Thursday, 11th March 2010; 7:30 - 10:00pm; The Barn, Field Place
GET SET GO... This is your chance to perform a short story - no longer than 5 minutes in length (any theme) - to an appreciative audience.
Names will be drawn out of a hat and anyone who goes over the allotted time, will be disqualified. Invited judges will score each entry and the winner will walk away with a cash prize!
Refreshments are available at the bar. Entry is £5 for everyone.
Thursday, 11th February 2010; 7.30 - 9.30pm; The Pavilion, Field Place
Kay Sexton’s fiction has been chosen for over thirty anthologies and recent magazine publications include Wet Ink (Australia), Lichen (Canada) and Gastronomica (USA). In 2006 she undertook Green Thought in an Urban Shade, a words and pictures exhibition with Irish painter Fion Gunn that explored parks and green space in four cities around the world. Green Thought was shown at two London galleries, Dublin’s National Botanic Gardens and the Tsinghua University, Beijing. Kate has also had her work broadcast on British national radio and her unpublished novel Gatekeeper was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize. She is currently working on a second novel about pornography and rivers in 1920s Hampshire.
She will tonight cover Erotic Fiction.
Thursday, 14th January 2010; 7.30 - 9.30pm; The Pavilion, Field Place
Pomegranate Press was founded by writer and broadcaster David Arscott in 1992 to publish books with a Sussex theme. He also specialises in taking other authors through the self publishing process, bringing out their books under the Pomegranate Press imprint.
A former newspaper journalist and BBC producer/presenter, David has for some years worked as a freelance author, broadcaster, publisher and editor. He has written some 30 books on Sussex, for various publishers apart from his own imprint.
David also specialises in media training, working with colleagues in the UK and abroad to coach groups and individuals in improving their skills in front of the microphone and the camera.
Thursday, 10th December 2009; 7.30 - 9.30pm; Heene Gallery, Heene Road
Club patron Simon Brett has had a long and illustrious writing career and is responsible for the Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter and Fethering series of crime novels, as well as radio and television series such as No Commitments and After Henry. For this particular meeting, he will enter into the festive spirit and treat us to some Festive Frivolities. And we can think of no one better for the job; after all, in 1967 Simon was employed as Father Christmas in the department store Shinners of Sutton; master of his own grotto!
Please note that this meeting is a ticketed event only and limited tickets are available. Please call 01903 814142 to check availability. Tickets cost £3 for members, £5 for guests, and include a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie.
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE FOR THIS PARTICULAR MEETING!
Thursday, 12th November 2009; 7.30 - 9.30pm; The Pavilion, Field Place
Stella is a professional writer and journalist who has had over forty novels published as well as over two hundred and eighty short stories in national women's magazines. She was formerly a secretary of the Parliamentary Press Gallery at the House of Commons, but nowadays lives on the south coast. She also runs the First Monday Club; a group of amateur and professional writers who meet on the first Monday at Oxted Library to share ideas and work. Stella’s books include the Jordan Lacey series, the Casey Jones cruise ship mysteries, non fiction titles on “How to Write”, ten “cat lover” anthologies and numerous novels. Her latest hardbacks are called Fold and Die (August 2009) and Midsummer Madness (October 2009).
Thursday, 8 October 2009; 7.30 - 9.30pm; The Pavilion, Field Place
The Club is delighted to welcome Christopher Priest; the first time a sci-fi author has visited the club in its 72 year history! Christopher is the author of two collections of short stories and ten novels including The Glamour which won the Kurd Lasswitz Best Novel award and The Prestige which won the 1995 World Fantasy Award, the 1995 James Tait Award for best novel as well as being short listed for the Arthur C Clarke Award. This particular novel has been in print ever since it was first released, and has been translated into 21 languages. In 2006 it was adapted for the big screen and directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine. Christopher will talk about his sci-fi writing career to date, and also of course about the transition from novel to film.
Thursday, 10 September 2009; 7.30 - 9.30pm; Chichester Room, Field Place
The 72nd Annual General Meeting of the Club takes place in the Chichester Room. Formal procedures will be followed by a cheese and wine reception, and the results of the recent club poetry competition will also be announced.
