Here are some of our most recent news items.
February 2025
We had our first meeting at our new venue – Art at the Alex – in James Street, Rugby. This is a lovely venue devoted to creative arts and artists in the Rugby area, including painting, crafts, music and writing. We are very pleased to have secured space there for our fortnightly meetings.
Our first meeting in February was on the subject of love and romance, and our second meeting on Delights (inspired by a JB Priestley book of the same name). We also discussed forthcoming festivals where we will be selling our books.
Our current publishing project is Life Stories, a collection of short autobiographies by local people. These should be about 3,000 words in length and we hope to publish them together in the Spring. If you would like to take part, please contact us.
January 2025
Our first meeting of the new year had autobiography as its theme and members were invited to read out a piece of memoir describing an incident in their lives. The next meeting was a fiction challenge relating to an antique object.
Preparations are underway for our next book project. The working title is Life Stories and the aim is to publish a selection of 3,000-word short autobiographies of members of the group, or indeed any friends who would like to be involved. The initial deadline for contributions is the end of February.
December 2024
We held our Christmas Party in December, with members drawing a festive word from the hat and challenged to write a short story containing that word. We then voted for our favourites and the winner of the prize was Martin C. We also listened to some Christmas songs and had a book quiz organised by Fran.
October 2024
We held An Evening With The Rugby Cafe Writers at St Andrew’s Church, Rugby on Friday October 18th. Between 70 and 80 people attended. Members of the group read poems, stories and sang songs. We also had a bookstall featuring our own titles. The event was part of the Rugby Literary Festival. We had a stall at the book fair at the Rugby Hotel on Saturday and Sunday, October 19th and 20th, and members of our group took part in giving talks and workshops at the festival.
We exhibited at the Southam Book Festival, sold plenty of our anthologies and made some new friends. Another excellent event.
September 2024
We published our seventh anthology, Dive Into A Poem, featuring the work of 33 members from the Rugby area. We will be selling it at festivals and events throughout the Autumn, including the Rugby Literary Festival, Southam Book Festival, Coventry Book Extravaganza and the Percival Guildhouse Christmas Fair.
August 2024
The topic for our August 30th meeting was happy poetry. Many of our poems deal with serious subjects, so it was an interesting challenge to write something about happiness. As many of the contributions were short, we had time for a general chat – and the correct way to use punctuation came up again. We still managed to part as friends though!
The Writers are planning an evening of readings on Friday October 18th as part of the forthcoming Rugby Literary Festival. There will be short stories, poetry, memoir and some musical contributions at the event at St Andrew’s Church, Rugby. More details soon!
The theme of our meeting on August 16th was locations. We discussed how much information to include in our stories, without them getting too bogged down with detail. We then had readings from 16 members present, including descriptions of Wells-next-the-sea, Jerusalem, Eastbourne and Christmas Island.
Our meeting on August 2nd have a spooky theme. Members were invited to write a short ghost story. We had 17 contributions including Polly’s Dolly, The Old Man, Big Dipper and Cinders. One of them was a true story!
We have so far sold 576 copies of our anthologies and are looking forward to a busy Autumn festival season. Look out for us at one of the venues.
July 2024
Our next anthology is being prepared. It will be a collection of poetry and will run to about 200 pages. We have 33 contributors so far and we aim to publish the book in readiness for the Autumn festival season. Watch this space for more details!
Bella Osborne’s new book Finding Love At Sunset Shore is published in ebook, paperback and audio. Congratulations, Bella. To buy a copy, go here.
Rugby Cafe Writers took part in the monthly Saturday Songs event at St Andrew’s Church, Rugby. Fran, Dot and Chris read from our books and sold our anthologies from our stall. Steve’s band The Scutters entertained everyone with folk and pop songs.
The themes for our July meetings were writing poetry, and a piece of writing inspired by a small object.
Cafe Writer John Howes publishes Driven, a collection of his own short stories, poems and essays. It’s available from Amazon for £5.
June 2024
Theresa Le Flem, founder of the Rugby Cafe Writers and now based in Guernsey, has published her new book, A Sea Of Barbed Wire. It tells the dramatic story of a family living in occupied Guernsey during the Second World War. Visit her website for more information.
May 2024
Rugby Cafe Writer Geoff Hill has a piece published in the Washington Times about South African politics.
April 2024
Cafe Writer Chloe Huntington launches a book review channel on Youtube.
Sales of our anthologies pass the 500 mark! We now have six books available to the public. Our four A Story For… books can now be bought as a set for £18 and we make our first sale.
One of our April meetings is devoted to punctuation. Members get very animated on this controversial subject but we all part as friends!
March 2024
Work begins on the next Rugby Cafe Writers’ anthology. This time it’s going to be a book of poetry on any theme. Submissions are now open.
