I have been asked how I enjoyed the ‘Arvon’ course and the response is that is was absolutelybloodyfantastic and I’m already thinking I may book another one next year.
The house, ‘The Hurst’ is in Shropshire, just outside Clun and the setting is beautiful, especially, of course at this time of the year. The grounds are extensive, the lake very peaceful, shimmering with damsel flies, and the trees magnificent and full of birdsong.
We were of course spoilt by wonderful weather, meaning that we could spend a great deal of time relaxing outside and even the tutorials were held outside by the lake. The group gelled very quickly, despite our range of backgrounds, which including doctors, nurses, librarians, teachers, a professional singer and a recently published poet.
We arrived on the Monday afternoon, early evening and offered tea, introduced to the others and shown our rooms. This was the only slightly disappointing thing for me… I had a room with no view as there was only a skylight / Velux window. As it happens this was not important, but it may have been had I gone there in the middle of winter, or if the weather had been bad.
The first supper and wine was provided (all wholesome good food cooked on the premises) as part of the holiday, but after that we had responsibilities to cook on a rota basis. In groups of four we washed up one night, then the next night that same team cooked. Nothing to worry about though as all the recipes and ingredients were there and the centre director put it all out ready and gave a kitchen guided tour for each group. The wine was a different matter. We sent a couple of the group out to buy from the local, small supermarket, on the Tuesday, and a second foray was needed by Friday for the last night.
Our tutors were Matthew Hollis and Colette Bryce and the visiting reader was Ian McMillan. He came on the Wednesday evening and entertained us thoroughly!
Our morning sessions ran from 10 am until 12.30, or later, each tutor taking a session each on alternate mornings (so two from each of them.) The general format was that we would look at published poems and discuss them, then had writing exercises and focussed on an aspect of writing each time.
In the afternoons we had the opportunity to book a tutorial with each poet and they collected in three or four poems from each of us to consider beforehand, and then discuss them in depth with us. This was very useful.
On Thursday evening we had a reading of published poems as a warm up for the Friday when we read some of our own poems to the group. Also on the Friday we put together an anthology of work completed or started at The Hurst that week. This was most successful and gave us a tangible memento of the holiday.
The group dispersed on Saturday morning, all feeling more than a little sad, and some feeling more than a little hung over since the party went on until after 3am.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Jan I’ll get around to answering this:
“You didnt say anything specific about your creative juices… did you feel they flowed well in the sympathetic relaxed atmosphere? Or was it all a bit tense to begin with?
I only ask because I’ve only been on a few half day or day-long writing things and the atmosphere has varied a lot – with rarely enough time to get my teeth into a proper piece of writing.
Also, personally, I only ever write poetry when I feel really emotional so I’m not sure I could have produced it to order in front of a load of strangers… that’s all. Just curious… 🙂 ” later on!
Good. 🙂 That’s the important bit, as far as I’m concerned. Not that I’d go on a poetry course anyway. Couldn’t face spilling my guts in front of strangers. I do it all the time in text but not face to face.
Never could do poetry or think that way.
But sounds like you had fun, what is all that matters
To reassure Jan, there was absolutely no gut spilling – not unless that’s what you wanted.
I know different tutors each do this differently, but we were able to do free writing in class and not be expected to share it with the group. It was done more as stimulus to write and for something to go back to. The exercises were good at tapping into something that maybe we had not thought of before as a topic for a poem, and once I have time to go back and visit it all maybe there will be some new poems….
At the last nights reading there was of course some poetry which touched on private matters, but that was up to the individual.
I found the exercises thoughtful and thought provoking:they encouraged me to write (pages in some cases) and so the answer is ‘yes’-
Key things for me were the environment and the company. Of course being with people with a common interest and purpose was marvellous.