14 Jul 2021 / My Arvon Journey
As a child I dreamt of being a writer, of travelling the world and telling stories. Journalism offered me the opportunity…
Read more21 Jun 2021 / The Stories We Tell
Unsettled Weather
Out of conflicting pressures in the unsettled weather ever present in a writer’s head – in all…
10 May 2021 / My Arvon Journey
I first went on a residential Arvon course more than 25 years ago.
It was at Moniack Mhor, a remote farmhouse…
08 Apr 2021 / Chief Executive
Arvon’s ‘4th House’ reaches record-breaking number of adults and young people during the pandemic, expanding Arvon’s reach by 500%, and…
Read more19 Mar 2021 / The Stories We Tell
On Writing Memoir: Do You Feel Better Now?
As a boy I carried secrets – they slid to the…
26 Feb 2021 / The Stories We Tell
Anger
‘Where do you get your ideas?’ It’s a question often asked of writers, and indeed a question I…
18 Nov 2020 / My Arvon Week
‘The image doesn’t know it’s a metaphor – don’t … control it’ (Caroline Bird)
We feel for Billy Collin’s ‘light switch’*…
26 Aug 2020 / The Stories We Tell
On Living alongside Dead Writers
‘Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless…
12 Aug 2020 / My Arvon Journey
A personal journey to publication of my first book
‘The West Façade’
A collection of short stories.
M…
15 Jul 2020 / The Stories We Tell
Disappearances and Encounters
As the daughter and granddaughter of antique dealers, I grew up handling wonderful old things. They…
11 Jun 2020 / The Stories We Tell
Unlocking Rooms
My appreciation of the power of stories happened in 1974. I was a pupil at a boys’…
18 May 2020 / The Stories We Tell
Electric Silences
My instinct to become a poet emerged from a desire to tell stories. Perhaps I should have…
19 Mar 2020 / The Stories We Tell
The Haunted Library
The inspiration to write historical fiction arrives with a strange and wonderful sensation. A subject that…
18 Mar 2020 / News
Following government advice, and with the safety and wellbeing of our staff and course participants in mind, we have made the…
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