Mariella Frostrup: my Marrakesh writing course with literary legends
A ‘big’ birthday prompted the radio presenter to spurn sun loungers and doing as little as possible in favour of making every break count — by learning something new
In the warm glow of the candlelit rooftop, palm fronds framing a darkening sky, a Nobel Laureate reads a passage from his debut novel to a spellbound audience. We’re hanging on his every syllable until the muezzin at the nearby mosque begins its call to prayer.
For Abdulrazak Gurnah, an émigré from Zanzibar, competing with that is not an option, so we wait in companionable silence for him to resume. On a terrace covered in soft Berber rugs, our group of literature lovers sit around tables spread with brilliantly patterned suzani cloth. Waiters are on hand to fill our wine glasses. Candles dangling from the pergola compete with the starry sky. It’s magical.
This is no ordinary writing masterclass. Silk Road Slippers Masterclass is the latest addition to the burgeoning business of writers’ workshops. Not only are we in the company of a globally revered writer, but we’re also receiving instruction over our four-day retreat from a quartet of terrifyingly well-qualified editors.
At the helm is the creator of Silk Road Slippers, the publishing legend Alexandra Pringle. She has produced a series of Nobel, Booker and Women’s Prize fiction writers over her 45 years in the business. With her is fellow founder Faiza S Khan along with the prizewinning Guardian journalist and author Nesrine Malik, and the Weidenfeld and Nicolson publishing director Alexa Von Hirschberg. For those hoping to forge a writing career, these women are the dream combination.
I used to be a committed sun-seeker on holiday, but nowadays wasting a week on further sun damage seems not only reckless but profligate. Life skills wait for no man or woman.
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With two edited anthologies under my belt and a non-fiction Amazon bestseller, Cracking the Menopause, you might wonder what I’m doing here. I’m equally unsure. Perhaps at 60, I’m kidding myself that my creative days lie ahead. Regardless of your age, few of you will fail to recognise the compulsion.
The many frustrations of reaching maturity are well documented but the greatest disappointment is that, instead of feeling a degree of satisfaction at what you’ve learnt, you start obsessing about what you haven’t. A language, rewilding your garden, painting, martial arts or making perfect sushi rolls; the list of things you’d like to master seems only to extend as your time grows shorter. No wonder offers of self-expansion such as this one are so tempting.
It helps that the location is ideal for inspiration. Jnane Tamsna is a small, charming boutique hotel in the Palmeraie in the Marrakesh suburbs, owned and run by an impressive Frenchwoman of Caribbean descent, Meryanne Loum-Martin.
On Monday morning, after a breakfast of Moroccan pancakes, 12 fellow students and I begin our tuition in the poolside shade of a fig tree. It is a gathering of professionals: lawyers, economists, tech entrepreneurs and an NGO worker. There’s even a Betty Trask award winner (for first novels by those under 35). This polyglot gathering of Iraqi, Lebanese, Nigerian, Welsh, Panamanian and Pakistani fellow students, to my shame, write better English than we Britons.
As each intense day passes, the experience becomes as close to a therapy session as is possible without a psychotherapist. The first and most important lesson is that extracting good quality prose can be torture, dragging up experiences and memories that you may have preferred to leave dormant. By day two, there is growing despondency as we do our daily “morning pages”, a 15-minute mind-clearing exercise in free-flow writing.
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We also have our editing abilities tested (it feels like sacrilege when we’re challenged to get the marking pen out on an unedited Raymond Carver story, for example). Toxic Tuesday, we name it and attempt to soldier on as our book ideas are analysed rigorously. By weeping Wednesday, our set task in childhood exposition leads to tears as we go into the baggage from our youths. As we take turns to read our work aloud, there’s barely a dry eye around the table. Thank goodness, then for triumphant Thursday, when we receive one-on-one feedback, mine from the fierce but fair Alexandra. I’m expecting it to be painful but I’m in for a pleasant surprise.
By the end I’ve gained valuable insight into what my writing needs; that less really is more, and most importantly that this will be a long painful road. But possible … and that’s what triumphant Thursday is all about. The revelation that if you get your head down and put in the hard graft, those many lonely, self-doubting hours may result in something worthwhile.
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In my garden room among the palms, a den of tranquillity and solitude, I’ve had a glorious, mind-enriching minibreak. Not that I am short of good company — nightly candlelit meals at a long table in the garden with my fellow students are a medley of life experiences and laughs. Yoga in the mornings and a post-masterclass daily dip in a choice of three saltwater pools are highlights.
I return home floating high with a mental toolkit to carry on. The tan may be a non-starter but sparking my synapses and developing new skills feels like a far better investment than adding to my wrinkles.
Mariella Frostrup was a guest of Silk Road Slippers and Jnane Tamsna hotel. The next course runs from February 24 to March 4 and is £3,200pp (silkroadslippers.com/masterclasses). Room-only doubles from €215 (jnanetamsna.com). Fly to Marrakesh
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