In the Beginning - What Famous & Successful Writers Learned & Wrote in Harrow
Historical Harrow
Harrow has been home to many famous writers. Plaques on the walls near the famous Harrow School in Harrow on the Hill remind us. Churchill.
Harrow Writers' Circle began with a group of professional writers. Gradually a lot of amateurs joined benefitting, or suffereng from feedback from a series of Presidents. Claire Rayner was reported in the Harrow Observer, on Thursday 19th, 1997, as saying, "I treated them like professionals. And they didn't like it. We parted company."
Claire Rayner, writer and OBE, photo from Wikipedia.
Past Presidents
Presidents of Harrow Writers included Barry Cryor and Claire Rayner.
Barry Cryor from wikipedi.
Memorable events included the writer who appeared completely covered in Arab dress to promote her book about her stay living in a house overseas.
The group grew sub-groups. Members went on to success elsewhere, in India and Ireland .
John Monaan And Irish Characters For Novels
ohn Monahan eventually returned home to Ireland).
John was a source of information for historical novels including Irish characters in London. I remember after a Writers' Circle meeting standing talking to him in the big car park behind the Arts Centre in Hatch End. I told him that I was writing a novel inspired by my family history, the opening set in the East End of London in the 1890s. The family had an Irish maid called Elizabeth, who was a Roman Catholic. He pointed out.
Protestant girls would be called Elizabeth after Queen Elizabeth I, whilst Roman Catholic girls would have been called Mary. As soon as she told anybody her name, and as soon as her boyfriend told his mother about the girl he was courting in London, everybody would have known what religion she was."
Setbacks
Harrow Arts Centre closed suddendly for financial reasons. We arrived for a meeting to find the door locked and an ominous notice. No venue for that meeting. Nor for later meetings.
An upstairs meeting had a choir next door, so our readings or contest entries for a short story contest could not be heard.
The downstairs room suffered from noise of a dancing group or gymnastics overhead or next door.
The car park was full due to an event in the main hall, so members were stressed, and arrived late.
Our speaker could not reach us because transport was down due to the bombing of London buses and stations.
The cheaper upstairs room was up steep stairs, not accessible to people with sticks, mobility problems, and wheelchairs.
A long-standing member resigned, upset that she was not voted president.
Novelists who did not write poetry were opposed to evenings devoted entirely to poetry.
Visitors who brought poems to read by famous long dead authors such as Shakespeare were upset when told they were only allowed to write poems they had written for critiques.
People who wrote on the task set during a write on the night evening who then refused to read out what they'd written because it was not good enough, or too personal.
Successes
The Circle produced anthologies of short stories, poetry and biographical anecdotes. Members went on to write best sellers and win prizes.
At the annual Writers' Summer School at Swanwick in Derbyshire I met the President of a Watford Writers Circle. Indra Sikdar and I did an evening poetry workshop introducing the forms of couplet. Haiku, limerick, and villanelle.
Lessons Learned About Club Conflicts & Challenges
Reading through the minutes, I learned several useful facts.
1 Many clubs, whether writers' clubs, or Toastmasters International speakers' training clubs, whether relying entirely on volunteers, or partially paid members, face similar challenges, and joys. The challenges are
1 Getting too few people to be president, committee, helpers, and paid members.
2 Alternatively, conflicts between those competing for the honour of being Presdient or a committee position such as treasurer.
3 Absentee members, whether busy Presidents, trasurers with sole access to money, lack of accounts. People dying and falling sick.
4 Changes of venue, beyond members control.
5 Conflicts between rude rule followers, versus creative types who do shocking new things, or nothing at all.
6 Arguments about meetings dominated by cliques, or allowing strangers to take over meetings instead of paid up members.
7 Famous writers who cannot teach or perform, mumble, discourage.
8 Those who are businesslike and think sales means success, and amateurs are time waters. Whilst amateurs feel they need encouragement and big names frighten everybody away.
9 Should an anthology include every member or just the best?
10 Backup plan needed for events where speakers cannot attend. (Illness. Public transport. Forgot.)
11 Securing attendance of speaker on time by taking them to dinner borfore the meeting or giving them accommodation at the home of the President, committee memer, or member who introduced them to the club as a speaker. Or committee member driving the speaker to the event.
12 Quiet members are invaluable when they book venues, research speakers, rooms, national holidays, and write thank you letters, send congratulations and condolences.
13 A club needs storage for keys, phone numbers, meeting minutes, petty cash, banners, posters, party games, seasonal decorations.
