A Writing Retreat at Gladstone’s Library

Finally the date I’d been waiting for came around and I waved goodbye to my family – and of course, the dog, who reminded me of my promise to bring him back a present – and I set off to go on the writing retreat that I’d booked at Gladstone’s Library.

As I’d suspected, there was a lot of summer holiday traffic to contend with and everyone else on the road seemed destined for North Wales, too, but eventually – hot and tired – I arrived, getting out of the car to find a beautiful building in front of me.

My en-suite room was lovely too – up on the top floor of the three story building – and the public areas were just as nice, with a large, airy restaurant with a good choice of meals, a comfy lounge for guests to relax in, and a big garden.

But the reading rooms, occupying the whole of the left wing of the building, were stunning – double-height and galleried, lined with thousands of books, and with desks placed at convenient intervals between the bookshelves. There were also plenty of comfy chairs scattered about. I tip-toed around for a while, before settling in a convenient armchair to read a few chapters of a book that I’d picked up.

After strolling around the rest of the building and the garden, I walked to the end of the drive, into the village. It was very pretty and had several shops (that might even sell dog treats!) and cafes, and also included the entrance to a vast country estate, still belonging to the Gladstone family, that was complete with not one, but two castles – one old and ruined, and the other more recent and lived-in. Neither castle was open to the public at the time I visited, but that was all to the good as far as I was concerned – it was nice being able to go out for a little stroll, but I could do without anything more time-consuming, that might increase my risk of running into that old, writerly enemy, procrastination.

Once I’d spent a few minutes seeing the local sights, I went back to the library and up to my room and, as there was no TV there to distract me either, I got out my laptop and switched it on. I was soon tapping away, improving and lengthening my work in progress, and then entering a recently finished novel into a competition, for good measure. A meal in the on-site restaurant, at the end of the day, was my reward for getting so much done.

The next morning I took another walk around the village and returned to my room an hour later, full of fresh air and laden with enough Welsh-themed gifts to take home to my family, for them to start a small shop. There were no dog treats, however – this was slightly concerning, but I was hopeful that if I kept back something from my lunch on the drive home, the dog would still be happy. As soon as I’d put all the presents (for humans) away, I put the laptop back on and got back to work. And so it went on for the next two days; short strolls around the village, nice meals in the on-site restaurant… and lots and lots of writing time. And so, when I checked out at the end of my stay, my laptop awash with freshly written words, I knew that, if I got the chance in the future, I would go back. So, if you’re looking for somewhere quiet that has everything a writer could want, but without any of the things that a writer could do without, I recommend that you take a look at Gladstone’s Library. And if, like me, you don’t live in either North Wales or the North West of England, it is worth travelling for – even if I couldn’t find any dog treats there!

Looking for a Writing Retreat

A few months ago I decided that I would like to go on a short writing retreat. I asked the dog what he thought, but he just said that as long as I bought him back a present when I came home, he’d be happy. I then asked for advice from members of the writing groups that I belonged to and was given several suggestions, but many of the places were either too far away from where I lived, or too structured – I didn’t want to go to writing classes or workshops while I was away (or pay for them but not use them). A standard hotel also wasn’t going to fit my rather exacting bill, as not only did I want somewhere with comfortable bedrooms and nice food, but I also wanted it to be quiet, provide decent-sized desks, and definitely not have the distraction and irritation of loud voices, music or TVs blasting out from nearby rooms, when I was trying to work. I just wanted a ‘writerly’ place where I could stay for a few days… and write.

After receiving lots of advice, I noticed that one place kept coming up – Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, in North Wales. At first I’d dismissed it as being too far away (ideally I wanted somewhere that was quick and easy to get to), but when I realized that nowhere else fitted the bill, I started looking into it further.

I learnt that Gladstone’s Library is a residential library that was set up in memory of the Victorian British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, with the aim of providing accommodation and a quiet work space for reading, writing and research, the present building being built with a bequest in his will. It looked perfect (apart from the travelling) and seemed to have not only food and accommodation, but – best of all – the quiet, ‘writerly’ atmosphere that I was looking for. It was set in a pretty village that had several shops, too, so it seemed likely that one of those would sell dog treats. The library also offered discounts for members of the Society of Authors… It looked like I would just have to put up with a longer drive, and I booked a three night stay.

You can imagine my horror when, only a few days before I was due to set off, I tested positive for Covid. But when I called the library to tell them that I couldn’t come after all, they kindly allowed me to move my booking to several weeks later. I wrote the new dates in my diary and settled down to (impatiently) wait…

In my November post in two months’ time, I’ll talk about what Gladstone’s Library was like when I got there!

Travelling

At an earlier stage of my life, travelling meant visiting exotic and interesting countries and taking long-haul flights. Then, for a few years after I first had children, it meant going to sand-strewn caravans in different parts of the UK. More recently, airports and flights have featured again in some of our holidays – but not this year. In 2020, our trips away from home have been limited to the occasional visit to family in different parts of England, when restrictions have permitted it. Although the dog may well prefer this. He hasn’t always been best pleased at being left behind in the kennels when we’ve gone abroad, and he seems to prefer coming with us, so that he can spend his time gazing out of a different window in a different house, as different cats parade past, before going outside to sniff all the new and exciting smells.

But there’s still plenty of inspiration to be seen, as you travel across England in a car. When we drive along the A66, passing all the poles that are there to mark how deep the snow gets in winter, we drive through County Durham – designated on the sign as ‘The land of the Price Bishops’. I’m sure there are plenty of stories in that title. It sounds like something out of Game of Thrones, and the landscape around it looks ideal for proper battles. There could easily be armour-wearing knights and siege engines lined up in front of the partly-ruined castles at Brough and Brougham.

Later in the year, as we travel south down the A303 towards Devon, we pass Stonehenge – getting plenty of time to view it from the road, as by then we’re usually stuck in a traffic jam. For miles around Stonehenge, the gently rolling landscape on either side of the road is marked with hundreds of ancient burial mounds, making me wonder what the people were like who built them, thousands of years earlier.

So, as with everything in 2020, inspiration – and holidays – are things to be taken wherever you can find them. And hopefully, if we’re lucky, there will be more of both in 2021.