CWC Blog

Review of Meeting 3rd March 2026 by Piers Rowlandson.

Johnathan Kaye was in the Chair.

Eleven members were present and there were three apologies.

We welcomed Roger Morris, who had been invited to discuss his latest novel, Cover Story. For Roger's impressive bio, see Forthcoming Meetings for 3rd March.

Roger entertained us for almost two hours, with a break for tea and biscuits. He started writing stories while still at school; it was a habit he got into and dreamed that one day he would be a recognised author of fiction. In the meantime, he was an advertising copywriter. He also wrote scripts for an award-winning audio production company, working on true crime and history podcasts including Deathbed Confessions, Scotland Yard Confidential, Detectives Don’t Sleep and The Curious History of your Home, as well as a forthcoming series on the Vikings.

By the age of 42, he had submitted so many manuscripts that had been rejected that he was already known to editors and his agent was told by one editor that he didn't want to read manuscripts from Roger Morris anymore. Then he changed tack and wrote A Gentle Axe. This is a murder mystery set in 19th centuary St Petersburg. The lead investigator is a character taken from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Roger exactly captures the atmosphere of the city of St. Petersburg without ever having been there. After the first novel was published, Faber and Faber offered him a contract for a series of four novels and he did visit St. Petersburg and make friends with a Russian who showed him round. He immediately felt at home.

Cover Story is a very different novel about a failing writer, Col, living in North London in such desperate circumstances that he is sharing student digs with two boys and a girl half his age. A friend from university, who claims to be working for MI6, offers him a lot of money to write a novel. At first, he cannot get going and then the mother of the girl in his digs tells him about her failed marriage and his imagination is fired up. Unfortunately, when the woman starts an affair with him, she finds out that he has used her story in the novel, and there is a big falling out. One of the boys in the house falls under a truck and is killed in a hit-and-run accident. It seems he may have been murdered by MI6 because of what Col has told him. Then it turns out that another novel that Col wrote has been stolen by a celebrated but crooked author. 

There was plenty to talk about.  We discussed how we use things from life to inform our own work. The story, as told by Col, is confused and confusing. We mentioned the technique of the unreliable narrator that some writers use. We went on to discuss the difficulties of getting an agent and then the further difficulties that writers have had when the agent tries to persuade the writer to alter their work, only to have it altered again by an editor. After the book is published, most people have found that the author is expected to do a lot of the marketing, even though Faber and Faber has a marketing director. 

It was an excellent and entertaining evening.

Review of Meeting 3rd February 2026 by Piers Rowlandson

Chair: Steve Bullas.

There were fourteen people present including Ian who manages our website. 

Steve introduced the programme he is writting which is aimed at helping authors of novels at the plotting stage.

As an excercise and to illustrate the programme, Steve showed a series of slides that outlined a collective short novel to which we were all invited to contribute.

Title: Echoes in the Chalk, when the past refuses to stay buried.

Suggested themes: hidden history shapes the present. Courage often begins with asking questions that no one else dares to ask. The past refuses to stay buried when someone asks the right question.

Setting: Chichester and the Downs. An archeological dig.

Era: the present.

Protagonists: Daniel Mercer, a shy and retiring retired IT consultant, who becomes more assertive as the truth comes to light. Sir Alastair Greythorne, Lord of the Manor, a charming but ruthless manipulator.

Given all this information we were then told the titles of ten chapters divided into three Acts.

Act One 1.The Find. 2.The Whispering Past. 3.Dr Evelyn Shaw arrives.

Act Two 4.Local Resistance. 5.Echoes in the Chalk. 6.The Hidden Archive.

Act Three 7.Pressure Mounts. 8.Rhiannon's last stand. 9.Revaluation. And finally: Chapter Ten Choosing the Right Future.

We divided into groups of three or four and each group was given different chapters to outline, all working simultantiously and without knowing what the others were doing.

The end result was a hilarious couple of hours which produced a strange and disconected series of suggestions for chapters, rather like a parlour game.

Personally if you are planning to write a novel or produce a book of poetry I would advise you to use SCRIVENER and KDP.

Delicious tea and cake provided by Sharon.

Review of Meeting of 6th January 2026 by Piers Rowlandson

Chair Piers Rowlandspon.

Seven members attended and one guest.

Apologies from Lesley Pardoe.

It was an evening for reading current work. 

Neill Soley read the first 1000 words or so of a short story titled The Sun Bird, an intriguing piece of writing about an old wooden boat in a derelict boatyard that was being restored by an old man who at first seemed hostile to the photographer who wandered into the yard. Jennings is the photographer and the main character. His intentions are not yet clear. The description of the yard and the decaying boats was vivid. A few suggestions about words were made. We are looking forward to reading the completed story.

Janet Denny read aloud part of Chapter Six of The Turnstone, her novel about a WWII German pilot. Karl is on a brief visit home, having qualified as a pilot. There is so much to tell; everyone in the family has something to say. Some of the news is troubling. An uncle who has come out as gay has disappeared. Later, we will find out that under the Third Reich, gay people were incarcerated. Already food is running short and Karl's mother, in particular, is tearful and anxious in contrast to Karl himself, who is excited at his coming role in the conflict but hopes he won't encounter his English friend in battle. The characters and their environment are brilliantly handled. 

Sharon Hurr read out her review of a Japanese novel, The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura. It sounded most confusing, partly because the woman in question hardly ever wears a purple skirt. We all agreed it is hard to get to grips with Japanese novels because the culture is so different. Indeed, so many objects don't have a European equivalent that the text is peppered with Japanese words. 

Anna, our guest, read out a piece of Flash Fiction: Death and the Firebird. About 600 words describing an accident at the Devil's Punch Bowl, Hindhead, as seen by school girls on a trip to London to see Stravinsky's The Firebird. They do get to see The Firebird; Their experience is vividly described. Brilliant writing with evocative details.

Excellent tea and doughnuts provided by Sharon.

Review of Meeting of 2nd December 2025 by Piers Rowlandson

Lesley Pardoe was in the chair.

Seven members and one guest attended.

In what has now become a tradition, everyone contributed a nibble and a drink. There is a rule that mince pies are not allowed, so no mince pies but plenty of Stollen! There was also delicious homemade pizza, plenty of grapes, cheese and Lubchen biscuits, to mention just a few of the treats covering the corner table.

Lesley had warned us about the competition. Each of us produced a piece of writing to be read out and judged by our peers. There were three poems and four very short stories. The winners were Daniela and Philip, joint first. 

Members' news: Robbie's novel "The Rector's Daughter" is out now. It is the fourth novel in the Family at War series.

A most satisfactory ending to a successful year.

I have asked Ian to update the passwords for two members.