What I learned at Writers' Summer School About Writing, Describing Yourself, meeting New People

 The alarm woke me at 7 am even if I went to bed gone midnight. By 8 am I was in the room where a volunteer was giving us our writing task for Lift Up Your Pens. We had four of those sessions, Sunday to Wednesday. I attended every one. 

I wanted to get my moneysworth. The summer school now costs somewhere near a thousand pounds for the short week, starting Saturday tea time, leaving after breakfast on Thursday.  Five nights of accommodation, all meals, and coffee and cake or biscuits for elevenses and tea-time.

You can sell books, giving 15% to the Hayes. You can buy books from other authors, mostly getting a signed copy. 

For me the week had two highlights. What I learned, and what I did.

What I Did

Angela Lansbury, wearing the green outfit she wore in Maria Hemmings' five minute play at the annual Writers' Summer School held every August in Swanwick, Derbyshire. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I had a bit part, about four sentences, in a five-minute comedy written by the Vice President for 2026, Maria Hemmings. 

She always tells a rude joke to end her introduction to the evening's proceedings for everyone in the large hall called the Main Conference Centre. She is the queen of comedy. 

This year her comedy, one of three good comedies, was voted the best comedy. She is the VIP. Very Important Playwright.

What I learned

What did I learn? That you can establish a character in only one sentence, or two. 

Gestures

That a gesture can emphasize the character. You can show a lot on stage just by pointing at someone else, or yourself, or a part of yourself.

Descriptions

You can describe yourself or somebody else in three words. Try to describe yourself in three, complimentary words. Then ask others to do so.

The next event will be August 7-12th 2027, again Saturday tea time to Thursday brakfast at The Hayes Conference Centre, Derbyshire.

Useful Websites

https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/contact-us

-ends-

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Travelling to promote a book or to promote yourself

 

Angela Lansbury at the Hayes Conference Centre, Writers' Summer School.

You should not be posting while you are travelling, but after your return. Why?

a) You might be telling potential burglars that your house is empty.

Your insurance company might decline to pay because you had advertised that your house is empty.

Before you set off, you should have clear in mind

a) What you want to tell others

b) What you wish to learn from the people you meet and the destination.

Many novelists and short story writers take trips to gather information for plots, about characters, places, and plot twists. Simple misunderstandings can be the twist in a short story or chapter. 

Somerset Maugham found many of the plots for his stories from talking to people in the bar of the hotel where he was writer in residence.

Somerset Maugham was prolific. 

Useful Websites and Information

Read more by clicking the look inside on the book by Angela Lansbury

https://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-English-alliteration-assonance/dp/1675046840

Angela Lansbury's book Improve Your English with alliteration, assonance and rhyme is on Amazon.

See Richard III's Grave in Leicester Where Richard's Reputation Is Restored - Not a hunchbacked murderer! Was Shakespeare wrong?

Richard III's new burial place in Leicester Cathedral.

Flag of the United Kingdom. 

Richard - who? where?

Richard's remains were found in a car park in Leicester, England. Who was the skeleton? Richard, they speculated. They hoped.

Nah, said the nay-sayers. Wishful thinking.

However, DNA from his relative's descendants proved it was really Richard III! Amazing. So somebody today can say, Richard III was a member of my family - and my DNA proved it.


Picture shared in Wikipedia.

You can drive to Leicester or take the train, then drive a tank at the tank museum in summer. Next the tourist can move to car parks and see Richard III's grave in Leicester Cathedral - all year. Leicester is a lovely, lively area, if you like action and modern or ancient history.

Richard III's Effect On Our World
If your history is hazy, it's a quick way to catch up. To sum it up, Richard was the last of the Plantaganets, who ended the Wars of the Roses, when he lost the Battle of Bosworth to Henry VII.

Why did Richard lose the battle? Some say it was because soldiers under Stanley, supposedly supporting Richard who had more men, were held back until it was clear which side was winning. Seeing Richard run towards Henry in the hope of killing him, being surrounded, Stanleys men quickly joined what loooked like the winning side.

Another theory is that the absence of the Princes in the Tower, and rumours that Richard had killed them, meant that outraged leaders of the nobility withheld their support.

But where were the bodies? Who knew?

The Princes in the Tower. Portraits depicted by Millais, much later.

This pivotal event led to the Tudor takeover. The Tudor takeover led to Henry VIII's important reign which affects people worldwide today. Who is affected? The Church of England, Protestants, Anglicans, students of Shakespeare for A level or simply schoolchildren, and actors of Shakespeare's plays, and lovers of quotations, and even pub goers answering quizzes.

Henry VIII had to divorce his wife to try to get a son and heir, but the Pope did not give permission, so Henry VIII made himself head of the Church of England, which is in England. Other churches worldwide following the British Protestant system, without the pope, not Roman Catholics, are called Anglican. If Richard had won that battle, who knows how different the kings and queens and churches would have been.

William Shakespeare.

