New members
Sheila Janet Skinner
Sheila was born in 1944 and raised in Paddington, where she attended Catholic primary and grammar schools, leaving just before her 16th birthday with 4 GCE "O" levels. Amongst them were English literature and language. And with those, a lifelong love of reading and books.
She has lived in Spain for 32 years and a dozen years back started creative writing classes, and is a member of Vall del Pop's U3A and Jalon Valley's writing group. Sheila says she enjoys the scribblings, but still finds self-editing and discipline hard – she finds it therapeutic, but they all seem to come out in a rush!
Denise Bayes
Denise used to live in Javea, and still has a home there. Work took her to Barcelona, where she has lived for the past eight years; she is a teacher at Oak House School. Her interests are reading and writing, and she has won some writing competitions for short stories and flash fiction. She also sings with the Barcelona English Choir.
Tineke Vlijm
Tineke (Tina) is Dutch and has lived in Spain since 2010 -- first in a tiny, remote village near Valencia, later in Relleu and, since January 2020, in Villajoyosa, which “seems to be the only place on the Costa Blanca that has kept its Spanish feel”, she says.
Reading is an essential part of her life; painting is something she has done throughout her life; and in recent years she has “discovered the pleasure and challenge of creative writing (thanks to Christopher North)”. She looks forward to meeting all Book Circle members.
Guy Marriott
Guy, a long-time resident of Xàbia who has just returned to the region part-time after several years in England and France, has joined the Book Circle. Guy is a former Vice President of the Javea U3A and a former active member of the Mediterranean Garden Society. A corporate lawyer who has worked at EMI with John Deacon of Concerts Costa Blanca, Guy is also a past president of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. He will be addressing the Book Circle in November on Sherlock and hopes to attend several of our meetings before then.
Callan Preece
Callan is a writer from Birmingham, who mostly tells small stories about small people that he finds interesting. He has publications in the likes of Piker Press, New World Writing, and the Potato Soup Journal, and he hopes to be published elsewhere soon. Callan is currently training to be a math teacher though he expects that won’t last too long, economies being what they are. Mostly he’s just grateful for anyone taking the time to read his stories.