Milford Retreat 2023
13th - 20th May
at Trigonos, Nantlle, North Wales

Back Row L - R Al Robertson, David Allan, Liz Williams, Kari Sperring, Russell Smith
Front L-R - Dale Hay, Gaie Sebold, Juliet McKenna, Jacey Bedford, Terry Jackman, Liane Gabora.

Report by Jacey Bedford

After a truly awful drive from Huddersfield to Nantlle, which took over 2 hours to negotiate a horrendous traffic jam caused by a motorway closure, Terry Jackman and I managed to arrive at Trigonos almost three hours later than we had planned, but pulling into the car park at Trigonos I could feel the tensions of the journey begin to lift. We were almost the last to arrive. Several people had had difficulty arranging rail travel because of the strike, and those driving arranged to bring passengers. Luckily the writing retreat week is wonderful for de-strassing. Trrigonos has a lovely relaxed atmosphere, and I even managed a short walk down to the lake.

I usually have the smallest room at Trigonos because, well, someone has to, but this year I was in Room 4 which has a lovely view towards Mount Snowdon. Of course this does mean that I tend to stare out of the window rather than write, but that's OK. I took this photo on the first morning at about 6.00 a.m. That's Snowdon in the distance with cloud inversion that looks as though the valley is stuffed with cotton wool.

I also spent quite a lot of time watching this little chap, his friends and family, stuffing themselves with seed pods from the wych-elm tree outside my window.

I managed a short trip into Caernarfon one morning for a quick mooch around the shops, and coffee in the gift shop by the castle, though I did avoid buying anything expensive.

So did I get any writing done? Yes, I did. Editing mostly. I completed the piece I was working on and got halfway through the edit on a second book. Both are YAs and thanks to my week at Milford, they are just about ready for my agent.