Writers Unchained

They’ve had to put up with a lot – the women of Bristol.

Bristol Women Writers have had to put up with quite a lot of me down the years – stories from me. Stories from me told with a triangle or a bottle of cider. And now this...cast as slaves!

Writers Unchained is the Bristol Women Writers’ tag and they are a hugely successful writing group with books galore published by their members. Every few months, they host a night of themed stories at the SouthBank Club in Bedminster. It’s a lovely night and a good stage for stories told by a blend of members and non-members alike.

If you’re thinking it’s only for women – think again. Not the readers, not the audience, not the stories. You can sign up for a newsletter here and submit for the next event in the Spring 2020. Do it, you’ll enjoy it – possibly as much as I did last Sunday for Tales of Our City, part of the Bristol Festival of Literature. Their set-list flyers are simply the best too.

What a brilliant mix of stories that made me smile and melt and be moved in turn – ghosts, lions and onion rings alike. I was a little jumbled up by the amazing poetry of Lucy English too – it had quite an impact. Rhythmic and poignant…the view from a hill.

And I fulfilled an ambition with a story that cast my local MP, Banksy and all of Bristol Women Writers in an epic tale of resistance against the might of the Roman army. It was called…wait for it…’Writers Unchained.’

All I’m going to say is this:

A fermented apple drink loved by the slaves of Bristoleum was relevant;
Street art lives on…but its origins are centuries old;
The Writers Unchained played their part in the story and on the night – slaves in name only, they saved many lives and I am grateful;
Veni Vidi Banksi