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.


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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.

Writing and Painting Courses in England and Wales, February and August - Plus Edinburgh Festival or Ireland

Writing Courses in England and Wales


In February 2019 you can attend the Writers Holiday in Fishguard, Wales.

The train goes to Fishguard and Goodwick from Paddington in London.  Fishguard and Goodwick station is just below the Fishguard Bay hotel which is on the clifftop.
The train runs here to the edge of WALES transporting tourists to the terminal where you catch the ferry across to Ireland.

Painting
Courses cover aspects of writing, and painting - so you can illustrate a book or paint a romantic or spooky scene to inspire a story. Susan Alison tells you all about perspective and colour. She is very thorough and helpful. Materials, watercolour paints, paper and brushes and so on, are provided.

Later in the year you could attend Swanwick, the Writers' Summer School in Swanwick village in Derbyshire. 

The programme is published on line.
Who will be there? The usual favourites including Della Galton, on writing a novel, a change from her usual area of expertise, short stories. Alison Chisholm as usual will be encouraging novice and seasoned poets, with her soothing voice.

Why book now. Why early? Why not wait? Because by booking now you are sure of getting a place if they are fully booked. Because you can choose the cheaper accommodation before it sells out. Because rooms are allocated when you book so you have a greater chance of getting the building you prefer, the level - ground or above, and the price your prefer - the cheaper rooms, or the dearer ones in prime position.

One year we went on from the Writers' Summer School to the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland which is also in August.. We drove north from Swanwick across the border and took in several sights including a puppet theatre and the cave where Bruce reputedly saw the spider. (Several caves claim to be the one. I puzzled over this for several hours on the journey, as we passed motels. Eventually, after comparing the dates of the claims, I realised Bruce hopped around caves, over the years, between battles, like a modern man on the run would hop from motel to motel, evading pursuers.)

So go north from London to Scotland, by train or coach or car, or drive on from Swanwick. That's August. At a big conference centre. Accommodation prices vary at the Hayes Conference Centre which has several buildings.

A smaller, shorter, cheaper event is the long weekend at Wales in February at Fishguard Bay Hotel with views over the bay. 
If you travel to Wales by train you will see Welsh signs on the train and at the Welsh stations. You can learn Welsh through the free online website, Duolingo.

Writers' Holiday
Friday 15 to Sunday 17 Feb. Stay a day longer before or after and make sure you see the tapestry of the invasion of Fishguard by the French - and their capture by a group of women - displayed next to the library in the town hall.

Plenty to think about, talk about and write about, at your destination and surroundings at either of these holidays or both. Visitors travel from far away: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland, the USA. So do the speakers and course leaders.

Swanwick 10-16 August 2019.

I tried to find my previous posts in this blog and could not - but a google search brought them up!

Useful Websites
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2017/07/fishguard-bay-and-films-in-wales.html
writersholiday.net
https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/full-programme.html
duolingo.com

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my previous posts on both these holidays, and photos. 

Please share links to your favurite posts.