We meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month from 7:00 to 9:00 at the Battersea Arts Centre on Lavender Hill.
There is a £3 attendance fee that goes towards the room hire. Please note that the meeting room changes according to availability so please check with the Box Office on arrival.
About the Members
We have many members: poets, novelists, playwrights, scriptwriters, historians, philosophers. It is a rich mix and makes a lively evening. We welcome writers from all walks of life as everyone has a point of view, and the more varied these opinions, the richer the experience.
Please do join us. Even if you are just starting out and are just interested in writing, but don't have anything to read, come along and experience the evening. As sometimes the best motivation to writing is to hear how others got there before you.
Some notes when walking along the south shore, Rush, Co. Dublin, Ireland Sat. 28th January 2012, 2 o'clock in the afternoonStanding close to the water and taking in the tidal sweep of the sea, variety of shells washed up, many footprints nearby heading in different directions, familiar undulating shape of Lambay Island out to sea on the eastern horizon, the slow incoming tide is in good humour with gentle breakers coming ashore, that relentless comforting sound of the sea, filling my lungs with…See More
From Black Bed Sheet Books and Matthew Ewald (author of HUMAN NATURE, star of GALIDOR and PLAN 9)! How deep are you willing to go to unlock the mystery? ----...
Check the calendar for meeting, events and writing competitions. Please note that the writing competition dates are always the closing dates for entering.
Original Writers News
Look out for the OWG sign when you arrive at the Battersea Arts Centre.
Original Writers Radio goes live!
Attached is an audio boo excerpt from Melissa Dougherty Anderson's latest novel, London Cowgirl, the story of a 15 year old girl who has just moved to London from America. It is a tale of teenage angst, overcoming fears, english horse back riding, and a first crush. Visit Melissa's page to give your feedback.
For more information on setting up your own audioblog account go to audioboo.fm and start posting your stories!
The Writers Workshop Evening
Everything is settling into a routine here at the Battersea Arts Centre. We have found our feet.
By which I mean, we have a format. There is a room for those who want to read and plenty of space for those who want to write. So choose your poison.
The order of events is that we always meet up in our designated room at the beginning of the evening and I quickly separate everyone into groups. We are still keeping the Reading groups to around seven max. It seems to work best that way. And those of us that want to write -- there are plenty of spaces around the BAC. Then come nine o'clock we all meet up in the bar.
It is a good format and seems to work well. As I have said in the past, do bring your work, from working on finished pieces of writing, brainstorming ideas, develop notes, even readings from favourite authors. You can try anything and learn everything.
The Original Writers Readers Group
I am setting up a Readers Group for our members. If you would like to be part of this, then please respond to the OWG Book Group forum.
Bobbie Darbyshire's 'Truth Games' and 'Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones'
If you pass a bookshop, be sure to pop in and ask them to order up one of Bobbie's two novels: Truth Games and Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones
Truth Games (2009) is a serious comedy about sex in 70s London. After the hippies and before the yuppies, between the advent of the Pill and the onset of AIDS, between the 'summer of love' and the 'winter of discontent', the newest game in town was sex.
Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones (2010) is a page-turning comedy of errors that plays with truth and illusion. An innocent meeting of a reading group sparks a series of bizarre events. Three troubled people, driven by loneliness, vanity and revenge, hurl themselves on Inverness public library to find that nothing is as they expect.
"Fantastic story telling, with wonderful characters who you soon feel you’ve known for ever. Set in the 1970s between the advent of the pill and the onset of aids, Truth Games explores the complex relationships between a group of friends in the long hot summers of 75 and 76 and the winter in between. Cleverly observed, the book has laugh out loud moments interspersed by episodes that challenge you to examine your own behaviour when dealing with close friends and those not so close. For those who remember the 70s Bobbie Darbyshire conjurs up lots of memories, from the clothes we wore, to the things we ate and the parties we threw. For those who don’t remember the 70s don’t be put off. There’s as much here that’s as relelvant today as it was back then. The nature of friendship and fidelity between friends as well as between partners. Page turning stuff. Thoroughly deserves a 5 star rating!" Posted on Waterstones Website
Colin Macintyre's 'City Awakenings' Released Dec 2011
Congratulations to Colin on releasing his new album "City Awakenings". The Guardian's Mark Beaumont gave it four stars out of five and wrote "Don't call it a reunion: although it's been seven years since the last Mull Historical Society album This Is Hope, they were always the cover for one man's work, Hebridean alt-pop eccentric Colin MacIntyre. Mull's early albums stood out for their charming melodic oddities – MacIntyre played "seagulls", sampled tube announcements and favoured dog-in-wig artwork – and for his air of the parochial and unusual, coming across on stage like a faintly psychopathic Father Dougal. That sense of sanitarium serenade still lingers at tonight's mainland comeback show – MacIntyre tells of the great-grandmother who claims she saw John Wayne on Balamory's high street and digs out early track Public Service Announcer, a song about "considering mass contamination of British Telecom" built on a telephone ring rhythm.
