The writing talents of Market Drayton residents have been brought together in a new book which has just been published.
Drayton Voices is a collection of poems, short stories and essays collected by the Drayton Writers’ Group whose members meet monthly at the town’s museum in Shropshire Street.
The book was produced over the last nine months and various aspects of Market Drayton are covered, including Tyrley Locks, Blore Heath and a travelling animal exhibition that visited the town in 1889.
Writers’ group chairman Mary Williams said: “Last year, one of our members had the bright idea of applying for a council grant so we could involve more people from the community and publish some of their work.
“The book was an attempt to encourage older and housebound people in Market Drayton to write and also involve people from villages around the town. We feared that we would struggle to get contributions, but we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of material we eventually received.
“However, they were of a very varied standard and we had to do a lot of editing and a lot of work to get the book ready.”
The oldest contributor to the book was 95-year-old Mary Houseman who wrote about her memories of moving to Market Drayton in 1958.
She also recalled the storm in 1981 which badly damaged the town’s Methodist Church in Shrewsbury Road and led to the current church being built in 1985.
Mary Williams said: “The book is going quite well as we’ve sold about 100 copies and people are buying them for family and friends who live away from Market Drayton.
“There’s a lot of talent in the area and people keep saying they’d like more copies, so presumably there’s something in the book they liked reading.
“We’ve had a lot of good feedback which is nice and we’d like to do another anthology in the future, but with contributions from the 18-26 age range as it would be good to have younger voices as well.”
Drayton Voices costs £6 and is available from the town library or by contacting Mary on 01630 657055.
By Winston Brown