milfordsfwriters

From where I’m sitting right now, I can see the tops of a line of trees. I’m not sure what species they are: deciduous, certainly, and rounded in outline, but they’re too far away to make out more detail. They’re in full leaf, right now, shades of green-yellow against clouds. It’s calming to look at, branches stirring slightly in a light breeze. Not timetables, no haste. Tree...

I’m writing this in Wales. I’m here to participate in a week-long writer’s retreat, hosted at the incredible Gladstone’s Library.

It has been my lifelong ambition to be a write...

I’d been at Gladstone’s Library for a week and I didn’t want to leave, but the real world and my family called to me and I had to go. I wrote every day, sometimes with more success than others. Tuesday was my low point and from then on I started to sprint, word wise.

I write in the gorgeous pin-drop-silent library, all wood panelled Victorian gothic. Though the retr...

After getting stuck in a mega traffic jam at Mottram that made me 40 minutes late to pick up Terry at Lymm services, the rest of the journey was relatively smooth, though I always have to remember that Hawarden is just over the Welsh border, so the speed limit through the village is 20 miles per hour. It feels excruciatingly slow, but if it saves lives, it’s worth it.

It’s Thursday 7th May. Two more sleeps before the Milford Writers’ Retreat 2026 at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, near Chester.

I’m almost packed. I’ve got a pile of noteb...