The pictures above are all books written by members of the Rugby Cafe Writers. Here is an introduction to some of our current members with links to their websites and published books.
David G Bailey from East Anglia has also lived in Europe, the Caribbean, North and South America, with a base in Rugby for over forty years. While accepting that nothing can beat a good poem, he reckons the odds of writing good prose are more in his favour. He has published two contemporary novels, Them Feltwell Boys and Them Roper Girls, an adventure fantasy aimed at and beyond young adults (Seventeen) and most recently a first volume of non-fiction in The Sunny Side of the House: When Life Gives You Strawberries – Memories of a Fenland Boy. To read more of and about David’s work, including a quarterly newsletter and new content daily comprising extracts from diaries and other writings, visit his website http://www.davidgbailey.com.
Pam Barton has recently joined the Rugby Cafe Writers’ Group and began writing again after many years. She has in the past had a radio programme for children, been a D.J. and put through the landing on the moon for the Australian Radio in the Indian Ocean. On returning to England, she was a busy parent with John, and became a skin care consultant up to District Manager. After moving again, she went to Luton University for a marketing course. She retired to Rugby with John. Now she is enjoying writing again, painting is also a great pleasure although, as with the writing, hard work is needed.
Raymond Brown is a retired Anglican priest. He spent forty years working in parishes, mainly in London and Essex . He moved to Rugby in 2019 from his previous home in York. In his school days, Raymond fell in love with the English language and expresses that love today through writing poetry.
Ann Cooper was born in Sunderland and lived in various parts of the North East until she and her husband emigrated (as £10 poms) to Wollongong Australia. One child and two-and-a-half years later, they returned to “the old country”. The next move came when the family (by this time four) moved to the Midlands where they have lived for 44 years. In that time, Ann has worked as a marriage guidance counsellor, run bereavement groups for children, been an Education Social Worker and home/school support worker. She is a member of Rugby Theatre, appearing a few months ago as the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. She writes poetry when moved and has appeared on Britain’s Got Talent twice with her performance poetry.
Martin Curley has recently retired from a lengthy career as a long-distance lorry driver. This career allowed him to read many books and listen to numerous radio plays. It also allowed him plenty of time to literally talk to himself, often out loud. This talking out loud usually took the form of two-way conversations of which Martin, obviously had to adopt both parts. He believes that talking to yourself is the first sign of creativity. These conversations then formed the basis for many of his short stories. He lives in Rugby with his wife and three dachshunds. He stopped watching television about forty-five years ago, citing that ten minutes spent watching TV is ten minutes spent not listening to music.
Fiona Fisher was born at St Mary’s Hospital near Rugby and spent most of her formative years in the lovely old library in the town. From here she moved away to study at Royal Holloway University, where she learned the technicalities of language and honed her love for all things linguistic. After almost twenty years as a teacher of English and languages, she is now a Project Manager and looking to finally find the shape for the story she has been germinating for a few years. Her dream would be to win the lottery and open a bookshop so she can spend her days reading and drinking tea.
Patrick Garrett was born in a farm cottage in Perthshire, Scotland before the NHS came to be and spent the first nine years of his life on farms in Perthshire, Peeblesshire, Wigtownshire and Lanarkshire before moving to England, then two more farms in Princethorpe and Dunchurch. His father then moved to Rugby. As Patrick is blessed with mild dyslexia, his academic career was not stellar but once he learned to read, the world became his oyster. His careers ranged from apprentice, shop assistant, removals, HGV one driver and positions in the warehouse industry. He learned to fly gliders then qualified as a CAA Microlight aircraft pilot having his flying stories published in a flying magazine. After he retired, he decided to take up local history research and write about Rugby’s history. He then found Rugby Cafe Writers and had his stories and poems published in the Cafe Writers’ books.
Poet E. E. Blythe prefers to write under a pseudonym and here explains why: ‘Teasing, name-calling, bullying, violence and ridicule necessitated the name for an alias. It was good to stand, impassive, and listen to complimentary comments, and even praise, for poems, songs and stories; and my tormentors had no idea it was me. So when I write, I am E.E.Blythe.’
David J. Boulton took up writing well into retirement from a career in the NHS, so far publishing three historical detective novels. Set in the Peak District, their protagonist has a Quaker background and the books comprise a trilogy. A fourth novel, set in the Second World War, is complete and he has embarked on a sequel. Alongside General Practice, he and his wife have run a small farm in Northamptonshire for the last thirty years. Of their two grown-up children, one lives in the Peak District with her family, their son completing a five-generation connection for the author with the area. The Writing Fiction class at the Percival Guildhouse tutored by Gill Vickery has provided the author with encouragement and inspiration, not to mention improving his grammar. What’s all the Fuss About? has its origins in a class exercise.
