How To Win Awards at Writers' Summer School at Swanwick

 

Swanwick, an award to a committed committee member. 

You have several ways to win awards at Swanwick Writers' Summer School.

1 Write into the contest for short stories or poems. One contest is for youngsters. The other is for assisted places.  The subject is given in Writers' News. And the Swanwick website on Facebook.

You could also attend the school and enter contests such as the Chairman's crossword, and other contests. 

The committee might get awards. 

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Spellbound Books at the Hayes Conference Centre, for Writers' Summer School

 

 Sumaira Wilson of Spellbound Books. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Sumaira, of Spellbound books, bought the jacket from Shein. She buys a lot of lovely clothes from that company. The orange dress was bought on her holiday in Europe. She was promoting Spellbound Books at Writers' Summer School at the Hayes, in the UK, this August, 2023. She and her business partner ran two workshops.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

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.

Garden Chess, Flowers and Food - Highlights Of The Hayes Conference Centre in Derbyshire, England - The Minimum group size is 12

I stayed at the Hayes conference Centre on a Writers Summer School. The cost of accommodation varies according to the building. 

Grounds with trees and benches and flowers.

Flowers

Beautiful flowers near the house by the back lawn and the main conference hall.

Hidden in an inner courtyard in the main house were chess and draught pieces. 

A good place if you have an Alice in Wonderland outfit. And a rabbit puppet.

Outdoor chess and draughts. An indoor gym.

Bedrooms and Bathrooms

The room had wifi and other instructions readily visible.

Very thick absorbent towels and bath mat by the brand Richard Haworth.

The smaller of the two dining rooms. Our conference of 200 people used both. It was handy to be flexible or follow the advice of staff to switch rooms if you were in the room with  longer queue. Pop next door and join a shorter queue.

A double room with shower room. Rooms vary in size.

This lovely sign made us feel happy every day. A great backdrop for a photo, saying where you are, and the double positive message.

 I wondered about booking the Hayes conference centre at Swanwick in Derbyshire. Do they hire out odd leftover rooms like a hotel? No.

However, you can book for a minimum group size of 12. The Hayes is slightly dearer, about ten pounds dearer, than their accommodation further south nearer London, in Hertfordshire. However, Derbyshire is more accessible for visitors from the north and from Scotland.

Our Writers Conference before Covid-19 booked all 400 rooms in advance, for the following year, paying a non-refundable deposit, and books five years ahead to be sure of continuity. You don't have to spend half the year hunting for a venue and leaving potential delegates and one day guests wondering whether they can afford the fare and travel time.

Plants indoors as well as outdoors. A cactus in flower on a corridor window ledge in the main house. 

And hot coffee or hot chocolate all day long from a help yourself machine.

Useful Websites

richardhaworth.co.uk

https://www.cct.org.uk/offers/late-availability-offer

https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/

https://www.cct.org.uk/the-hayes/the-hayes-conference-centre

Pooh Bear Is Everywhere, UK, USA, Poland, Hong Kong and Shanghai, China

Today I looked up Pooh Bear in Wikipedia. Pooh Bear, a perennial favourite.

A year or two back I went Writers' Summer School in Swanwick in Derbyshire and watched a fascinating presentation by a writer who had traced all the sights in England relating to the books. All around Ahsdown Forest, in Sussex, and other places.

Even if you have never read the books cover to cover, the quotations are memorable and amusing. For example:
'I am a Bear of No Brain at All.’

This time, I was researching on line quotations about fear and courage. I found a Pooh Bear quotation.

“You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

To my surprise and delight I found two lovely memorials to the characters in the stories.

Winnie the Pooh is based on a bear from Winnipeg which ended up in London zoo, England.

Statue of the bear in Winniepeg, USA.

Plaque in Winnie the Pooh street in Warsaw, Poland. Ulica is Polish for street.

Winne the Pooh attractions are in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Now Disney sells toys and other items. I have a Winnie The Pooh pencil from a set. You can buy hat, tee shirts, shoes, socks, toys, books, tote bags, blankets, ipad sleeves and more.

Hallmark has travel mugs, birthday cards and more.

