Erskine Writers

 Tuesday 13th January

Following on from the flu ravaged meeting of last week, there was a healthy turn-out for our ‘Book Review’ session. Apologies were received from Joyce, Joan, Jackie, Marilyn and Linda.

The meeting opened with an in-depth discussion as to our responsibilities as this years adjudicators for the SAW ‘Flash Fiction’ Competition and plans were put in place as to how we accomplish the task. It was agreed that part of our normal syllabus may have to be re-structured and that completed adjudications along with the necessary crits would need to be completed by 3rd March. As a rule of thumb our guidelines should be that each entry should fulfil the following criteria

1. Have a noticeable beginning, middle and end

2. Be of an excellent standard

3. Have an identifiable thought

4.Well drawn characters

5. Be no more than 250 words

A further discussion was held as to our application for funding from Renfrewshire and it was agreed, in general, that our approach should be based on encouraging reading within the school population  of the area along with providing a ‘wellness’ avenue for retired folk. Rob and Lorna are meeting to plan out application to take forward to a meeting on January 23rd.

The real business of the day began with Sandra M’s offering “The Shapeshifter’s Daughter” by Sally Magnusson, a novel based in Orkney around the magical Maeshowe, a book benefitting from a good, well written story and a striking cover design. Brian followed with ‘Anam Cara’ by Fr John O’Donohue, an appreciation of the spiritual wisdom from the Celtic world. Morag gave us ‘Thge Island of Missing Trees’ by the Anglo-Turkish author Elif Shafa, a story set in Greece about a love affair between a Muslim Cypriot and a Greek Orthodox Christian. It is interesting to note that one of its ‘characters’ was an aged fig tree. Rob gave us his interpretation of the poetry of R S Thomas and Sandra talked about her book ‘The Women’ by Kristen Hannah. Irene was somewhat disappointed by ‘Caledonia Road’ by Andrew O’Hagan feeling it took too long for her to get ‘hooked’ and that it was over-populated. Nevertheless, she encouraged us to read it regardless of the somewhat bleak picture it painted of modern Britain. John H extolled the virtues of John MacDonald’s fourth book but was mindful not to give too much of the plot away and we ended with Hilary offering us ‘Edgelands: Journeys into Englands True Wilderness’ by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, a somewhat quirky book about the glories of a post industrial and urban landscape covering a variety of media.

A busy meeting, therefore.