Enjoy the experience of expressing your ideas in a letter, and you can win great prizes too. Writing is a great way to keep the mind active and creative. And what better way than writing a letter celebrating the beauty of the Surrey Hills area?
VantagePoint Magazine and Surrey Hills Writers have teamed up to create a letter writing competition.
The letter can be an email, or a physical copy sent through the post. The letter is to be addressed to the Surrey Hills. It can be to all the people who live there, or a single person you know. It can focus on a particular town, village, or area within the Hills. It can be about the past, present or future. It can be in prose or a poem. So let your creativity and writing skills run free.
While you having fun writing a letter, you also have the chance to win a prize donated by a Surrey Hills organisation. A fabulous gift set from the famous Silent Pool Distillery. Two free tickets from the renowned Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford. Valuable discounts on the publications of the Surrey Hills Writers Group.
All entrants will be invited to a gala event at which the best letters will be read out. This will take place at the superb facilities of the Guildford Rugby Club on Thursday 19th November at 6pm.
“We’d like to get as many letters as possible” says event organiser and local author Steve Markwell. “With a great response we can put a collection of the letters together and publish them. So please get writing and get your letters to us.
“Writing is like dancing in the mind. The more you do it, the more you enjoy it”
Letters need to be 500 words or less. Email to dearsurreyhills@gmail.com or post a copy to Dear Surrey Hills, c/o VantagePoint Magazine, Oak House, Tanshire Park, Shackleford Road, Elstead GU8 6LB. Entries close midnight Wednesday 23rd September 2026.
Entrants 18 years or older. Entries must include your full name and email address. Only the winners will be notified, but all entrants will be contacted about the Gala event and possible eventual publication of letters.
“Getting everyone writing is such a good national priority”, says VantagePoint Publisher Stefan Reynolds. “I would love to see lots of our readers writing in, and can’t wait to read their creative thoughts.”