Here is a link to David’s author page on Amazon.
Terri Brown – voice actor, artist and author – does not have a book that got her into reading because she doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t read. Her mother boasts that Terri was reading the likes of Jane Eyre at age seven. First published in a local newspaper aged nine, she caught the writing bug… she just had some things she needed to do first. A few decades, many adventures and a life less ordinary later, financed largely by freelance writing, she has now published her debut fiction novel, Shadow Man, which is now available from Amazon. www.terri-brown.com
Here is a link to Terri’s author page on Amazon.
Wendy Goulstone won the Stafford Children’s Library playwriting competition when ten years old and was joint winner of Stafford Library’s Staffordshire Countryside poetry competition in 2023. A poem was highly commended in the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England competition. Her poems have been published in Orbis, The Cannon’s Mouth and Hedgehog Press, and long-listed in the Words out Loud competition about the Covid outbreak, with a poem in the ensuing anthology, Beyond the Storm. Another poem was selected in an international competition and published in Inspired by My Museum, with a reception at India House in London. Her poems have been short-listed several times by Poetry on Loan. She is a member of Open University Poets and Rugby Theatre Playwriting Group, where one of her plays, set on a train, was performed on stage in 2024. Her furniture lies under a layer of dust and her culinary skills are basic.
Read about Wendy’s favourite books.
Philip Gregge was an optician in Rugby for over forty years. After qualifying as an optometrist, he studied theology. As part of the leadership team of a local charismatic church, he enjoys teaching theology and has written a theology training manual for study groups. He answers theological questions in ‘Let’s Ask Phil’, letsaskphil.org Philip started writing Historical Fiction after waking from an anaesthetic with a plot of an Anglo-Saxon murder mystery in his head. This whetted the fascination he already had for the early Dark Ages, and his research led him to write and publish Denua, Warrior Queen ‘based on real history, but with some of history’s intriguing blanks filled in’. He is now working on a trilogy with his original murder mystery as the first part. In his spare time he plays the banjo in an Irish Music band and repairs musical instruments. Philip Gregge’s website.
Simon Grenville is a former management trainee with the Orbit Housing Association concerned with rehousing the homeless in Milton Keynes and Central London. He is one the founding members of the Islington Community Housing Co-operative, North London, the East-West Theatre Company (Geoffrey Ost Memorial Award, University of Sheffield 1980) and the Alexandra Kollantai Film Corporation (2017). Currently trending on the Really TV Channel as Detective Inspector Paul Jones in Nurses Who Kill, Episode 1, Director Chris Jury. Training: Rose Bruford College.
Originally from Essex, Christine Hancock has lived in Rugby for over forty years. A passion for Family History led to an interest in local history, especially that of the town of Rugby. In 2013 she joined a class at the Percival Guildhouse with the aim of writing up her family history research. The class was Writing Fiction and soon she found herself deep in Anglo-Saxon England. Based on the early life of Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex, who died in 991AD at the Battle of Maldon, the novel grew into a series. She has self-published three volumes and is currently working on the fourth. Her short story in Get to the Point is based on the prologue, later discarded, of Bright Sword, the first of the Byrhtnoth Chronicles. www.byrhtnoth.com
Here is a link to Christine’s author page on Amazon.
Read about Christine’s favourite books.
Sadly Christine passed away in December 2021. We remember her with great fondness.
Born in England, Desmond Harding spent his early childhood overseas, giving him the bug for travel. In addition to having worked in the marine industry, acquiring and supplying spares for the larger ships, he has lived in the Middle East, visiting a few countries along the way. There have been a few gentle escapades, boyhood night-time adventures in Kenya, temporarily penniless in Marseille, supervised overnight by armed Iranians on Abu Musa island, and a fire-bomb attempt on the family’s Bahrain compound which added to life’s rich tapestry. But he must be one of the limited few who have arrived back from the rich Gulf States, landing at Heathrow, destitute and homeless, with a wife and two children barely in their teens. Now retired and living in Rugby with his wife and two cats, replacing the children who have flown the nest, he has self-published two thrillers, available from Amazon, The Dhow and The Irish Prime Minister. He is now trying to obtain an agent for his third manuscript and is currently working on editing his fourth thriller.
Here is a link to Desmond’s book The Dhow on Amazon.
