Report of the meeting held on 20th November

Last night was a well attended meeting and brought forth a varied selection of stories as per usual.

We had apologies from Dave with bad back, Cathy was busy with work, Lesley has not attended yet but intends to and I think Carolyn is in the USA.

Those who did attend were Mai, Susan, Beryl, Les, Dick, Two Angelas, Liliane, Sandy (Birthday girl), Martin, Ray, Tony and yours truly.

The subject matter of the work was New Zealand.

Tony was first to read his work and gave us 'The Rings of the Lords' a story of kidnapped children and the Gods wishing for domination over the village and the eventual turning to stone of the children and artefacts from the villagers.

Les gave us 'A compressed history of New Zealand' in which we heard his version of the colonisation of the islands by a Scottish family.

Dick's story was 'A first encounter' and told of a ship visiting New Zealand long ago when the natives were an unknown quantity and of the expedition sent ashore for supplies during which not a shot was fired.

Liliane gave us 'The weird side of New Zealand  and told us of the many volcanoes and of the seemingly lack of dangerous animals on the islands.

Beryls 'A most resourceful woman' was based on fact and told of a woman who always thought she was the daughter of a Maori chieftain only to be told of her mothers amazing resourcefulness during a convict voyage from England and her part in a takeover of a later vessel in the Tasman Sea.

Angela A only had time to complete the first part of a girls thoughts of the different climate and countryside from Suffolk to New Zealand.

Angela L gave us 'Land of dark secrets' giving us the darker side of New Zealand and how the gang culture is sometimes as rife the other side of the world as it is in the Western world.

Susan gave us a hurriedly tinkered with poem of a group of girls revisiting place they had been before.

Mai gave us 'The muffin box' a tale of physical violence on board an aircraft between a female flight attendant and a cocksure male colleague.

Sandy gave us  'A sporting moment' which was a hurriedly finished story of a young woman's intended journey to New Zealand to get over her broken heart.

Martin gave us 'My twin brother from New Zealand' a wonderfully put together play cum prose of a stolen pearl necklace which is hidden in all manner of strange places.

Ray gave us 'The man from hell' a story of two brothers fighting on opposing sides during the Boer War and the eventual tracking down of a man with a false name by his brother to New Zealand and his failure to have the will to kill him.

My contribution was based on a true story of a failed kidnap attempt and the naming of 'Cape Kidnappers'


We had a break half way through and were able to sample the delights of Sandy's Victoria sandwich cake.

The next meeting will be containing the subject of 'Moonlight' and will be on the 4th of December.

Thanks to all who attended and made it an entertaining and informative evening.

Barry.