Report of our meeting 15th February 2010

Those present were: Dave, Les, Angela, Liliane, Beryl, Gemma, Ally, Wilf, Dick, Trish, Martin and myself.

Apologies from Jane and Tony.

As for the meeting;What can I say?Another very successful meeting. This one was a new format for the Scribblers.

By request we had our first two members giving the meeting a chapter or two of novels in progress or finished but not edited.

Ally had the honour of the first critique contribution with an excerpt from her novel 'Drift'.Her chapter was entitled 'Beginnings'.This was an introduction of a few of her characters, the main one being a fourteen year old girl who had grown up with the boy next door. A blow to her secret adoration of this young man came when his mother decides to move away, to the other side of town, thus beginning a time when they had to walk to school separately; and on the first day of high school, after meeting her beau for the first time in a while, they chat excitedly in line, while waiting to hear their form numbers and lesson assignments.

Hopes of being together, at least at school, were dashed when they discover that nothing in their schedules match. She tells her mother how she feels and although her mother is a witch, there seems to be nothing they can do.

If the remainder of the book matches the descriptive delights Ally treats us to, with her situations and characters then the reception given by the members last night will be repeated by all who read the book.

Well done Ally!!!

Angela treated us to the journey of her heroine, a young Italian girl who, during the final months of the war, met a young British soldier, fell in love and eventually marries.

In a beautifully read piece Angela describes how the girl travels to England after the war, to meet her new in laws. She realises, after seeing the damage to houses adjacent to the railway, that German bombers had really reached the shores of her new home. She gets to know her husbands parents and discovers, when venturing out into her adoptive country, a prejudice she had not imagined, simply because she was Italian. Her bitter sweet comments, written in diary form, provides the reader with her thoughts on the country, the food and the people, where she will be living .

Having travelled to the railway station to meet her husband after his de-mob from the Army, she finds that even the amorous and forthright man she had fallen for in Italy, has changed when he meets her on the platform. We await with anticipation a continuation and completion of this intriguing tale of young love.

As with Ally, well done to Angela!!!

The two readings were separated by a welcome tea break where the discussion of Ally's piece continued.

We had more lively comments after Angela's offering which went down well with all the members present.

The few doubters, concerning this new format, were among the rest of us when it came to commenting on a new and productive addition to our meetings. The next one in this form will be on the 19th July.

The homework subject for the next meeting on the 1st of March will be 'SPRING'.

Thanks to all who attended.

Barry