The Wiveliscombe Writers Group was established in 1998. At first, meetings were dominated by short stories and chapters from novels-in-progress, but after a while the poets began to take centre stage. The form doesn’t really matter, though: the main thing is to share a love of literature. We also share a few beverages. Meetings are very informal and friendly. Some members don’t always feel confident about reading their own work, and may bring along favourite poems or passages from novels. Whatever we read leads to animated discussions, and someone will always dig out another poem or piece of prose which develops the ideas.

In our ten-year existence so far we have collaborated with the Kingsmead/Community Education Writer-in-Residence project and organised or co-operated in poetry events for the 10 Parishes Festival, often in collaboration with Geoffrey Godbert and the Milverton Poets. We also participated in several programmes on 10 Radio during its 2005 and 2006 seasons, and are currently curating a regular poetry feature on the first Friday of each month as part of the Community Show (see the schedule page on www.10radio.org for more details).

In February we published Swimming Free, an anthology of members’ poems, to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We are happy to acknowledge the support received from the Jim Laker Fund (see www.wiveliscombe.com/the_jim_laker_fund) which has underwritten the cost of this anthology. The anthology costs £3.99 and is available from:

• Fyffes newsagents and the Community Office in Wiveliscombe
• The Costcutter Stores, Milverton
• Post Office, Milverton
• Wiveliscombe Library (Loan)
• Brendon Books, in Bath Place, Taunton
• Wellington Books, South Street, Wellington
• Shakespeare and Hall, High Street, Dunster

Officially the aims of the Group are:

• to give local writers the opportunity to read and discuss their work with other people
• to bring together people with an interest in all forms of literature who enjoy talking about their favourite works or authors
• to promote poetry and other writing in the 10 Parishes

New members are always welcome. If you’d like to come to the next get-together, ring Barry on 01984 629114 or Jill on 01984 624765 for information about the time and venue of the next meeting. We usually meet in central Wiveliscombe.