In the play by William Shakespeare, Richard III, losing his horse and the battle (for the throne), desperate to escape, shouts, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"

How did Shakespeare manage to so successfully encapsulate the desperation of the man about to die and lose the battle, in less than ten memorable words? Why is that sentence so memorable? The start is a repetition: a horse, a horse. For a moment, it seems an exaggeration, absurd, to give your entire kingdom for just a horse. On second thoughts, after some investigation and enlightenment, you realise that without the horse, he had lost the battle, his kingdom, his life.

The night before my drive home from my holiday in the Midlands to London, a lady from Leicester kept me and a group of others entranced until midnight on the last night of Writer's Summer School at the Hayes Conference Centre near Derby, with her story of how William Shakespeare had unfairly blackened the character of Richard III. "Richard," she insisted, "was not the baddie, which William Shakespeare portrayed."

Why did Shakespeare tell such lies? At very least, half truths. Our hero, Shakespeare! Shakespeare was a diplomat. Shakespeare had no choice. He was writing for his patrons, the Tudor royalty, and the audience who had to be persuaded, or convinced, that Richard, who the Tudors killed in battle, had deserved to die.

Richard III! That man who had killed the two little boys in the Tower of London. His imprisoned nephews, heirs to the throne. Tut, tut. Dreadful man, Richard III.

She assured us, "There was no evidence that Richard killed his nephews, the princes in the tower." ("Yes," we assured our Canadian visitor, "the famous Tower of London, which everybody knows.")

The Tower of London has many towers. The tower where the boys were imprisoned was actually the regular place for a prince to reside prior to his coronation. But, of course, the coronation never took place. After that, the tower was known as the Bloody Tower.

If you go to London, you can visit the Tower of London, which competes with Madame Tussaud's as London's most visited attraction.

A portrait of Henry VII is in the National Portrait Gallery on London's Trafalgar Square.

Portrait of Henry VII in the National Portrait Gallery, London.


We listened politely, to the animated lady who was acting as unpaid PR for local hero, Richard III of Leicester, but we speculated sceptically.
"So what killed the boys?"
"Maybe the boys killed themselves."
"Or each other?"
"Or were killed by Aliens?"


The Princes in the Tower of London.

Richard III
"Furthermore," she insisted, "Richard III did not have a hunchback. He had a curved spine."

Conspiracy theorists have all sorts of ideas about what never happened. People have claimed Richard could not have ridden into battle with a curved spine. However, a modern man with the same condition was persuaded to don a suit of armour, which he apparently gladly did for his moment of fame and climbed onto a horse. Far from impeding and hurting him, the armour acted like a giant corset. It helped to support the spine.

If he had lived in modern times, perhaps dear Richard would have said, "A tank, a tank, my kingdom for a tank." But he didn't.

Richard, with or without his horse, was killed at the battle of Bosworth. The throne was taken by Henry VII, leading to Henry VIII, who is regarded with much more enthusiasm, although there is no doubt that Henry VIII married six times, and executed two wives.

Compare Henry VII and Richard. Richard, we suspect, killed his two nephews. They were heirs to the throne.

Henry VII, lifelike bust made copying Henry VII's death mask. See the bust in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England.


Henry VII killed Richard on the battlefield. A fair fight. (Not exactly. Richard was not taken prisoner. He did not surrender nor live to tell the tale. But he fought to the death. According to one historian, Richard said that he wished to live and die as a king.)

Copare villain Henry with hero Henry VIII. We could also find fault with Henry. Killed his next of kin. Henry was also overweight, extremely so, even for his era. An old man with two wives who were much younger. in his own era, Henry divorcing his longstanding, middle-aged, menopausal wife who could no longer bear children, in favour of her lady in waiting, young, sexy, flirtatious, Anne Boleyn, did not appeal.

Divorced, not a popular move in his era. And had VD (venereal disease) which probably infected his wives and killed his children by damaging their health and resilience in an unsanitary age. But Shakespeare and portrait painters made Henry the hero and the popular villain, whilst Richard III was depicted as horrid, deformed, outside and inside. Richard a man who was handicapped in life, resentful, and killed children.

Richard III is now due for a makeover. But the more mystery and controversy the better.

When I visited Leicester to stay with a friend our main activity was visiting the local branch of Dunelm Mill, one of my favourite stores for affordable but smart furnishings. Dunelm was founded in Leicester.


Duneldm in Bradford.


Richard III is now re-buried in Leicester Cathedral under a solid white slab. His character is now whitewashed.

Disappointingly, the Wikipedia article on the play reveals that Richard was offered a horse and turned it down, preferring to continue on foot. In that case, all the more credit to Shakespeare for improving on the story and creating a memorable line to fit the new, invented scenario.

Go and find out for yourself. If you read Richard III at school, what a spine-tingling moment to see Richard III's grave. If you never read Richard III, a chance to learn visually a bit of history, literature, controversy. A great subject for debate, perhaps in a Tudor style historic pub.

If you are too far away to visit now, and live in the USA, you might be interested in the Wiki article on the play Richard III which gives accounts of the performances of the play in the USA, with photos of playbills of dramatic performances.



