Summer Social 15 August
August 15, 2026
Our Summer Social get-together was hosted by Peter this year, and included some of our friends from Sutton Writers. We had some good conversations as well as a few glasses of Pimm’s.
Category: Meetings
Saturday Meeting 25 July
July 25, 2026
Thanks to Stella for hosting another great Saturday meeting. We shared poetry, fiction and memoir, and had a great conversation.
Shaniqua Benjamin 13 July
July 2, 2026
At our meeting on 13 July Shaniqua Benjamin gave us an excellent talk about her writing and about being Croydon’s first poet laureate. She is pictured above with some of those who came along, holding one of the new Croydon Writers mugs which we presented to her. Besides being an accomplished poet, Shaniqua is a skilled facilitator and besides treating us to impressive performances of some of her work, she involved us all in a very lively and interesting conversation.
Saturday Meeting 27 June
June 22, 2026
Nikki will host the Saturday morning meeting on 27 June. Meet in the Clocktower Café in Katharine Street at 10.30. Bring a short piece to read for feedback or just come and chat!
8 June – Fact or Fiction?
May 31, 2026
Many thanks to David for a really informative and thought-provoking talk on the subject of telling true stories as fact or as fiction, using the example of Sarah Woodbine, a black nurse who trained and worked in Victorian Croydon. We came away feeling that with hard work and dedication anything is possible when you’re a writer! The meeting went very quickly and it was great to spend a little time writing our responses to a newspaper article.
David has provided an update on Sarah’s story – I’m afraid it’s a disheartening read.
30 May – Saturday Meeting
May 19, 2026
Our first Saturday morning meeting was judged a great success, so we hope to make it a regular thing.
The second one was on 30 May. We met for a coffee and chat in the Clocktower Café in Katharine Street 10.30. Look out for news of the next Saturday meeting.
16 May – Lunch at the George
May 17, 2026
We enjoyed another lunchtime trip to the historic pub near London Bridge.
The George, owned by the National Trust, is London’s only surviving galleried pub, last rebuilt after the Great Fire. Dickens visited and mentioned it in his books.
Thanks to Stella for organising.
11 May – Emma Darwin
April 27, 2026
On 11 May the award-winning writer Emma Darwin, author of The Mathematics of Love and A Secret Alchemy gave us an interesting talk about writing historical fiction. As well as publishing novels and well-received non-fiction, Emma teaches creative writing, in which she has a PhD. Read more about her and her work here. Her latest novel The Bruegel Boy was published in November, when it was the Times book of the month. The novel is a profound exploration of humanity, love, brotherhood, vocation, loss and reconciliation: she talks about the challenge of writing it here.
Members might also be interested in her longstanding blog This Itch of Writing, on Substack: https://emmadarwin.substack.com/. It’s a real treasure trove of discussion and advice.
25 April – Saturday meeting
April 22, 2026
We enjoyed our first Saturday morning meeting in the Clocktower café, which featured a lot of interesting discussion. We shared a review, poetry, and plans for future projects, and Peter read part of his attempt at writing in the style of P.G. Wodehouse.
It must have looked like an interesting session, because two people stopped by to ask if they could scan the QR code on our notice!
13 April – Manny Gaskin
April 1, 2026
At our 13 April meeting, Manny Gaskin gave a very interesting talk about his writing journey. Manny is an award winning Architect as well as a Community Artist and Poet from Wallington, and currently the dynamic Chair of Sutton Writers. Among other creative works he has published a number of books of his poetry and drawings, most recently Cloud Sofa: A poem for our inner dreamer which is a playfully speculative set of reflections on the destiny of sofas abandoned in the street.
It was good to meet one of our friends from Sutton Writers (now in their fortieth year) and we plan to talk about co-operative projects in the future.