Ditch the deals, invest in experiences!
Give yourself the gift of an unforgettable writing retreat Forget about buying more stuff for a moment. Instead, I have a question for...
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- Sep 19
Exploring the Dutch cities of the Hanseatic League
In the Middle Ages, while Amsterdam was still a tiny fishing village, cities in the eastern part of the Netherlands flourished. They were...
- Sep 10
Regenerating Italy's lost olive groves one tree at a time
A harsh, northeasterly wind whipped through the fields, covering us in fine, red dirt. We climbed into the car and drove through small...
- Aug 28
Falling in love with France in the time of Covid
Guest post by Clare Naden, student in one of my workshops. If you'd like to take a workshop or join a retreat, check out the offerings...
- Aug 20
The night that never went dark
It all started 500 years ago with a river On a cloudy, unremarkable Sunday in September, families climbed the steps to Eusebius, Arnhem’s...
- Aug 13
Ghosts, goblins & vampires: the supernatural in the Gothic genre
In the northern part of Puglia, close to the border with the Molise region, lies the Gargano Peninsula, a limestone mountain range on the...
- Aug 6
Ever wonder what it takes to renovate an Italian palazzo?
Running a B&B in Italy Today’s newsletter is an interview with Debbie and Darrel Stacey, a couple originally from the UK, who own and...
- Aug 1
Writing the Gothic, part 1: Place
The term Gothic derives from the “Goths”, the Germanic peoples who lived north of the Roman Empire. From the mid-1600s, the word connoted...
- Jul 24
Learn to write setting in a 900-year-old monastery
The workshops in southern Puglia are open. Learn to Write Setting starts 30 October. As part of the workshop, you’ll spend a week:...
- Jul 16
Novelist Francesco Dimitri on Puglia, 'beach' versus 'spiaggia', genre and much more
If you're looking to work on your writing with our writers whilst exploring a lesser-known part of Italy, check out our writing retreat...
- Jul 12
Cycling through Puglia
I’m back in Nardò this weekend, finalising the autumn workshops, including accommodation and cycling around. A bike is probably not the...
- Jul 3
broken chains & radical equality
Yesterday, in the pouring rain, in front of the slavery monument in Amsterdam, King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands apologised for...
- Jun 25
23 top tips for crime writers
Hi there, This week’s newsletter is something a bit different. It’s the first in a series of conversations with interesting people from...
- Jun 19
mailbox nostalgia
I was standing exactly where the postbox was meant to be, where Google Maps promised it would be. In its place, a slab of smooth, newly...
- Jun 10
Notes from a (non) Native Speaker
As the food tour wound its way past a medieval tower in Bologna, an American (who lives in Lisbon, btw) said, “You don’t sound like...
- May 11
Join a writing group (or workshop!)
It’s one of the best decisions I made years ago. But perhaps you’re wondering, what exactly is a writing group? Most broadly, it is a...
- May 7
Slow travel to Salento
The trip started from Düsseldorf on the sleek German high-speed ICE, whizzing through Köln, Frankfurt and München, where we switched to...
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