Kathryn Aalto
 Book The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest that Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood (2015)

Useful Websites

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wooden_Pooh_and_friends.jpg

http://www.ashdownforest.org/winnie-the-pooh/pooh.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Many_Adventures_of_Winnie_the_Pooh_(attraction)

https://www.shopdisney.com/movies-shows/disney/winnie-the-pooh/

https://www.hallmark.com/winnie-the-pooh/

About the Author, Angela
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Meet Authors. Writers and Would be Writers Win a Place At Swanwick Writers' Summer School in England

This is the main historic building of The Hayes Conference Centre. A cabinet inside displays items and stories about WWII and the great escape. Some bedrooms are in the main building.

To the right is the modern dining room and the conference hall. More meeting rooms are in other buildings, mostly linked by covered walkways or internal corridors. Visitors and speakers come from as far away as Singapore, Australia and the USA.


Flag of the USA



Flag of the UK

Do you want to learn how to write poetry, plays, novels, short stories? Or maybe you can do one but not the others. Have a go.

The cost varies. to encourage students and those on a low budget, sponsored places are provided, given to those who win various competitions.

Win a Place - Swanwick Writers' Summer School: Find out how you can win your way to Swanwick Writers' Summer School. Known for short simply as Swanwick.

Activities go on all day. Everything from exercise of the mind and body, yoga and dance and prayers to start the day, organized workshops all day, an outing mid-week, or a walk, performing a play, reading your poems, busking and sing alongs, quizzes, talking about your work in progress, meetups with Facebook friends, members of the Romantic Novelists' association, talks and workshops on copywright and writing blogs and marketing and spelling and grammar - until 11 pm or midnight every night. 

Forthcoming dates:
8-14 August 2020.
Pack your poems to read out at the open mic (microphone) night, or write more on the course. bring or buy a bottle of wine or soft drink to share, with some to spare for the last night pre-dinner party on the lawn.

It starts Saturday tea-time and ends after breakfast on Friday. I have gone there on the train, paid for the seat on the coach from the station to The Hayes Conference Centre. When I had heavy books, or preferred to drive, and leave home when ready, also I have driven up from London on the Saturday and back on the Friday.

You can see me in the front row on stage in one of the pictures on the Swanwick website. On the last night there's a party on the lawn.

I am on the far right.

Venue
The Hayes is a conference centre surrounded by flowerbeds, fields and a lake, for those who wish to contemplate nature and get away from it all.

Accommodation is at various prices. Food is included, tea on the Saturday of arrival and dinner, breakfasts until the last morning. Free parking on site. One year we drove on north to Scotland and spent time at the Edinburgh Festival.

For a budget alternative, or if you cannot spare the time, if you have friends and family in the area or are touring, drop in just for the day or one or two days and overnight elsewhere on just a day pass overnight one or two nights at the conference centre. Write to ask if they have a room free at a reduced price for a shorter stay.

Where
The Hayes Conference Centre
Swanwick
Derbyshire
England

Useful websites
https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/
visitbritain.com

 About the author
Angela Lansbury
Author of 20 books. travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Why Flowers and Colours Are Good Themes for a fancy dress at a conference, birthday or anniversary party

Flowers was the theme of the fancy dess night at Writers' Summer School. Flower dresses fitted the surroundings, full of flowers.


The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Best theme ever. In previous years we had themes relating to eras, and the same has happened at personal anniversary and birthday parties. To find a Fifties or Sixties dress or outfit requries lots of advance preparation, or spending on hiring a complete suitable outfit. But a theme such as flowers means people can select modern clothes on the theme, a man's shirt, too, and flower garlands, and headbands.

Other easy to follow themes are colours, such as red and white for Chinese National Day, Red and white or red, white and green for Christmas.

Another colour theme could be colours of the rainbow.

Useful Websites
https://www.facebook.com/pg/SwanwickWriters/posts/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel wrter and photographer, author and speaker.

Could you, should you, offer or accept lifts to a writing holiday?

We need a 'travel to Swanwick Writers Summer School' group.

Car Travel I had two lifts from members of my writing group who refused offers of payment.

Later, I gave lifts to people.

On one occasion the person I was assisting turned up late. My relatives who waited to help load up the car and were not pleased. The next year they told the person wanting the lift you must turn up early or within half an hour or risk not getting the lift.

Later, on one occasion I sat alone on a train from London to Derbyshire and at the conference found a new friend who had been on the same train.

If you book a seat you are allocated a random seat and cannot choose to sit near a friend and risk being without a seat if you move or being asked to move out of a reserved seat.to be with a friend.