Thursday, 13 August 2009; 7.00-8.30p.m. starting at Brighton Town Hall
Most people think of the Lanes as the area of narrow streets full of shops and restaurants in the heart of Brighton. Whilst this is true, it is also the oldest part of town, dating back centuries to the time when the village of Brighthelmstone consisted of a maze of streets bounded by North Street, South Street, East Street and West Street. The walk being hosted by Glenda Clarke of Brighton Walks will wind its way through some of the narrowest of the twittens and back again, stopping many times en route to hear the local stories and look at photos. After the tour has finished, a quick drink in The Greene Room at The Cricketers − the oldest pub in town − is also planned.
Thursday, 09 July 2009; 7.30-10.00pm; The Barn, Field Place
GET SET GO... This is the chance for anyone − member or not − to come along with a short story (open theme) that is no longer than 5 minutes long and hopefully being able to perform it. Names will be drawn out of a hat and anyone who goes over the alloted time, will be disqualified. A wonderful chance to hear some wonderful work so why not bring along a friend or three... NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE FOR THIS EVENT! Door entry is £5 for everyone.
Thursday, 11 June 2009; 7.30-9.30pm; The Pavilion, Field Place
Kate Harrison trained as a print journalist and her first job was working for a news agency in Reading. She then joined the BBC as an education correspondent in Birmingham before moving onto being a producer/director for Newsround and Panorama. Now a full-time novelist her novels include Old SchoolTies, The Starter Marriage, Brown Owl’s Guide to Life, The Self-Preservation Society and The Secret Shopper’s Revenge (the latter was short-listed for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance with the results having been announced yesterday, 10 June!). Her new novel, The Secret Shopper Unwrapped, is already waiting in the wings and will be published this October by Orion. Kate also writes features and stories for magazines and teaches creative writing techniques. Learn more about Kate on her blog via her website www.kate-harrison.com.
Thursday, 14 May 2009; 7.30-9.30pm; The Pavilion, Field Place
WORD PLAY WITH POET CATHERINE SMITH
Catherine’s poems have been widely published in journals, newspapers and various poetry anthologies, and she has been a prize-winner in the poetry collections category of The New Writer annual awards four times, and has also won prizes in regional and national competitions. Her first short poetry collection, The New Bride, was short-listed for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2001, and her first full collection, The Butcher’s Hands, was awarded a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. In January 2004 Catherine was voted “one of the top ten poets to have emerged in the UK in the last ten years” by Mslexia magazine, and in June 2004 she was listed as one of the ‘Next Generation’ poets by the Poetry Book Society/Guardian – the panel, chaired by Andrew Motion, stated that she was “one of the twenty most exciting poets to have published a first collection in the last ten years”. Catherine also teaches creative writing for the University of Sussex and runs a creative writing enrichment group for young writers at Varndean VIth Form College in Brighton.
Thursday, 09 April 2009; The Pavilion, Field Place; 7.30 p.m.
June Tate was born in Southampton and spent the early years of her childhood in the Cotswolds before returning to Southampton at the start of the Second World War. After leaving school she spent several years working as a hairdresser on the cruise ships the Queen Mary and Mauritania, meeting many Hollywood stars and VIPs on her travels. After marrying an airline pilot, she lived in Sussex and Hampshire before moving to Estoril in Portugal. She has two adult daughters and now lives in Sussex again. June has been a member of the RNA for several years and reads manuscripts for the New Writers’ scheme; unpublished manuscripts read by published authors with helpful comments. She has also held courses for novel writing in Tuscany, Corfu and Winchester University and apart from giving talks to writing groups, also gives talks to libraries. June writes one book a year and has had 11 published to date.
Thursday, 12 March 2009; The Pavilion, Field Place; 7.30-9.30 p.m.
Peter Lovesey read English at Reading University and became a lecturer in English at Thurrock Technical College, Essex, then later head of the General Education Department at Hammersmith College. He wrote his first book, a non-fiction work on Victorian runners, in 1968, then two years later began his mystery writing career with the first of his books to feature the Victorian detective, Sergeant Cribb, which were televised in the early 1980s. In 1991, Peter introduced a modern-day detective character, Peter Diamond, in a series set in Bath. He has previously won both the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold and Silver Dagger Awards, and in 2000 was awarded the prestigious Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for sustained excellence in the genre. And as if that is not enough, Peter also won their Short Story Dagger Award in 2007. His talk is entitled THE TWISTS AND TURNS IN THE SHORT STORY.
Thursday, 12 February 2009; The Pavilion, Field Place; 7.30-9.30 p.m.
