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We exist to promote and encourage all aspects of poetry, including workshops for local writers, publication of members’ poems and readings by both visiting and member poets, social occasions and other poetry events. We welcome all sections of the community, recognizing the benefits of ethnic, cultural, linguistic historical and social diversity. We are a self-governing body, managed by a Committee elected at the AGM. Officers 2007/8
Paddy Fraser’s memoir of her late husband, G S Fraser, has been part-published in the online magazine, Jacket. See History and http://jacketmagazine.com/20/fraser.html. Graham Norman was born in Gillingham, Kent but left a year later, never to return. He has lived in Leicester since 1970, so is clearly not a restless soul. He first wrote poetry as a teenager but lost heart by the age of twenty five. On account of a career as a surveyor and local government officer, he was, however, able to hone his report and letter writing skills while the muse lay dormant. Spring came late in 2006 when a new plant erupted from the Leicester clay: verdant, profuse, hung about with beauteous flowers or poison fruit, who knows? Whatever the judgement, he is ambitious for his poetry and the Leicester Poetry Society which he has the honour to chair. Caroline Cook was born in Leicester, educated at the same primary school as Gary Lineker, the same secondary school as Elaine Feinstein. As a student of French, German and Swedish’ went out with Jonathan Raban. These brushes with celebrity have had little effect. Her earning life was spent educating young people in matters of gender in showing them how to conjugate, then decline. Caroline has only recently found time to write. Recent work has been published in P.N.I., Envoi, Living Poets, First Time, T.N.W. and The British German Review. In 2003 she was Highly Commended in competitions run by Poets Anonymous, Coffee House, Battle of the Bards and, amazingly, won First Prize in the Kent and Sussex Competition. Andie Wingham was born in Stockport but educated in Bath at City of Bath Boys School. Writing poetry for most of his life, Andie has spent fifteen years as a teacher of English but in a wide career has spent time as an Outdoor Pursuits specialist. Currently, Andie runs two businesses with his wife. Lydia Finlay divides her commitment between her day job as an optometrist and her other vocation as a word-alchemist. She has been writing since primary school and combines this with an interest in theatre, dance and song. She enjoys Caribbean poetry and the plays of Christopher Fry and David Constantine. Mark Mawson was born in Leicester. He worked for the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers in Nottingham and was a survey ecologist with Leicestershire Museums Service. More recently he was a senior analyst (aerial photography) in a local company. See also Members. Previous officers (other than those above) Brian Fewster was born in Nottingham and studied English at Cambridge. After spending two years on VSO in India, he taught for 25 years in comprehensive schools. He then worked as an IT administrator and technical author, spending part of each week in London. Steve Morgan was born in Rugby, and educated in Cambridge and Leicester where he read for an MA in Modern English and American Literature with George Fraser, the Society’s founder, and Paris Leary. Some verse was published in small magazines in earlier days, but currently more is read than written. All this time in literary academia bore little fruit in terms of career opportunities; and he earns a crust or two for his family of six children by keeping in touch with his juvenile side through working in the toy industry. Arm-in-arm with the “old toad” work, he continues to be enthused and excited by “imaginary gardens with real toads in them”. For many years, Marilyn Ricci worked as an administrator in the Social Sciences Faculty at the Open University, where she also taught, wrote course materials and made radio programmes. As well as her poetry, she has written plays (one performed in Milton Keynes, another extensively workshopped by a theatre company in Oxfordshire) and is currently writing a novel about a private detective who fancies himself as a latter-day Philip Marlowe but rarely lives up to it. Marilyn is a part-time teacher of film studies and creative writing. She has been published in various poetry magazines including: The Interpreter's House, Other Poetry, Poetry Life, Envoi, The Affectionate Punch, The New Writer and Smiths Knoll. Sally Festing has published biography, social history, journalism that includes a decade's contributions to the two Times Educational Supplements and a series of profiles for the New Scientist and since 1999, chiefly poems. She grew up in Cambridge and now lives in an east Leicestershire village and Burnham Overy Staith. Her life of Barbara Hepworth was shortlisted for best Art Book of 1995 by the Yorkshire Post, and The Times said her story of East-coast inshore fishermen 'can take its place with Cobbett's Rural Rides as a chronicle of how Man and Nature coalesced..' Her first chapbook, Swimming Lessons, was the basis of a second play on Radio 4, 23.9.05. See her website at http://www.sallyfesting.info/. Review of Swimming Lessons - The Guardian, 26.9.05 Hilary Blackmore has worked for many years as a lecturer and manager in further and higher education. After completing a Master’s degree at Nottingham University she specialised first in English and Social Sciences and later in Education Studies. A full annual audit of the financial records is carried out by two non-committee-members of the Society who are elected annually. As with many other arts organisations, grant aid has been much reduced in recent years, so the Society is having to be increasingly self-supporting. |
