Diane and Dave would like to invite you to join them in their villa in the sun for a week’s writing holiday shared with a choice of top class, top-named, vastly experienced writers. How would you like to spend a week’s writing holiday with Willy Russell, Paul Abbott, Kay Mellor, Stella Duffy, Serena Mackesy or Al Hunter Ashton? These writers have either already run courses or are lined up for next year. The courses are aimed at those interested in starting to write, writers with some experience, and writers who would like to write full time and earn a living from it.

Dave is an ex-teacher, ward orderly, hot potato merchant, encyclopaedia salesman and a doffer in a Yorkshire mill. He started his career with the BBC and has had in excess of 30 productions broadcast. Most recently, however, he has developed his career in theatre and film. He was Resident Writer for the Library Theatre in Manchester for two years and has written several plays for them including The Beauty Game, The Cheeky Chappie (about the comedian Max Miller), Soapbox, A Marginal Affair, and several Christmas shows, including The Prince and the Pauper, Huckleberry Finn, The Secret Garden (which went on a nationwide tour), and The Little Princess (which was then adapted for BBC radio). His adaptation of The Railway Children is constantly performed by reps and amateurs and the Birmingham Rep produced a twenty five week nationwide tour. His other stage productions include Single Sex for the Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch, Perfect Partners for the Bristol Old Vic and his comedy, Girls’ Night Out, a hugely successful play which toured for three years and had a limited ten week run in the West End in 1998. He was also commissioned to write the Girls’ Night Out the screenplay, which is due to go into production early next year. His television credits include Coronation Street, The Bill, and for five years he was a writer on Emmerdale. His 6 part comedy drama, Perfect Partners, has been optioned by Kay Mellor’s company, Rollem Productions. He has a new stage play, The Naked Truth, touring the UK for 13 weeks in Spring 2007 and a new TV drama (co-written with Diane Whitley) in development with Granada TV. Diane Whitley originally trained as an actor and has worked extensively at some of the country’s leading theatres as well as in film, television and radio. From 1995 - 1998 she successfully combined a writing career with running her own production company, Bite-Back Productions. Between 1998 and 2004 she worked for Granada Kids as a Series Producer and Writer. She produced two series of Children’ Ward, created and produced a new comedy drama series, Big Meg Little Meg and produced and wrote on two major kids series 24Seven, and Girls in Love. Diane began writing in 1987 and has had several plays and series broadcast on BBC Radio including Castlehill, Flights of Fancy and the critically acclaimed children’s thriller, Crimewaves. Her stageplay version of Castlehill was produced at Contact Theatre where she was resident writer in 1990. Most recently, her stage-play Vegetable, was produced at the 24/7 festival in Manchester, winning Best of the Festival and going on to get nominated for a Manchester Evening News theatre award. Her television and film writing credits include five years on the BBC children’s drama series Grange Hill, Home Farm Twins, The New Worst Witch; and the award winning feature film Boston Kickout (Co-written with director Paul Hills. Diane is currently working on a new TV drama (co-written with Dave Simpson), which is in development with Granada TV.

