Tag: writing

11 May – Emma Darwin

Apr 27, 2026

On 11 May the award-winning writer Emma Darwin, author of The Mathematics of Love and A Secret Alchemy will speak to us 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.

The meeting starts at 7.30 in St Mildred’s Centre – details.

WOTM – a new beginning

Apr 6, 2026

There has been a muted response to Writer of the Month this time round, and the committee has decided that a different format may fit more easily with our aims.

So we are working to set up a replacement for it – Writers’ Forum – which will provide members with an opportunity to submit a piece of writing for peer review. This will replace the competitive emphasis of Writer of the Month with a collegiate, developmental and productive one.

Look out for further news!

13 April – Manny Gaskin

Apr 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.