When Love Needs Somewhere To Go

This September will mark two years since I ran my first retreat in Pembrokeshire, having no idea then that retreats would become the centre of my work.

The strange thing is that the story of how that first retreat came to be was one borne of heartbreak. I was going through a particularly painful break-up, and I designed the retreat (and launched my website!) during this period as a way to distract myself from grief.

At the time, I was quite hard on myself about this, as I have so often used my work as a way to avoid difficult feelings in my own life.

Yet now, two years on, I have a different understanding of what happened during that period. I realise now that the break-up had left me with a surfeit of love, and I needed a place for all of this love to go. The place it went was into my retreats.

Running these retreats has unequivocally been a love project for me, and one of the deepest and most profound gifts of my life. They have become a place where many years of my own struggles, creatively, politically and spiritually, have been transformed into meaning through sharing and teaching from the well of hard-won wisdom I have learned.

Across twelve retreats, almost 120 people have sat in the circle together in Pembrokeshire, and I have fallen in love with each group of writers in a different way each time. It has astounded me to see how this has been possible, how all the elements of the retreat remain the same, and yet the magic still happens anew each time.

Yet like many people and small businesses, I have also felt the impact of the cost-of-living crisis over the last year. I want to continue offering retreats that feel accessible by freezing my prices and continuing to offer two fully funded places for frontline workers and activists on every retreat. To protect what feels most meaningful about this work, I have therefore realised this will mean running fewer residential retreats this year.

So from 20-25 September, I will return to Pembrokeshire for both the two-year anniversary and my final Writing and Meditation Retreat of 2026.

The retreat will include all the elements that have become so loved: a digital detox, periods of silence, nourishing vegetarian food, meaningful connection and time together on the wild Pembrokeshire coast, which has offered inspiration to so many writers over the years.

Rooms start at £695 for five nights, including accommodation, meals and teaching, with payment plans available and two fully funded places for activists and frontline workers.

If this feels like the right moment for you, I would love to welcome you into the circle.

You can book your space here.