However, If we could have a system, such as Swanwickers wear a Swanwick badge (make your own by printing a pictures of the Hayes and sit in front carriage, we could find other old friends and potential new friends.

Another idea for those travelling by car would be to have a lift offered and lift wanted system. You might include, a tick box with free, petrol contribution appreciated, and back to your door, or only drop off and collect from designated railway station, or only drop on and collect from my home area which is (your rough location).

Writing Groups There are also writing groups from various areas which regularly send members. So they could offer lifts to people from their area and thus recruit new members for their group.

Train Tickets Or Car For Convenience And Company? One year, on another writing holiday, I had a train ticket. However, I got a lift home to London from an elderly gentleman which I thought would be good to have a chance to recap the week's events and swap stories.

Safety One of the holiday organizers warned me, "Once you leave this holiday, we can't guarantee your safety. We cannot supervise or guarantee anything."

Direct - or Detour! What could go wrong? My driver took a detour. He didn't tell me until after we started driving. he offered to drop me off or continue. The detour took longer than he or I expected because he got lost. This made me later reaching home than I would have been on the train.

On another occasion, my passenger needed to be home on time. In my haste I took the wrong lane and missed a turning off the motorway.

Back to my passenger journeys. On another occasion I was unexpectedly dropped at a station, not on my direct line, which involved changing trains. I had a train pass. However, I faced more stairs and luggage carrying than I had expected.

For me, the whole point of going by car, was to avoid the steps and long Luckily my family were at home and willingly collected me from the station. So after my momentary worry, everything worked out fine for everybody.

Yes, I still found the conversation entertaining and useful. But I learned that it is handy to clarify in advance whether you should offer petrol money, pay for any toll on a bridge, or to buy coffee or a meal at a motorway stop.

Your circumstances and finances could change from year to year. So might your travelling companion's. You could be in a well paid job one year, then retired or divorced the next. Or it could be the other way round. You might start out desperate for money, then find yourself rich and famous and very happy to pay your way or buy meals and gifts.

The arrangement might depend on the finances of the driver, or yours, or simply their attitude to life and yours. It is really simpler to clarity from the start whether you are offering money, a lot, a little, will buy food or drink, or have a gift of a book or flowers.

Know your own personality type. On the Myers Briggs personality typing, there are judgers who like to decide where they are going on holiday and book well in advance, no uncertainty.

Other types, many teachers, are ENFP, P I like to think of as procrastinators, like to have their options open and decide at the last minute.

You also need to know that some types hate to be taken advantage of. Whilst others are nurturers and feel their mission in is to help others, which makes them feel useful.

Many organizations let you know in advance whether you can buy reduced price rail tickets if you buy well ahead.

If your holiday organizers don't have a system going, you could start your own.

Happy travelling!

Useful Websites
writers holiday website
writers summer school website
Facebook page writers holiday
Facebook page writers summer school

London Transport

GWR (Paddington to Fishguard for Writers Holiday annually February)


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Prepare For Next Year's Writers' Summer School in England in 2019 Aug 10-16, Tips and Tricks

Writers enjoying summer weather at Swanwick in August. The Lakeside block is the far distance by the lake.

Problem
This year, 2018, Writers' Summer School was over-subscribed, with a waiting list. My friend D was only told the day before the event started that somebody had cancelled at the last moment because of illness. So how can you be sure of getting a place next year? Why would I want to go? For the food, if nothing else.

Desserts at Swanwick. Cheesecake was one of my favourites.

Answers
Number one action, note next year's date now.

Timing - AUGUST 10-16 2019
The conference starts just before tea-time on Saturday. It ends after breakfast the following Friday.

August, yes, August. Just around the time of the Edinburgh Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. One year when the writers' conference ended, we drove on to the Edinburgh Festival.

When To Book
Priority bookings open on 1st January 2019.
General bookings 1st February 2019.

Who gets priority bookings? Presumably the committee themselves. Plus the Friends Of Swanwick who have donated money.

Food
You can let them know about special diets and allergies.
A gluten free cake is provided for tea time and among the desserts at dinner.
I was so impressed by the cakes that I wrote about them in the Swanwick Standard which we wrote during the conference.


Accommodation
The price you pay depends on the accommodation you choose - or what is left if you book late.
Included in the price: breakfast, biscuits and coffee or tea drinks at morning break, lunch, tea-time biscuits or cakes and tea, dinner. 24 hours machines dispensing water and coffee, tea, water.

