Writing Retreat Andalusia, Spain

Writing Retreat Andalusia, Spain

Comments 0 Comment

2nd – 7th October 2024 Welcome! Bookings are open! This writing retreat is set in a pretty white mountain village, in the heart of Grazalema National Park close to Ubrique, Grazalema and Ronda. Andalusia not only has a history of fascinating writers from Maria Zambrano, Federico Garcia Lorca and Antonio Machado to present day authors such as Elvira Lindo, but this stunning landscape has also long inspired national and international authors such as Maria Dueñas, Almudena Grandes, Laurie Lee, Washington…

Read More Read More

3 books in a pile
Becoming a better writer: 5 books I want to read this year

Becoming a better writer: 5 books I want to read this year

Becoming a better writer involves many things, including one of my favourite pastimes: reading. While I have always read, I have noticed that since I have been writing more fiction, I have become more demanding about what I read. By that I mean, if a book isn’t doing it for me, I’m likely to give up on it a lot earlier than I would have done before. I’ve also become more demanding about the writer’s mastery of language. Perhaps, this…

Read More Read More

The track lined with coloured flags on poles that leads to Suryalila in Andalucia, Spain
Escape Christmas Yoga retreat in Spain

Escape Christmas Yoga retreat in Spain

Comments 1 Comment

Excitement mixed with anticipation rises as I turn left off the dirt track and up the dusty driveway. I’m about to do something I’ve never done before; I’m spending Christmas at an Escape Christmas Yoga Retreat in Spain. At the end of the track I park and take a moment to look around me at the patchwork background that makes up the Sierra de Cádiz. After a relentless summer and long dry autumn, it’s finally starting to turn green. A…

Read More Read More

A table in the sunshine with notebooks and a copy of The Cartography of Others by Catherine McNamara
Living with a writer: 6 days in Italy with Catherine McNamara

Living with a writer: 6 days in Italy with Catherine McNamara

I step off the train at Vicenza and make my way through the station pulling my suitcase behind me. I’m wearing one backpack on my back and the other on my front. Maybe, one day I’ll learn to travel lightly. I stop outside to take in the view of the wide open park area and the low lying hills in the distance. After the high mountains of Trentino where I’ve spent the last three weeks, it makes a nice change…

Read More Read More

A whitewashed house in Castellar de la Frontera with red doors and window frames and a sherry barrel outside
Castellar de la Frontera: orange blossom and hand-painted scarves

Castellar de la Frontera: orange blossom and hand-painted scarves

The smell of jasmine and orange blossom fills the air. I think how lovely it must be when the flamenco bar and restaurant are open, although secretly I’m glad they aren’t and that I’ve arrived in time to wander round the village in pleasant solitude. Castellar de la Frontera has changed since I last visited it 20 years ago. I have a vague memory of a cold and cloudy February weekend afternoon and stalls selling tie-dyed baggy trousers inside the…

Read More Read More

Open notebook for writing and pencil with a view of the sea and the sunrise
3 ways writing can help you move forward

3 ways writing can help you move forward

Have you ever considered that 10 minutes of writing for enjoyment could add a positive aspect to your day? Many of us write everyday for work purposes, on instant messaging apps or to fill in paperwork. But what if a regular daily writing practice of a different kind could not only help you to clarify ideas but also to feel good afterwards? Here are three ways writing can help you move forward 1 Writing helps you to let go of…

Read More Read More

6 wine glasses with wine ready for tasting
Wine and vino; a day in Seville

Wine and vino; a day in Seville

It’s 7.30am and Seville is already starting to feel busy. Pedestrians, buses, bikes, scooters, cars and trams are all on the move. Lights appear dotted over apartment blocks as people prepare to start the day. San Bernardo train station is full of early morning commuters and today I am one of them. I step out of the station into the cool air of the December morning and ask a lady for directions. She points me vaguely in the direction of…

Read More Read More

Creative writing for wellbeing & discovery
Creative Writing for Wellbeing & Discovery; what can happen when you are curious about the process of writing?

Creative Writing for Wellbeing & Discovery; what can happen when you are curious about the process of writing?

When writing, we tend to concentrate on the finished product; a book, a poem or an essay. But, what happens if, instead of focusing on the outcome, we focus on the actual process of writing itself? This is what I began to explore in 2018 when, as a volunteer, I started to run Creative Writing for Wellbeing sessions. As we progressed through the sessions, I discovered that the participants benefited enormously from this type of writing in a group.  It…

Read More Read More

Pinot Noir at the Fábrica de Hojalata

Pinot Noir at the Fábrica de Hojalata

La Fabrica de Hojalata Yesterday, December 6th was bank holiday and it couldn’t have rained harder. Today, we are en route to visit La Fábrica de Hojalata, a winery in the Valle del Genal near Ronda. The sky is grey and the rain comes and goes. We turn off the main road from Ronda and start to wind our way around the mountain. We pass Júzcar, a town famous for its Smurfs, and see the sign to the Fábrica Real…

Read More Read More

A bottle of Spanish wine on a shelf
Wine shop 3/4 mile

Wine shop 3/4 mile

The small sign flashed at me as I manoeuvred the bend; Wine shop 3/4 mile. Rain had given way to a clear sky and a glimpse of the sea over the fields. Intrigued and wondering how a wine shop ended up in a narrow Devon lane, I drove on towards Stoke Fleming, making a mental note to find out more. Halfway down the hill from Stoke Fleming to Blackpool Sands, where the road joins the pavement, I stopped to admire…

Read More Read More