Copies of our new book, A Story For Every Day Of Spring, arrive at Cafe Writers’ headquarters and early indications are there is plenty of interest from our discerning and loyal readers!
Cafe Writer Wendy Goulstone has her play, On The Train, staged at Rugby Theatre. Wendy is also directing a production of an Alan Bennett play at the theatre.
Rugby Cafe Writers have a change of venue for their meeting – using the excellent Art at the Alex in Rugby town centre.
February 2024
The Cafe Writers publish A Story For Every Day of Spring which is now available from Amazon and from the writers themselves.
Rugby Cafe Writer Theresa Le Flem publishes A Sea of Barbed Wire set in Guernsey during the Second World War.
January 2024
Our first meeting of the new year was well attended with 18 people present. The Writing Challenge was on the theme of discrimination. Submissions are invited for our next anthology, A Story For Every Day Of Spring, which is currently being produced.
December 2023
Members held their Christmas Party at the Bacco Lounge, Rugby. After a book-themed quiz, we all read out our Christmas stories which had to include the words Christmas, surprise and visitor and to run to no more than 250 words. Members sent in their votes afterwards.
The Cafe Writers took part in the Christmas Saturday Songs Festival at St Andrew’s Church, Rugby on December 9th. Members did readings from our new book, A Story For Every Day Of Winter and sold the book on our own stall.
November 2023
Cafe Writer members Madalyn Morgan and Bella Osborne have been taking part in a fundraising Children in Read event to support the Children in Need Appeal.
Look out for our stall at the Percival Guildhouse Christmas Fair on Saturday November 18th in Rugby (next to the library). We hope to be selling our new anthology, A Story For Every Day Of Winter.
October 2023
Bella Osborne’s new book, The Perfect Christmas Village, has now been published. She already has 47 reviews on Amazon. The book is available from Tesco stores, among others.
Helen had her poem highly commended and published in Black in White poetry competition book. Congratulations Helen!
September 2023
Rugby Cafe Writers’ members had a stall at the Southam Book Festival and we enjoyed a record day of sales at this popular event.
We staged an evening event at St Andrew’s Church, Rugby called Voices of Autumn featuring poetry and story readings plus musical performances. About 50 people attended this launch of our latest anthology, A Story For Every Day Of Autumn.
August 2023
Madalyn Morgan’s seventh novel, Confessions, has now been published as an eBook and with a new cover as a paperback.
Cathy Hemsley, a member of the Rugby Cafe Writers, has published her second book. It’s called The City and is now available from Amazon. It is a sequel to The Gifts.
Chris Wright, a member of the Rugby Cafe Writers, has published his own book, Tomfoolery. It’s an anthology of his poetry and short stories. Buy a copy on this link.
An eBook version of A Story For Every Day of Autumn has been added to our bookshop on Amazon. This retails for £1.99, compared with the paperback version at £6. More details here.
Our new anthology, A Story For Every Day of Autumn, is published. This features the work of 27 members of Rugby Cafe Writers. It is available to buy on Amazon for £6. This is the second book in our series of “A Story For…” One will cover each of the seasons.
The Rugby Cafe Writers have announced plans for an evening of stories, poetry and songs called Voices of Autumn. The event takes place at St Andrew’s Church, Rugby on Friday September 29th at 7.30pm. Make a date in your diary. Tickets will be £3 on the door and there will be a bar and bookstall.
Rugby Cafe Writer member David G Bailey has published his new book, Them Feltwell Boys. Congratulations to David. Read more here.
Rugby Cafe Writer member Geoff Hill has had an article published in The Spectator about his love of snakes. It’s a great read. Here is a link.
July 2023
Lindsay Woodward, a member of the Rugby Cafe Writers for many years, has had another novel published. Congratulations. It’s called The Cat’s Eyes and you can buy a copy here.
Madalyn Morgan, one of the founder members of Rugby Cafe Writers, has had a whole series of books re-published by Storm Publishing – with fantastic new covers! It’s definitely a series worth reading. Find out how to buy the books here.
Bella Osborne’s new book, An Invitation To Seashell Bay, has now been published and you may come across it in your local supermarket. Here’s a video of Bella’s exciting unboxing of the first copies of her new book. What a feeling! The book is out as an ebook, audiobook and paperback.
June 2023
The Rugby Cafe Writers will be taking part in the South Warwickshire Literary Festival in September. We will be having a bookstall selling books written by members of the group, including our three published anthologies. More details about the festival, in Harbury, here.
Rugby Cafe Writer Kate A Harris had an article published in the Rugby Advertiser reviewing the BBC Gardeners’ World event at the NEC. Kate rubbed shoulders with celebrities at the event. You can read her article here.
Rugby Cafe Writers 