CLARE FLYNN

Last month I spent a wonderful week in the Loire Valley on a writing retreat with six of my writer friends. We rented a huge gite –...

People sometimes ask me why I enjoy writing retreats. Surely you can write just as easily at home, or in a library or coffee shop? Isn’t it an unnecessary indulgence to travel somewhere else simply to sit with your imagination and put words on a page? Perhaps it is. But in my experience, a change of place can open creative floodgates that had previously been firmly closed. I’m writing this beside a palm‑fringed beach in Sri Lanka. I’ve been working all morning. On palm‑fringe

I’ve been doing writing retreats for ten years. Not the sort with tutors but ones where you can hunker down and do some serious writing...

I love writing retreats. Not organised ones with tutors, but small gatherings with other authors in attractive or new surroundings to...