Tuesday 1 May 2018

Angel Writers Reading List


In 2013 when I decided to start a blog I spent several months deciding how I could conceivably keep going about every two weeks for at least five years. Eventually I came up with the idea of using the short stories I had written in the 1990s as a springboard for ideas for each month of the year. The idea developed into a story itself which revolved around a year in the life of the Angel Writers Group. These are the themes for each month of the year as dictated by the work of my imaginary group.

January’s story is ‘Consumed’ and its themes are music and solitude.
The February story is ‘Lucy’s Lucky Dress’ with the themes of romance and poetry.
March is ‘Duchess Doom’ concerned with technology and games.
April is ‘The Gathering’ and its themes are family and parenthood.
May’s story is called ‘Deja Vu’ and has the themes of groups and inspiration.
June’s themes are nature and seasons for the story ‘Living Rooms’.
July is ‘Image Makers’ and its themes education and travel.
August’s story is the ‘Institute of New Food’ with its themes of work and identity.
September’s story is ‘The Creature’ with the themes of childhood and spirituality.
October’s themes are retirement and pastimes and its story ‘The Number 13 to Gravesend’.
November’s story is 'Urusla’s pets' which has the themes of animals and fairytales.
December’s story is ‘The Need Fairy’ and its themes dreams and space.

As well as writing their own material the group also read the work of other, well known authors. This is the list of stories the group read over the course of one year and one month, they are spooky tales of the supernatural.

      1. The bus conductor by EF Benson
2. The bloody chamber by Angela Carter
3. The listeners by Walter de la Mare
4. The veldt by Ray Bradbury
5. Disturbances in Angier Street by JS Le Fanu
6. The man whom the trees loved by Algernon Blackwood
7. The fall of the house of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
8. The ghouls by R Chetwynd Hayes
9. Number 13 by MR Jam
      10. Dracula’s guest by Bram Stoke 
      11. The blue lenses by Daphne Du Maurier.
      12. The signalman by Charles Dickens 
      13. The Little Matchgirl by Hans Christian Anderson

The beginnings of the group and their ideas can be found in my story ‘The Angel’s Retreat'.

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