Creative breaks
Whether you're into watercolours or wok cooking, there's a holiday made just for you
UK
Creative writing out in the country
People
who’ve been on an Arvon creative writing course tend to be pretty
evangelical about the experience. For many of us – tied up in knots
with kids, busy jobs or socialising – a week away in the middle of
nowhere to tease out that novel buried within sounds like bliss. The
standard of teaching is high, thanks to the foundation’s long-standing
reputation and esteemed list of patrons – including Andrew Motion,
Salman Rushdie and Seamus Heaney – but the level of experience required
is wide-ranging. As long as you have a passion for writing (and you pay
on time), you’re in.
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Each course starts on a Monday
afternoon and lasts until the following Saturday morning. The days and
evenings in between are intensive, with plenty of private writing time,
group sessions discussing fellow students’ efforts (you should be
willing to read your own work out loud), and professional advice when
you need it from a pair of tutors, published writers or poets you may
well have heard of.
Other than your fellow scribblers, you’ll be
hard-pushed to find distractions: mobile reception is scant and
internet access is nil (though laptops are welcome). The number of
courses has expanded over the years, to 87 in 2006, and ranges from
crime fiction to short stories and writing for radio.
The
settings are idyllic – from a pre-Domesday manor house in Devon to a
Highlands croft – though don’t expect to stay in the equivalent of a
posh hotel. There are single rooms, but you may well end up sharing and
you won’t be waited on, either. Meals, included in the £475 fee, are
simple and prepared as a group; you fetch your own breakfast and lunch,
and you’ll help make one of the evening meals during the week.
The
foundation advises that you read up on the specific course tutors
before you book to find one whose style and approach will mesh with, or
challenge, your own. But don’t expect to go home with a finished novel
or a publishing deal: what you will get is hugely renewed enthusiasm
and the impetus to keep going.
Arvon Foundation,
(www.arvonfoundation.org).
Getting there Arvon’s four residential
centres are a taxi ride away from Inverness, Ludlow, Hebden Bridge or
Exeter, all of which are accessible from London by train
(www.nationalrail.co.uk).
