May, 2023. Subject to alteration (we’ll discuss each day’s plans at breakfast every morning).
WED 5/17:
9:30 AM (Group 1: Blake, Erin, Ruby, Joseph, Hammad, and Andrew), Bus pick up @ Cafe Nero, in Terminal 2 (Jason, driver: 07535646500).
11:00 AM (Group 1), Drop off bags at Premier Inn
11:30 AM, (Group 2: Trent, Starry, Kait, Carly, Serafima, Aimee, and Alex), Bus pick up @ Cafe Nero, in Terminal 2.
1:00 PM (Group 2), Drop off bags at Premier Inn
1:30 PM: Depart Premiere Inn for light lunch (not incl) @ Swan Inn (16 min walk from Premier Inn)
3:30 PM, Check-in Premier Inn, Settle into rooms
4:30 PM, Short walk/informal “tour” of downtown Lewes
6:00 PM, Orientation/Dinner (not incl) @ Bill’s Restaurant & Bar
7:30 PM, Group reading @ Snowdrop Inn
Note: Lewes is 90 min (roughly) from Heathrow.
THURS 5/18:
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation
11:00 AM to 1:30 PM, Free Time
2:00 PM, Easy Local Walk to the Priory and Ruins
6:15 PM, Welcome Dinner (included) at Cote Brasserie (82 High Street, 7 min walk from Inn).
8:30 PM, Train (18 min) to Brighton, jazz at Bootleggers (optional)
FRI 5/19:
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation, Lecture/Writing Exercise
11:00 AM – Train to Brighton
11:30 AM to 5:00 PM - Free Time, Brighton (haunted pubs, bookstores, Quadrophenia Alley, mural walk, the Lanes, Royal Pavilion, West Pier)
5:00 PM, Dinner as a group (not included)
7:30 PM – Kidnapped, Theatre Royal, Brighton (“A riotous re-telling of Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novella packed with 20th century pop music, performed by a dynamic ensemble of actor-musicians.”)
SAT 5/20:
9:00 – 10:30 AM, Breakfast, Lecture/Writing Exercise (Green Space & Sense of Place)
10:30 AM, Taxibus to Ashdown Forest, home of A. A. Milne
11:AM – 12:30 PM, Light lunch, Pooh Corner (tea room)
12:30 PM – 4:00 PM, Free Time (writing/exploring/hiking)
Note: Ashdown Forest features many locations familiar from the Milne’s Pooh stories: Galleon's Lap, The Enchanted Place, the Heffalump Trap and Lone Pine, North Pole, 100 Aker Wood and Eeyore’s Sad and Gloomy Place.
4:30 PM, Taxibus to Lewes
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM, Free Time
7:00 PM, Group reading @ Lewes Arms
SUN 5/21:
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:00 AM, Minibus Shuttle from Lewes train station to Charleston Literary Festival (Charleston Farmhouse, City Lights Bookstore, Caccia & Tails cafe). Note: Charleston was the home/studio of painters Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf’s sister) & Duncan Grant. 10:30 - 12:30 PM, Free Time
12:30 PM, First Nights That Changed the World with Hugh Bonneville, star of Downton Abbey (discussing seismic cultural ‘first nights’ felt around the world as radical new art, literature and fashion exploded into existence).
2:30 PM, – Return to Lewes (Bus #125 from Charleston Farmhouse Drive, 25 min) 3:30 PM, Queen of Spades @ The Depot, Based on a short story by Alexander Pushkin, it tells the tale of Countess Ranevskaya, an elderly woman who sold her soul to the devil in order to always win at cards. Queen of Spades has been highlighted by Martin Scorsese as ‘one of the few true classics of supernatural cinema’. Optional
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM, Free Time
7:00 PM, Group reading @ Snowdrop Inn
MON 5/22:
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:00 AM, Hike to Long Man of Wilmington and Alfriston, 3 hours, 30 min.
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Free Time, Alfriston
4:00 PM, bus back to Lewes
4:30 PM – 7:00 PM, Free Time
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Group reading @ Dorcet
TUES 5/23:
9:00 AM – 10:30 PM, Breakfast Orientation, Lecture/Morning Exercise (Sacred Artifacts)
11:00 AM, Anchor Inn & Boating; 122 to Old Station (10 min), hike to Anchor Inn (55 min),
7:00 PM Group reading @ Snowdrop Inn
WED 5/24:
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation, Lecture/Morning Exercise (Review)
10:30 – 5:00 PM, Free Day
5 PM, Group reading @ Snowdrop Inn
THURS 5/25:
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation
9:45 AM, Walk to Monk’s House, home of Virginia Woolf (2 hours)
12:30 PM – Tour of Monk House and garden with Larry (call ahead)
1:45 PM, Lunch at Abergavenny Arms (6 min from Monk’s House)
3:15 PM, Short hike to station
4:00 PM, Train back to Lewes
4:30 PM – 7:00 PM, Free Time
7 PM, Group reading @ Snowdrop Inn
FRI 5/26:
8:00 AM– 9:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
9:00 AM, Train to London (Lewes to Victoria Station, 1 hr; Victoria Station to Mansion House, 15 min; walk ten min to Globe Theater)
11:00 AM – 1:30 PM, Free Time, London (Lunch at Borough Market, 13th Century Food Marke, Old Operating Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Golden Hinde, Crossbones Graveyard, Tate Museum, London Bridge)
2:00 PM, Midsummer Night's Dream (@ Globe, natch; 3 hrs)
5:30 PM, Train back to Lewes (1 hr, 30 min)
*No group reading.
