Author: Lisa

Sadly one of the founders of Grantham Writers, Peter Clawson, passed away on 5th May 2025 in Lincoln County Hospital after a long decline in his health.

Peter was 85, having been born on 22nd April 1940. On leaving the King’s School, he joined accountants Baldock & Gregory, but later made a change to journalism working variously for the Newark Advertiser, Grantham Journal, and Worksop Guardian and the in-house press for Shell.

Peter had several books published including Wyville and Smash and Grab in the last year (both are available on Amazon) as well as the co-written Blond Genius with J T Edson which was featured on That’s Life on TV and has a fan following to this day.

Fellow Grantham Writer Lynda Mitchell saw Peter in April a few days after his birthday and he told her he was pleased he’d achieved two of his goals: to reach his 86th year and to have Wyville published.

A service will be held at Grantham Crematorium, Harrowby Road, NG31 9DT, starting at 10:30am on Monday 16th June 2025. No flowers please. Charitable donations to Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance Charity.

Peter Bernard Clawson

In 1973 Peter Clawson co-wrote a book “Blond Genius” with J T Edson who became famous for writing about cowboys (Western novels). Edson came from Worksop Nottinghamshire and lived in Melton Mowbray Leicestershire. I spoke with Peter Clawson about Blond Genius when we last met in Grantham. The concept of the book Blond Genius was all Peter Clawson’s idea.

He told me that the 1980 film THE WILDCATS OF ST. TRINIAN’S, took a lot from the book Blond Genius but there was no credit given to them. The first two or three chapters of Blond Genius are pretty well copied in the film. They were paid £1,000 by Border Films for the option.

British broadcaster Esther Rantzen featured Peter Clawson and JT Edson on her television programme That’s Life. Peter said the programme set up “Special Gunfight at the Melton Corale” Peter says he beat JT Edson to the draw but they wouldn’t let him win. He had to do it again and lose for television!

All 30,000 copies of Blond Genius sold out.

He’s just published a new book, “Smash and Grab”.

From LincsOnline:

Peter Clawson, a former Grantham Journal reporter, has published a new book ‘Smash and Grab’ available on Amazon

It is a tale of “crazy things” that starts in a Tesco car park, where a man is waiting for his girlfriend, but all of a sudden, a naked girl appears and demands he drives off in a hurry. They then go through a whole series of escapes and it ends up with them trying to sink the Isle of Man,” said Peter, 84, who still lives in Grantham.

“It all began when I was 12 years old. I said I was going to do everything once in my life and my biggest mission was to get a book published.”

“I was also part of the Grantham Writers. In the 1990s, we had a section for novelists and we had to write a chapter every month. I would have these pictures come into my head and then they would become the story.”

Peter worked with Phil Kerry, from Corby Glen, who helped to publish Peter’s book.

“Phil and his son said my book was written by a genius”

“If people just want to completely escape from the awful realities we have in the world, then read my book.”

Smash and Grab is available from Amazon.

Closing Date extended to 12 noon on Thursday 30th September 2021.

Prizes to be awarded on Saturday 16th October, during the group’s anniversary month, a week later than originally stated.

The first prize is £100 and the second prize is £50. In addition there is a £20 Book Token prize for the best entry from anyone still a pupil at school, under 19 years old on 1st April 2021.

Current Grantham Writers Group treasurer and chairman, Lisa Geary hopes that removing the entry fee and giving a longer deadline will encourage more entries from local people. “The entries have started to arrive, but so far the numbers are small. We’d like to encourage more entries so we have removed the entry fee. At a time when so much is getting more expensive we’d like to give a free gift to the town. Given that the unveiling of the statue of the Iron Lady has been delayed for so many months it seems appropriate to delay the prize giving for a week too, to give us more time to prepare a special event.”

Grantham Writers monthly meetings have restarted in June this year and the group is once again meeting monthly on the third Monday of the month at 7.30pm at the Senior Citizens Club on Welham Road. Meetings are free to attend. Once a writer has attended for a few months they are requested to pay a small annual membership fee to cover the running costs.

The Saturday morning weekly group was restarted by the group’s vice chair Val Odell when the museum reopened, but this did not attract writers regularly so it has currently stopped meeting. It needs a group of at least four writers for each meeting so anyone who would prefer to attend then can get in touch with Grantham writers. It would be possible to arrange a monthly group if the numbers of writers requesting this was large enough. If this group restarts we’ll let the Journal know and we’ll update our website and Facebook page.

The competition has clear rules including a maximum of two entries per writer. Entries have been open since 1st March 2021.

Because of the official advice to avoid unnecessary gatherings, we’re temporarily suspending the regular meetings until further notice.