Writing Courses & Workshops Online & in London

Learn the common reasons for abstraction in art, across time and culture. From the Byzantine icon to the Igbo figurine, from Young Sook Park to Mark Rothko, we’ll think about how abstraction is more common in the history of art than is typically thought. Explore ways into thinking about and experiencing abstract art.

Come and enjoy reading aloud passages from novels by early 20th century writers in our Wednesday reading group. Set texts will be A Handful of Dust- Evelyn Waugh, and The Birds and Other Stories- Daphne du Maurier. This unique course contains vocal warm-ups; discussion of novels, weekly prepared readings and sight reading skills.

We will be looking at novels from recent years that explore various dimensions of culture and society, reading and discussing a brief and careful selection of novels in English from several countries, diverse in style and genre. Titles include Piranesi, Susanna Clarke's mysterious and 'weird' tale of secrets and lost texts, William Boyd's Trio, which follows the life of an actress, a film producer, and a writer obsessed with the suicide of Virginia Woolf, Small Things Like These by Clare Keegan, in which a coal merchant becomes involved with the fate of a pregnant teenager trapped in a Magdalene Laundry, and Michelle de Kretser's Theory and Practice follows the academic trajectory of a Sri Lankan feminist researching the novels of Woolf.

This course will provide an overview of the politics of ‘Left populism’ in their historical perspective and contemporary manifestations as well as in their relation to socialist politics.

From the late-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, the German Lied developed and blossomed as a musical genre for amateurs, professionals, homes and concert halls. We trace its history through some of its most important composers.

This course has a scheduled break week on 29 Oct 2025.

Floor-Barre is a wonderful conditioning programme for everyone, regardless of age and ability. Work through all the important muscle groups while safely supporting the body on the floor. All levels welcome.

Defining itself around themes such as realism, class and national identity, and differentiating itself from Hollywood and other national cinemas, British cinema has found critical and popular acclaim both domestically and internationally. This course explores key themes and developments in British cinema, past and present, through a range of films, filmmakers and critical concepts and responses.

Both victorious and defeated powers saw their empires dwindle as a consequences of the Second World War. This course looks at the fall of these empires in the period 1940-1991 and also at how the Cold War led to new spheres of influence and opportunities for domination, and the factors that gave rise to these.

Explore reasons for the fall of Rome and the emergence of the ‘barbarian’ kingdoms of western Europe. Was it really ‘the Dark Ages’? Were the Vikings simply long-haired tourists who occasionally beat up the natives?