After a couple of years at the teaching coalface and a couple more as a downtrodden temp, Serena Mackesy spent ten years as a journalist before jumping over the wall to become a novelist. During that time, she wrote thousands of colour features, first-person columns, fictional columns, TV reviews, travel pieces (she was shortlisted for Travelex Travel Writer of the Year in 2002), interviews, restaurant reviews and spoofs, mainly for The Independent, but also for The Times, The Express, Conde Nast Traveller and many glossies and women's magazines, and thoroughly digested the old Fleet Street maxim that you can get a thousand words out of anything. In 1999, she adapted her Independent fictional column, The Temp, as a novel. It became an instant bestseller. She has since published two more critically acclaimed novels, Virtue and Simply Heaven, and has had a number of short stories anthologised over the years. A fourth novel, Hold My Hand, will be published by Constable Robinson in late 2007. She continues to pay for her holidays by writing about them afterwards, and has received funding from the Royal Literary Fund, which officially rubber-stamps her work as being "of literary merit". More self-puffery can be found at www.serenamackesy.com. She generally works in bed. Kay was born and brought up in Leeds. Having left school in order to raise her family, and with no O-levels or A-levels, Kay returned to education in her twenties, gaining several O-levels and then studying a BA Hons degree in Drama at Bretton Hall College, Leeds University. Her stage plays include, In All Innocence for West Yorkshire Playhouse, and A Passionate Woman, also at The West Yorkshire Playhouse which was subsequently transferred to the West End Comedy Theatre where it ran for a year followed by five national tours and has had productions all over the world. In television she co-devised and co-wrote Children’s Ward with Paul Abbott for Granada Television and it ran for twelve series. She was also sole devisor of the bi-weekly daytime soap Families, and the young people’s drama Just Us, for Yorkshire Television, the third series of which won the 1993 Royal Television Society Award for Children’s Drama and the 1994 Writer’s Guild Award. This was followed by Band of Gold for Granada Television nominated for a BAFTA for Best Serial and the Prix Italia Award. It won the 1996 Royal Television Society Award, ITV Programme of the Year and the 17th American Cable Ace Award. Other successful series include, Playing the Field, which ran for three series and won Best Independent Drama Series, and Fat Friends, which was BAFTA nominated, won the Television and Radio Industry award and TV Quick award. Kay also wrote the 2003 series, Between the Sheets, A Good Thief, and Gifted, a one off drama, broadcast autumn 2003 on ITV1; and she has also adapted Jane Eyre for LWT. For film, Kay has written Some Kind of Life which was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Prix Niki Award, Girls’ Night, starring Brenda Blethyn, Julie Walters and Kris Kristofferson, and Fanny and Elvis, which she also directed, and which won the Audience Award at Dinard and the Fort Lauderdale Festival Award. In 1998 Kay was awarded a BAFTA – the prestigious Dennis Potter Award. Her latest television productions have been The Chase for BBC (re-commissioned for a second series) and Strictly Confidential for ITV. Mervyn is currently the Executive Producer at the BBC for Casualty and Dalziel and Pascoe. He started his career as a writer and he had two 60’ single dramas produced, Hands for Thames Television and Family Man for Yorkshire TV. Mervyn then moved into TV production and he produced over 700 episodes of Coronation Street, during two stints as Producer. He also produced the series First Amongst Equals, Floodtide and Wipeout. He then moved across to Yorkshire TV as Deputy Head of Drama and Producer of Emmerdale where he produced 464 episodes. In 1991 he moved to the BBC where he produced Casualty and Down to Earth before his current promotion to Executive Producer.

Course tutors: Dave Simpson, Diane Whitley & Mervyn Watson Dave has had in excess of 30 radio plays broadcast, the last of which, Nightmares has been adapted into a feature-length film. He has also had in excess of 15 stage productions including the hugely successful Girls’ Night Out. He has also written for Emmerdale and Coronation Street. Diane has written for radio and television, including Grange Hill, The Worst Witch, and three series that she worked on as Producer and co-writer, Big Meg Little Meg, 24Seven and Girls in Love. Her other credits as a TV Producer include the BAFTA-nominated Children’s Ward. Mervyn Watson is an Executive Producer at the BBC. This is a course for dramatists who have either never written before or who have scripts they have been unable to sell. This is a unique course. It will be intensive, one-to-one with a probable ratio of three to four students per tutor. No other writing course anywhere in the world will give such close, personal one-to-one feedback from three very experienced writer/producer tutors. Course fee: (including airport transfers, accommodation, breakfast, lunch, two evening meals and drinks on the terrace at the end of each day) £495. This is not a tutored course. It is an opportunity to make progress with your own writing without distraction, in idyllic surroundings and in the company of other writers. Places will be allocated on a first-come first served basis and all guests will be offered single occupancy. (However, if you wish to bring a friend or partner we can offer a discount for shared occupancy) Your hosts, Dave and Diane, will be on hand for informal chats and will also offer a one-off tutoring session if required and requested in advance. There is no set pattern to the week, come and go as you please and treat the place as a home from home. Fee: (Including airport transfers, accommodation, and help-yourself breakfast and lunch) £250. (10% discount for anyone staying on from the previous week’s course.) Course tutor: Serena Mackesy Serena is an experienced journalist, novelist and short story writer. She believes that writing is as much an artisan craft as an Inspirational one and that the confidence that comes with learned and practised skills is more than half the battle. This course aims to be a shot in the arm whether you are a brand new writer, an old stuck one, or just looking for a way to get started. Course fee: (including airport transfers, accommodation, breakfast, lunch, two evening meals and drinks on the terrace at the end of each day) £495. See above. Fee: (Including airport transfers, accommodation, and help-yourself breakfast and lunch) £250. (10% discount for anyone staying on from the previous week’s course.) Course Tutor – Kay Mellor Kay is one of the UK’s most successful television writers with a string of awards including a BAFTA, the prestigious Dennis Potter Award. Her hugely successful series such as Fat Friends, Playing the Field and Band of Gold are funny, truthful and moving. If you want to learn how Kay translates ideas into script then onto screen, how she creates good, strong characters and consistently fascinating and dramatic storylines over several series, come and find out. You will be expected to start writing a single TV play or work on an existing TV idea. The course is suitable for both experienced writers who want to learn how to create and write series drama but also for non-experienced writers who simply want to learn the craft of writing for television. See above. Fee: (Including airport transfers, accommodation, and help-yourself breakfast and lunch) £250. (10% discount for anyone staying on from the previous week’s course.) Fee: (Including airport transfers, accommodation, and help-yourself breakfast and lunch) £495. Click here to review the courses we ran in 2005, or here for 2006.

