... Kevin, more about the BBC

As you can imagine there can be huge variances in the score. The setting for the get together so far has always been somebody's house. A great meal, washed down by excellent wines and lively discussions. As they used to say in school newsletters " a good time was had by all." The book is chosen by one of the group with no restrictions being placed - new, an old classic, something they've already read, poetry, fiction - we even had a graphic novel. Books in 2006 have included Small Island, V for Vendetta, Jane Eyre, Running with Scissors, Life of Pi, Regeneration & The Kite Runner to name but a few.

Why Billingsgate? No other reason then I thought it sounded good.
Billingsgate is an area of London (the city where I grew up) and is famous for its Fish Markets. Billingsgate was originally a general market for corn, coal, iron, wine, salt, pottery, fish and miscellaneous goods but became associated exclusively with the fish trade until the sixteenth century. In 1699 an Act of Parliament was passed making it 'a free and open market for all sorts of fish whatsoever'. The only exception to this was the sale of eels which was restricted to Dutch fishermen because they had helped feed the people of London during the Great Fire.

I digress. For Christmas we decided to have a special get together and it would be our turn to write. We each wrote a piece with the stipulation it had to contain the phrase 'Moroccan Cigarette Case', have something to do with Christmas and be around 1500 words. The stories were then given to other group members to read and we each had to guess who wrote what (a bit like the board game Balderdash) and also vote on which story we thought was the best. Henri's won the most favourite category and Leanne guessed 7 of the 11 authors! Overall the consensus was that the quality of stories was nothing short of fantastic. Most of us hadn't written since school.

Peruse & enjoy!

Kevin
Secretary General - BBC