How can you Economise?
Accommodation
1 Ttake a room in the main house with only a washbasin. Showers and toilets are along the corridor.
Other accommodation price varies.
You could just come up for one day and not pay for accommodation, just the day rate. That works if you live nearby or have a friends or relatives in the area.

1 If the conference is fully booked, find out if you can have a day rate and stay at a hotel nearby.

2 Enter the raffle at a conference and hope to win the big prize of a free conference the  following year, or the other prizes of money towards your return visit.

3 Enter the competitions by sending in a short story or poem on the theme which is announced later on.
4 If you are a famous writer, offer to be a speaker or to run a course, in which case they might pay some or all of your expenses.

Here's the man who wrote the play in which I acted. He was also the actor in somebody else's play. The actress who played the murderer in his play won the best actor awarded.

Sell Some Of Your Books In The Book Room
You will sell more books if
1 They are how to books on the theme of writing
2 You give and evening lecture or a day time course and quote or read a passage from your book.
3 You offer a discount off the usual price in bookshops.

Start Writing Your Novel or How To Book
If you have been selling just one book at writing conferences, many people will already have it. So write a new book.

If you need a deadline, write it during the November NANO event - at least 500 words a day.

Last year we had a stage on the side of the hall. However, this was said to block the exits and a Health and Safety officer made the organizers move it.

Plan A Poem
Plan a poem to read out at the open mic poetry evening. Print it off or keep it accessible on your phone.

Learn A Poem
Practise reading your poem aloud without reading it off the page, to leave your hands free so you can make gestures and act, and lift your eyes up from the page and make eye contact with the audience.

Plan A Piece of Prose
Write a memoir. Read out the opening. For the prose open mic night.

Singers and Songriters Unite
For the buskers night, practice singing. Learn to sing in tune. Join a choir or sing along with museic every day. Or write a new song for somebody else to sing. Make sure it has lots of rhythm and a chorus so the audience can join in.

Contest Submissions
Write a poem or short piece for the competition in the hope of winning a prize.

Play Planning
Write a five minute play for the Page To Stage Event. Write it with characters who can be male of remale. Make sure each character has lines which suggest gestures, to give the characters in your play a greater chance of winning the best actor/actress award.

Ideally have all the characters standing or walking around the stage. The stage at the front of the hall is low and if actors sit down they cannot be seen or heard at the back.

Transport
Share driving with a friend.
Book a rail ticket well in advance.
Use one of the rail discounts.

If you were at the 2018  event, look for the post-conference downloads:
www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/downloads
You will need the password which was given out during the AGM to those who attended the conference.

WANT TO RUN A COURSE
www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/pitch-a-course

Closed Facebook group.
LinkedIn
Twitter @swanwickwriters

Websites of the 2018 speakers:
Sue Moorcroft
www.suemoorcroft.com

Ahmit Dhand
www.aadhand.com

To hire a costume for the fancy dress dancing night:
Jolly Jesters
www.jollyjesters.co.uk 

Secretary ingrid
secretary@swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

Treasurer Lesley
treasurer@swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

The Hayes Conference Centre
Hayes Lane
SWANWICK
Alfreton
Derbyshire
DE55 1AU.
tel:01773 526 000.

Useful Websites
Hayes Administration office: 01773 526 000.
www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/08/improvements-to-food-and-decoration-at.html
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See next post:
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-lake-flowers-and-food-and-faces-at.html

Where to Find Soft Water and How To Deal With Hard Water

Problem
London has hard water. It's a joy to visit other areas of the UK which have soft water.

Derbyshire
Swanwick in Derbyshire has a Writers' Summer School in summer. You go there to meet writers, learn to write plays and poetry and short stories and novels. The soft water is a bonus.

Wales
In Springtime, there's a Writers' Holiday at Fishguard in Wales. Again, to Londoners, the soft water is a recurring pleasure.

Madeira
Countries such as Madeira also have soft water. In Madeira, my hair was so soft that another traveller commented on it. She asked what I had done.

After I washed my old night-dress, it felt silky smooth and like a new garment.

London, England
In London, you need to wipe around taps. Be sure not to use a cleaner which damages the chrome plating, aluminium or the enamel surface. This involves a lot of reading of small print on big bottles of ferocious cleaner.

