This year marks Retford Writers’ Group – Retwords moving into its 15th year at Retford Library. Members are enthusiasts for all sorts of writing, and share their pieces for constructive comment. They have a trigger word each fortnight by way of encouragement to practice their own writing and they share some pieces on their website – simply Google ‘retwords’, where over 500 pieces will give you a flavour.
Although publishing is not their prime objective, the encouragement and support provided by the group has led to at least eight of the group publishing a selection of novels and poetry. The Little Theatre had a script ‘Reading Date’ and used pieces by Nick Purkiss, Mike Keeble and Kevin Murphy. To follow that, in January their key Shakespeare enthusiast, Daniel Toyne, directed Neil Simon’s farce Rumours for them.
Meetings take place fortnightly on Thursdays from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. This is a free service by Retford Library. Upcoming dates are 12th and 26th February, and 12th and 26th March. Contact Kevin Murphy on kev2nmurph1@hotmail.com for more information. All are welcome. Barrie Purnell’s fifth collection is out now on Amazon. It includes a hilarious story of a bungled drug-bust on Carolgate (based on a real event).