Rushmoor Writers is the second-oldest writers’ group in the UK. It began on 1 November 1950 as the Farnborough and District Writers. When I joined at the beginning of 1989, it was the Farnborough, Fleet and District Writers’ Circle, before later changing its name to the present one. The group was coming up to its twelfth birthday when The Writer began a series, “Round the Writers’ Circles”, with a look at Farnborough in its September 1962 issue.

Philip Green’s piece shows that the basis structure of meetings was much the same as it was when I joined 27 years later, with an emphasis on pieces being read aloud. That’s still the case now, though with advances in technology we now meet virtually and screen-share manuscripts as we read them.

While no one mentioned in this article was still in the group when I joined, I did know their names. Founder member Yolande Bamford, who had passed away by 1962, gave her name to a pewter rosebowl we awarded as the first prize in the Bamford Memorial Competition. That was open to members of writers’ groups nationally and we ran the competition until the 1990s. Gladys Fulbrook, who had a successful career as a romantic novelist (her books are often available at used-book sites), bequeathed a trophy to the group for an annual competition for members for a story involving travel. She had travelled widely in her lifetime, using the places she visited in her work, and the competition alternated between romance and crime stories.

Back in 1962, you could have had all of this and more for the sum of ten shillings a year, which is £9.64 in 2026 money.

Gary Couzens, Chair of Rushmoor Writers