You would not want to use bleach on items which you later use for food. You need to use vinegar on glassware and jugs to clear the white limescale smears.

Limescale
https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Limescale
Own brand lime scale removers can be bought at under £2 from supermarkets in London, England, UK.
https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/product/Morrisons-Limescale-Preventer-Gel

Useful Websites
Madeira
visitmadeira.pt
(The abbreviation pt is for Portugal. Madiera is a Portuguese and Portuguese speaking island.)

England
visitengland.com

Britain
visitbritain.com
Derbyshire
visitderbyshire.co.uk

Wales
visitwales.com
writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Would you like to learn how to write a book, a children's book, on a writers' holiday?

Writers at Writers' Summer School, Swanwick. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
A friend of mine wants advice on writing a children's book for ages 5-7.

Answer
If you have children or grandchildren in your readers' age group, you have a captive audience for telling you the scenes of stories they already like. Check their bookshelves and favourite bedtime stories.

You can get feedback from them.

Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, amateur, professional? What is it you want to do? Get advice on writing a book, selling a book? Get advice on legal contracts? Get somebody to write a book or collaborate? Interview a successful author? What will you do for them? 

Possibilities:

WRITING CIRCLES

A local writers' circle. Harrow Writers Circle (for feedback on your own work). Indra and I are both members, have been for more than 20 years. Membership about £35 a year. Get feedback. Work for a 5-year-old probably short enough to read half or all during a meeting, or submit to other members for feedback by email in exchange for reading their work.

No group nearby? Start a group on Meetup. Even if only one other person turned up, you might find a friend of collaborator.

Facebook and other writers’ forums. Again, find one or start one.

LInked-In

Link to other authors.

Contracts

Society of Authors (sends out contract samples for free - probably available online)

Famous

Famous award-winning professional Michael Rosen - turns up at events in Pinner, where he went to school, such as festivals where he can sell books or promote himself as an author

Author of books (professional, Ward Lock, Cassell) but children’s books only self-published through Lulu.com - me.

Summer Courses

Courses in writing for children are part of the huge mixture of courses at:

 Swanwick Writers Summer School 

swanwickwritersschool.uk  11-17 August 2018

Competition for a free place - pay £5 entry fee and submit work to length on their theme:

https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/win-a-place.html#.WplcbyOcbR0

Swanwick has a book room where you can sell your books. Swanwick takes a commision.

TOP TIP
If you are going on a writing course, write something in advance and take it with you. You might have a chance to read it aloud to a group. This applies particularly to poetry and songs at an open mic occasion.

Angela Lansbury with her book The Tailor and the Spy, at Writers' Summer School, Swanwick, England, UK

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What You Learn At Swanwick Writers' Summer School

Problem
The Swanwick Writer's Summer School week is over and time to look back at what we have learned and what to do differently.

Other people at a conference often seem to be in groups of friends. Don't sit alone. Ask if you can join a group. If they are saving a chair for a friend, find another group.

Answers
If you are in the main house, work out how the showers operate. The pull cord, which in most places brings the emergency warden to open the door and rush into the shower to rescue you, at Swanwick turns on the shower which I thought had broken.

Tips
If there's no shower gel in the shower, but a dispenser by the wash basins, use an empty shower gel bottle to fill up with soap from the wash basin area for your shower.

If you are a speaker, or part of a group putting on a play or musical, practise:
1 Voice projection - can every member of your group be heard at the back of the hall.
2 In a cabaret type performance, plan to bow at the end - even if other acting groups do not.
3 Make sure all speakers repeat questions from the audience before answering.
4 Take photos and names and addresses of those with whom you share the stage.

For story tips, see next post.
http://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have more posts on Swanwick Writers Summer School. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What's New At The Hayes Conference Centre, Derbyshire, for Swanwick Writers Summer School Where You Can Stay For a Week Or A Day

You may go to the Hayes conference centre for the annual Writers Summer School or for other events held throughout the year including religious and secular groups.

Problem
What's the food and accommodation like? Some people say it's dire. Other say it's wonderful.

I say it's wonderful. But with these provisions:

Accommodation
Steadily upgraded over the years, from basic to motel style. This year I saw and stayed in the Main House which has a range of accommodation. The standard accommodation is likely to be upgraded.

