We were very sad to hear of the death of Margot Aked, our honorary president and founder, on 10th June, only six days after celebrating her 90th birthday with her family.

Margot was active in Strathkelvin Writers’ Group until just a few years ago when failing health led to her inability to attend and ultimately to having to leave her beloved long-time home and stunning garden and be looked after at Lillyburn Care Home in Kirkintilloch.

One of several women who, together, founded the group in 1982, Margot was a tremendous force for good. She was a gentlewoman with the warmest smile and she was abundant, attentive and thoughtful in her support of scores of writers over the years. She was firm in her ideas about the organisation of the group. She was firm in her determination to make incomers feel immediately embraced and gathered into the fold. And as a professional editor, she was firm in her views about the standards for which we should strive in our written work. Margot was a true role model and we will miss her very much.

Our thoughts are with her daughters, her wider family and her friends and acquaintances. Margot engaged with wide and varied pursuits throughout her life and particularly with art and writing. It is certain that she left her mark on many, many people along with countless wonderful memories to treasure.

40 words

We invited our members to write a 40-word piece each for this little booklet. Every member was presented with a copy at our 40^th anniversary celebration and we posted 1 40-word piece a day for 40 days from 4 May 2022 until 12 June on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.

In this, our special 40th anniversary year, we have been lucky enough to add three new trophies to our collection. They are the Theresa O’Hare Poetry Prize, the Ruby Rose Bowl, which will be awarded for a different category each year and the Eddie Mail prize for non-fiction.

Along with our Strathkelvin trophy (awarded to the writer with the highest accumulated points total), the Margaret Thompson Davis trophy (for a different category each year) and the Greg Gillen trophy (for a Science Fiction/Horror/Fantasy story), these bring our complement to six.

You can see the results from our latest two competitions below. It was really encouraging to see so many entries for both of these. Thank you to the adjudicators and well done to the entrants for giving us such great writing. We only have one competition left to adjudicate now – our General Short Story.

Competition – Sketch

Adjudicator – Chris Ravenhall

First – Pat Feehan
Second – Andy Raffan
Third – Sharon Mail
Highly Commended – Sam Oakley
Commended – Diane McKee

Competition – Greg Gillen – Sci-fi, Horror, Fantasy, Ghost

Adjudicator – Pat Feehan

First – Sam Oakley
Second – Matthew Keeley
Third – Myra Pater
Highly Commended – John Dickson
Commended – Steve O’Brien

We can now share the results of our fourth group competition for this year. It was great to see so many at the adjudication session. Many thanks to John Dickson who did an excellent job of adjudicating and gave us plenty to think about. Well done to the 11 entrants and Congratulations to those placed! Your pieces were all so engaging and inspiring.

Competition – Travel Writing

Adjudicator – John Dickson

First – Matthew Keeley
Second – Andy Raffan
Third – Ann MacLaren
Highly Commended – Steve O’Brien
Commended – Carolyn Mandache

Our season is now well under way, and we have had some excellent workshops. We have also had the results of our first three competitions to which there has been a great response. Our thanks go to all those who entered and to our excellent adjudicators. The results are as follows:

Competition – Flash Fiction

Adjudicator – Sharon Mail

First – Pat Feehan

Second – Steve O’Brien

Third – Paula Andrews

Highly Commended – Liz Heron

Commended – Maggie Powell, Sharon Bairden, Carolyn Mandache

Competition – Poetry

Adjudicator – Leela Soma

First – Matthew Keeley

Second – Julie McNeill

Third – Andy Raffan

Commended – Ann MacLaren, Liz Carey, Ann Mackinnon, Adrienne Whitehall, David Ross, Myra Pater.

Competition – Novel

Adjudicator – Sharon Bairden

First – Allan Gaw
Second – Sharon Mail
Third – Paula Andrews
Highly Commended – Pat Feehan
Commended – Sam Oakley, Ann MacLaren

We are heartbroken to announce that our wonderful member, Theresa O’Hare, passed away on Thursday 11 November after a recent illness. She was with her family in Edinburgh at the time of her death.

Only a few weeks ago, she was participating in our sessions with the same passion and insight as always and it’s hard to believe we will no longer see her at our meetings. We don’t doubt, however, that she will be watching over us and keeping tabs on what we are discussing, reading, writing and performing! Perhaps she will even be doing her own adjudicating and encouraging us to get our work out there!

Our thoughts are with Theresa’s family at this very difficult time for them. It was always very apparent how much Theresa’s family meant to her and it came through often in her writing. She made us smile many times with her memories and beautiful words encapsulating what it meant to be a mum, a grandmother and going back further, a wife and a daughter. And she made us sit up and listen when she talked about and read her work on so many other issues.

Theresa had a very big place in our hearts. She was a hugely valued member of Strathkelvin Writers’ Group not only because she gave everyone such kind encouragement but because of her interest in everyone, her generosity and her absolute humanity. There will be a lot of sadness at her passing but also lots of thanksgiving for such a wonderful person.