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Ditch the deals, invest in experiences!
Give yourself the gift of an unforgettable week of creativity Forget about buying more stuff for a moment. Instead, I have a question for...
Lloyd
Dec 6, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Sep 19, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Sep 10, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Aug 28, 2023
The night that never went dark - Arnhem in World War 2
It all started 500 years ago with a river On a cloudy, unremarkable Sunday in September, families climbed the steps to Eusebius, Arnhem’s...
Lloyd
Aug 20, 2023
Going Gothic: Ghosts, goblins & vampires: the supernatural
In the northern part of Puglia, close to the border with the Molise region, lies the Gargano Peninsula, a limestone mountain range on the...
Lloyd
Aug 13, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Aug 6, 2023
Going Gothic: Place in the Gothic genre
The term Gothic derives from the “Goths”, the Germanic peoples who lived north of the Roman Empire. From the mid-1600s, the word connoted...
Lloyd
Aug 1, 2023
Writing workshops and retreats in Italy now open
Work on your writing in a 900-year-old monastery The workshops in southern Puglia are open. And what better place to think about and...
Lloyd
Jul 24, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Jul 12, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Jul 3, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Jun 25, 2023
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...
Lloyd
Jun 19, 2023
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...
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Jun 10, 2023
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...
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May 11, 2023
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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May 7, 2023
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