I was allocated a room on an upper floor with a sloping ceiling which I found oppressive. I swapped rooms with a friend in order to gain her downstairs room. It has a wash basin. The toilets and showers are along the corridor and around the corner. Upstairs my room looked outside. Downstairs I had a room overlooking an inner courtyard.

Water, juice and coffee or tea were available from the moment we arrived.

The food is now served from self-service buffet stations which is a great improvement. Faster. More choice of food. The breakfast hot chocolatines were great.

Always fresh fruit available at meals. Hot or cold vegetables. Sometimes as many as five cakes for dessert. My favourites were the coffee cake, the carrot cake, the chocolate cake, the fruit salad.

The history of the building is shown in a cabinet. You have a shop on site. The gardens are lovely, flowers, trees, a lake, with tables outside on the lawn.

Tips

If it's raining, you can walk around indoors from the AB Centre to Lakeside.

You'll find ground floor public toilets in the main building, the corridor towards the main conference centre, the ABC Centre, and Lakeside. The Hayes shop sells colourful notebooks to which a pen can be attached. See wildlife at the Lake. Read up about the history of the building in WWII and the secret passage. (I have previous posts on The Hayes which I have been visiting for about twenty years. 

For more details about the conference centre, see the Hayes website.

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

The Hayes Conference Centre, Hayes Lane, Swanwick, Alfreton, Derbyshire DE55 1AU, tel 01773 526 000. 

Directions

If you are driving to visit or collect somebody:

About ten minutes drive from Junction 28 off the MI.

Turn off the motorway onto the A38 towards Derby. 

Leave the A48 at the exit for A615 / A61 Matlock and Chesterfield. 

Take the B6179 to Swanwick and Ripley. 

At the traffic lights by the church turn left toward Somercoates. Look for a sign on your right to the conference centre. Free parking at the conference centre and free wifi.  

Conference centre booking: 

0300 111 4444 

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

To get there from London take the M1 to Junction 28 and follow your Sat nav. 

Successful Writing Courses - Plan Next Year's Trips To The UK

We had two Americans and one person flew all the way from Australia and made her entire holiday allowance into a trip to the UK for Writers Summer School at Swanwick in England.

If you can't afford the course, you have two or three ways of getting a free or reduced place.
1 Enter an online competition on the Swanwick website for writers of short stories and poetry and hope to win the first prize of a free holiday.

2 A runner up prize or at least a certificate which might encourage you to save; a member of your family to loan or give you the money.

3 A raffle ticket bought at one Swanwick conference might win you a place at the next.

(more shortly. See previous posts on Swanwick.)

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker

Highlights Of A Travelling Writer's Year: Books and Songwriting

The highlight of my year was getting delivery of my paperback novel from Lulu.com an hour before I set off for Swanwick Writers' Summer School.

Plate Racks
Another great discovery was that plate racks can be used to display books (and greetings cards). I bought some plate racks from British Home Stores in Watford, when the store had a closing down sale. Friends told me that you can buy lovely white ones from Wilko. I didn't see them at Wilko in Watford. Maybe you can get them on line or from other branches as well as other department stores.

At Swanwick I was given a foil star to wear on my badge. This was awarded to me by Alison Chisholm, poetry teacher, as a reward for stopping to talk to her. She and a couple of other people were giving out stars as a reward for friendliness.

Songwriting Course
Another highlight was the songwriting course. During one session we learned ways of writing to an existing (out of copyright) tune, keeping no more than the first two notes for inspiration, then changing a few notes, for example, going up instead of down.

Songwriting Books
We looked at the structure of songs. I took pictures of the covers of a couple of books. That way I am sure to remember them, rather than losing my notes in poor handwriting.

DIY Songs
In a second songwriting session we all wrote songs and commented on each other's songs. Several people sang their songs or accompanied themselves on a guitar. I was able to say that I could not yet sing nor play the guitar and wanted a composer and an existing friend put their hand up and offered to pair up.

Photos of Handwritten Notes
I did the same camera copy trick as before. I photographed my handwritten copy of my song for them to try writing music, so I still had my original copy.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

One of Britain's Great Desserts, Eton Mess at Swanwick Writers' Summer School

Eton Mess is a desert made of white meringue, red summer fruit and double whipped cream. The fruit can be raspberries or strawberries. We had a huge platter of it but it was so more-ish that several people who had said they had had enough still had some more.

Eton Mess. Not much left over. Photo by Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and editor, author and speaker.