But thankfully his demons seem vanquished; the material from new album City Awakenings is largely bereft of that bristling mania, instead awash with comfort, joy and metropolitan dazzle. With their early period touches of quirky folktronica nabbed and vastly upscaled by Tom Vek and Patrick Wolf, the modern Mull embrace simplicity: the lushness of Thameslink or the life-affirming pop of The Lights and Watching Xanadu, which, 10 years on, is still the catchiest tribute ever written to a 1980 Olivia Newton-John film about roller-skating Olympian muses.
MacIntyre exudes the inclusiveness of island life, too. When he phones his sick uncle to dedicate You Can Get Better to him or plays a solo ballad about his great-grandfather lost to the first world war without knowing he was a father-to-be, we're absorbed into his extended family as if Bush Hall has become a sub-branch of Mull post office. By the time the mariachi signature song Mull Historical Society entreats London to "Join us!", we are queueing up to renew our memberships."
John Rico's Border Crosser
Congratulations to Johnny on the publication of his book 'Border Crosser' published this June by Ballantine Books.
“A timeless story of confounded youth and its eternal struggle for meaning, this book may well signal the birth of a titanic new voice. . . . [Rico’s] precise, evocative prose balances pathos and humor with an almost destructive compulsion for honesty and so much frustrated wit that, even at his most naked and sensitive, he holds nothing sacred.” Publishers Weekly
Two of our members, Joanna Swainson and Nicholas Russell-Pavier , have set up a Literary Consultancy called The Word Association. Many of you know Joanna and Nicholas as enthusiastic OWG members. Joanna's experience working for a number of literary agents and Nicholas' years as a film and radio producer means that they bring a fresh and honest eye to the sticky business of getting your work published.
Up, and with W. Hewer in Colonel Middleton's coach to White Hall, and there to the Duke of York, to attend him, where among other things I did give a severe account of our proceedings, and what we found, in the business of Sir W. Jenings's demand of Supernumeraries. I thought it a good occasion to make an example of him, for he is a proud, idle fellow; and it did meet with the Duke of York's acceptance and well-liking; and he did call him in, after I had done, and did not only give him a soft rebuke, but condemns him to pay both their victuals and wages, or right himself of the purser. This I was glad of, and so were all the rest of us, though I know I have made myself an immortal enemy by it. Thence home by hackney, calling Roger Pepys at the Temple gate in the bookseller's shop, and to the Old Exchange, where I staid a little to invite my uncle Wight, and so home, and there find my aunt Wight and her husband come presently, and so to dinner; and after dinner Roger, and I, and my wife, and aunt, to see Mr. Cole; but he nor his wife was within, but we looked upon his picture of Cleopatra, which I went principally to see, being so much commended by my wife and aunt; but I find it a base copy of a good originall, that vexed me to hear so much commended. Thence to see Creed's wife, and did so, and staid a while, where both of them within; and here I met Mr. Bland, newly come from Gales [Cadiz] after his differences with Norwood. I think him a foolish, light-headed man; but certainly he hath been abused in this matter by Colonel Norwood. Here Creed shewed me a copy of some propositions, which Bland and others, in the name of the Corporation of Tangier, did present to Norwood, for his opinion in, in order to the King's service, which were drawn up very humbly, and were really good things; but his answer to them was in the most shitten proud, carping, insolent, and ironically-prophane stile, that ever I saw in my life, so as I shall never think the place can do well, while he is there. Here, after some talk, and Creed's telling us that he is upon taking the next house to his present lodgings, which is next to that that my cozen Tom Pepys once lived in, in Newport Street, in Covent Garden; and is in a good place, and then, I suppose, he will keep his coach. So, setting Roger down at the Temple, who tells me that he is now concluded in all matters with his widow, we home, and there hired my wife to make an end of Boyle'sBook of Formes, to-night and to-morrow; and so fell to read and sup, and then to bed. This day, Mr. Ned Pickering brought his lady to see my wife, in acknowledgment of a little present of oranges and olives, which I sent her, for his kindness to me in the buying of my horses, which was very civil. She is old, but hath, I believe, been a pretty comely woman.
