Courses/Retreats

Leave those domestic chores behind and escape to the peace and tranquillity of a Garsdale summer.  Indulge yourself with space and time to write in idyllic surroundings fuelled by outstanding food. Meet up with your muse…

Memoir writing is the art of writing your own story in your own voice. Everyone’s life experiences are unique and deserve to be told. Join us to write your own story. Suitable for writers of any level of experience, or none.

This tutored retreat is designed for writers to work intensively with a focus on individual sessions to help them develop their work. This tutored retreat includes one 90 minute group workshop and one 30 minute individual tutorial each day, Tuesday - Friday with a group introductory workshop on the Monday.

'Departing summer hath assumed / An aspect tenderly illumed....'                  'Tenderly illume,' your writing with an autumnal excursion to the unfaded beauty of the Yorkshire Dales. Dedicate time and space to your writing, escape domestic chores and be nurtured by outstanding hospitality.

Most of us inhabit several places – ones where we presently live, ones we have inside us from earlier times in our lives or from family stories, ones we've only glimpsed but leave a lasting trace, or where we find ourselves in dreams. Balanced by awareness of the immediate setting, Garsdale itself, we'll build a safe but stimulating small group to investigate our different places together, alongside or alone.

‘O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall’ (October, Robert Frost) Share those ripened leaves in Garsdale’s autumnal beauty on an untutored retreat. Dedicate time and space to your writing, escape domestic chores and be nurtured by outstanding hospitality.

How poems have minds of their own and what we can do to discover their secrets. In this course, we’ll be exploring how we as poets can best serve the poems we write. It’s all-too easy to think we know what we want to say – but what if the poem has other ideas? In writing workshops, we’ll focus on trusting our poems and on learning how to be comfortable with the uncertainty that a new poem brings.

Treat yourself to the mists and mellow fruitfulness of Garsdale and give your writing a seasonal massage! Dedicate time and space to your writing, escape domestic chores and be nurtured by outstanding hospitality.

Now is the winter of your full content. Indulge yourself with log fires, outstanding food and the space to write, free from domestic chores.