In the afternoon we all chose our resting place, some in the barn - designated a silent room for our the duration of our retreat, some in the sitting room, where quiet reading with occasional conversation is the order of the day, and others, either in their rooms, or out exploring the magnificent countryside.

Tea was served at four in the dining room, with the first of a range delicious home baked goodies, and then even more hours of quiet and reading time; what luxury!

Supper was at 7.30pm in the company of Carole and Allen, poet Gillian Clarke, and her husband. As always in Gillian's company, the conversation was literary, poetic and animated: lots of laughter! After supper, we all retired to the sitting room where Gillian read to us from her own work, with a general discussion of the state of poetry in society currently (the good news is that children are loving it!).

Around midnight we were treated to long glasses of elderflower or ginger cordial, and then to bed!

Each day followed much the same pattern: gathering for delicious food three times a day - Carole is the best cook! - walking in the hills or on the nearby coastal paths; reading together from The Summer Book by Tove Jansson; enjoying our long quiet afternoons and then joining together again after supper to discuss the stories we had read earlier.

We loved The Summer Book and enjoyed being transported on a daily basis to the islands of Finland in the company of the wonderful old woman nearing her life's end, and with the child of her youth she remembered so vividly. I was very grateful to Ali Smith for sending me this book as a birthday gift a couple of Christmases ago; the richness of the writing, and the jewels hidden within each story, were perfect for us!

By the end of the retreat we had settled on next year's dates (February 25th - March 1st) and agreed that the retreat should be one day longer, so that keen walkers could have a whole day's walking thrown in. This second retreat was every bit as wonderful as the first had been, and I look forward to sharing it next year with readers and friends, old and new.

A Mile of River - Overview
Judith Allnatt's first novel, A Mile of River, is a startling and original debut novel, set on a remote farm during the drought of 1976. Set in 1976, England is suffocating. The long, dry spring has given way to a summer of severe drought, with standpipes in the streets and a rallying cry to 'save water, share a bath!' For the farmers, life has become a living hell - a daily struggle to make ends meet. The fields are tinder dry, the earth is dusty and scorched and the rivers are drying up to a trickle.

Jess and Tom live on a remote farm in the English countryside with their increasingly difficult and brutal father, Henry. Their mother, Sylvie, walked out years before and Jess is struggling with the role of mother figure to Tom, as well as skivvy and hired hand for her father. Jess just wants to be a normal teenager, to go to dances and kiss boys, to take her exams and dream of a future far away from milking cows and ploughing fields. Daydreaming about her mother's return, Jess discovers Sylvie's old diary and begins to uncover the shocking truth about her disappearance.

As the drought grips ever tighter, as the water level of the river begins to drop, the menace in the air builds until it reaches boiling point, with a confrontation between Jess and her father that has devastating consequences.

Pre-Publication Reviews
'A novel of rare insight, exquisitely written. A standing ovation for this debut.'
- Michael Morpurgo

'In the heat of the drought-stricken summer of 1976, a farming family's dysfunction reaches an appalling yet ultimately liberating climax with agonising and searing emotion. Allnatt's literary fiction debut has every hallmark of quality, with a constant introduction of the unexpected, each revelation all the more unnerving.the emotional strength of the whole marks the arrival of a writer to watch.'
- Publishing News

Judith Allnatt Biography
I was born in the heart of the Midlands in Stafford in 1959 and lived on a working farm at Staffordshire's Agricultural College until I was eleven. Unlike the heroine of my book, I had an idyllic childhood and the fields, orchards and gardens of the college were my kingdom. From the delights of scrumping apples known as 'sheep's noses', to the delicious terror of building dens in Pig Wood where an escaped boar was rumoured to run wild, we kids had the run of the place and knew its every corner intimately. When I was eleven we moved to Gnosall, a village on the Staffordshire / Shropshire border but still surrounded by the arable and dairy farms so typical of the Midlands.

I was educated at Stafford Girls' High School, where my English teacher, Mr.Walker, instilled a love of poetry by introducing us to Gerard Manley Hopkins. Strangely in later life, I discovered that another of my favourite poets, Carol Ann Duffy went to my school but was a few years ahead of me. I have a school magazine that features my very early stab at a poem and her much more mature work which already shows her wonderful style developing.

I studied English Literature and Language at the University of Manchester, took a postgraduate diploma in Personnel Management and then started work in a large company. I met my husband-to-be straight away as he recruited me! Not many people can say that they interviewed their wife.

All this time I was quietly writing but keeping my work hidden in the proverbial 'bottom drawer.' In 1986 I went on my first course run by the Arvon Foundation and the tutors, David Benedictus and Rose Tremain encouraged me to have confidence in my work and start sending out poems and short stories for competitions.

During the 1990s our family grew to include James and Lottie, two great kids who have brought us tremendous joy. Over this time I started teaching English Literature and Creative writing. As my own writing began to be more successful with poetry and short fiction being published in magazines and anthologies, I began to teach Creative Writing for the Open University and the University of Leicester. I have also run courses and workshops for libraries, museums, the Arts Council, writers' groups and the mental health charity MIND.

My fairly obsessive love of the written word and the desire to share my enthusiasm with others developed very early on in life. At age nine I stuck labels in my books and started a lending library for our road, complete with hand-made tickets. (It was a great library - no fines). Spurred on by the success of this venture I got all the local kids writing pieces for our own publication 'The Club Magazine' to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund. I think we got to issue three before I realized that I was the only one still writing pieces and had to provide some variety by saying that the others could draw pictures if they wanted instead.

I feel very lucky to be able to make writing and the teaching of writing my working life now. It's taken me a while to get here but you could say it's the dream I've had since I was nine.

"Family Matters" (Robert Hale)
is Sue Moorcroft's second novel. Her first, Uphill All the Way, was published by Transita in 2005. Over a hundred of her short stories have appeared in magazines in several countries and she also writes serials and articles. She's a past winner of the Katie Fforde Bursary Award and a runner up in the Ford Fiesta Short Story Competition. She's a committee member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and editor of their 50th anniversary anthology.

Sue is a creative writing tutor for several institutions and has written courses on short stories and personal history.

After a childhood in Germany, Cyprus and Malta Sue settled in Northamptonshire. You can find her at
www.suemoorcroft.com