As guests arrive, they will be met at the airport and taken to the villa where they will have time to settle in, unpack, maybe have a swim or take a stroll down to the beach and harbour. We will meet up early evening for drinks on the pool-side terrace followed by a typical Turkish three course meal (wine inclusive). We will eat outside on the terrace as the sun goes down over the bay. The menu will often contain meat or fish but we can cater for vegetarians – as long as you let us know in advance. After the meal the tutor will outline his/her plans for the coming week. The pattern for each day is likely to be similar. After breakfast, each morning, there will structured talks, discussions and practical group writing sessions. Lunch from 1300. A sumptuous help-yourself buffet. The afternoon is the time the guests spend working on their individual writing projects plus one-to-one tutorials. (Sometimes guests may bring examples of their writing and the tutor will read and evaluate it over the week). You write in the garden under an olive tree, by the swimming pool, on a bedroom terrace, or if it’s too hot, inside your air-conditioned bedroom – but if you prefer, take a stroll to the beach and look for inspiration in a beach-side bar! Then at six o’clock meet up for early evening drinks by the pool (inclusive). After drinks, the evening is free to go and explore the local restaurants on the beach. (Not included in price.) Follow a similar pattern. A free day to do whatever you want. You can continue to write your project or you could spend time exploring the peninsular. Take a dolmus into Bodrum (small mini buses that stop anywhere along the road – cost about 70p), or find one of the many beautiful bays and coves and just relax, take a boat ride perhaps or visit some of the ancient, architectural sites. Follows a similar pattern to Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. This is the last full day. Guests will spend time finishing their project. Drinks at 1800 to be followed by our final meal together on the terrace. After the meal, the guests will gather in the lounge to discuss their week, exchange their work, maybe have readings of their work (but not compulsory for the shy!) After breakfast, fond farewells. Guests will be taken to the airport.

Dave and Diane’s villa is situated in Torba, on the Bodrum Peninsular, Turkey. The coastline, famed for its crystal clear waters, is 174 kms long and surrounded by many islands including the Greek islands of Kos and Rhodes. The coast is speckled with a wide variety of villages and quiet bays, ranging from the sleepy fishing village charm of Gumusluk to the commercial excitement of Gumbet. The villa has stunning views to the sea but is only a short walk to the beach and to a variety of quayside restaurants. Click here to find out more about the area and its history. The villa is set in its own garden with a private swimming pool. The main part of the villa has a large lounge and kitchen area opening onto a terrace with views to the bay. There is one double bedroom upstairs – for the tutor - en suite with its own balcony and with panoramic views to the sea. There is also a twin bedded room in the villa for guests. This room is also ensuite and has its own stunning 15 square metre terrace overlooking the garden and pool. From the swimming pool terrace there are two entrances into the large four bedroomed apartment. The accommodation comprises lounge/dining room/kitchen with two bathroom/shower rooms. The sleeping accommodation comprises of two single bedrooms, one double bedroom (for sole occupancy) and one large 19 sq metre twin-bedded room, divided in half for privacy; This room also has its own separate entrance onto the swimming pool patio. Both the Villa and the Apartment have air-conditioning. Guests will be accommodated in a local hotel once the places in the Villa have been filled. However, please note, we will never book more than twelve students on any one course. Guests at the hotel will be on a bed and breakfast basis and will have lunches, drinks and two evening meals provided at the Villa along with other guests. The course will be run more like a house party than a formal writing school, and though the accent will still be on writing, social interaction and engendering a relaxed holiday atmosphere will be of paramount importance. (ie learning writing skills and having a great time!)

