Underground Rivers Read online

  Vicky Woodhatch has dabbled with creative writing from an early age and has a keen love of literature. She took on a job in a library to ‘be close to all the books’ and mainly writes short stories for friends and family. She recently finished a Creative Writing course and hopes to expand her audience and continue to write longer pieces of work. Her only work to reach the public eye was a short play called ‘The Only Way is Bestbuy’ which was a parody on ‘The Only Way is Essex’ and set in a supermarket. This was performed by Harlington performs earlier this year.

  Mary Baker was born in Luton in 1983 and attended South Luton High School, where she was encouraged to write creatively. An avid reader, she was introduced to Luton Central Library at an early age and studied A-level English literature at Queensbury Upper School in Dunstable. Writing poetry remained a constant through her training in history and horticulture, and she has expanded more recently to allow her poetry to flow into her short stories. Being an estate gardener she has beautiful surroundings to inspire her, which she hopes her writing reflects. Now working at Luton Hoo Walled Garden, her gardening column can be spotted each month in the Herald & Post. She likes Russian literature, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers films, Sussex, and popcorn.

  Mike French is the owner and senior editor of the literary magazine, The View From Here. His debut novel, The Ascent of Isaac Steward came out in 2011 with Cauliay Publishing and was nominated for The Galaxy National Book Awards which due to an unfortunate clerical error was awarded to Dawn French. Born in Cornwall in 1967, Mike splits his time between his own writing, editing the magazine, running author workshops and working with atp media in Luton. Mike is married with three children and a growing number of pets. He currently lives in Luton in the UK and when not working watches Formula 1, eats Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food and listens to Noah and the Whale. Mike’s second novel Blue Friday is published this year by Elsewhen Press.

  Jon Owen-Thomas is a recent graduate from the University of Bedfordshire where he developed a passion for scriptwriting. His favourite experience was writing a short play from scratch and working with actors to produce it. He enjoys writing short scripts, which he describes ‘almost like doodling’, and in the future hopes to sell a script to a theatre.

  Muriel Nicola Waldt worked for 17 years at Ampthill Library. After taking early retirement, she now finds herself in the enviable position of being able to potter endlessly in her garden, is able to read even more and above all, write. Since starting to write poetry nine years ago she has had several poems published in small press anthologies, three humorous rhyming poems in the Daily Mail and experienced success in competitions. Words is her first short story.

  Shane Laing is a writer/actor born in Cheltenham Gloucestershire in 1993. He studied performing arts at Bedford College, then became motivated by others around him to put pen to paper in order to show the world his imagination. Shane has written two short stories, many scripts and is currently in the process of writing his first novel entitled Protocol 9.

  Judi McKay is a retired civil servant. She is married with two cats and spends her days reading, going to the cinema and writing. As yet she has had nothing published, although she has been short listed in a number of writing competitions. She currently has two novels mouldering on her hard drive waiting to be edited, but is choosing to spend her time finishing The Return, her current project.

  Rob Sherriff is normally a writer, director and editor of short films, some of which can be seen on his Youtube page - RobSherriffMedia. Recently he has decided to try his hand at short fiction. He graduated from the University of Bedfordshire in 2009 with a 2.1 in Media Production. Currently working on a number of writing protects, he hopes to one day create a feature film. Rob was born in Essex in 1986 and has been living in Luton since 2006. When not writing or filming shorts he will be searching, generally unsuccessfully, for paying work and playing Xbox.

  Neil Rowland went to Stopsley High School and Luton VI Form College. His is a Community Librarian with Luton Culture, based at Luton Central Library. He has organised literary and writing events, both with Luton Libraries and at the Arts Council. This year he completed a novel The Big Deal about a City whistle blower disgraced by a corrupt financial system. Included here is the opening excerpt from a second novel in progress, Living in the Past. He co-edited a poetry magazine called Under the Bridge, in conjunction with Bloodaxe Books. Neil began his writing career as a music critic for Melody Maker, Blitz and other publications. Recently he also wrote fiction reviews for Time Out London. He gained a BA Hons at Newcastle and an MA in Post Colonial Literature from the University of Leeds. He enjoys a life-long passion for fiction and discovering exciting writers, new or past.

  Paul Harrison is a local writer who has previously had a short story published in the ‘Words Take Flight’ anthology produced in conjunction with the Cheltenham Festival of Literature. He works as a Careers Adviser at the University of Bedfordshire and enjoys reading many genres of fiction and non fiction.

  Graham Webster is married to Hazel and has two grown up children, Daniel and Loren. He was born in Luton in 1949 and spent his childhood as a villager in Hockliffe. Later, when they married, he set up home in Dunstable where he still lives. In the 60’s, as a youth he worked for his father delivering coal to the people of Luton. “It was a dirty job, my face was always covered in coal dust. My Jamaican friend Stan used to call me ‘The black-faced white man’.” Later, for many years he was a car transporter driver, delivering new vehicles from the Vauxhall assembly plant in Kimpton Road. Graham is a committed Hatters fan, his love affair with the club starting in 1958, when he used to go and watch his late uncle, Bob Morton play. His first attempt at story writing was to enter the Luton Libraries short story competition in November last year, which he won.

  Bernice Gayle is a member of the Luton Writers’ Group and Luton Poetry Society. She is a qualified teacher with many years of teaching experience and has a Master’s Degree in Primary Education. Because of her love for literacy, her thesis was based on Children’s Responses to Humour in Literature which can be viewed in the library at the University of London Institute of Education. Bernice has four children, one girl and three boys. She has six grandchildren and enjoys cooking special Jamaican meals for family and friends. To keep fit she goes to the gym three times a week to burn off the extra calories. She lives in Luton. She is currently writing her first novel. A chapter of it will be included in the Luton Writers’ book in 2012.

  Lucy Meroge Mwakulegwa, who is also known by close family and friends as ‘Nessy’, was born in England. Her parents studied at Leeds University on scholarship. Her father studied law and her mom, children’s nursing. Lucy returned to Kenya when she was four years old, her mother passed away shortly afterward. After college, she worked as a Clinical Officer for thirteen years. Her work exposed her to “the other side of life;” poverty and suffering, this left a mark on her which made her reflect on life and its meaning, especially as she was from a far more privileged background. This has greatly inspired her writing. Lucy currently lives in England with her daughter. She continues to work in the medical field with a specific interest in Public Health in which she has a Masters Degree from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

  Tahieuba Latif Chaudhry was born in Luton in 1991 and is the last of 9 siblings. She is currently studying English Language for Business BA(Hons) at the University of Bedfordshire. In December 2006 she won the Start-Up project for her awareness of racism through a series of illustrations on banners which was displayed around The Mall. Writing fiction is her passion, along with dancing to Zumba, listening to Birdy and seeking adventure with the world. Tahieuba joined the Luton Writers’ Workshop in February 2012 and is keen to release the first chapter of her upcoming novel Little Ms Cynical. She dedicates this story to her late father Mohammad Latif Chaudhry (01/03/1946 - 04/11/2011) R.I.P.

  Rory Auld is a writer, director and editor of s
hort films. He graduated from the University of Bedfordshire in 2010 with a 2.1 in Media Production. He is working on a number of scripts and hopes to one day turn them into short films or online web series. Rory was born in Essex in 1986 and moved to Luton in 2007. In his spare time he likes to write short scripts and is currently working as a freelancer in a digital library and starting up a business with some friends from university.