The Writing Knights of Gimborn

All those who attend a Gimborn Writer’s Seminar at the castle itself are eligible to be elected to the (suitably light-hearted) Grand Order of ‘The Writing Knights of Gimborn’. In a Turmbar ceremony, a certificate, a small token, and a testimonial are awarded to each member and read out. To become a ‘Knight’, you must have attended a seminar at least once. The responsibilities are not too onerous; a requirement being to encourage others amongst The Forum to join us at Gimborn as ‘Writing Knights’, occasional requests for help with judging competitions, and other such requests as needed.

The following are the current ‘Knights’ having been duly elected, but If you have attended and wish to be elected and have not received a certificate please let the ‘Knight Writer’ (David) know and he will seek your election in absentia and dispatch to you.

The founding document of The Order is shown here.

The Current Elected Knights and their Testimonies at Election

Ann Cumberland (elected 2021)

Ann is a founder member of this most ancient order having been to the very first Gimborn seminar in 2018 and has remained a loyal and dutiful servant ever since. Ann is a poet, regularly contributing excellent poetry to the ‘Writes’ magazine and she is now a travel writer having written and published her first book ‘Which Way to the Gambia? ‘, a book which has sold all over the world raising much money for the IPA ‘Cycles to Gambia’ project. Ann rarely if ever misses our gatherings every fortnight, has published in Police World and has been a tower of support in her role as Vice Chair of The Forum since its inception.

Tony Granger (elected 2021)

Tony, also known to us as ‘The Professor’ because he is one, is another dedicated and loyal member of the ancient order having attended the second Gimborn seminar in 2019 and has been a regular attender and contributor to all of the work of The Forum ever since. Tony has single-handedly brought to the group many new members often through his role as The Almoner of the British South Africa Police Association (BSAP) who have in the last few years been warmly welcomed into the IPA membership. Tony has a long career as a writer behind him with over forty publications to his name. Tony has also been a stalwart of the IPA Section UK West Midlands region where he is well known as a storyteller of much acclaim. Tony has delivered many sessions within the work of The Forum over the past years.

Udo Lauterborn (elected 2021)

Udo is one of our founding members from the very first seminar in 2018 where, besides his writing contributions, he led a brilliant tour of the city of Cologne for us. He has been a regular contributor to the ‘Writes’ magazine and has previously won the ‘Editor’s Pick of the Month’. Udo was one of our few serving officers and one of the members of The Global Writers Forum we hope to expand into in the future, forging links with IPA Writers groups around the world, if not indeed helping to encourage their formation. Udo is a committee member of IPA Koln branch and a brilliant advocate for the organization worldwide.

Steve Parnwell (elected 2021)

Steve joined us for the second Gimborn seminar in 2019 where he stunned us with his moving lyrical poem on Madeleine’s Patch which has been set to music and which we heard played at Gimborn with the kind permission of the arrangers and performers. Steve writes in every edition in the ‘Writes’ magazine with both his ‘Tales from Madeleine’s Patch’ series and also his ‘Nature Notes’ which are both fabulous articles on both life and nature. Steve hosted the IPA Writers SIG gathering in January 2019, weeks before the pandemic struck where four of us helped to lay a hedge and plant trees at Greenwillows in the Fens.

David Osbourne Hughes (elected 2021)

David Osbourne Hughes, who attended Gimborn in 2021 and known to us all as ‘Doz’ is a stalwart of the fortnightly Zoom meetings. He has become legendary throughout the land of writing and the IPA more widely for his session on a writers’ seminar day in 2020 on the ‘Dyslexic Writer’. A regular contributor to ‘Writes’, Doz is an exceptionally fine artist, photographer, and a fine novelist with several books now published.

Wanda Maciuszko (elected 2021)

Gimborn writing seminars are open to non-IPA members worldwide and although Wanda is not an IPA member, she knows the IPA well through working with the chair, David, at Bryn Stowe Publications on the ‘Mog Tales’ (‘Sam the Superhero’) series of children’s works. These were originally published under the banner of IPA Section UK 3 Region who owned the police Morris 1000 leased to the company for the purpose of encouraging young people to write. Wanda delivered an exercise during the week on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy as part of the ‘Fifty Shades of Blue’ project which will be resurrected in 2023.

Neil Hallam (elected 2021)

Neil needs no real introduction to the group as he was a founding member back in 2018 and with David delivered both the second Gimborn Seminar in 2019 and the third seminar series on Webinar in 2020 at the height of the lockdown. Neil has many published works and is best known as editor of ‘Police World’, the IPA Section UK house magazine which is superb and is another stalwart of the fortnightly Zoom gatherings. He is a regular deliverer of sessions on our writers’ days as well as being a constant hep and support not only to the chair but to many others in the group.

Sean Hannigan (elected 2021)

Again, Sean needs no introduction to the group being the founder and first facilitator in 2018 after much cajoling from Andy Gregory at West Midlands branch, our ‘Webmaster and current Treasurer. Sean is also ‘the proprietor’ of Police World and has been a major mover in all things IPA in his former role as Vice President Culture. Sean is a poet and short story writer and specialises in ‘instant poetry’ where has a particular kind of genius with words.

Ulrike Neuhoff (elected 2021)

Ulrike is the Honorary President of the Knight Writers and without her the Gimborn Seminars would not exist and her patience, understanding, forbearance and never-failing support to the group from its very inception is legendary. She has also contributed to ‘Writes’ and is the main IBZ mover for all the writers’ seminars. It was largely due to Ulrike that we were able to have a stand at brilliant 50th Anniversary celebrations at Gimborn in 2018.

David B. Lewis

David attended the first Gimborn seminar in 2018 as a delegate but was approached to chair the Writers Special Interest Group and help establish it as a permanent fixture in the IPA calendar. He delivered the ‘Writes’ magazine on a weekly basis at the height of the pandemic, then fortnightly and then, monthly but had to take a break from the magazine due to work, health, and domestic commitments. David has co-delivered most of the writers’ events with Neil and Sean over the past four years as well as contributing regular items to both ‘Police World’ and ‘Writes’, seeking to develop the SIG and The Forum along more delegated lines, encouraging and supporting the members aspirations as writers and friends, and generally seeking to encourage, cajole, persuade, charm or arm-twist everyone to contributing wherever possible. David has seven books published, runs a small publishing company, ‘Bryn Stowe Publications of Scarborough’ and acts as the ‘Knight Writer’ (Secretary) to The Writing Knights.

The following are the eligible but, as yet, unelected members

Mark Thompson

Clare Christian

Nick Horwood

Roger Baker

Anda Baraskina

The late Mike Baker

Mike Masson

Julie Harries

Peter Pleydell

John Penlington