Kate A Harris and her three siblings lived on their farm near Market Harborough. She left home at 16 to pursue her career with children. After training in the Morley Manor, Dr. Barnardo’s Home, in Derbyshire from 1966 to 1968, she qualified as a Nursery Nurse. Kate met and married her Royal Naval husband in Southsea when working in a children’s home. As a naval wife, she was in Malta for two years with her two sons when they were shutting the naval base. They have two sons and two grandchildren. She worked on the local newspaper and discovered a love of writing at 50! Now she is writing her story mainly featuring Barnardo’s. It’s a major challenge with intense and fascinating research. She’s had an incredible response from diverse and fascinating resources. Kate is interested in hearing from people who worked in Barnardo’s, mainly in the 1960s.
Cathy Hemsley has been writing short stories and full-length novels for over twelve years: inspired by her family history and by her child’s idea for a fantasy novel. Two of her stories have been published in The People’s Friend and she has completed a fantasy duology, The Gifts and The City, as well as a book of short stories, Parable Lives, all available on Amazon. She is now retired from paid work, working on another two novels, supporting a local church, growing organic vegetables, and is also helping local people as the Rugby advocate for the Acts435 charity.
Here is a link to Cathy’s author page on Amazon.
Jim Hicks was born and raised in Rugby. After leaving school, he studied computing at Imperial College, London and the University of Cambridge. He worked in the Computing Services department of the University of Warwick for nearly twenty-six years before being made redundant in 2011. His mother is a little surprised that he joined a writers’ group. He thought someone might want some help with the technical side of using a computer to prepare documents, and has remained ever since.
Geoff Hill is a Zimbabwean writer and journalist living in Johannesburg. He is chief Africa Correspondent for The Washington Times (DC) and maintains a second home in Rugby. In 2000, Geoff became the first non-American to receive a John Steinbeck award for his writing. He has authored two books on Zimbabwe and writes for The Spectator.
Geoff’s profile on Wikipedia.
John Howes was born and raised in Rugby. He was a journalist on local newspapers for 25 years before retraining as a teacher. He has self-published three books – We Believe, a collection of his writings on spirituality, a guide on how to teach poetry, and Driven, a collection of short stories and poems. He plays the piano and has written music for schools and choirs. John is working on a memoir and more poetry. He runs a book group and a lively theology group. He presents a Youtube Channel dedicated to the music of Elton John. Here is a link to John’s author page on Amazon.
Chloe Huntington started writing at the age of five or six and since then she hasn’t stopped. She has written short stories for school projects and essays for homework, but she has never published any of her works. She hopes that she can one day publish one (or more) of her stories and introduce the world to her world of fantasy, fiction and romance. Chloe lives with her Mum and her five chickens and wants to hopefully write a story from the point of view of a dog that she loves. What will Chloe write next?
Alicja Kulczak is a young aspiring author from Poland, currently living in Rugby. She writes stories about all things dark, real, and alternative; hoping to capture an audience who live for the supernatural and young-adult fantasies. Some of her shorter works try to capture the nature of humanity, and tell deep, meaningful stories through descriptive settings and interesting circumstances. Despite her love for Geography, hoping to study this subject at university, she also has a deep passion for Creative Writing—writing since she was 14. Currently, there’s a short-story anthology, and a novel brewing in the background, that she’s hoping to serve out in the near future.
Ruth Hughes was born in Sutton Coldfield but has lived in Rugby for 50 years. She says, “I think I have a book in me but so far I just enjoy writing poems and recollections of my life.” Ruth belongs to Murder 57, which enacts murder mysteries around the country, and to Rugby Operatic Society.
Theresa Le Flem, a novelist, artist and poet, always wanted to be a writer. She lives in the Midlands, in the UK, with her husband Graham, an electrical engineer. With four novels now published, and also an anthology of her poetry and drawings, her dream was first fulfilled when her first novel was accepted and published by Robert Hale Ltd. She never looked back. Born in London into an artistic family, daughter of the late artist Cyril Hamersma, she has three children and five grandchildren all who live abroad in America and New Zealand. Her creative life began by writing poetry, painting and later in running her own studio pottery in Cornwall. But she has had a succession of jobs too – from factory-work, antiques, retail sales, veterinary receptionist and sewing machinist to hairdressing. Over three years ago, Theresa formed a group of local writers, Rugby Café Writers, who meet fortnightly to talk about their work over a coffee. Writing remains her true passion. Married to a Guernsey man, Theresa shares a love of the sea with her husband and recently they have bought an almost derelict cottage in Guernsey. Gradually they are working to bring it back to life. Situated only a short walk to the sea, it might one day become the perfect writer’s retreat where a new novel might emerge out of the dust and cobwebs. Theresa is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Society of Authors and The Poetry Society. https://theresaleflem.wordpress.com
Here is a link to Theresa’s author page on Amazon.
