first meeting since the class had ended was about to take place and invited me along. She was then I suppose in her late thirties, small, dark, bursting with energy and enthusiasm, like most of us unpublished but determined to rectify that as soon as possible. She could be a shade overpowering at times in her determination to keep us frailer mortals up to scratch and doing what she wanted of us.

Joan Rice's husbands diary showing earliest recorded dates of the existence of the group:

20th April 1954: "Joan, Circle meeting at Popefield" (the family home). This was then followed by an entry the next day, Wednesday 21st reading " Joan to Circle at Radlett". The Tuesday meeting at my home must have been a committee meeting, since we met only once a fortnight.

JOAN RICE: Lillian Brown must have been there, a long and faithful member who I think was responsible for introducing to the Circle one of its most successful members, Eileen Elias, now in her nineties and still writing. There was Joyce Rolph, small and quiet with a job on the local Council and a tiny flat into which the equally tiny Circle was able to squeeze. There was Dorothy Korner, with a house in what became the Marshalswick area, and a Russian husband, the only Russian refugee, I used to tease his wife, who had failed to become a prince, or at least a duke, on leaving Russia. I suppose there were about eight of us, not all of whom stayed, like an untidy, rather grubby young man, a self-styled genius who left when we dared to criticise his masterpieces.

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Our early evenings were all manuscript readings. Criticism was kindly on the whole but one learned to read between the lines. My early efforts were mostly of a tragic nature, gloom and doom pieces which smartly earned their rejection slips and which Circle members listened to with only tepid enthusiasm. Then one day I read them a light-hearted piece about my three sons and their feeding habits and members actually laughed: I was at last on the path to getting published in the Guardian (see No Soap in the Bath on Japanese bathing habits) , The Times Woman's Page, Woman's Hour, even Punch. I learned other lessons too from the Circle: how to be a committee member, so that in time I was commissioned by Pitmans to write a book "All About Clubs". I went to public speaking classes, gave talks to women's clubs and on radio and gave classes of my own on creative writing.

Other members from those early days had their successes too. Elizabeth contributed a cookery column to the Guardian followed by a cook book "Recipes from the Guardian", a copy of which I still treasure.

MARY STOTT (EDITOR - MAINLY FOR WOMEN THE GUARDIAN): Good cooking needs no blurb, but how do you recognise a good cookery book? One test, which Lisbeth Phillips passes triumphantly, as I know from the recipes she has contributed over the years to the woman's page of The Guardian, is whether the author inspires you with a yearning to be her guest. Lisbeth Phillips has always given me the impression that from breakfast to late supper, every meal in her home, whether she was alone, with her family, or entertaining friends, would be satisfying and just a little out of the ordinary.

JOAN RICE: We enlarged our programme, we had speakers, competitions, one of which is held every year in memory of Elizabeth. We had an annual party. We soon outgrew meeting in each others' houses and went first to the Old Town Hall in St Albans.

FRANK FERNEYHOUGH; Joyce Rolph and Peg Perrins are among several who gave sterling service during the formative years. Meanwhile, members began to sell their work, a slow and uphill business. When I joined in the late 195Os, several were selling their output.

Back in 1957 Donald Newman invited me to start an evening course at the college on 'Writing for the Press'. I've been lucky over the years with promising writers. A rewarding number have broken into print for the first time, and stayed there;: mostly part-time. But two, who joined the college course from scratch several years ago, last year became assistant technical magazine editors, commuting to London, and are now also writing; and selling books. One of them, Muriel Miller, has since gained promotion to assistant fiction editor on a women's magazine, and the other, Bernard Dumpleton, full-time freelance writing. Some who have made progress from the college courses joined the Circle with writers whom the Circle had nurtured into print.

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GILLIAN THORNTON FROM A PROFILE BY BARBARA COOPER: While she was looking for an evening class to improve her Italian she spotted a course for 'Writing for Pleasure and Profit' and thought this might help her so she went along and met Frank Ferneyhough, who was the tutor. The first assignment the class was given was to list ten topics they thought they might be able to write about.

She was daunted by the older and more experienced people there but she returned because she wanted to find out what everyone else had put on their lists. The follow-up task was to write about the topic they thought they could do best and Gillian wrote about being a bilingual secretary. At the next class Frank Ferneyhough told the class that 'somebody here has a potential sale.' It was Gillian's article and it was her first sale for the magnificent sum of £15.00.

She was only 22 when she joined the Verulam Writers' Circle. At that time the meetings were held in the Town Hall council chamber. There were sometimes more than fifty people at a meeting. Students at Frank's writing classes were expected to attend the Circle, which was how Gillian first became involved with it. Later the circle moved to Loreto College when the membership dropped because of poor facilities and the problems imposed by the St Albans one-way traffic system. It moved to St Michael's about fifteen years ago. It was about the same time as this move that Frank Ferneyhough asked Gillian to take over as President. Frank died in 1994.

