Lancashire Authors Association News

  Executive Committee Meetings The committee meets mainly on the second Saturday of the month excluding January, August and December. If you wish to raise any matter with the committee please telephone 01254 235844 to    inform the Chairman .

  In One Piece!       By Susan Osborne   (This poem is a conversation between a Baker’s lass and Farmer’s lad, who met at the Village fete)     I baked a cake fer t’ village fete An placed it on a stand I allus use t’ very best An I mun say, it looks reet grand.   ‘Arta gunna slice it then?’ I just thowt I’d ask, ‘After t’ judgin tha can ave a piece But only if tha’s geet some brass.’   Best butter, soft brown sugar, Rich spices n fruit that’s moist. It’s best tay-bread tha’ll ever taste, Tha couldn’t mek a better choice.   ‘But I’m fair clemm’d, I’ve got bellywark Can’t I ‘ave a small piece now? A tasty treat afore t’ judging starts An I’ll show thi mi fust prize sow.   ‘Stop thi mitherin, I won’t give in It’s best judged in one piece . But I’ll come n see this fancy pig If tha tells me wheer it is.           ...

  REMEMBERING   RON WILLIAMS I first met Ron many years ago in Jarvis Street Chapel, Rochdale at a meeting of the Edwin Waugh Dialect Society. He was sitting at the back of the room along with Frank Gibson, Jim Atherton and Ron Davies. It was my first time at the meeting and I immediately realised that I was in good company and among kindred spirits.   Ron was a very skilled and talented writer who would regularly leave competitions and presentation evenings with an armful of trophies. A modest man, often embarrassed by his own success, he could always be relied on to find just the right poem for any occasion.   A proud Yorkshireman, he nonetheless had a great love of Lancashire Dialect, living for many years in the Saddleworth area which was, as Ammon Wrigley put it, ”that part of Yorkshire where they talk with a Lancashire accent”.   We shall all miss him at the Monday morning dialect reading group and I shall particularly miss him as a point o...

  The meeting was attended by twenty-one members and guests, including our speaker,   Peter Houghton, chair of Leyland Historical Society. The meeting was opened by our President, Sid Calderbank who welcomed all present before handing over to Judith Addison to chair the meeting.  Apologies had been received from Nick Oldham, Alison Chisholm, Mina Anwar, Dea Parkin, Jeanette Greaves, Cath Cole, Heidi Lancaster, Peter Jones and Tom and Heather Ungless. Sid then introduced Tony Blagrove, Town Crier, who treated us to a suitably dramatic rendering of the Lancashire Proclamation. Everyone then stood to toast King Charles lll, Duke of Lancaster. Hotpot was served, accompanied by drinks from the bar, alcoholic or otherwise, followed by a short comfort break. The Bill O’ Bows award was presented to Michael L. Jackson who had taken over the post of treasurer at a difficult time. Two nominations for the Angus Butterworth award had been received but the committee ha...

  The past year our meetings continued as pre-pandemic with one exception; now we have a regular Zoom Meeting in September and three face to face meetings. We retained the September Zoom Meeting because it enables us to book speakers from farther afield and gives an opportunity for members to join in when unable to attend in person.   Sadly the meeting held in September 2024 was poorly attended, disappointing for both committee and guest speaker. As Publicity Officer, I am always on the lookout for someone special and perhaps a little famous if possible for this meeting. Suggestions from members are always welcome. We are hoping to become more inclusive as an association and have made contact with various other groups who are a part of Lancashire’s varied History. Our committee meetings are also conducted on Zoom or sometimes Messenger; the reason for this being, that our committee are based all over Lancashire, so it’s a much better way of ensuring a quorum, whatever the ...

  We are still doing the Zoom meeting for the September meeting, but happily, we are now able to meet in person once more. It has been great meeting up with all the members and the rest of the committee in recent months and long may that continue. As promised I have set up a review page on the website and placed on it the few reviews by our members, or friends of members I have received. Our website has now been in operation for eleven years and has hopefully improved in that time. I   regret that due to some technical problems and personal difficulties it has been hard for me to update the website as quickly as I should like, but I am hoping to be able to remedy this shortly.   In the meantime we still have a members’ page and also a children’s page and I am always welcoming of new contributions. Any submissions will be published subject to approval. It can be a poem you want to share with us, an article or short story. Just send them to me at peterjones040@gmail...

  Annual Competitions 2024. I am pleased to report we had sufficient entries for these competitions, to be able to run all five competitions.   The total number being 74 up by 12 on the previous year.    Many thanks to all who entered.   The winning and placed entries have been included in our Anthology 2024. All members should by now have received their free copy. Thank you also to Gill and Martin for all their work in producing the anthology, also for sponsoring the £50 prize for the cover photo competition once more.   Open Flash Fiction Competition 2024   This competition was again well supported with a total of 90 entries being received, despite incorrect details being published in Writing Magazine. The winner was Jean Celine Blakely with “Parting”. A member of LAA.   All details including several finalists’ 100 word stories were published on the LAA website and the winning story in the LAA Anthology.    Our thanks ...