Ellie Adams organised two socials this August. The first event, an open mic night, was a great success, with about 20 members present to hear a typically wide variety of readings, with lots of time to chat in between and afterwards, quite late into the evening. The idea was to read a favourite passage or story or poem. For your interest, here is a list of who read what. Some ideas for future reading, perhaps?

Ellie Adams – an extract from The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer

Emma Storr – short story extract (with lots of swearing) from Dark lies the Island by Kevin Barry

Chris Read – selected paragraphs from Dishonesty is the Second Best Policy by David Mitchell

Jaspreet Mander – poems: Sounds of the Day and Rag and Bone by Norman MacCaig

Bob Hamilton – short story: The Weight of Dunlins, by Colin Watts

Miriam Moss – a number of poems from Michael Rosen

Richard Wilcocks – poem: Campo dei Fiori by Czeslaw Milosz

Linda Fulton – flash fictions from My Mother was an Upright Piano by Tania Hershman

Graeme Hall – the finish to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Susie Beever – extract from Orbital by Samantha Harvey

The second event was a quiz compiled by Francis Maietta, and was again a great success, with 5 teams of quiz goers who identified themselves as Alexander Dumas, So Long and Thanks for All the Quiz, The Old Vic Stalwarts, We’re Post Genre Anyway? and The Orwellians.

The winning team with a whopping 78 points out of 100 was The Old Vic Stalwarts (Sarah, Graeme, Lucie and Mark, pictured above, deep in consultation), who will each be taking home a £5 book voucher. It was a close second for The Orwellians who totalled 73 points. A huge thank you goes to Francis for creating such an enjoyable quiz and for being the evening’s quiz master. The teams of We’re Post Genre Anyway? and Thanks for All the Quiz possibly deserved prizes for their names alone.