Horsham Writers Circle

Horsham Writers Circle (the dropping of the apostrophe in Writers’ is deliberate) was formed in April 1987 from among a small number of friends belonging to nearby Crawley Circle. Twenty one would-be members attended the first meeting with  Eric Williams (our late Honorary Life President) the first Chairman. From those early days Jack Ackred and Joan Walters have also been ever-present members of the Circle.  More recently contact has been re-established with original members, Jean Thomas (our first Treasurer), and Geoff Evans, editor of Wordcraft, a quarterly publication that featured examples of members’ work.

The principal aims and objectives of that initial membership were:-

1. the promotion of friendship and the furthering of interest in their craft between amateur and professional writers
2. the improvement of the standard of members’ work by mutual criticism, discussion and participation
3. the exchange of information designed to assist members in the search for markets, and in entering in work for competition
4. the organising of projects and of participation in public events having for their aim the fostering of creative writing skills

Those aims and objectives have never been rescinded, though over the years as membership has fluctuated they have, in practice, been modified to meet current members’ needs. At the same time that excellent publication Wordcraft gave way to The Darned Thing and finally Word Weavers before falling by the wayside some time ago during a period of low membership. It is hoped that this website will, in the fullness of time act both as a substitute and as an archive for some of that early material.

At the present time our membership is close in numbers to those attending that first meeting, with a varied interest in short stories, novels, articles, poetry and plays, primarily as amateur writers but with a small number seeking wider publication. Subjects are set as ‘homework’ though adherence is not compulsory and each work members’ work is read and, where applicable, discussed and criticised in a friendly but hopefully constructive manner.