John Osborne’s bench

We had a welcome meal last night - 14 of us tentatively getting to know each other. Wonderful food and then talks from our tutors for the week - Chibundu Onuzo who published The Spider King’s Daughter at 19, followed by the wonderful Welcome to Lagos a couple of years ago, and Lucy Hughes Hallett author of The Pike who wrote her first novel Peculiar Ground at 65. They read from their work and explained that we would have workshops every morning and a rota for cooking and washing up. The afternoons and evenings were free for writing. There was a kitchen full of food and drinks for us to help ourselves to... the first workshops were great, but I felt slightly out of my depth - one woman is just completing her 6th novel.