Linda Cracknell – Tutor
Tutor
Sam Miller – Guest Reader
Guest Reader
12th – 17th April 2027
Course Date

Drawing on place and memory, this course will help you to find, voice and shape the story that compels you to write.

Short-form or long, this could be memoir, nature, travel or another non-fiction focus awaiting illumination. Open to writers of all levels from beginners to more experienced.

Linda Cracknell

Tutor: Linda Cracknell – Writer

Place, memory and motion are at the heart of Linda Cracknell’s writing. A great walker, as reflected in her 2024, non-fiction book ‘Doubling Back: Paths trodden in memory’. She also excavates history and myth in fiction with Caithness-set ‘Call of the Undertow’ and ‘The Other Side of Stone’ which focuses across time on a Perthshire woollen mill. 

Her latest book, ‘Sea Marked: Throwing a Line to a Coastal Past’ is a memoir exploring her seafaring ancestry in north Devon. She lives in Scotland and teaches creative writing widely, subscribing to Susan Sontag’s advice to writers: ‘Love words, agonise over sentences and pay attention to the world.’

Sea Marked: Throwing a Line to a Coastal Past

Published September 2025

saraband.net/sb-title/sea-marked/ | www.lindacracknell.com

Photo: Robin Dance

Wednesday Evening Guest Reader: Sam Miller – writer

Sam Miller was born and brought up in London but has spent much of the last 25 years far away from the United Kingdom. He has worked for the BBC as a reporter and a trainer, and as Country Director for the organisation’s development arm, BBC Media Action, in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He continues to work, on and off, for the BBC.

His family memoir, Fathers, was published by Penguin in 2017.

He is also the author of Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity (2010), A Strange Kind of Paradise: India Through Foreign Eyes (2014) and Migrants: the Story of Us All (2023), and is the translator of Alfred Assollant’s nineteenth-century French-language novel The Marvellous (but Authentic) Adventures of Captain Corcoran (2016).
PRICES

Fee includes all day and evening tutored workshop sessions, individual tutorials, tutor and guest readings, accommodation, inc. sheets and towels and all meals (not including alcohol).

Single – En-suite room £1,205
Single – Shared bathrooms £1,155
Shared Room (2 Beds, only for people who know each other) £1,105 pp – single supplement £50
TO BOOK

£250 deposit payable on booking by bank transfer, PayPal, credit card or cheque, to secure place. Balance due six weeks before the start of the course.

Please see Terms and Conditions.
STRUCTURE OF THE WEEK See Structure of the Week (tab above)
WHAT TO BRING
Boots/outdoor shoes/trainers suitable for walking on rough/wet paths.
A waterproof jacket or coat, plus waterproof trousers if you like to walk in the rain!
Toiletries – we have one hair dryer available for use. Hand wash and shower gel are provided.
Writing materials: laptop and your personal writing preference – notebook, paper, pens etc.
Cash for tutors/guest readers/other participants’ books. The nearest cash machine is in Hawes, six miles away!
START TIME

Please arrive between 3:00pm and 4:00pm on Monday 12th April 2027

Tea, cake and housekeeping information 4.30pm

Introductory Workshop 5.30 – 6.30pm
Dinner 7.00pm
END TIME

After breakfast, 10:00am on Saturday 17th April 2027
LOCATION The Garsdale Retreat, Clough View, Garsdale Head, Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5PW
Nearest railway station: Garsdale, on the Leeds – Carlisle line.
For directions, see Find Us section on the Contact page.

All courses start on Monday afternoon.

3.00 – 4.00pm: Arrival time

4.30pm: Housekeeping/Course information with tea and cake

5.30 – 6.30pm: Introductory workshop

7.00pm: Dinner

All courses end after breakfast on Saturday (10.00am).

Course Structure Tuesday – Friday

8.00 – 9.00am: Breakfast

9.30 – 11.00am: First workshop – Participants explore particular aspects of memoir/life writing and take part in writing exercises to further their understanding and expertise. All participants have opportunities to share their work with the tutor and fellow writers in a safe, supportive and nurturing environment in which individual work is respected and confidence developed.

11.00 – 11.30am: Coffee break

11.30am – 1.00pm: Second workshop

1.00pm Lunch.

After lunch, participants are free to do whatever they like, such as: relax, go for walks, read or work on individual writing projects.

4.30pm: Tea and cake

5.30 – 6.30pm: Third workshop

7.00pm: Dinner

All participants on a course have one individual tutorial of 30 minutes with the tutor during the week. These will take place in the afternoons.

Each evening, at 8.30pm – c.9.30pm, there is an after-dinner event:

Tuesday – the tutor will read from their work.

Wednesday – reading from a guest writer.

Thursday – poetry/music performance from Hamish and Rebecca.

Friday – a shared reading of ‘work-in-progress’ produced during the week.