Tom Grass

The Tom Grass Prize is for stories with a sense of place and adventure. The top prize is £1,000 plus a conversation with a literary agent.
I'm a retired civil servant in Surrey, UK and long-time blogger. These days I'm spending more time writing stories and doing other creative stuff

The Tom Grass Prize is for stories with a sense of place and adventure. The top prize is £1,000 plus a conversation with a literary agent.
Our Treasurer Ethel Corduff was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on 29 December.

This was an item about Irish nurses in the NHS: Professor Louise Ryan (on the left of the picture) has recently published a book on the subject, and of course Ethel’s own book Ireland’s Loss, Britain’s Gain on the same subject is still available.
The programme is available to listen to on the BBC website

We are restarting our ‘Writer of the Month’ competition!
The theme this month is “Light and Dark”, fitting for this time of year and the times we are living in. Entries can be prose or poetry but should be short – flash fiction or a single stanza of verse. Entries should be a Word document attached to an email, or in the body of an email. Please send them to Stella at:

You will then be sent all the entries to read and asked to return your vote for the top three. The closing date will be Friday January 23rd and voting will close shortly afterwards. The winner will be announced and published on the website. There is no prize except recognition and we hope, a bit of motivation and inspiration!

Our 12 January meeting was a session on short stories. Our planned facilitator was unfortunately unwell, but we looked at the advice given by successful writers and discussed our favourites.

Merry Christmas to all members, writers, and readers! May you receive the gift of inspiration and the energy to turn it into well-crafted words.

In 1934 Ernest Hemingway gave a young writer his advice and suggested a list of books any aspiring author should read…

Another list of writing competitions with deadlines in the coming month.

The Globe Soup Open competition, with a Grand Prize of £2,000, closes on 16 December.


Thanks go to Ethel for organising a very successful Christmas Party! We met old friends, exchanged intriguing gifts, and struggled with Mike’s quote-based quiz. A good time was had by all!
Merry Christmas!