Once a week on a Tuesday our writer’s group gathered at Avid Reader bookshop in West End.  We’d filter in, browsing at books as we went. We’d greet each other amidst that stunned transition from day job to evening creative workshop, from computer to the real world.

We’d walk past dozens of books by published authors without so much as a skerrick of formal writing training so what made us think we could learn our way to joining their ranks?

It is a perennial question: can writing be taught?