NOW it's Mattishall and District Writing Group, as seen on video...Members have formed a tie-up with a group of enthusiasts based at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, who enjoy making their own video productions.

NOW it's Mattishall and District Writing Group, as seen on video...

Members have formed a tie-up with a group of enthusiasts based at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, who enjoy making their own video productions.

And two screenplays they have penned are about to be made into short films.

Shirley Hayward's comedy drama script concerns two young Jack-the-lad characters who fancy their chances with a painting at an Antiques Roadshow-style event.

And Dorothy Herron's plot involves strange deeds at a summer fete during which the vicar is shot dead... or so it seems.

The link-up came about after Shirley, of Gogle Close, Mattishall, wrote to a magazine for fellow retired employees of Barclays Bank to explain to its readers the benefits of belonging to a creative writing group.

“I told them what fun it was to just get together with other people, and how writing was a good opportunity to keep the old grey matter working,” she said.

Another former Barclays worker contacted her to say his group was short of original scripts to use in its videos, so Shirley and her group got busy with some suggested ideas.

The video-makers hope to start shooting this month, and now the writers are waiting keenly to see the results.

The Mattishall group draws its 11 or so members from across the Dereham area.

They meet at each others' homes on Monday afternoons.

A collection of their 2007 work, including prose, musings, reminiscences and poetry, has been put together in their 13th booklet, called A Baker's Dozen. Contributors were Shirley and Dorothy, Angela Kenyon, David Rudling, Derrick Clavey, Eve Gascoyne, Joan Walton, Joyce Johnson, Kay Conyers, Sheila Rudling, Sylvia Gill-Bales, Theodora Lancaster and Frank Hunt.

The group has room for one or two new members. Call Shirley on 01362 850284 to find out more and to check availability of copies of A Baker's Dozen.