FRANK FERNEYHOUGH; Several professional writers have backed the Circle, some becoming vice-presidents for services rendered. One of them was Arthur Swinson (see The Quest for Alban), the distinguished St. Albans journalist, novelist, radio and television script writer and former BBC staff man. Until his untimely death, he gave generously of his talent and encouragement, donating prizes for competitions. FF

NICK COOK (Member 1990 - present; Chairman 2001-2002; President 2004) WRITTEN BY MARY WOODWARD: Nick had moved to work for Kodak in Harrow and was living where he lives now in Hemel Hempstead...where one day he noticed a publicity poster for Verulam Writers in the local library. He rang...the number was Colleen Richardson's who said he sounded young...this alone, he says, was enough to commit him to Verulam Writers. In the early eighties the group was meeting, as now, in St Michael's though it was different in other ways...particularly in the gender balance, then mainly being made up of women writing women's fiction.

He has been Chair of Verulam Writers (2001-2003) and will be remembered for his spectacular fancy dress appearances at certain key meetings, the polar bear outfit being particularly memorable. More seriously he also oversaw a lively period of expansion and consolidation for the group. When he took over there were only 13 paying members and the finances of the circle were not in a strong position. New marketing and publicity initiatives helped to remedy this state of affairs. An extra publicity officer was appointed and innovative methods of publicising the group now followed. A new post of liaison officer was created to make sure that first-time visitors to the group were welcomed and encouraged to feel involved; by the end of Nick's first year as chair, membership had risen to twenty one. Nick, however, with characteristic modesty, attributes much of this success to the work of those on the committee at the time, including Lyn Cramphorne, Jean Gardner, Rosemary Woodland, Colleen Richardson (Member 1987 - Present; Chairman 1990-1991) , and Amanda Smith. More visitors meant more revenue. At the end of 2002 the first profit for five years was made. Other improvements in organisation, particularly in the structure and approaches used on manuscript evenings, also helped to develop members' sense of these sessions being worthwhile and helpful. Yet more significant new projects during Nick's second year as Chair included the setting up of the Verulam Writers' Circle website which was pioneered by Linda Walsh and put on a professional footing by Chris Lakeman Fraser, Bill Hammond and Kevin Bennett. Chris went on to inaugurate alternative evenings at Café Monsoon which took the pressure off the regular manuscript sessions and helped to fund the initial launch of the website.

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Nick says he feels now that those two years were the happiest and most exhilarating of his life.

MAY IVIMY (BADMAN) (1961-1975)

I probably joined VWC in 1961 because that was when my daughter got married in the summer and I suddenly realised I was in an empty house all by myself. I could do as I like and when I gave up grieving because she wasn't there, I thought, 'Oh there's a poetry group - I've never joined a poetry group and so I came along. I went on my bicycle to the meeting in a large house up near St Peter's Church. I felt quite nervous. I don't know if I read anything the first time - probably not. It seemed overwhelming, all these people that really wrote books - It was lovely because I stuck at it for a year or two.

Ver Poets began life in 1966. It was then known as the St Albans & Distict Poetry Club and came about at the suggestion of the St Albans Arts Council when they approached the Verulam Writers' Circle. At that time the Writers' Circle was chaired by Joan Rice; I was their Secretary and also a member of the Arts Council.

Joan and I decided to call a public meeting to found the poetry club. As a member of the executive council of the London based Poetry Society we were able to invite the society's programme organiser, Joan Murray Simpson, to come and speak. She was an attractive and eloquent speaker and we finished with the names of 30 interested people.

We formed a small committee and received a grant of £3 (not quite a useless amount in those days!). We were an active group, all writing, and poetry was at an exciting stage then, very heady times.

Afterthoughts

We have come a long way in 50 years. Those who came as novice writers have seen their work successfully published. Those already published have shared their accumulated experience or tried their hand at different forms of writing. It has been, and continues to be a place to experiment and get feedback from fellow writers. The range of work read at manuscript evenings is astonishing.

The social side of the group has always played an important part, whether it be at the Rose and Crown after meetings, the end of term parties or more recently the sessions at Café Monsoon and The Goat. We are surely the only Circle in the country to have our own restaurant.

The exact date of the formation of the Circle continues to be a little hazy. Joan Rice has indicated that we could have started as far back as 1952. Last year, we inadvertently celebrated the formation of the group as 1953 whilst the 18th, 21st and 25th anniversary celebrations all point back to 1954. We can take comfort from the thought that we are at least 50 years old and for the 60th Anniversary we can stage a rolling celebration over three years, starting in 2012, culminating in a grand bash in 2014.

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