Daphne’s famous friends

Writers’ News member Daphne Clarke has recently been giving talks on the famous people she’s met including Frankie Vaughan, Len Hutton, David Bellamy and the former Archbishop of Cantebury. So far she has given the talk four times and has more in the pipeline.

This was all sparked off following her success in The David St John Thomas Charitable Trust Awards 2006 (in association with Writers’ News) in which she was named Letter Writer of the Year (WM, July 2006), winning a cheque for £100 and a cup presented to her by Terry Waite.

On showing the cup and reporting on the event at her Methodist Fellowship she was asked if she had met anyone else famous.

After a brief pause she answered ‘Well, yes I have, as it happens’.

Daphne also gives several other talks including ‘In Prison’ which deals with her time teaching inmates, and ‘It’s Never Too Late’, an inspiration piece about how she took up painting aged sixty. She’s available to give talks to interested parties in her area (Richmond) and invites readers to get in touch on 01748 822651. She hopes soon to join the Women’s Institute.

Previously she has appeared in Writers’ News for success with a monologue and her anthology Childhood in Kaleidoscope. More recently she has had articles published in Village Voice and Down Your Way.

She says she is ‘keeping her hand in’ and over the next few months will be submitting poems for competitions and contemplating a new anthology as well as continuing to give her new talk which is bringing her a lot of satisfaction.

‘I enjoy it enormously and can only thank my writing magazines for triggering the whole idea.’