Nottingham Writers' Club

Nottingham Writers Club is the place where writers help writers at twice-monthly meetings.

Second Saturday of the month at The Lord Roberts on Broad Street, from 12 noon to 4 pm. This is a social get together that includes reading out work for feedback. £2 per person.

Fourth Friday of the month at The Mechanics, North Sherwood Street, from 1 to 4.30 pm. Part reading for feedback, part mini workshops on a variety of writing subjects chosen by the members.
(No meeting in December, July or August.) Members £3, Visitors £5.

Occasionally, there may be events outside our control (such as heavy snow, major incidents that limit access and public transport) or at our venues that impacts meeting dates and times.

We will always post updates here and on our social media channels as soon as we know: Facebook and Bluesky. So please check there for any updates, or use our Contact Form below to ask if the meeting is going ahead in any of these circumstances.

Alternatively, you can give permission for us to add your email address to our contact list. We use this only for sending out information about our activities and never share personal information with third parties and you can opt out at any time.

Membership:

£18 per year

£20 per year for up to three people in the same family. (Must be 18 or over.)

Members receive regular newsletters by email in PDF format and can enter our quarterly prose and poetry competitions. If you’d like more details and/or a membership form, please use our Contact Email info(AT)nottinghamwritersclub.org.uk, or use our Contact Form below.

Our Centenary

Nottingham Writers’ Club is looking forward to adding this very special celebration to the writing history of our city.  These include a Writers’ Day in May 2027 and a history book documenting our first one hundred years.
(This list will be added to as events are arranged)

If you’d like to take part in any way, please let us know by using our Contact Email info(AT)nottinghamwritersclub.org.uk, or use our Contact Form below.

Nottingham Writers’ Club welcomes all writers.

Whether they’re just starting out or more experienced, and members are very happy to chat and share their insights about the subject we all love so much.

Get In Touch

Please get in touch. We would love to hear from you.

Our email address is info(AT)nottinghamwritersclub.org.uk.

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Alternatively, fill in the form below.

A Brief History

Nottingham has been a UNESCO City of Literature since December 2015 and it’s worth remembering that literature in all its forms has been an important part of local culture. It’s existed for many decades, and the Nottingham Writers’ Club has been a big part with its members’ published successes ranging from letters, articles and poetry right up to novels, TV programmes and films.

The Club was officially launched in 1927 when the Nottingham Writers’ Circle, as it was first known, needed more members. Their magazine, Scribe, (published since November 1933) reported on the 40th birthday,
‘Leslie Bicknell and friends met despondently in the Milton café on Long Row to decide whether to give up or carry on. Small ads were placed in the Evening Post and Guardian newspapers which attracted new members.

Thanks to the responses all those years ago, the Club still exists today.

The first recorded meetings were held in the Haddon Room of the Black Boy Hotel on Long Row which remained the Club’s venue into the next decade.

NWC has always had a wealth of speakers at their meetings. In October 1935 the author of the popular Saint novels (made into films and TV shows), Leslie Charteris, was the guest speaker. He started by saying ‘I’m a retired burglar’ and went on to talk about his other ‘jobs’ and his writing successes.
The author of the report in Scribe (known as Peeps, and a regular contributor) described him as ‘tall, slim, with an easy graceful walk, laughing eyes, a ready smile and an eyeglass’.

Godfrey Winn, then a young novelist, also visited around this time and his advice to Club members was ‘Keep on writing. Go out on every possible occasion and meet people. Study humanity.’ He also served as Vice President.

In 1937, the Club moved its meetings to The Elite building on Parliament Street. They were happy with their new room but disappointed that the Elite didn’t have a drinks licence.  Peeps cheered up when he was told in a whisper, ‘If you order it specially, they can get it in for you’.

The first speaker there was one of the founding members, the novelist, Ernest Ashley who wrote as Francis Vivian. He had 18 books published his first being Death at the Salutation in 1937.

They didn’t stay there for long (probably because of the drinks problem) and the next year moved to the Albert Hotel, Derby Road, where they met until the outbreak of World War II.

During the war years, the Club ‘ticked over’ and members met at the Friends’ Meeting House in Friar Lane. With the rationing of paper, ‘Scribe’ ceased production for the duration. After peace was declared, regular meetings resumed at The Adult Schoolroom. The first Scribe in 1945 was printed in the October which showed you can’t keep writers down for long.

NWC were in the Quaker building until 1960 and during that time the famous Alan Sillitoe became a member.  Alan won a short story competition with ‘Mountain Jungle’ and the adjudicator commented, ‘I have no criticism of it, as it came perfectly into my vision as I read, and I felt that it was something that had been imprinted on the author’s mind. The atmosphere has been caught perfectly.’

The story is recorded in the April 1951 edition of Scribe. Alan also wrote an article ‘Disaster at Menton’ (France) about a flood that caused a terrible hardship to the inhabitants of the town.

From January 1960, the Committee decided to move the meetings to The Bell Inn, Angel Row, where they would be assured of ‘more comfort and better facilities for enjoying refreshment in a Club atmosphere’. Scribe reports that ‘They were held in a room above a bar which appeared to be gents only, but which had to be gone through to ascend a flight of steps that passed as a staircase. Whenever the young, and most endowed, female members ascended those steps, lines of vision would be transferred to them from the best bitter’. (This was perhaps helped by the fact that short skirts were then the fashion!)

The next meeting place was St Luke’s House where the Club got together from 1966 to 1987. It was during this period that the NWC was asked if they’d like to have their own radio programme on Radio Nottingham. This was suggested by the then Programme Controller, Mr Robert McLeish and recorded on Tuesday mornings at York House. It ran for thirteen weeks but, when members were asked to continue, they decided to decline as compiling and editing contributions was so time-consuming.

After leaving St Luke’s House, the Club made the move to The Nottingham Mechanics, which is still their home, although they are now at the new building in North Sherwood Street rather than the old one in Trinity Square.

During this time, Peter Walker served for many years as President, only retiring because of ill health. Peter is best known for the Heartbeat Series on TV which were an adaption of his Constable novels (written as Nicholas Rhea), with the first series being broadcast in 1992.

One of the most famous (or, at the time, infamous) speakers to that room in Trinity Square was the politician, Edwina Curry. She visited in October 2002 just after her book A Parliamentary Affair was published, and unsurprisingly, she attracted a lot of attention from members, visitors and the press.

Many of the Club’s successful writers have left a legacy by having a trophy bearing their name to be awarded annually. Among these are Ena Young, Gwladys Bungay, Rosemary Robb and Dolly Sewell. Dolly was well-known to many local people for her tireless work for charity.

For ten years the Club also met at The Orange Tree pub opposite to The Mechanics building and became our Club at the Pub. When the building name was changed to The Playwright on Shakespeare Street it remained the ideal venue but, after changes to their function rooms, another move took place.

Now, we gather together at The Lord Roberts on Broad Street where their function room is bigger, much quieter and the perfect place for a Gathering of Writers.

From the beginning, NWC’s aim has always been to provide friendly co-operation among writers and to promote activities for their mutual interest and benefit. It continues to do this with encouragement and constructive feedback, while members entering the regular poetry and prose competitions benefit from the judges’ useful advice.