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Peter Clawson “Smash and Grab” Autumn 2024

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.

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New Venue December 2023

Grantham Writers meet on the third Monday of the month from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. From Monday 18th December the group will meet at the Riverside Development in the north east corner of Welham Street, NG31 6QS. It’s a short walk from the previous location, which was on the other side of the junction with Avenue Road and Stonebridge Road.

The door of the new venue for Grantham Writers

It’s free to attend the group now and the new venue is free of charge to use for the community.

Founding group member Peter Clawson has arranged the new venue and will be there on 18th December to give a warm welcome with some warm mince pies for a festive celebration. Writers are asked to come along with any of their own creative writing on a Christmas or Winter Theme.

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30th Birthday and Flash Fiction Prize Giving reported in Grantham Journal 18th October 2021

30th Birthday and Flash Fiction Prizes

Grantham Writers mark anniversary with celebratory cake

A group of writers have celebrated their anniversary with a cake and competitions.

On Saturday (October 16) the Grantham Writers marked their 30th anniversary with the celebratory cake and a Flash Fiction Competition.

The competition entries were judged by the Reverend James Farley. The entries were up to 300 words on the subject of The Iron Lady.

Rev James Farley and winner Sarah Tarlow (52362898)

Sarah Tarlow was awarded first place and a prize of £100, followed by Sheila Barker in second place.

Valerie Odell won the Eric Chappell Cup for the best entry by a current member of the Grantham Writers Group.

The £20 book token was won by Jim Gleed of King’s School, who had the best entry by a young person under 19.

Rev James Farley presenting Valerie Odell, vice chairman of Grantham Writers Group, with the Eric Chappell cup 2021 (52362883)

Founding member of the Grantham Writers Group Peter Clawson with chairman and treasurer, Lisa Geary (52362873)

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Grantham Writers Group turns 30 plus Iron Lady flash fiction awards

The Grantham Writers Group celebrates its 30th anniversary this month and will be holding an event at The Grantham Museum, St Peter’s Hill on Saturday 16th October from 11am to 1pm.

At 11.30am a celebration cake will be cut by one of the founder members of the group.

At 12 noon winners of the flash fiction competition The Iron Lady will be announced by the judge The Reverend James Farley and prizes will be awarded. There will then be time for the entrants to read out their entries for everyone to appreciate.

Photos from the event

Sarah accepts first prize in the flash fiction competition

Sarah Tarlow’s winning story is here.

Grantham Journal first reported the plan for the 30th birthday and flash fiction competition in February 2021: writers group celebrate anniversary with fiction competition

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Iron Lady flash fiction deadline extended

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.

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Grantham Book Festival 2018

Grantham Writers is launching its second annual book festival this November, following the success of last year’s inaugural event.

Grantham Book Festival 2018 will be held at Grantham Museum on St Peter’s Hill on November 3rd from 10am until 4pm.

New for this year is a poetry slam, where participants will be able to compete for the cash prize of £100. The competition will be hosted by multi award winning poet Sue Gerrard alongside Peter Clawson, one of the founding members of Grantham Writers. There will be a small charge of £3 per poem (with a maximum of three entries per person) and the group is keen to encourage writers of all ages and abilities, from across the East Midlands, to take part.

Visitors to the book festival will also be able to enjoy six talks from local authors, who will be reading extracts from their books, answering questions and carrying out book signings throughout the day.

Confirmed authors include Lisa J Rivers who has published a number of books, including popular poetry collection Why I have so Many Cats?, as well as Grantham Writers own Riis Marshall. Riis is currently working on the follow up to his first published novel – a political thriller called Nudge Nudge Wink Wink Die, which follows the adventures of Os Doran, a Close Protection Security Consultant.

In addition, there will be 24 stalls, selling a wide variety of books and some gifts.

Peter Clawson said, “We are thrilled to be holding our second annual book festival and are in the process of getting a great line up of authors involved. The event will be a fantastic way to celebrate the local writing talent that we have in and around Grantham, as well as provide a platform to encourage and inspire more writers in the area to share their work.”

Grantham Book Festival 2018 – postcard (PDF)

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We’re moving!

.. for the Monday evening meetings anyway.

Grantham Senior Citizens’ Club,
Welham Hall,
Welham Street,
Grantham
NG31 6QU

Welham Hall, Grantham - venue for Grantham Writers Group meetings from Feb 2018

Grantham Writers Group new venue map

It’s close to the multi-story Welham Street Car Park, near the junction with St Catherine’s Road, and not far from our old venue of the Grantham Museum.

  • There is full disabled access
  • Parking: after 6pm, there is free parking right outside on the street and on the ground floor of the car park. (The upper floors of the car park are closed in the evenings.)
  • Refreshments: mugs and hot water will be provided. We’ll need to bring our own tea, coffee, milk, etc

Meetings remain 7:30pm – 9:30pm on the third Monday of every month.

The Saturday morning meetings will continue to be held in the Museum’s café, 10:30am – 11:30am on most Saturdays.