© Deal Writers 2012 Members 'I stept into Bedlame, where I saw several poore miserable creatures in chaines; one of them was mad with making verses.' John Evelyn - Diary, April 21 1657 Members 'Writers, like teeth, are divided into incisors and grinders.' Walter Bagehot  1826-77 Bob Le Vaillant's life changed dramatically some years ago after he and his wife adopted three children.  Having stopped work, Bob found  himself with some spare time while the children were at school, so decided to write about his experiences, first as a soldier and then as a  community social worker.  Bob joined the Army at 15 and travelled widely: Borneo and Singapore, Naples and to sea with the Royal Navy.  He  returned to the Far East, to South Korea and Hong Kong and he finished his service at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.  He describes his  Army experiences as 'Kiplinesque', and a clue to his writing style is that his favourite author is Leslie Thomas.  In 1982, Bob founded Stepney  Children's Fund at Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel and, when he left the Forces in 1986, set up and ran Toynbee's Children's Department.  His  work over the next two decades brought him into direct contact with thousands of Britain's most disaffected young people.  Bob and his family moved to Deal in 2005.  He has written three novels.  The first two are semi-autobiographical and the third is about the Deal bombing.  None are published and Bob feels that as all three are bound to upset or embarrass somebody, they are probably better used as a source for a series of short stories which he is currently producing and calling Motley Childhoods.  The series starts with his childhood leading up to entering a Children's Home in 1960 and then joining an Army Boys Regiment. Jane Clarke has been an archaeologist, a teacher, and a library assistant, but is now a full-time children's writer, with around twenty published books, plus poems in many children's anthologies, and reading scheme stories for Oxford Reading Tree and Collins Big Cats.  She's a member of the Society of Authors and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and she has an agent, Celia Catchpole.  Jane loves to visit primary schools to share her books and talk about being an author, and to run poetry and/or creative writing workshops for children. Jane didn't set out to be a writer - the writing bug crept up and bit her when she was busy doing other things.  She's lived in Mexico, Brazil and the USA, and spent 17 years in the Netherlands.  After her engineer husband Martin died suddenly, her old world fell apart, so Jane and her two sons came back to the UK in 2004.  Writing's given her a whole new life. When not busy writing or visiting schools, Jane can be found walking two Labradors and admiring the view, picking up shells, interesting stones (especially ones with holes in), fossils, and bits of ancient broken pot.  Her hobbies include washing her student sons' smelly laundry, and Scottish dancing - and sometimes she manages to do both at the same time. Visit Jane's website for more information: www.jane-clarke.co.uk Jen Kahawatte started a writers group at the age of 10 with her 9 year old friend Ruth and their pet dogs, Lily and Mickey.  Together they wrote poetry mainly influenced by Robert Louis Stevenson and Edward Lear. Born in North Kent, she moved to Dorset aged 4 where she received her schooling, then studied Philosophy at King's College, London.  She has had careers as a computer programmer/systems analyst and primary school teacher but is now retired. Jen collaborated, with Liz Barwick, in the writing of numerous pantomimes for Nonington Drama Group and had great fun performing in all of them.  She also choreographed the dance numbers, as dance is her main hobby. Having just completed a part-time MA in creative writing at the University of Kent, she is wondering what to do next with no deadlines or feedback to concentrate the mind.  Apart from the school magazine, she has not submitted any work to be published, so that could be the next move if she can overcome her fear of rejection. Jane Findley is married with three daughters and one granddaughter and lives in Deal.  She admits to being closer to 60 than 50 and works as a specialist teacher in the Dover area providing support to schools for their pupils with behavioural and emotional problems. Jane has been writing purely for enjoyment for many years.  She enjoys writing both poetry and prose.  She had a short story published in Best woman's magazine some years ago, won a highly commended prize in the Deal Festival of Poetry a couple of years ago and has had some 60- word stories published in a local magazine.  Jane admits to being very lazy about submitting work for competitions or publications.  She finds it hard to write without the back-up of some discussion with friends and she meets informally most weeks with a group of poetry-writers in Deal who set themselves writing tasks and critique one another's work.  They call themselves the Bellyfuls due to the amount of laughing they do and the vast quantities of chocolate biscuits consumed - all of which is necessary to the creative process! Lorraine Lloyd has lived in Deal for over 20 years, but was born and raised in Pembrokeshire.  She loves Deal, but returns home often with her husband, to see family and reconnect with the landscape, which she finds inspiring -- and very photogenic.  When not working, she likes to write in all sorts of genres, and particularly enjoys taking part in the Deal Writers' 'challenges', which are fun, and great for creativity.  She is currently writing a novel with a friend from Wales, which has been developed over several years.  