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AGM 2024 followed by Speaker and Tea at Victory Services Club, London
20 September 2024 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Annual General Meeting of the Society
Speaker: Alice Fowler
Tea and words at the AGM
Tea, cakes and talking all things writing was on the menu at the SWWJ afternoon tea and Annual General Meeting [AGM] in September.
Members gathered in the Trafalgar Room at the Victory Services Club in London, where the AGM was held, followed by a cream tea buffet and a wonderful talk by member and author Alice Fowler.
The AGM , saw the re-election of the Council, plus reports from the outgoing chairman Barbara Field-Holmes who is standing down followed by reports from Council members.
Valerie Dunmore is to take on the Chairman role in a caretaker capacity until a suitable replacement is found.
Thanks were given to the outgoing Chair and the Council for their hard work throughout the last year.
The Clemence Dane trophy for outstanding service to the SWWJ, was presented to long-standing Council members Valerie Dunmore and Sylvia Kent. The same trophy was also awarded to Mary Rensten, but as she was unable to attend this event, Mary will be presented with the trophy at the SWWJ Christmas tea this coming December.
After the formal part of the meeting closed, members enjoyed a delicious cream tea and then settled back to listen to Alice Fowler, a Journalist and award-winning writer of short stories and longer fiction.
Alice spoke of beginning her journalistic life on local newspapers, before moving to national newspapers, working on titles such as the Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday.
After turning to fiction writing, Alice won the Historical Writers’ Association short story prize in 2020 and the Wells Festival of Literature short story prize in 2021, amongst many other accolades.
Alice spoke of how she feels writing and reading can help make sense of the world around you at times.
Her debut short story collection, The truth has arms and legs was published last year and the collection was the best-selling title of 2023 for her publishers, Fly On The Wall Press.
A wonderful afternoon was had by all as we celebrated together again as writers, in what is our 130th anniversary year.
Many of our general events and activities are open to non-members, so do get in touch if you would like to attend. If no other contact details are given, please get in touch.