SAT 5/27:
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation, Morning Lecture/Exercise (What’s in a Name? Everything.)
10:30 AM – 7:00 PM, Free Time
7:00 PM, Group Reading TBD. (responses to Character Sketch & Sacred Artifact prompts OR Sense of Place & Own Your Monster prompts to be declaimed)
SUN 5/28
8:30 – 9:30 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:00 AM, Seven Sisters Walk (train to Seaford station, 25 min; bus to Seven Sisters Park Centre, walk to Beachy Head pub, 25 min).
11:30 AM/NOON, lunch, Beach Head Pub
1:00 PM, Free Time/Explore
2:00 PM, Hike to East Dean (1 hr, 30 min)
3:30 PM, Sherlock Holmes’ retirement cottage; writing time, Tiger’s Inn,
5:00 PM, bus from East Dean to Seaford Station; train from Seaford to Lewes
6:00 PM, Free Time
*No group reading.
MON 5/29:
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:00 AM – 7:00, Free Time
3:30 PM, Ray Harryhausen talk (SFX god worshiped by Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, John Landis, etc.) & Jason of the Argonauts screening (“For sheer old-fashioned, childhood rekindling adventure you really can't go past it” Empire Magazine) @ Depot Cinema/Bar (optional)
5:30 – 7:00 PM, Free Time
7:00 - 8:00 PM, Group reading @ Snowdrop
TUES, 5/30:
8:30 AM – 10:00AM, Breakfast Orientation, Lecture/Writing Exercise (7 C’s of Suspense)
10:05 AM, Depart for train to Rye, Southern Railway, 1 hour 30 min
12:30 PM, Lunch @ Mermaid Inn, 12th century inn, considered one of the most haunted inns in all of England.
2 PM, Free Time, Rye (Rye Castle, Mermaid Street, Lamb House: home of Henry James and EF Benson, 30 min hike to Camber Castle)
5:00 PM, Train back to Lewes
6:30 PM, Free Time
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:00AM – 10:45 PM, Lecture/Exercise (Location TBD)
11:00 AM, Yoga w. Dan, Southover Grange Gardens (optional)
11:00 AM – 1:00, Free Time
1:00 – 3:30, Workshop (Cafe du Jardin)
3:30 PM – 7:00 PM, Free Time
7:00 PM, Group reading (Snowdrop)
THURS, 6/1
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:00 – 11:00 AM, Yoga w. Dan, Southover Grange Garden (optional)
11:30 AM – 2:00 PM, Workshop (Cafe du Jardin)
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM, One-on-One Conferences (30 min each; Location TBD) & Free Time
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM, Public Reading, Waterstones (Cliff High Street)
FRI, 6/2:
9:00 – 10:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
11:00 – 1:30 PM, Workshop (Cafe du Jardin)
1:30 PM, Andrew & Hammad depart
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM, One-on-One Conferences (30 min each; Location TBD) & Free Time
5:00 PM on, Free Time
8:00 PM, Spiderman Multi-Verse (Depot)
*No Group Reading
SAT, 6/3:
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:00 – 11:00 AM, Yoga w. Dan, Southover Grange Garden (optional)
Noon – 2:00 PM, Free Time
2:00 – 5:00, One-on-One Conferences (30 min each; Location TBD) & Free Time
5:30 PM, Bus to Brighton (Train Strike)
5:30 PM, Dinner in Brighton
7:30 PM – 9:00, Ghost Tour, Brighton Lanes
9:00 PM, Jazz/Pubs
11:30 PM, Back to Lewes
*No Group Reading.
SUN, 6/4
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
9:00 AM, Hike to Firle (1, 30 min).
10:30 AM- NOON, Free Time in Firle
NOON, Lunch @ The Ram (incl)
1:30 PM, Walk (25 min) from Ram Inn to Glynde Station,
2:00 PM, Train to Lewes
3:00 PM, Linos Wengara Magaya & Zimbaremabwe Mbira, Zimbabwean Chimurenga music bringing together some of the top Zimbabwean performers, Beak Taproom (optional)
7:30 PM, Public Group reading @ Fitzroy House (Old Memorial Library; High Street)
MON, 6/5
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Breakfast Orientation
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, Final Lecture/Review
11:30 AM on, Free Time
TUES, 6/6
7:30 AM, Checkout/Departure. Group shuttle bus from Premier to Heathrow Airport.