Get your writing mojo moving with an aerobic work out for your imagination. Come to Syd Moore’s session empty-handed and leave with a new character, new world and an adventure or story which you can further explore.

Venue: Hylands House, London Road, Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 8WQ

Date and time: Sunday 19th June, 1.30 – 3.00pm

Tickets: £20 / £15 concessions (Students, Under 27s and Jobseekers)

Box Office: Book online or via Mercury Theatre 01206 573948 (10am – 8pm Tuesday to Saturday)

Free Parking: Car parking is included in the ticket price. Please register your car on arrival at Hylands House. Please note Hylands Estate are not able to refund car parking charges if you have already paid.

In partnership with Essex Gardens Trust and Beth Chatto Education Trust to launch their new writing competition.

Essex Gardens Trust Writing Competition

We are delighted to be launching the Essex Garden Trust’s new writing competition named for the renowned plantswoman Beth Chatto. The prize is for creative writing; a short story, novel, extract or a piece of life-writing or memoir to be no more than 2000 words in which a garden or landscape is an essential part of the plot, character development or the creation of atmosphere.

The competition will be launched at our ‘The Pleasure Garden’ event at Hylands House and will be open from 19^th June to 31^st August.  The competition is open to writers who live, work or study in the historic area of Essex. There are cash prizes of £200 for the winner and £75 for two runners-up plus Beth Chatto books.

For more details visit www.essexgardenstrust.org.uk

Syd Moore

Syd Moore is a writer, presenter, curator, Royal Literary Fund lector and activist.

Best known for her Essex Witch Museum Mysteries (Strange Magic, Strange Sight, Strange Fascination, Strange Tombs, Strange Tricks) that feature Rosie Strange and Sam Stone and were shortlisted for the Good Reader Holmes and Watson Award 2018, Syd Moore has also written short stories – Strange Casebook (2018) and The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas (2019) , The Twelve Even Stranger Days of Christmas (2020)  – which have been shortlisted for the prestigious ‘dagger award’  by the Crime Writers Association. She has also written two standalone novels, The Drowning Pool (2011), and Witch Hunt (2012) and has been commissioned to write a new series set in the Second World War.

Her debut screenplay, Witch West, has been optioned by Hidden Door Productions with director, Jane Gull (My Feral Heart), at the helm. Moore was also the Assistant Curator of ABBA: Super Troupers The Exhibition that launched at the O2 in December 2019 and co-curated This is What an Essex Girl Looks Likeat the Beecroft Gallery, as part of her work with the Essex Girls Liberation Front. Having founded the ‘Front’ she spearheaded the campaign to have the definition of ‘Essex Girl’ removed from the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary. And was successful.

For nine years prior to writing Syd was a lecturer, Moore worked extensively in the publishing industry and presented Channel 4’s book programme, Pulp.  She was the founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine, co-creator of Superstrumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes. She regularly speaks on radio, television, at universities, on political panels and at festivals about the stereotype and problems that face women today. She is also a UK ambassador for the Danish charity which helps Nigerian ‘witch’ children, DINNødhjælp, and often teams up with Kirsty Brimelow QC, a legal Consultant to Unicef and former legal lead for the United Nations Bar, to speak about Harmful Practices Related to Witchcraft Belief. In 2018 shewas appointed Writer-in-Residence for the Essex Book Festival.

Her writing has been described as ‘Dennis Wheatley meets Caitlin Moran’ (Starburst Magazine).

You can find Syd on Twitter @SydMoore1 and on Facebook @SydMooreWriter