Only Connect
The Dark Angels story began in 2004, when a group of business writers got together in an old farmhouse in Devon, England. Their aim – apart from having fun – was to explore a simple question: how well can we write when we bring our full selves to the page?
The answer – which hundreds of Dark Angels alumni around the world have now discovered – is that you can write better than you ever thought possible. In what way? Well, that’s up to you. We’re still deeply connected to the world of business communication, but today we attract people from all walks of life. They come for their own reasons, and all are welcome. Perhaps what unites them is a desire to write words that matter, that make a human connection.
We started with three ‘tutors’ – John Simmons, Stuart Delves and Jamie Jauncey. Now there are 12 of us. We’ve held courses in magical places around the world – from the Scottish Highlands, the sierras of Spain and the beaches of New Zealand to islands off the coast of Seattle and in the deserts of the Sahara. And sometimes we’re on Zoom.
Whether you join us for a multi-day creative adventure, a one-day course, or a pop-up gathering, we’ll offer you a positive, friendly, judgement-free space to explore what words can do for you, and much else besides. Whether you want to develop your writing confidence, take your craft to new levels, move your career forward, change your organisation or find a creative refuge in a frantic world – come join us.
Create
Allow your imagination to take flight in a community of encouragement and support. You’ll be amazed at what you can do.
Explore
Explore your writing self where you can share unique perspectives and experiences in lively and stimulating environments.
Connect
Experiment with writing practices to connect on a deeper level – whether for work or for your own creative expression.
And what about that name?
People always ask why we’re called Dark Angels. The more you travel with us, the more you’ll understand what the name means. Better still, you’ll understand what it means to you. The simple answer is that it’s the name of a book by John Simmons that documents our beginnings, with a nod to Milton’s Paradise Lost. The slightly deeper answer: None of us is perfect, because we’re humans. This might seem a weakness, but it’s a great strength. It’s in our uniquely flawed and messy selves that we find our creativity. As Leonard Cohen said, it’s the cracks that let the light in. We write best, do our best work, live our best lives, when we are Dark Angels.
The Team
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Neil Baker
Neil is our managing director. As a writer, consultant and coach he helps people and organisations tell their stories and share their ideas. His aim is to inspire ways of working and creating that help people to be more fully human – in their work and in their lives. He’s hosted creative workshops and gatherings in a wide range of places and spaces, from the Scottish Highlands to the Sahara Desert. Over the last 30 years Neil has worked with world-famous brands, corporate leaders, charities, business schools, not-for-profits, scientists, academics and companies in just about every sector. His own creative work – mainly short stories and poetry – is widely published.
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Claire Bodanis
Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience as a specialist in corporate reporting and sustainability communications. She set up Falcon Windsor in 2004 to do what she enjoys most: helping her clients communicate well through words. These include plcs such as ArcelorMittal, Diageo, Reckitt Benckiser, and Tate & Lyle, plus some public sector bodies. Today her team includes critical thinkers, writers, designers, and production and project managers, all of whom share a commitment to delivering thoughtful, creatively excellent and meticulously accurate corporate communications.
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Gillian Colhoun
As an aspiring international spy, Gillian spent her formative years reading John Le Carré books which in turn led her to a life dedicated to writing stories. Now a forest bathing guide, strategist and brand language specialist, she is also a university guest lecturer and mentors on design and writing-related programmes, where she has guided over 400 companies through the cultural mind shifts of creativity, message architecture and tone of voice. Her clients include small but beautiful start-ups to large institutions like Deloitte and WWF (the conservation organisation, not the wrestlers). Gillian is regularly invited to contribute to books, publications and arts exhibitions.
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Stuart Delves
Stuart has over 30 years’ experience as a copywriter. Based in a 16th century garret in Edinburgh’s Old Town he trades under the name Henzteeth. With the Arvon Foundation, then Bloom Reading Holidays, he ran over 130 residential courses. In 2005 Stuart initiated 26 Malts and in 2007 wrote Creative Fire a book about Scotch the Brand. He’s also a poet and an award-winning playwright. In 2014, after being Storyteller-in-Residence with Macsween of Edinburgh he brought his dramatist’s skills to the service of his host client and wrote Haggis Haggis Haggis for the Edinburgh Fringe. Aside from Dark Angels he also runs Creative Retreats.
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Mike Gogan
Mike is a writer, trainer and Dublin native, born under the shadow, shelter and shenanigans of the tower at Sandycove where James Joyce’s Ulysses opens. A Dark Angel with the full clutch of courses under his belt, he has been writing to one audience or another, from one brand or another, for over 25 years. Day-to-day, as an in-house writer at Ireland’s largest bank, he leads the change from bank language to customer language.
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Jamie Jauncey
Jamie has worked for many years with groups and organisations of all kinds on the power of language and stories to transform the way we see the world and our place in it. He has published five novels and a biography, and was for many years a member of the board of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the world’s largest literary festival. He is also a musician and with his wife Sarah, a counsellor, runs personal development courses.
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Martin Lee
Martin is the co-founder of Acacia Avenue, a small agency in Islington specialising in brand and marketing advice based on market research. Like many other Dark Angels, he’s also a member of 26, and is one of its longest serving directors. His lifelong passion for books and writing found professional expression in his former role as Marketing Director at Waterstones, and nowadays his pleasure is in writing for a life, rather than a living.
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Elen Lewis
Elen Lewis is a writer, editor and author. She writes novels about lightning and foundlings, books about brands (IKEA and eBay), eight ghostwritten books that she can’t talk about and poems in the V&A Museum and Welsh National Eisteddfod. She writes and runs workshops for clients like Sainsbury’s, BP, DHL, Unilever and Diageo. She sits on the board of 26, to inspire a love of language, and is the editor of The Marketing Society.
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Andy Milligan
Andy is a founder of the business growth consultancy, The Caffeine Partnership. A brand consultant since 1990, he has helped businesses around the world to define their brand promise and translate into words and actions what customers notice and value. Andy has published six business books and is a co-author of the Dark Angels collective novel Keeping Mum. He has been a Plymouth Argyle fan since 1974, which has taught him invaluable life skills.
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Richard Pelletier
When he’s not photographing Paris, or Italy, or his beloved Whidbey Island, WA, Richard can be found in his writing shed writing for branding agencies, talent agencies, tech firms, and entrepreneurs. He’s a contributing writer on projects led by Dark Angels and 26. It all began in Baltimore, on a hot summer’s night, a stone’s throw from the lifelong home of H.L. Mencken, the great journalist and prose stylist. If only he’d known that Angels were waiting for him.
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John Simmons
John’s an independent writer and brand consultant, formerly a director of Interbrand and Newell and Sorrell. His many books on writing for business include We, Me, Them & It, The Invisible Grail and Dark Angels. His fiction includes Leaves, Spanish Crossings and The Good Messenger. A published poet, he leads the Dark Angels poetry publishing programme. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Falmouth University for services to the creative industries. He’s a founder director of 26, the writer’s collective.
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Craig Watson
Craig B. Watson used to be a writer and entertainer. Then he grew up and became the sort of lawyer they don’t make TV dramas about. He’s reasonably good at it too, provided you catch him after 10 a.m. It was doing a bit of legal ‘sign-off’ that led him to discover Dark Angels. He signed up to the courses and has since signed over his soul to the cause. He writes for business and pleasure – some of it in his native Scots.