After studying Drama at Bristol then training at Webber Douglas, Deborah worked in repertory theatres across the country as well as touring throughout France with Le Théâtre National. Roles include Wendy in Peter Pan, Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers and Mary Magdalen in The Mystery Plays. In 2000 her play, He’s Having A Baby premiered at Eye Theatre in Suffolk where it won the Best Comedy Award in East Anglia. For the past eight years as Head of Drama at the Towers School, Upper Beeding, she has been juggling motherhood with teaching and writing. Tonight you will see her perform Muriel in Alan Bennett’s Soldiering On which she first performed in The Steyning Festival in 2008; she will also be talking about WHAT MAKES A GOOD MONOLOGUE.
Thursday, 08 January 2009; The Pavilion, Field Place
Long standing club member Heather has been teaching creative writing for City College Brighton and Hove since 2001. Her classes are attended by both beginners and improvers and are designed to cover the different aspects of fiction writing. She also runs courses in the community, reaching learners in places like libraries, resource centres and community groups. Tonight she will run a workshop on creative writing.
Thursday, 11 December 2008, 7.30 p.m.
Chester House Productions is a small production company based in Hampshire which is run by Vera Hughes and David Weller. Vera and David are well–known professional speakers in the South and they bring to life periods of social history through fully–costumed quality presentations; specialising in adapting literary works of greater and lesser fame. To date, over 10,000 audience members have watched their various productions and their repertoire includes: John Aubrey – Man of the Minute; Isabel – “The East Lynne” story; The Canterbury Tales – freely adapted for the 21st century; The AA Man – “I know a man who can”, and Lady Windermere, based on Oscar Wilde’s famous characters. Their new production, Florence Nightingale, is currently in rehearsal.
Thursday, 13 November 2008, 7.30-9.30 p.m.
The Pavilion, Field Place
Alison Hawes is a freelance writer specialising in books for schools. She became a primary school teacher and taught full time for 14 years. After which, she juggled various part time jobs and a correspondence course in writing, together with bringing up her daughter. Then ten years ago, a letter she sent to the educational division of Oxford University Press, resulted in a commission for three reading books for schools. Two hundred reading books and much “determined plodding” later, she now earns her living from her writing which she combines with one day a week as a literacy tutor.
Thursday, October 9th, 2008, 7.30 p.m.
Jan began her career as a journalist but since winning (with her husband Gavin Petrie) the Radio Times Comedy Award in 1987, she has written comedy for radio and TV. Her TV shows include Faith in the Future, Duck Patrol, Second Thoughts and Next of Kin while her radio series and plays (for Radio 4) include The Other Man and The Change. Jan has also written a book Men – A Collector’s Guide and she often appears on Woman’s Hour and still writes features for the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Express amongst others, as well as running comedy writing courses.
Thursday, September 11th 2008, 7.30 p.m.
Annual General Meeting
The 71st AGM of the Club is being held in the Chichester Room at Field Place.
Thursday, August 14th 2008, 7.15 p.m.
Private ghost tour of Preston Manor, Brighton *** SOLD OUT ***
Tales of ghostly sightings and supernatural experiences at Preston Manor go back through history, including Sister Agnes, the medieval nun who helped travellers on their way; a body buried under the patio; a disembodied hand floating by the four-poster bed; the White Lady and the elegant Lady in Grey who descends the grand staircase with nowhere to go. One friendly ghost was even seen trying out a child’s toy tractor during the 1960s. The reports continue with modern day sightings of non-existent visitors, doors locking themselves and lights turning off for no reason, and the ghostly hand holding onto a doorknob.
Our guide, Penny Balchin, will give a tour that explores the Manor's ghostly past (and present) and we will also be able to visit the neighbouring 13th century St Peter's Church.
Thursday, July 10th 2008, 7.30 p.m. - 9.30 p.m. The Pavilion
Peter Moore's education followed an interesting route from attendance at Hurlstone Agricultural High School, to the study of Medieval History at the University of Sydney. After graduation, he went to Tokyo for a year where he taught English. He went back to Australia and worked as an advertising copywriter until he decided to combine his two loves - travel and writing - to become a travel writer. He travelled around the Equator and wrote a - much rejected - book about it. He returned to copywriting but continued to travel, having the odd article published until 'No Shitting in the Toilet' was published in 1997. Since then he has also had published "The Wrong Way Home", "The Full Montezuma", "Swahili for the Broken-Hearted", "Vroom with a View", "Same Same but Different" and "Vroom by the Sea".
