Skip to main content

Society of Women Writers and Journalists

I felt very privileged to be accepted as a full member of the SWWJ.  The society was founded by Joseph Snell Wood in 1894 and it celebrated its 125th anniversary this year.  I went to my first event, a Christmas Tea and it was held in the beautiful, historic National Liberal Club in Westminster.

I attended with my good friend Julie and this wouldn't be at all possible if it wasn't for author Sylvia Kent who mentioned that I could join the society on Phoenix FM, she had invited me onto the Book Club which is part of Michelle Ward's 'Eat My Brunch' weekday show.  I finally took the bull by the horns and applied to become a member and Sylvia kindly sponsored me and got somebody else to sponsor me too.

I was thrilled to find out that Baroness Floella Benjamin is the President of the society and hope that one day I will meet her.  We had a lovely tea and we chatted to a few other authors which was really interesting.  I didn't take any pictures of the day but you can find out more about what went on by popping over to Sylvia's blog.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

I've got lots of news to shout about. 1. Just one day to my talk at Keene Hall, Watchouse Road, Galleywood. The talk will commence at 8.00pm, please arrive about 7:45 if you plan to go. Fun fact! I was actually born seventeen years to the day after Basildon New Town came into existence. Basildon New Town was born on (so to speak) 4 January 1949 and I was born on 4 January 1966. Don't you think that is odd?! A bit spooky! 2. A lot is happening behind the scenes towards Basildon Writers' Group's second anthology. Very exciting! But it's not my place to say more, except that I have a story in said book. 3. My musical son has a lovely voice, just thought I'd get that in there! I recently thought of when I was in the community play for Basildon in 1989 called  Beorhtel's Hill,  that was thirty-four years ago now! That is history, relatively speaking. I sent some photos to the  Basildon Heritage Group  for their archives. Photographs from behind the scenes and the...

Rose Cleary - How to be a French Girl

  I interviewed Rose Cleary on 30th March 2021 in what was still the lockdown periods. I chose to do podcasts at the time to widen my narrowing world. Rose Cleary has her debut novel out now called  How to be a French Girl . Rose Cleary, born 1990, is an author and writer from Essex. Her writing has been previously published in the New Socialist, The Southend's Twilight Worlds, Hyperallergic and TOMA. She has exhibited her art internationally at galleries including Nahmad Projects and The Vaults in London, and Backlit Gallery in Nottingham. How to be a French Girl is her debut novel. You can follow her on Instagram and visit her website  http://rosecleary.com/   3:AM Magazine has printed an extract from the book here . Read a post by Rose on the London Review Book Shop where she talks about the process of writing the book   here . https://www.lisajhorner.com/

Metal Culture's Zoom Event - Quite a Few Faces from the Past!

I have known about Metal Culture, the one that is based in Southend, and their events for some time.  I have often thought of joining one of their events but didn't get around to it.  Last night I plucked up the courage to join their Zoom meeting called 'BASILDON, what next for the Creative Industries in South Essex?'  It was really good actually, I imagined that I would sit observing, feeling too awkward to join in, but in fact I did get involved and added something to the various debates that were going on. To start with we watched six speakers; Aden Hynes from Sculpture Studios who showed a film.  Moira Brock from La Danse Fantastique who showed a film.  Joseph Brennan, an architect.  Clare Mortimer from The Craft Shed.  TIME - Therapy in Musical Expression, who showed a film and then Laura Mauro a writer.  It was really interesting, although I already knew about Sculpture Studios and TIME. There were about forty participants and what struck...