It's taking a loonnggg time, but she's determined they'll get there in the end. Ros Beresford.  Most developed and refined talent:  Panic. I would be a serious writer, but sadly I laugh too much.  This is always a drawback in literary circles where eloquence, misinterpreted as elephants, is never appreciated.  I remember once being terribly offended when a pupil in a school was castigated for being a bastard.  I wanted to complain to the Head, but she was knitting and hadn't cast everything off, quite.  Luckily I didn't complain, since the term used had actually been illiterate.  It is true, reading or the lack of it, can determine your whole future.  I remember that little boy now, struggling.  Yes I recall him throwing sharpened pencils like missiles, and tripping people up.  Actually he was a little bastard. It's a terrible thing not being a literary genius.  The wordsmith's life is such a solitary and chocolate stuffing one.  Driving the poor hapless reader to drink wine and eat crisps.  Being creative is a vintage all of its own and mine is so mature now, it's probably an illegally high percentage.  Ah such is life!  We writers just have to plod along being as original as the original original, that was probably copied.  But the main thing is, to have lots of fun doing it! Currently involved in editorial work with www.Artconnexions.com Jo Field moved from London to Walmer in 2002.  In spite of a naval upbringing it had never occurred to her that she might end up by the sea, but now she'd find it hard to live anywhere else. In London she worked from time to time as: joke-seller, interviewer on government surveys, mother, fancy- dress hirer, bus- and train-passenger checker, teacher of Basic Education to adults and to small children; and at other jobs of such importance that they are long forgotten. Since moving to East Kent, she has begun to take her writing more 'seriously', churning out poetry and short stories, some of which have proved moderately successful in various magazines and competitions. Being in possession (more or less) of a butterfly brain, she's unlikely ever to write a novel, which is no loss to the world. Ron Ogilvie is a Scot who has lived in Deal since 1990.  He joined Deal Writers only in 2008 and wishes he'd joined sooner.  He claims he writes 'poems' and he has been pleased at the welcome the group have given him and his work.  Ron is a husband and father and still pretends to work! Gary Studley originates from Hastings and amongst other occupations has worked as a barman, muralist, caretaker, set-decorator, and factory packer. He studied both Fine Art and Creative Writing in England and America, and now lives and teaches in Kent. A member of two writers' groups - Luigi Marchini's Canterbury based Save As, and Deal Writers - Gary is very pro-active across the local writing community. He created the loose affiliation CornerStone Writers, and led their 22-poet performance at the Earthworks Conference 2008. He also regularly collaborates with Luigi and www.canterburypoets.co.uk's Christopher Hobday in running the popular monthly poetry evenings at Orange Street Music Club, Canterbury. Writing both poetry and prose, Gary has been published in Conversation Poetry Quarterly (online) and in the collections Logos, Night Train and Statement for the Prosecution (the latter in support of Amnesty International). He features in the anthologies Another View from the Pier and Between The Lines (see Publications page). With his colleagues he also leads workshops in venues and libraries across East Kent. Gary was shortlisted for the Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2008 and won UKC's TS Eliot Prize 2007.  He enjoys performing at London's Poetry Café and across Sussex and Kent, either as an individual or alongside Christopher and Luigi from their poetry collection, Stubborn Mule Orchestra. He performed at, and compèred, the trio's triumphant headline performance, Words and Beats, as part of Canterbury Festival 2008. For further news of publications and events, contact Gary c/o stubbornmuleorchestra@hotmail.co.uk Marilyn Donovan is from Merseyside.  After a degree in English Language she spent eighteen months working in hotel management before deciding it was time to opt for a marginally better paid career.  Twenty five years in various academic and public libraries and studying for an MBA followed, interspersed with a break of several years to bring up two sons.  Her last six years of 'conventional' employment, as Policy Officer to Kent Libraries and Archives, were spent working on reports, briefings and plans.  This proved excellent training in the discipline of writing but was frustrating.  Life became a round of rushing in from work after the commute home, head buzzing with words and phrases, to bolt down dinner and tumble into her 'office' to transfer them from brain to computer. Early retirement was offered and, with some trepidation, accepted.  Since then Marilyn's poetry has been published in such magazines as Orbis, The Interpreter's House, ARTEMISpoetry, Equinox and South.  She was shortlisted in Mslexia's Seven Deadly Sins challenge and in Second Light's 2007 poetry competition.  One of her poems will appear in the forthcoming In the Telling anthology (Cinnamon Press).  Recently she has tried writing short fiction, which she finds challenging.  She has also produced first drafts of two novels and finds techniques such as project planning and mind-mapping useful in ordering the mass of ideas generated.  She is now working on the second draft of one of her novels with the help of a literary mentor. More members to be added . . .