Thursday, June 12th 2008, 7.30 p.m. - 9.30 p.m. The Pavilion
Jay Dixon is the author of "The Romance Fiction of Mills & Boon 1909-1990s" and is currently researching the history of the Regency novel as well as working as a freelance editor. Her talk will be on the influence of Shakespeare on romantic fiction, including Mills & Boon romances and Georgette Heyer's Regency novels.
Thursday, May 15th 2008, 7.30 p.m.
We are proud to announce an OPEN MIC session of poetry and short stories as part of Brighton Festival Fringe at the Ropetackle Centre, Shoreham. This is a wonderful opportunity for local authors to take to the stage and give their masterpiece an airing. Alternatively you can come along and just sit back and listen! Pieces should be max. 5 minutes long and names will be drawn out of a hat to determine who performs. To complement the evening's proceedings, special guests including the club's patron, Simon Brett, and Geoff Allnut, aka The Speech Painter, will also be there to perform their own work.
Thursday, May 8th 2008, 7.30 p.m. - 9.30 p.m. The Pavilion
Stella Sykes was born in Scotland a long time ago and was brought up on a farm in Kent. Her many jobs have included being a cleaner, running a marriage bureau, being a photographic stylist and writing fashion copy for an advertising agency. Having lived in Spain and Australia and London she has now settled in Hampshire with her second husband, six dogs, sixteen alpacas and several chickens. She has a son, three step-children, a grandson and six step-grandchildren and apart from family her interests include skiing, gundogs, gardening, cooking and eavesdropping.
Thursday, April 10th 2008, 7.30 p.m. - 9.30 p.m. The Pavilion
An Evening with Adrian Crick - Adrian Crick is a Worthing based artist, poet and musician. He will talking about, and demonstrating, the art of lyric writing.
Thursday, March 13th 2008, 7.30 p.m. - 9.30 p.m.
How to Get Out of the Slush-pile - Caroline Oakley is currently Publisher at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Editor at Large for Orion Books and Editor for Honno/Welsh Women's Press - and quite busy! She has experience of a wide range of books - fiction and non-fiction, authors and agents and over twenty years of experience in trade publishing.
Thursday, February 14th 2008, 7.30 p.m.
Heather has been teaching creative writing for City College Brighton and Hove since 2001. Her classes are attended by both beginners and improvers and are designed to cover the different aspects of fiction writing. She also runs courses in the community, reaching learners in places like libraries, resource centres and community groups. She has had several short stories published and hopes to write more when she gets time! Heather's workshop tonight will be on CHARACTERISATION.
Thursday, January 10th 2008, 7.30 p.m.
Fiona Courage who works for the Mass Observation at University of Sussex will talk about the publication of "Nella Last's War" (dramatised for TV as "Housewife, 49" featuring Victoria Wood), and about some of the other diaries from the same collection. She will also describe the work of the Presentday counterparts to Nella - people still writing for Mass Observation about their lives in the present day.
Thursday, December 13th 2007, 7.30 p.m.
Festive fun hosted by Lawrence Long.
Teams of four, £1 per team member, festive prizes for the winning team, bring along Tom, Dick and Harriott!
Please note the quiz is being held at Beechwood Hall, Richmond Road, Worthing
Thursday, November 8th 2007, 7.30 p.m.
Open mic for club members only. Open theme; short story must be max. 5 minutes long (approx. 500 words). Fourteen entries will be read - names will be drawn out of a hat - and there is a cash prize for the winner.
To commemorate the Club's 70th birthday, an audio CD will be produced with the Club's patron, Simon Brett, reading the fourteen stories. The CD will be available to buy at the December meeting.
Thursday, October 11th 2007, 7.30 p.m.
The club's very own patron, Simon Brett, needs no introduction... He is coming along to help celebrate our 70th birthday and he will also be dipping into his diary writing (amongst his numerous literary feats, he edited the Faber Book of Diaries in 1986). Don't miss this important milestone in the club's history!
Thursday, September 13th 2007, 7.30 p.m.
Notice is hereby given that the 70th AGM of The West Sussex Writers' Club will be held in the Lewes Room, Field Place, The Boulevard, Worthing.
After liquid refreshments, the drama competition winner and the runners up will perform their masterpieces!
