• Intensive Foundation Course  2-day/3-night (Wednesday evening to Saturday morning) residential courses at  Highgreen Manor in the heart of the Northumberland National Park, and Toftcombs in the Scottish Borders. This is a 'concentrated' version of the Foundation Course for those who can only get away from their desks for a shorter period of time. 

• Foundation Course  4-day/5-night (Monday evening to Saturday morning) residential courses at Highgreen, Toftcombs and other venues.

The aim of both these courses is to discover how we can inject colour, personality and freshness into all our writing, business and personal.  We explore the role of imaginative language, and the importance of stories and narrative writing, in successful business and brand communications. Personal development is fundamental to all creative writing and it is one of the aims of all Dark Angels courses.

The courses consist of morning group seminars in which we discuss techniques and approaches and set exercises. One or two briefs are set for the course and afternoons are essentially set aside for writing. The main focus of the daily creative exercises is the world of business communications. But everyone is also asked to produce a personal piece of writing during the course.

On the Intensive Foundation Course there is an introductory session on the first evening. On the second evening the tutors will read from their own work, followed on the final evening by the students reading from the work they’ve done on the course.

On the Foundation Course the tutors hold writers' surgeries during the afternoons, giving each student the opportunity of a half-hour individual session. The evenings are given over to readings from the tutors and the midweek guest, an evening of music with a visiting musician, and on the final night, readings by the students themselves.

Toftcombs

Only 26 miles from Edinburgh, this wonderful baronial style red sandstone country house, is the former home of the Gladstone family made famous by Prime Minister William Gladstone. Now a much loved family home, it is a beautifully furnished house which has undergone refurbishment to give it a classic country house feel with a modern twist. There is a delightful minstrel gallery and stained glass windows.

This house is one to enjoy - the best of surroundings as well as the beautiful rolling hills of the Border countryside. The bedrooms are very spacious with a high proportion of en suite bathrooms. The drawing room is lovely, with open fire and bay windows to give views over the garden and there is an additional sitting/family room with TV.

The garden has wide terraced lawns ideal and there are a further 10 acres of paddocks and ground at your disposal. There is also a full sized snooker table in the magnificent games room.  (www.toftcombs.com)

Highgreen Manor

Highgreen Manor, a Grade 2 listed building, is a Scottish baronial extravaganza built in 1894 for Charles William Bell, a Durham mine owner. The architect was W.J. Ancell of Clifford Inn in London. There has been a house on the site since at least the mid-18th century when coal and lead were mined nearby.

The Manor is at the centre of an estate that extends over 5000 acres of wild, open moorland. Farming remains the principal activity in the area and the estate has 3 separate farming enterprises. Around the Manor are houses and outbuildings that used to serve the home farm. The old farm workers are long since gone and their houses are now homes for families for whom the hectic bustle of town life holds no attraction.

Gradually the old farm buildings are being restored to house new enterprises at Highgreen which, since 2000, has been home to leading independent poetry publisher Bloodaxe Books, and to VARC which funds a yearly residency for visual artists as well special arts projects involving the local community. (www.highgreen-arts.co.uk)

For all other information about Foundation Courses please see Bookings & Travel.

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