Friday already and at the Hayes Conference  Centre, Actual Swanwickers are putting the final touches to their packing, while elsewhere, members of Virtual Swanwick are putting away the garden chairs. But as we all prepare to rejoin the real world, there’s just time for a few final comments.

It’s been quite a week for this year’s VS coordinator, Helen Ellwood, who was one of our first interviewees back at the start of the week.. Not only has she organised a superb programme for this year, with a line-up of guests any conference organiser would be proud of, but she’s spent the time in between guest speakers and bouts of tea and cake on the lawn finishing her proof reading and  copy editing course and is now not only a writer, but also a proof reader and copy editor. And last night, she was awarded the Virtual Quaich by outgoing Chairman, Phil Collins, in recognition of her services to VS. If the technology works, you should be able to see a recording of the announcement on Facebook later today. Congratulations, Helen on a well-deserved award.

Congratulations also go to Diana Wimbs and Liz Hurst, winner and runner-up respectively of the VS Flash Fiction competition. You can read and hear their pieces on the Swanwick and Virtual Swanwick Facebook groups.

And a mention must go to Fiona Samuel who, together with friend and fellow Swanwicker, Lexie Radcliffe-Hart, braved the journey through the wormhole to bridge the gap between AS and VS, joining us in Derbyshire for the final evening’s dinner and entertainment.

And that’s it from Swanwick for 2019. #Swanwick71 has been hugely successful; and we all look forward to another great week next year. In the meantime, happy writing and much success to Swanwickers, Actual and Virtual, wherever you might be.