Message from Peter Guttridge who was supposed to host our Day for Writers but never turned up; this is the reason why:
Dear Nina,
I feel dreadful; I was stuck in what turned out to be the major 30 mile tailback on the M5. It was horrible but I was so conscious how badly I was letting you all down. I have done critiques on each of the short story entries and a little introductory blurb - I'll get those to you asap. The most frustrating thing was not having my phone on me. Let me figure out a way to make it up to WSWC...
With apologies
Peter
Thursday, June 14th 2007, 7.30-9.30 p.m.
His mother was glove maker to the Queen, he's made 26 movies, and he's currently one of Britain's biggest selling authors. He has 12 international best sellers to his name, translated into 27 languages. His new novel NOT DEAD ENOUGH is published in June 2007.
Roger Green & Emma Rogers
Thursday, May 10th 2007, 7.30-9.30 p.m.
What do Editors want? Roger Green, an editor himself, and journalist Emma Rogers tell us how to aim an article directly at the target.
Thursday, April 12th 2007, 7.30-9.30 p.m.
Maureen didn’t start writing until she was thirty. After submitting a play to the BBC she was asked to write historical plays for the Schools programmes, where she found she enjoyed doing the research. She also discovered she loved teaching, which she does at Summer Schools all over the country. Five of her books for children have been published by Heinemann and one of her plays has been set to music and performed in the Purcell Room and the Unicorn and Ben Travers Theatres.
Thursday, March 8th 2007, 7.30-9.30 p.m.
Anna has worked in all forms of communication and media including press, theatre, radio, television and advertising. Companies such as the BBC, Granada, London Weekend Television and J Walter Thompson are where she learned her craft, and she has written five of her own books. Her style is informal, relaxed and yet highly focused and she acts as a creative catalyst for change to a wide variety of people. Her talk will be on "self-publishing".
Thursday, February 8th, 7.30-9.30 p.m.
Sue Walker is an investigative television journalist who has spent many years specialising in crime-related documentaries. Born in Edinburgh, she now lives on the Sussex coast but her novels are based in Scotland. They are set in dramatic locations such as the Outer Hebrides, the East Lothian coast, and lesser known parts of Edinburgh. Her first novel, The Reunion, was selected for WH Smith's Fresh Talent and reached number 7 in the Australian bestseller list. She has since published The Reckoning and her new book, The Dead Pool, will be out in October.
Thursday, January 11th, 2007, 7.30-9.30 p.m.
"My Eric Sings" is the intriguing title of Eric's talk, an amusing and nostalgic look at life in show business. It takes in theatre, concert hall, cinema and television, and includes anecdotes about some of the many artists with whom he has worked and the Royals he has met. He talks about his history as a writer, his specialism in pantomime scripts and his show business novel "The Cosmopolitans". Eric is a member of the Club, he has three actress granddaughters and he lives in Worthing.
Thursday 14 December, 7.30 - 9.30 p.m.
Trivial Pursuit with Liss Norton
This is one of two annual social events held by the Club. Come along and have some fun. It's a team game and it doesn't matter if you've never been before - no one is ever left out and all are welcome!
Thursday 9th November, 2006, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Chris was educated at University of Birmingham where the took a BA and then a Ph.D in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex until becoming a full-time writer. Following on from his remarkable debut "Dissolution", "Dark Fire", was his second novel in his Shardlake series and the third, "Sovereign", has recently been published by Macmillan. Chris lives in Brighton.
Thursday 12th October, 2006, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
John Henty has been a freelance broadcaster/journalist for over 25 years. He started his career as a reporter on the "Croydon Advertiser" then worked in public relations for British European Airways before joining the BBC in 1967. John is a world authority on the life and times of children's illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell. John is also Chairman of the Max Miller Appreciation Society in Brighton. He has recently published his own autography "Whatever Happened to John Henty".
Thursday 8th June, 2006, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Santa Montefiore is the fastest growing name in women's commercial fiction. Her books - six to date - have sold over two million copies in Europe alone and they have all been international bestsellers. Santa says that with each book she tries to create a world that is exotic, sensual and full of colourful characters, and she hopes her readers get as much pleasure out of that "world" as she did creating it. Santa spent much of the 90s in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and her first novel, "Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree" is set in that country.
www.santamontefiore.co.uk
Thursday 11th May, 2006, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Stella has been writing since the age of nine. As her career progressed she wrote first as a reporter and then in the Parliamentary Press Gallery at the House of Commons. She is now a full time-author, having published thirty-nine books and over 250 short stories. ‘Veil of Death’ was published in June 2005 and ‘Mirror Mirror’ in December 2005. She is also a cat author with eight cat anthologies to her name.