The course fees are £495 to include airport transfers, tuition fees, bed and breakfast (either in the villa or at the Omar Hotel) buffet lunches, early evening drinks and a three-course dinner with wine on the first and last nights. Accommodation will be issued on a first come, first served basis. The only bedroom that does not afford single privacy is the twin bedded room in the villa but it has the advantage of its own private terrace. Please note - guests will need to arrange their own flights and travel insurance.

I loved how you made us so welcome; And the course was great. Stella gave me bucket loads of confidence. Thank you for a very special time! Mandy Martin The food was fantastic – homemade, authentic, Turkish, varied plentiful. And the course was a perfect balance between a holiday and learning about writing. Stella Duffy was inspiring, dynamic, supportive and made the exercises and tasks fun. I had a great week, learnt a lot, met some wonderful people. Jane Pimlott The food was amazing. And the course – there is not enough room to describe Stella. I have never met a woman with such commendable qualities. “Some people you meet in life leave everlasting footprints”. Thank you very much, The whole experience has been amazing. Angela Curtiss I got more out of the course than I expected. Stella was wonderful – enthusiastic, passionate and so so generous – all of these, way beyond the call of duty. She has managed to give me the confidence I lacked and has opened up all manner of possibilities in my mind. She’s a born teacher. Many, many thanks for looking after us so well. Petra Carter This course hit my particular needs right on the nose. I would never get this much on any other course. The exercises in dialogue have already improved my writing immeasurably. I had massive expectations for Paul Abbott and he surpassed every single one. Thank you so much for one of the best weeks of my life. Davey Jones A life-changing week. Amanda Smith Did the course fullfill my expectations? This question soooooo doesn’t need answering!!!! It was such an inspirational and memorable week - everyone was completely blown away by Paul. Clare Morrisroe Many thanks for a great course - it was hugely inspirational to meet Paul. His advice was priceless and I think he made everyone feel like they could conquer the world (of script writing that is!) Angela Hagan The food was totally delicious. I loved the course. Haven't stopped talking about it since I've been back. TV's top writer generously sharing his pearls of wisdom! It doesn't get any better than that. Pam Francis Course was nothing short of amazing. I didn’t have any expectations, but what I definitely wasn’t expecting was the total commitment of Paul Abbott in encouraging and developing this group of strangers. The morning exercises were challenging, but invaluable, but the most important thing was Paul’s uncanny ability to free our minds of anything distracting and just make us focus. I can honestly say I did more work during that week than I had in a year and, mentally, it freed up so much space and eradicated all that rubbish that stops you free-thinking. Sarah Deane I just emailed to say that I had a fantastic time last week in Turkey. I thought the course was very well managed and extremely informative. I have done nothing but sing your praises since I’ve come back (as tutors and as hosts). I found the contents of the course very informative and the personal tuition that I had was more than helpful. It is just a shame that it was only a week and that it went extremely quickly. I want to come again next year, so please let me know when you have planned what courses you are doing. Nathan Thompson It has to be one of, if not the best holiday I have ever had. I for one love working and to combine that with a holiday thousands of miles from home was brilliant! The weather was great and the food… out of this world! The course itself lived up to and beyond everything I could have hoped for. I have learnt so much it is unreal. All three tutors had their own ways of working and I believe I adapted well to all of them. The criticism was all constructive and will help me for years to come I’m sure. Thank you once again for everything last week, and I do hope you continue running these courses for other people. You are both a real credit to the industry and you have taught me things that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Thank you. Kieran Woodley The course was tailored to the needs of the participants. It was a great opportunity to receive feedback on our work in a safe environment. It was a great boost to my confidence and the course exceeded my expectations. Beverley Bramwell Excellent accommodation, very good food and the course was helpful, especially the character development session and how it developed towards story. I appreciated help with my work and learnt a lot. Thank you. Shirley Elliott Dave and Diane, generous, warm hosts and brilliant teachers – if