Retreats and Courses, 2026

Independent Writing Retreats

4-24 May//14 Sept- 9 Oct

Do you want to retreat? Does that sound like a break, a rest? A quiet room? A journey, an uplift; a change; or a quiet-ing? It can feel like all of those things. It’s an opportunity. And a risk. What if I don’t like it there? What if I don’t get what I want? Can you take the chance? Can you trust in the creative part of you to get you here, and attend to your writing? Can you trust the curious, the wild will?

We will provide breakfast, lunch and dinner, a comfortable room to rest in and write. Also morning yoga, evening meditation and a wood-fired sauna with cold plunge. We can also show you the river walk (in this picture) at Fingle Bridge on Dartmoor. Extras include writing consultation with a Bloomsbury mentor and author. You can choose the length of stay, with a minimum of 3 nights. It’s £55 - £150per night, depending on the accommodation you choose. And if you want to bring your own place to sleep by way of tent or motorhome, please let us know. We don’t want cost to be a barrier to participation.

Tutored Retreat

Poetry and Place: A Midsummer Writing Week
5-day poetry writing course -22-27 June

Join Jonathan Edwards to draw inspiration from a landscape which has been sacred to poets including Alice Oswald and Ted Hughes. We will spend some time exploring the rivers of Dartmoor National Park and the extinct volcano up at Posbury. We’ll pursue a wide range of writing approaches, exploring the beauty, the sounds and creatures of this place as well as other homes and landscapes. We’ll write about people - banter and gossip, dialect and slang - exploring how we relate. This bubbling, surging environment will burst out of us in energetic and vibrant voice and find its way through you so that you reach the end of the week with a sheaf of new draft poems.

Jonathan Edwards (tutor). Open to locals and those who want to stay with us) -£350 without accommodation/£450-720 full board. Max 12 participants. 8 residential spaces. Morning and evening workshops, afternoons to write, read, relax, walk. Literary evening and half hour 1-2-1 tutorial with Jonathan.

Tutored Retreat - Develop Your Book Idea

5-day writing course:
24 - 28 May (fully booked)
27- 31 Aug and 4-8 Oct

Join Natalie Young on a 5-day writing course to turn your idea from a kernel in your mind into something fully formed. Have you felt yourself grabbed or amused by a thought about a book you could write? Have you been planning to knuckle down to that story for a while? Perhaps it’s been haunting you? Gnawing away? Perhaps it already exists in a draft? Let’s commit together by bringing these book ideas to the workshops and have the afternoons to work on what we explored with the group. This course is open to locals and those who want to stay with us). £299 without accommodation (includes lunch)/£389-£699 full board. We provide three healthy meals, designed to nourish your body and fuel your mind . Max 12 participants. 8 residential spaces. Morning and evening workshops, afternoons to write, read, relax, walk. Yoga, wood-fired sauna. Literary evening and 45 mins 1-2-1 tutorial with Natalie on work in progress. If you want to bring your own accommodation - motorhome/tent - please get in touch. We don’t want cost to be a barrier to your participation :)