Awards include: first prize in ‘The Art of Writing’, The London Magazine; shortlisting for the Catherine Cookson Novel Award; winner of the Elizabeth Goudge Cup; winner of the Bonmarche Short Story Competition, Autumn 2005.
Stella will talk about how to collect material, how to collate it, easy ways of writing it and the amazingly different styles of presentation.
Thursday 13th April, 2006, 7.30 - 9.30 p.m.
Steve Carroll is a local businessman running a design studio 'Inspiration by Design' as well as the networking group 'Worthing Business Circle'. Although his first love was writing he went to Art College to study graphic design but, after his first design business closed down in the recession of the early 90s, he returned to writing and managed to get an agent, but no publisher for a science fiction novel 'The Messenger Boy'.
Moving to Worthing in 1998, he worked alongside Bob Bond a local comic strip artist who suggested turning the story into a graphic novel. A new agent managed to work out a publishing deal as a series of graphic novels on the basis that he set the story in the 12th Century not the 23rd Century. The result was the 'Riddler's Fayre' series to be published from 2006 to 2007.
Steve is married with two sons and still paints and teaches art classes.
Thursday 9th March, 2006, 7.30 - 9.30 p.m.
Chris Hare talks about Hilaire Belloc’s famous Sussex-located book and offers an insight into the humour, wit and wisdom it contains. Set in the Sussex countryside of one hundred years ago, ‘The Four Men’ is a timeless tale of life, love and death and what it means to be human.
Chris Hare has written several books on the history of Sussex. He has taught for the University of Sussex and is currently an Adult Education Manager based at Midhurst.
Thursday, 9th February, 2006, 7.30 p.m.
Workshop-style session: The Art of Rewriting
Susannah has an enviable creative record. She spent ten years as an opera singer, singing principal roles in many of the leading opera houses. She now works as a novelis and playwright and is artistic director of The Paddock, a performing arts organisation dedicated to creating new collaborations between artists working in different art forms. Her first novel, Long Gone Anybody, ws shortlisted for the Pendleton May First Novel Award and her second, Cold Comfort, will be published in February. Come along and join the workshop - everyone's bound to benefit from someone who is so well-versed in the creative arts!
Thursday, 10th November, 2005, 7.30 p.m.
Lynne Barrett-Lee was born in London in 1959 and is married with three children. She and her family moved to Cardiff in 1994, and she has since written over 100 short stories and articles for most of the major women's magazines. She is also the author of five novels, the latest of which, Wild About Harry, was published in September 2005 and is written udner the pseudonym Daisy Jordan. Lynne appears regularly on Radio Wales and also writers for Western Mail.
Thursday, 13th October, 2005, 7.30 p.m.
The span of Derren’s acting career is extraordinary as he has had dozens of appearances in repertory theatre, the West End and television. As if this is not enough, he also has an impressive list of films to his credit and he has worked in the most illustrious of company, which includes Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.
Clearly a man of many talents, Derren has also written a novel and screenplay ’The Amorous Milkman’ the film of which he went on to produce and direct.
After spending ten years in Australia, he has returned to the British theatre and is currently touring in in the play ’Wait Until Dark’ by Frederick Knott which runs until September.
It's An 'Ology
On 24 May 2005, an exciting milestone was reached within the Club's long history because that was when "IT'S AN 'OLOGY" was launched at Borders Books and Music, Churchill Square Shopping Centre, Brighton, as part of Brighton Festival Fringe. The BBC heralded it as THE literary event of the Festival Fringe and more than seventy people crammed into Borders to hear a selection of work being performed; while on 21 June it was Methvens' turn to host yet another successful event, this time in Worthing.
The book is the brainchild of Nina Tucknott and features short stories and poems by many Club members. The Club's patron, Simon Brett, chose the thirty stories that are included while The Speechpainter, aka Geoff Allnutt, chose the dozen poems - both have their own work featured too.
The book is available via Boders in Brighton, City Books in Hove and Methvens in Worthing, and costs £6.99. Copies can also be obtained by post by sending a cheque (made payable to WSWC) for £8.50 to incl. p&p)to 103 Poplar Avenue, Hove, BN3 8PJ.
Two local charities, The Chestnut Tree House Appeal and The Rockinghorse Appeal, are involved in this venture, and £1 from each copy sold will be split equally between them.