The annual spectacle that is the Great Harwood Agricultural Show is always well attended, but this year, records were broken.

Over 10,000 members of the public attended on what was a lovely and pleasant Spring Bank Holiday and takings were the highest ever recorded.

Lancashire Authors hired a space for the first time and Jill McDonald Constable, our Membership Secretary, who organised our involvement, was very pleased with the turnout and the support she received from members and committee. Members who manned the stall and entertained included Dan Forrester, John Winstanley (Secretary), Pauline Hutchinson (Chairman), Dana Nadeau, Brian Foster (Librarian), Maeve Fagan (Minute Secretary)

Five expressed an interest in becoming members, including the Lady Mayor and hopefully all will pursue their interest. Please see some pictures below.

Dan who has recently had his 100 word story, One Step Beyond, published in Reader's Digest, read some poems and flash fiction in the morning session and said he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Dana read an excerpt from his novel, The Cloven Pine to start the afternoon session followed by Pauline reading related anecdotes from the past.

Then came John. To describe John as enthusiastic would probably be an understatement and he wowed the crowd, first with his poems, then talking about his book Unsigned, Unscene from which he treated the audience to recollections from the time he was involved in the local music scene in and around Chorley. Then he actually read a poem inspired by the Smiths and not only burst into song but did his own impression of Morrisey. Wonderful job John!

All in all it was great day and a pleasure to be there. Let's hope we can find more places to spread the word about our great association and start to bring it back to the days when we need to book bigger venues for our meetings.

Peter Jones 2016