Tag: croydon

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.

Poets Anonymous

June 27, 2025

Members might be interested to hear about the regular local monthly sessions of Poets Anonymous. They meet in person on the First Friday of the month at Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, Croydon CR0 1BD, from 8pm. The cost for attending is a very reasonable £2.

If you can’t get there in person, they also meet on Zoom on the Third Friday of the month at 8pm. Log-in details are sent out the day before.

To sign up for an online session or for further details please contact peter@poetsanon.org.uk

12 May – Will Noble

May 13, 2025
Ethel, who presented the meeting, with Will and a copy of his book.

The greatest city that never was? At the 12 May meeting, Will Noble gave us an entertaining view of the history of our town, based on his book Croydonopolis, enjoyed by meany members and now in paperback. Will highlighted Croydon’s long story of bold innovations and early failures, with an undaunted determination fuelled by men such as Archbishop John Whitgift and Sir James Marshall, a persistence which has carried through many rejected bids for official city status up to the present day.

Will told us his sights were originally set on scriptwriting, but instead he developed a career on the Londonist website, which he now edits. He plans to do more non-fiction one day, but his next book – you heard it here first – will probably be fiction. We look forward to it.