New Year

Classes started back again yesterday. Paul Clements took the class for Hilda who is still ill. We all wish her a speedy recovery. Paul is a travel writer and journalist. He gave the group a flavour of this genre which was excellent. I have included a picture of one of Paul's books. It is available both with Waterstones and Amazon.

We discussed various styles and Authors especially Jan Morris a travel writer of long standing with a personal history as interesting as her writing. Jan began life as a James and underwent a sex change in the seventies.

Other writers included Bill Bryson, Bruce Chapman, and Christopher Rush. A look at styles of writing included the humorous through to the "quest" type of writing.

Paul set the group a task for next week. He asked that we write appox 200 words on St Georges Market in Belfast. This market has been providing a service for several hundred years. Paul asked that we use our own style to convey a feeling of the Market using descriptive writing.

A handout of pointers was included. Some of the points to consider are;

is the writing compelling?

Is it evocative?

authenticity

structured

Using these guide lines to produce the piece should help keep us on track. However when the subject of expenses was brought up Paul was to quick to decline which was the only disappointing element of the day. Look forward to the next couple of weeks exploring this type of writing .

Members who attended included Eugene, Jane, Margo , Christine and myself. Hopefully we will have full contingent next week.