Caroline Lucy. After being awarded the children’s book Cat’s Magic by Margaret Greaves at primary school for good behaviour, Caroline’s passion for reading was ignited. Failing miserably throughout school and her final English report upon leaving education reading “all too often fails to develop her ideas beyond the obvious”, she went into warehouse work. Following this she became a midwife, unhappily worked her way around different areas of the NHS and private health care and had two beautiful daughters and a granddaughter. Her passion for reading and writing never went away and, as a mature student, she went on to gain a First Class honours degree in English and Creative Writing. Her next step is to embark on an MA in Creative Writing. Caroline openly admits poetry ‘isn’t her thing’ and, for someone who can’t follow a film, enjoys screenwriting most of all.
A.A. Malik is an established writer published in a range of media. Initially a reluctant poet, her poetry can be found in anthologies and journals and explore the themes of spirituality and motherhood, as well as how ancestry, ethnicity and childhood experiences influence identity, with a focus on multi-sense belonging. When not writing, she can usually be found drinking (or spilling) tea, trying to decipher the hieroglyphs or sweeping legs in a dojo. More at www.aamalikauthor.com
Rosemary Marks has lived in Rugby all her life and has three children and three grandchildren. She has always been an avid reader and was lucky enough to work at Rugby Library for 23 years, a Bibliophile’s dream. She is now retired and enjoys travelling with her husband, writing, painting, researching her family history and spending time with friends and family.
Susan McCranor has lived in Rugby for forty-five years. She is married with four children and one grown up Grandson. She enjoyed writing stories to amuse her children when they were small and the children she taught. During lockdown, she wrote some short stories which were read by family and friends. Susan often composes rhymes to celebrate special occasions. Since retiring, she enjoys holidays and days out with her husband and has started a Book Club with friends and neighbours.
Madalyn Morgan was brought up in a pub in Lutterworth, where she has returned after living in London for thirty-six years. She had a hairdressing salon in Rugby before going to Drama College. Madalyn was an actress for thirty years, performing on television, in the West End and in Repertory Theatre. She has been a radio journalist and is now presenting classic rock on radio. She has written articles for music magazines, women’s magazines and newspapers. She now writes poems, short stories and novels. She has written ten novels – a wartime saga and a post war series. She is currently writing her memoir and a novel for Christmas 2023.
madalynmorgan.wordpress.com
Here is a link to Madalyn’s author page on Amazon.
Peter Maudsley was a member of Rugby Cafe Writers for several years and a good friend to many of us. Sadly, Peter passed away at the beginning of 2023. He is much missed.
Fran Neatherway grew up in a small village in the middle of Sussex. She studied History at the University of York and put her degree to good use by working in IT. Reading is an obsession – she reads six or seven books a week. Her favourites are crime, fantasy and science fiction. Fran has been writing for thirty-odd years, short stories at first. She has attended several writing classes and has a certificate in Creative Writing from Warwick University. She has completed three children’s novels, as yet unpublished, and is working on the first draft of an adult novel. Fran has red hair and lives in Rugby with her husband and no cats.
Read about Fran’s favourite books.
Bella Osborne has been jotting down stories as far back as she can remember but decided that 2013 would be the year she finished a full-length novel. Since then, she’s written five best-selling romantic comedies and been shortlisted three times for the RNA Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year Award. Bella’s stories are about friendship, love and coping with what life throws at you. She lives in the Midlands, UK with her husband, daughter and a cat who thinks she’s a dog. When not writing, Bella is usually eating biscuits and planning holidays. www.bellaosborne.com
Here is a link to Bella’s author page on Amazon.
Simon Parker grew up and lived on The Wirral until 1985. He arrived in Rugby in 2003 via Coventry, Bristol and Seattle. He’s an aerospace engineer by training, with a love of the open road whether by bicycle, motorcycle or car. His travels galvanise his writing and he writes fiction for pleasure. He lives with his wife, two teenage children and a small collection of interesting vehicles: ‘on the button’ and ready for their next adventure!
Born in Bedfordshire to a French mother and English father, Sandrine Pickering enjoyed a very varied childhood in Yorkshire, Rutland and Warwickshire, with school holidays in France. Upon leaving Rugby High School, she read Biological Sciences at both the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Aix-Marseilles as an Erasmus exchange student, and completed her teacher training at Cambridge University. She has worked in marketing, PR, educational publishing, event management, teaching and complementary therapies. She has always enjoyed writing, and now, as the mother of eight-year-old twins, she is exploring memoire and children’s story writing.
