Natalie is an editor and mentor for Bloomsbury. She wrote We All Ran Into the Sunlight, 2011 and Season to Taste or How To Eat Your Husband, 2014 while working as a journalist at The Times. For the last five years she has designed and taught creative writing courses for Writers & Artists and received a grant from the Royal Literary Fund and two awards from Arts Council England. Most recently she was given a Work in Progress award from the Society of Authors and the Authors Foundation. In 2025 Natalie co-wrote, with Simon, a screenplay, How To Eat Your Husband, and is currently taking part in the flagship 6 month Write a Novel Course with Faber Academy in London. You can read more about Natalie’s writing and mentoring at www.natalieyoung.co.uk. Natalie is an experienced yoga teacher, and enjoys swimming, gardening and sauna with cold plunge therapy!
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Simon is a screenwriter with a background in teaching and film production. He is currently writing a full-length feature film, UNGODLY, having collaborated with Natalie on a screenplay for her second novel. He published his first novel, Feelgood while living off-grid and building on his land. He has a passion for the natural world and for cycling.
OUR STORY
Simon bought 45 acres of land here in 1987 and set about clearing the scrub and digging out the rock to create a farm. He started with Nurserymans Cottage, an oak framed development of an 18th Century agricultural dwelling, and then added a conversion of Binneys Barn (Binney, the horse). He built Turners Cottage in 2019 and was living here with his son when Natalie drove up the lane with her son in 2022.
Having lived in London for fifteen years, Natalie found the farm an extraordinary place - peaceful and calm and full of an enchantment that Airbnb guests over the years have celebrated.
We would like to share this secluded setting and its extraordinary natural energy with writers and artists, making the place available for retreats. Simon’s latest building projects are an indoor sauna with cold plunge (!) and a garden terrace for Turners Cottage where we can practise yoga and socialise in the evenings.