14 Publicity and others matters are easy once a routine is established and recorded. For example, inviting the mayor or VIP to an annual party or contest or prize giving. Offering a contest and prize and membership to readers of the local newspaper or magazine.
15 Sending in group entries to contests to be sure that a member has the kudos of winning tne the group gets publicity.
16 Having a backup venue such as a pub, coffee shop or nearby members' house, or alternative room in a centre, in the event of a double booking, or the venue being closed. Backup is needed of club items which might be stored in a venue which is closed, then demolished. Thse could include cabinets, archives, instructions on writing a nd speeches, pbulsiehd books and leaflets by members, minutes, past programmes, address lists, food and drink which is expensive or perishable, trophies.
17 Disagreements about whether spelling and grammar must be corrected and who could or should check. Should speakers be audible. Can you prevent those with unintelligible accents or bad grammar from speaking. Who should tell them or help them?
18 How much unpaid work should professionals do to help amateurs and to mentor newcomers. Is it ok to make an appeal for chairty or a collection?
19 Is bad language allowed in discussion, or novel reading? Should there be warnings, option to leave the room?
20 If a member leaves early in the year, should they get a refund. How much?
21 Should an absent member from a meeting or committee member from a committee meeting send advance apologies? To whom? Giving a reason? No reason needed?
22 Who should chase absent members? Some committee members might take offence. It might be that the member fell ill or died, and their family were angry that no member bothered to enquire.
23 Should a speaker or committee member be told, you don't have to do the job yourself, but if you cannot do it, you have to find a substitute. If you don't have time to do one job, it's unfair to expect the president or someone else to find time to do two jobs.
But let's start at the beginning. Let's structure before we discover all.
1 The Author - Angela Lansbury
2 Famous and Infamous Authors of Fiction, and Facts
3 Club Conflicts
4 Club Challenges
5 Club Publicity
6 Club Contests
7 Club Christmas Parties
8 Club Summer Parties
9 After the year 2000 - where are they now?
1 About The Author Angela Lansbury
I am Angela Lansbury, the author of more than 20 books. My best selling books were Etiquette for Every Occasion, How to be the Best Man, and Wedding Speeches and Toasts.
My most recent book is Embarrassing Moments, about talking, teaching and travels.
Archives of Harrow Writers' Circle
I have collapsible, folding, plastic two crates of papers from Harrow Writers' Circle. I was given them because Barbara Arden-White could no longer look after them. Also I had wirtten the History of Harrovain Speakers, a Toastmasters International Club, and Barbara and Indra Sikdar wanted me to write the history of the writers' circle.
I went off to live in Singapore. I came back to Britain, filling a large store room with goods from Singapore, and many more files, and my published books,
At last I have to de-clutter. That includes going through the two boxes of papers, throwing away duplicates, and extracting the nuggets of information revealed, or hinted, evoking vivid memories of the colourful characters, their vivid stories, real and imaginary.
I started writing this blog on September 19th 2025. As my late next door neighbour once said ironically, 'It doesn't do to rush these things'.
2 Famous and Infamous Authors of Fiction, and Facts
3 Club Conflicts
4 Club Challenges - Venues
Harrow Arts Centre shut at one time.
5 Club Publicity
6 Club Contests
7 Club Christmas Parties
8 Club Summer Parties
9 After the year 2000 - where are they now?
This is a work in progress as I retrieve facts from the files. I hope to add some more facts and entertaining stories from interviewing Indria in the UK and John Monahan in Ireland.
Lists Of Writers and Writing
1 Harrow Writers
2 Harrow Writers Circle Presidents
3 Committee Members
4 Harrow Writers Circle members
5 Harrow Writers' Circle members' books
6 Event Dates
7 Records Consulted
***
Lists Of Writers and Writing
Harrow Writers
Harrow Writers Circle Presidents
Committee Members
***
Key Dates For Harrow
1996 Claire Rayner OBE
Key Dates For Harrow Writers Circle
Harrow Writers Circle members
Harrow Writers by Surname
Harrow Writers By First name
Indra Sikdar
John Monahan
John Waddell
Julia Underwood
Myrtle Davis
Pamela Howarth
Simon Varley
***
Harrow Writers' Circle Members' Anthologies
One Way Ticket, a hard back book, about passengers on a train which stops.
Calendar with poems for each month.
Harrow Writers' Circle members' books
Angela Lansbury
Embarrassing Moments
"""
Event Dates
Records Consulted
Visitor & Speakers
Lynda O'Byrne, editor of Bella (visited Oct 18th 1990)
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