you want to write, this is the place to come. Nicola Thompson Beautiful villa with fantastic views. Lovely relaxed atmosphere led by Diane and Dave. The food was delicious and plentiful. The course was well structured and had a logical progression, resulting in a developed piece at the end. The advice, encouragement and enthusiasm from the tutors was priceless. Not only have I developed as a writer, I’ve blossomed as a person. I have had a fantastic experience with a wonderful, inspiring group of people who are now my friends. I leave with a heart of happy memories and a head bursting with ideas. Fabulous. Thank you so much. Helen Reade I thought you'd like to know that, inspired by my week's course in Turkey last May, I am now close to finishing my first novel. I made a start on it before my holiday but three chapters in it all came to a grinding halt. My week in beautiful Torba, the generous encouragement and advice from the brilliant tutors, not to mention the fun I shared with fellow writers, worked its magic and I've since finished a play (another piece of work that was going nowhere) as well as adding a further 50,000 words to my novel's wordcount. I met some great people and we've all kept in touch. An unforgettable week. Thanks to you both for your wonderful hospitality. Rosie Bristow Once again, thanks so much for a wonderful week in Turkey. There hasn't been a day that's gone by since I returned that I haven't fondly thought about it, I really enjoyed the whole experience and better still, it's given me the inspiration to get started. Am currently making lots of changes career-wise to free my time up to write. So count me - and Clare - in for next year. Angela Hagan/Claire Morrisroe Thank you, I had a fantastic time. Kay gave spot-on advice and worked flat out. Learnt a great deal on structure, dialogue and character. Now feel ready to write a one hour drama and have someone take it seriously. BBC – here I come! Caroline Watson Superb! I got exactly what I wanted out of it! John Whitelaw I was very happy with the accommodation and the food was was lovely – and plenty of it. The course was more than I expected and I was pushed to the limits, which was good. Marie McClaym The accommodation was excellent, better than I expected and so was the food. As for the course, I was going down a cul-de-sac with my writing – the course has given me the motivation to go down a few new avenues. Everyone was very generous with their time, tutors and students, objective feedback on every session. Have had such a lot of fun and learnt loads – thanks. Debbie Owczarek I have to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I take on board every single point of what you have shown me this week and I will write with more confidence and even more enjoyment. Janet Jarvis Very good accommodation and the food was excellent, loved every meal. This course is an excellent stepping stone for the wannabe writer. I hope to fulfil all my writing expectations, starting the second I get home. Laura Williams Excellent accommodation. Rooms had everything. Food was great, nice variety of local and traditional. As regards the course, I never had any expectations to start with, so it was a great experience for me. It’s fulfilled everything I could have hoped for and really given me confidence. Suzanne Green No complaints with the accommodation or food, wonderful. The course was more than I expected! Not only did I get my writing going, but I met some great people and had the best of times! Sarah Deane Lovely villa, perfect spot. Food was wonderful and there was always plenty of it. I had a wonderful time. The course was great, it covered all aspects of writing for performance. Couldn’t have achieved more in a week. Good value all round. And there was plenty of time for shopping, relaxing round the pool and talking to other writers. I loved it. I’d do it all again. Shirley Neil

http://www.writersreign.co.uk Website for aspiring Writers looking for practical help to improve their writing. http://www.firstwriter.com Resource site for new writers. http://www.willyrussell.com Willy Russell’s personal website. http://www.writewords.org.uk Offers support, advice, must-read interviews and articles from top writing names as well as inside info on the latest writing jobs, opportunities, competitions and news. http://www.writers-circles.com Directory of Writers’ Circles, Courses and Workshops. http://www.author.co.uk Resource site for Writers and Publishers. http://www.author-network.com Resource site for Writers. http://www.poetrykit.org A major poetry-writers’ resource site. Listings include publishers, competitions, courses, funding, events, festivals etc. http://www.nawg.co.uk National Association of Writers’ Groups. A friendly association for everyone who writes. http://www.alhunterashton.com Al Hunter Ashton’s personal website.

Dave Simpson / Diane Whitley Tel: 01706 839667 E-Mail: info@writeonholiday.co.uk

© Dave Simpson & Diane Whitley 2006