To sum up:
TRAVEL TRAIL & TRIP TIPS
1 Richard III grave in cathedral
2 Richard III centre.
3 Bosworth Field centre (shop and more).

Optional extras:
Bosworth medieval Festival:
Bosworth Medieval Festival: 2019

Saturday 17th August - Sunday 18th August, 10:00 am - 5:30 pm.

Tank Museum.
Pub lunch - at pub where you can buy furniture.
Stay in cheap affordable Ibis, cheap hotel at motorway service station, or smarter historical and/or modern hotel.

Practical Information For Travellers

Richard III Museum
Southfields Farm
Husbands Bosworth,
Lutterworth,
Leicestershire LE17 6NW
Tel: 01858 880239.

Useful Websites
www.armourgeddon.co.uk.
www.militarymuseum.uk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_E.28/39
Richard III Visitor Centre (the mysterious letters in the web address are abbreviations for king richard iii all lower case)
https://kriii.com Richard III Visitor Centre
Leicester Tourism
https://www.visitleicester.info/good-to-know/visit-leicester-information-centre
Leicester Cathedral
https://leicestercathedral.org/visiting-king-richards-tomb/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_(play)#cite_note-jones-53
https://www.dunelm.com/stores

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
text and pictures in progress

Highlights of The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, (near Alfreton), Derbyshire DE55 1AU

I enjoyed a delightful week on a Writers' Summer School at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire - what a delightful setting for talks and walks. At breakfast time I discovered that although our conference had more than a hundred members and seemed to occupy the whole building, including the three accommodation areas of the main house, the ABC and Lakeside, The Hayes was still open to the public for bed and breakfast. I learned from the bed and breakfast guests, who were walking and sightseeing in Derbyshire, that they knew of The Hayes from staying at the management's other properties. All three are properties are open for conferences.

The Hayes - back lawn and colourful flowerbeds 

The Hayes - Lawn and Flowerbeds 

(The green gabled roof far left is The Vinery, a glass walled area where you can sit and drink your coffee or tea when on a conference. The Vinery's interior is pictured below.

The Vinery

Great place to sit drinking a glass of water, or alcoholic drinks you can buy from the licensed bar at lunchtime, before dinner and in the evenings.

Magnificent fir trees

Walks
In fine weather you can stroll past the field of cows down to the lake. I was on a conference and one of our members ran a meditation group in the monrings by the lake. On one wet day although it was raining it was wet underfoot and some people had brought mats to sit on so she moved the group indoors into the Lakeside accommodation's Tissington Room off the front hall.

A previous year I walked up the sloping path behind the furthest car park and downhill through the trees.

Gift Shop
The Hayes gift shop is open during conferences at the morning coffee break for you to buy postcards, books of first class postage stamps, religious books for adults and bible stories for children, key rings, and assorted knickknacks - my favourite being the wooden button boxes in the shape of a button on a cylindrical base - prices from about £5-10 according to size.


Accommodation and toilets
The bathrooms and toilets have been upgraded since last year. a member of staff told me that this is an ongoing process. Like painting the Forth Bridge, when you finish decorating at one end it's time for your team to go back and start repainting at the other end.
   In the ladies' toilets I liked the wall covering which looked like tiles but was a clever imitation. All in one piece, wallpaper style. The advantage is that its easier to clean. The white 'grout' stays white. Quick to install or replace.

Bathrooms' Ensuite Shower Curtain Magnets

In the bathrooms I was entranced by the shower curtains which snapped together with nifty magnets at the bottom corners. (I looked up and saw the top corners also had top magnets so ensure a dry floor as well as total privacy. But those of you who have watched Hitchcock films may wish to leave eye level open to watch out for approaching strangers!)

Here's the magnet sewn into the seam of the shower curtain, clasping its twin from the other curtain of the pair. What a great idea! You might have shower curtains or bath curtains which could do with this trick. 

If you don't have shower curtains, what about bedroom curtains? If you have bedroom curtain which you struggle to close every night, magnets can be sewn at the bottom of both curtains of the pair. Or on the outside edge of a curtain to match one stuck on a wall. Then another at the top where the two curtains meet. 

But you want your bedroom curtains overlapping? Just sew the second magnet an inch or two further along.

The toilet brush attached to the lid.

I particularly liked another feature, the toilet brush attached to the toilet holder lid. Only two pieces instead of three, less to go missing, fall apart. Very neat.

You could easily be so busy with walking and sightseeing or seeing your friends, or family, that you might miss the games room. If it's too wet to go out, or too late and dark, you can have a game of indoor table tennis.

To all the friends I see at the annual Writers' Summer School - see you next year.

More details from:

The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, (near Alfreton), Derbyshire DE55 1AU
Tel:+44 0300 111 4444

http://www.cct.org.uk/the-hayes/introduction

(Loading about four pictures and text on the Writers' Summer School Courses and Entertainment to my next post today Monday Aug 18 or tomorrow - come back for more.)