A message to all members of The Original Writers Group
Hi writers
One more week till we meet again at the BAC on Thursday 2 February. In the meantime, here is some information on other events:
The Business of Writing
A series of six panel sessions with the experts, open to the public All sessions in Room 004, Duchesne Building, University of Roehampton Tickets £3 (£2 concessions) Available at the door, or online at: http://estore.roehampton.ac.uk
Thurs 26 Jan, 4–6pm How to Survive as a Freelance Writer featuring: Sue Barnard (freelance business writer) and Sally O’Reilly (freelance journalist and writer)
Thurs 2 Feb, 4–6pm Writing and Live Performance featuring: Patience Agbabi (performance poet) and Joshua Idehen (performance poet) and Leone Ross (novelist)
Thurs 16 Feb, 4–6pm Literary Agents - What They Do and Why You Need One featuring: Julia Churchill (agent, The Greenhouse Literary Agency) and Stephanie Thwaites (agent, The Curtis Brown Group)
Thurs 1 March, 4–6pm Editors – What They Look For and How to Approach Them featuring: Ruth Tross (editor, Hodder and Stoughton) and Stuart Nathan (features editor, The Engineer magazine)
Thurs 8 March, 4–6pm Writing for Screen and Television featuring: Carol Russell (TV writer), Deola Folarin (screenwriter and director) and Andy Green (film distributor and script consultant)
Thurs 22 March, 4–6pm Making Money from Other Kinds of Writing (or What to Do When You’re Not Writing Your Best-Selling Novel) featuring: Anthony Haynes (publisher/writing consultant) and Helen Kidd (poet and editor)
We have some exciting new developments here at Insignificant Theatre! Rehearsals are now under way for the fourth Speakeasy, which will be performed at The George on The Strand in Covent Garden, 15th-17th February.
We once again have some cracking new writing and breath-taking performances, and tickets are going fast so make sure you don't miss out...
We also have a brand new website which you can check out http://www.insignificanttheatre.co.uk . This is also where you can book tickets for our up coming events and find out more about the company, who we've been working with, and how to get involved.
“A good book is an event in my life.”
Stendhal, The Red and the Black
The Battesea Arts Centre
The Grade II listed building which houses BAC, designed in 1891 by EW Mountford, first opened as Battersea Town Hall in 1893. The building was used for over 70 years as council chambers, holding borough meetings, elections and discussions - it was a key focal point essential to the legislative activities within the borough. During both world wars the then Town Hall building was a recruiting station, administrative centre and between 1914 - 1918 used as a conscientious objectors' tribunal site.
Its history as a home for the arts began in the early 1900's when the Grand and Lower Halls staged talent contests, traditional jazz performances and musical evenings, taking over the role of the bombed Shakespeare Theatre as a music hall venue for a period during the 1950's.
The use for the building was found in 1974, when the building was reopened as a community arts centre run by Wandsworth Borough Council, offering a variety of arts and adult education classes and space for local theatre groups to use for rehearsals and performances.
The order of events is that we always meet up in our designated room at the beginning of the evening and I quickly separate everyone into groups. We are still keeping the Reading groups to around seven max. It seems to work best that way. And those of us that want to write -- there are plenty of spaces around the BAC. Then come nine o'clock we all meet up in the bar.
Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones (2010) is a page-turning comedy of errors that plays with truth and illusion. An innocent meeting of a reading group sparks a series of bizarre events. Three troubled people, driven by loneliness, vanity and revenge, hurl themselves on Inverness public library to find that nothing is as they expect.
Congratulations to Johnny on the publication of his book 
