Mark Haddon has written novels, short stories, TV scripts, stage plays, radio plays, children’s books and poetry. His novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Vintage, 2004) won numerous prizes and was turned into an award-winning stage play. His most recent book is a collection of short stories, Dogs and Monsters (Chatto, 2024). His illustrated memoir, Leaving Home, will be published by Vintage in February 2026.
Beginning your Novel
Mon 11 May 2026 - Fri 15 May 2026
Tutors
/ Mark Haddon & Rachel Joyce
Guest Reader
/ David Nicholls (Digital)
Course Fee
/
From
£ per person
Genre
/ Fiction
Language
/ English
Do you want to write your first piece of long-form fiction? Or do you feel disappointed and alone with what you’ve written? This course is designed to spark your creativity and give you the confidence to try new things.
With a wide range of workshops, exercises, group discussions and one-to-one sessions to stretch your minds, we’ll all start with blank pieces of paper and create new, surprising and dynamic work. Suitable for those who are starting to write, or those who feel their writing needs a kick start, the course will feature two workshops every morning, with time to write and attend one-to-one sessions in the afternoon. The aim of the course is to encourage you to free yourself, to get away from the traps that are holding you back and create a space in which fresh ideas and approaches to your writing can come to you.
We will encourage you to share your writing, to offer one another support, to try new techniques and to approach your time with us as an adventure. We ask you to come with an open mind, and – even for those of you who have already written – an empty page. It’s only when you make space for change that it begins to happen.
Tutors
Mark Haddon
Rachel Joyce
Rachel Joyce is the award-winning author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Doubleday, 2012), Perfect (Random House, 2014), The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Black Swan, 2015), The Music Shop (Generic, 2018), Miss Benson’s Beetle (Black Swan, 2021), and Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North (Penguin, 2023) as well as a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories (Black Swan, 2016). Her most recent novel, The Homemade God (Doubleday), was published in 2025. Having originally been written as a radio play, the full-length novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize, and published in 37 languages. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year in 2012 and shortlisted for UK Author of the Year in 2014. The book was subsequently adapted by Rachel for the 2023 film starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton and she also wrote the book for the musical version at Chichester Festival Theatre. In 2026 it will begin a West End run.
Guest Reader
David Nicholls (Digital)
David Nicholls is the bestselling author of You Are Here (2025), Sweet Sorrow (2020), Us (2015), One Day (2009), The Understudy (2006), and Starter for Ten (2003). His novels have sold over eight million copies and are published in forty languages. Originally trained as an actor, Nicholls transitioned to writing and became an acclaimed screenwriter, with credits including Cold Feet, Much Ado About Nothing, The 7.39, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles. He also wrote screenplays for Great Expectations (2012) and Far from the Madding Crowd (2015). His adaptation of Patrick Melrose won a BAFTA and earned an Emmy nomination.
Starter for Ten was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and later adapted into a film. One Day received widespread acclaim, spent ten weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and won the 2010 Galaxy Book of the Year. Us was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize, and Nicholls was named Author of the Year. His latest novel, You Are Here, topped bestseller lists, and he contributed to the recent Netflix adaptation of One Day.