Reading Retreat

17/01/2025

Beautiful sunrise from one of the bedrooms at our Suffolk Reading Retreat just before Christmas. Join our mailing list www.readingretreat.co.uk to find out about our latest availability. This could be your room this December!

07/01/2025

Lovely article about how to ease into reading again https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jan/07/66-days-to-learn-to-love-reading-again-ten-pages-in-and-my-brain-is-twitching-with-fatigue

We'd recommend a retreat to jump-start you. The author of the article started with audio books which works well for some, I'd add old favourites, fast crime, children's books, anything that feels easy and comfortable and engrossing.

Once upon a time – before kids, social media and phones got in the way – Doosie Morris loved nothing more than reading books. Can she rekindle the habit in just over nine weeks?

14/08/2024

The power of the written word...

1934

A New York copywriter by the name of Robert Pirosh quit his well-paid job and headed for Hollywood in 1934, determined to begin the career of his dreams as a screenwriter. When he arrived, he gathered the names and addresses of as many directors, producers and studio executives as he could find and sent them what is surely one of the greatest, most effective cover letters ever to be written; a letter which secured him three interviews, one of which led to his job as a junior writer at MGM. Fifteen years later, Pirosh won an Oscar for best original screenplay for his work on the war film Battleground. A few months after that, he also won a Golden Globe.

Dear Sir:

I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave "v" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.

I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.

I have just returned and I still like words. May I have a few with you?

Robert Pirosh

15/05/2024

An excellent masterclass for screen writing with the fabulous
Penny Hancock Author
and Rick Harvey - sign up now before the places all go! Email [email protected]

19/12/2023

We love this charity and if you recommend us a Reader who books on our Retreats, we offer a £25 donation to BookTrust as one of our reward choices.

No child should be without a book of their own

In need of a last-minute present or a Secret Santa gift?

Donate on behalf of someone else to our appeal and you'll receive a certificate to give them.

But what's more, you'll be helping to send a festive gift parcel to a child who is vulnerable or in care:

https://secure.booktrust.org.uk/donation-xmas?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=christmas-2023&utm_content=facebook-post-181223