What's Happening?

At long last, I've had the chance to read Issue Seven of Between The Lines, and what a fabulous edition it is. Again!

It's brilliant to find out what other members are up to. Barry's talk about his adventures sounded riveting, and it was good to hear about Cathy's involvement at the States of Independence day at De Montfort University. I couldn't go that day, so it was interesting to hear all about it. Also, huge congratulations to Linda Sadler for her first prize and to Cathy for her two commendations. What a talented lot! I'd love to read about the achievements of other members in the future.

It was good to read about the plans for Hilary's memorial window at St Martin's Church in Bilborough. It seems so fitting given her involvement with the church and her role in restoring the beautiful murals by Evelyn Gibbs. I look forward to seeing it when it's completed.

Margaret Leigh's My Reading Life was fascinating, and it was heartening to read about someone else whose childhood was inhabited by characters from the books she read. Not just me then! It was also good to learn about writers I didn't know about, and I have now looked up Persephone Books.

Janet's write-up of the thoroughly enjoyable Knowledge is Power day at Lakeside was great, and I agree that it was so brilliant to hear the diversity of responses to the prompts. It was a fab day and so good to get to know other members a little bit better. These writing away days are so good for that.

Annie's report of the two Meet and Mingle get-togethers at The Malt Cross was informative, witty, and thoroughly entertaining! I'm looking forward to the next one. Again, it's such a super way of getting to know each other, finding out what we have in common, and sometimes helping each other come up with ideas for our homework!!

For my small part, I hope you enjoyed the article on Sheena Bradley. She was a delight to interview and so fascinating to learn more about the development of her writing life, and also about some of the other aspects of her life. I hope she continues to write many, many more of her wonderful, and often very moving, poems.

So, all in all, a thoroughly good read!

Thank you to all the contributors for their excellent articles, and to Bobbie Brotherton for bringing it all together so masterfully. I also loved all the photos!

Looking forward to the next issue!

Denise x