Steve Redshaw was born and raised in Sussex. Over the past forty years he has taught young children in the South of England and East Anglia. He has now retired and is living aboard his narrowboat, Miss Amelia, on the Oxford Canal near Rugby. His passion is music, singing and playing guitar, and various other plucked instruments, in pubs, folk clubs and sessions around the area. He also is a dance caller for Barn Dances and Ceilidhs. His creative output is perhaps best described as emergent and sporadic, but when time allows, he enjoys composing songs and writing short stories.
Read Steve’s blog about living on a narrowboat.
Read about Steve’s favourite books.
Chris Rowe. Just before covid, Chris tried to write poetry: lockdown gave the time to attempt different poetic forms, some of which appeared in Press Pause. From childhood, Chris has been interested in reading prose: such as Richmal Crompton (Just William), Alison Utley (Sam Pig), Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and Terry Pratchett.Shakespeare has always been a favourite and long ago the ambition was achieved of seeing a performance of every play: Antony and Cleopatra being the hardest to track down (all those scene changes deter production.). Favourite performers of the Bard are Oddsocks.
Jeremy Sadler-Scott was born in Norfolk, England however grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After spending fourteen years with the Corps of Royal Engineers, he settled in Germany before returning to the UK in 2007 and currently lives in Rugby, Warwickshire. Jeremy has been in the Self-Improvement and Spiritual Development space for more than thirty years as a coach and has also written an untold number of poems and lyrics under commission and, as a freelance journalist, has written numerous articles for online magazines with a Self Help and Law of Attraction theme. He wrote and independently published his first book in 2018, and his second book is also close to completion.
Linda Slate has lived in Rugby for 11 years. She has four children, 15 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She has worked as a teacher and a police officer, both jobs have given her inspiration for her writing. Along with swimming, writing has been a lifelong passion. She has not yet had a novel published, but hopes to have one ready to submit by the end of 2023.
Dean Speed was born in Telford. Seeking adventure and a break from his humdrum life, he pursued a military career in his early twenties. As he travelled the world, his interest in the arts deepened. Although he had always been a keen artist, dyslexia had held him back in his youth. By his mid-thirties, he decided to expand his creative pursuits to include writing, aiming to broaden his mind and enjoy crafting magical worlds. Now, he spends every possible moment reading, listening, and writing stories and poems. He is currently working on a fantasy novel for his children, hoping to inspire them to write. Dean lives in Rugby with his partner and three children, who already have extensive book collections.
Christopher Trezise was born and raised in Rugby and pursued a professional acting career on theatre stages culminating in work for Disneyland Paris. Christopher has held many jobs from kitchen assistant through to risk management consultant but he has always had a passion for writing. He runs several table-top roleplaying groups which he writes scenarios for and has self-published a fantasy book based upon one of those games.
Lindsay Woodward has had a lifelong passion for writing, starting off as a child when she used to write stories about the Fraggles of Fraggle Rock. Knowing there was nothing else she’d rather study, she did her degree in writing and has now turned her favourite hobby into a career. She writes from her home in Rugby, where she lives with her husband and cat. When she’s not writing, Lindsay runs a Marketing Agency, where she spends most of her time copywriting, so words really are her life. Her debut novel, Bird, was published in April 2016, and Lindsay’s 9th novel is due to be released in 2023.
Here is a link to Lindsay’s author page on Amazon.
Read about Lindsay’s favourite books.
Fiona White was brought up in St Andrew’s where summer jobs in local hotels gave her early writing material. Whilst enjoying writing as a teenager – especially poetry – she abandoned this creative side of herself for more than 25 years, building a successful career in business where she worked in both finance and sales.
Her re-engagement with writing has its roots in memoir but she is also interested in writing from a more historical perspective, encompassing her love for history and old ruins. Having moved around the UK in her work, Fiona is now settled in Rugby with her husband and dog. She does some non-executive director work and freelance coaching. She enjoys golf, swimming and walking with friends.
Chris Wright says the following:
My earliest memory is of my mother using flashcards
to teach me to read while still in my playpen
we lived in a flat at West Heath,
a Vimto only area of Birmingham,
so my poetry is restricted
to about fifty different words
usually including “hippopotamus”.
Buy Chris’s new book, Tomfoolery, here.
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Rugby Cafe Writers 