That’s the write idea
Literary groups are now all the rage in retirement homes, says Fred Redwood
NOTHING quite beats the written word. Which helps explain why just about every retirement village now boasts a writing group of some kind or another. Some residents are extremely well-read; others pen poetry; many have recounted their lives in autobiographies.
Joyce Horlock, 92, who runs a group in Renaissance Retirement’s development in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, has written a memoir: Suet To Soufflé.
The title sums up her life, from her Thirties ‘suet’ childhood in the family’s grocer shop in Battersea High Street, London, to her ‘soufflé’ days of high living after she married Len, the vicepresident of an American bank.
The story includes tales of being evacuated to the countryside in World War II, and the time she met Clark Gable. She found reliving her long marriage therapeutic.
‘When I started writing I had just been widowed and felt miserable,’ she says. ‘Writing helped me come to terms with bereavement.’
According to creative writing expert and author Gillie Bolton, writers benefit from putting their thoughts down on paper.
‘When we get down a first draft, nobody sees our words, so we are being completely honest. Then we polish them and move towards a better understanding of ourselves,’ she explains.
Members of the poetry group at Anchor’s Bishopstoke Park, Hampshire, share such sentiments. The group seeks inspiration from poets such as Keats, Larkin and Drinkwater, and from haikus — Zen Buddhist verse forms. The group is largely run by their own published poet, Gillian Webb, 84.
Literary groups vary from the ambitiously high- brow to the unrepentently low-brow.
Anna Newton, 87, runs a poetry group of six members at Audley’s new Inglewood development in Berkshire. A Christian, who sees poetry as ‘a way into spirituality’, Newton’s latest project is a verse diary to mark each stage of the liturgical year.
Mike Lemmon, 72, by contrast has a rough and ready approach. His group at Grove Place, Hampshire, brings out a newsletter including poems and stories.
Members also put on entertainment evenings to audiences of about 60 in the coffee lounge. They have even brought out a CD — The Ballad Of Grove Place Village.
The purpose of any club is to meet like-minded people. Retired health visitor Maureen Rowland, 79, a mainstay of the literary group at Cognatum’s retirement building in Odiham, Hampshire, believes reading and discussing poetry is an ideal way to get to know people better. ‘Sharing knowledge fosters companionship,’ she says.
Steph Bullett, the estates manager at McCarthy & Stone’s development in Bury St Edmunds is a firm believer in meetings being held in a convivial atmosphere. ‘It’s a chance to socialise and enjoy a glass of wine,’ she says.
Meanwhile, book-lovers abound at Wadswick Green, Wiltshire, where there are two book groups.
‘This is the time when we reflect and take stock,’ says Gillie Bolton. ‘We have to face bereavement, loneliness and our own failing health. Writing is a way of coming to terms with these things.’
SEE renaissancegroup.co.uk; anchor.org.uk; audleyretirement.co.uk; lifecareresidences.co.uk; cognatum.co.uk; mccarthy andstone.co.uk, and wadswickgreen.co.uk.