HARROGATE WRITERS CIRCLE IS BORN.

On the 24th of March 1951 a paragraph in the Jottings column of the Harrogate Advertiser carried a suggestion for the formation of a Writers’ Circle in Harrogate. The column was written by H.M. Walker ,Chief Editor of the Advertiser and affectionately known as Lal to his many friends. The request came from Miss M.A. Hall, a former member of the Scarborough Circle together with a colleague, Mr D.S. Turner of Burn Bridge. A prelimimary meeting of interested people was arranged in the Muckles Vaults, a pub in West Pasrk, later known as Scruffy Murphy’s. Daisy Dennison, a junior reporter on the Advertiser was there and payed her first subscription of ten shillings and sixpence. Fifty years later Daisy, by this time President of the Circle, made a speech at a celebratory dinner on the history of the Circle on which this text is based. The first official meeting was in Church House, Victoria Avenue when fifteen people turned up. Officers were elected on April 27th and meetings were arranged for alternate Fridays. The first Chairman was Nick Langran, a former member of the Bristol Circle, Doug Turner was Secretary and Miss Hall Treasurer and so the Circle ,which was to produce so many successfully published writers,playwrights and broadcasters was born.