Last week I had the unusual (for this year) experience of running a Dark Angels course – a live, residential one with real people.

This past October saw the first ever Dark Angels workshop held in America.

Stuart Delves and Samm Short remember how last year's advanced course was a little bit different - blending writing and yoga in the house overlooking the sierra.

John: Place is always important to any writer. I mean a number of things by that.

It was wonderful to spend those few days with you at Loughcrew. Tell me, did you have any expectations of what you wanted to get out of the course?

THERE is the beginning of a grey mizzle, and the scrunch of autumn resonates underfoot as a few cars park up, their lights briefly illuminating a house in the distance.

You’ve been on two Dark Angels courses now. So obviously I’m interested in hearing things from your perspective because these conversations should involve the whole Dark Angels audience, not just the tutors.

From John: Up early, showering, dressing, packing, then carrying my belongings of the week across the courtyard to my car. At six o'clock in early March it was still dark.

So Dark Angels Ireland is official. Delighted to have run this first course with you and John.

It falls on me to start the next conversation in this blog series. And I’ve kept putting it off. The problem is this: the last one, between John and Richard, was so wise and intelligent that I don’t know how to follow it.

When Stuart and I first talked about a residential writing course aimed at business writers, we probably had quite limited ambitions.

On the second night of our recent Dark Angels advanced course in Spain, once they had all settled in, we decided to ask the eight students to take just a couple of minutes after dinner to say why they had come.