A brief history of WEY POETS
Guildford and Wey Poets, an offshoot of the Poetry Society, started before the Second World War. Minutes in 1944 refer to Festive Teas at the Hogsback Hotel, while those in 1952 show it was dominated by William Kean-Seymour and his wife, Rosalind Wade MBE, both acclaimed novelists and poets. It appears formal and pretty daunting.
It became more inclusive in 1974. I joined Guildford and Wey Poets in 1979 finding a large, vibrant, and welcoming group. Susan James, then secretary, introduced herself as an eccentric who smoked a pipe and wrote comic poetry. The format, as now, was two meetings a month, a workshop and a discussion or visiting poet. We had Xmas shows. I played Goldiella in the pantomime of that name, Margaret and Joan Pain were the Beautiful Sisters. Margaret became chairman. Joan wrote humorous poems e.g. ‘Fatties of the World Unite’.
When Susan resigned and I became secretary I began a national competition with attractive prizes. We used the profits to finance visiting poets, such as Irina Ratushinskaya, Wendy Cope and future poets laureate, Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage. Judges, distinguished poets including Hugo Williams and Carol Rumens, were expected to attend a meeting and discuss reasons for their choices. I took the visiting poets for a meal before the reading. Irina described various Russian rice recipes, Dannie Abse generously insisted on going to MacDonalds to save us money, John Heath Stubbs’ watch shouted the time every 15 minutes. He movingly recited his poems as, being blind, he could not read them.
Weyfarers magazine, founded in 1972 was a national magazine with an excellent reputation attracting contributors and subscribers from all over the UK and abroad. Edited by a panel of four, it consisted of poems and a Reviews Section, which I edited for many years. It was separate from Wey Poets as was Guildford Poets Press, which published members’ collections, both administered by Jeffery Wheatley, also Vice Chairman. Among those who brought out collections was Paddy Stevens. He wrote wryly, with titles such as ‘I am a Man Riding a Principle.’ It was astonishing to see a full page obituary in the Daily Telegraph in 1998 showing a photo of him on the beach at the D-Day Landings; a war hero, awarded the MC. He had dismissed his military career as ‘of no interest.’
I resigned in the 1990s after 13 highly enjoyable years, handing over to Pat Earnshaw. followed by Martin Jones. Belinda Singleton, chairman from 2010 to 2020, introduced a link in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. She also introduced Wey Poets to named readings at London sites in Camden and Bloomsbury, raising funds for the homeless. She set up a new series of Wey Poets Anthologies featuring individual style and strengths . The first, Ripples, was published in 2016, the fourth, Horizons, coincides with our 50th Anniversary Year. Locally Belinda established a link with the Guildford Book Festival with a promotion of Wey Poets’ poems on display in Guildford Library.