Fiction Robert Rankin held a position as the Writer in Residence of Watermans during the 1980s and organised a regular poetry event which he claims was the largest in Britain. Rankin's The Brentford Trilogy is a series of nine novels humorously chronicling the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts who confront the forces of darkness in Brentford. In that decade. there were several reported sightings of a Griffin near Watermans. John Baraldi reported that "a woman came from the parking along the street. She was in an awful state. She had seen a huge bird and was obviously rather shaken by it." Robert Rankin said "it has been a local myth for years. There were sightings of the ones prior to the last year. Previous ones go back to at least before the Second World War. A year ago a jogger called John Olssen reported seeing the bird as he was running by the arts centre. And a woman saw it from the top of a bus." The legend went on to be referenced in Rankin's book Web Site Story. Asian-British arts During the 1990s, Watermans was known for focusing on South Asian arts. Doctor Alda Terracciano argued that "the last decade has witnessed the rapidly increasing achievements of a number of British Asian playwrights, directors and actors – a trend fostered by the support of venues such as the Watermans Arts Centre," noting that the comedy circuit benefited from Watermans' support through the regular 'One Nation Under a Groove...Innit' event which "offered the opportunity to a number of emerging Asian comedians to exercise their skills before being cast in proper comedy dramas." Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar's musical comedy double act "The Secret Indians (non-Asian)" performed at Watermans. Other performers Comedian Jo Brand visited in 2008. She said of Watermans that "these sort of places are important for local people in west London. You have the West End but the average person cannot afford that, so their only access to theatre is somewhere like Watermans." She also noted: "I was in a stand-up show there about 20 years ago." Other notable names who have appeared include Peter Greenaway, Elvis Costello, Mica Paris, Meera Syal, Melvin Bragg and Shabana Azmi. Present Watermans presents a year-round programme of independent cinema, children's theatre, cabaret, dance, music, talks and creative workshops. Watermans also works across the borough of Hounslow, bringing outdoor arts to