Skip to content

Are you trying to write a novel? A ‘book camp’ in Marrakech could unlock your literary skills


There’s nothing like shopping to bond with strangers. It was the glue for two women of letters who met at the Lahore Literary Festival a few years ago. “We ended up hanging out, talking about books and shopping. There is a great photo of us in an old haveli. I remember your hair was bright blue and a blue parrot perched on your shoulder,” says Bloomsbury editor Alexandra Pringle of her meeting with her future creative partner, the writer and historian. Alex von Tunzelmann. Blue hair is no more, although von Tunzelmann has opted for purple ahead of her upcoming writing master class.

Together with their mutual friend, editor and literary consultant. Faiza Khan (pringle He had hired her to run the Bloomsbury list in Delhi), they talked about opening a boutique with a selection of truffled products and artifacts from their travels. “We realized that our love of objects is based on storytelling; I think everything has a story and a life,” says Pringle, who lives in a houseboat in Chelsea filled with Staffordshire figurines, fine china and ancient finds from Morocco. The idea of ​​a writing retreat arose with the contribution of the author and journalist. Nesrine Malikand, in 2022, Silk Road Slippers was founded.

Silk Road Slipper co-founders Faiza Khan, Alex von Tunzelmann and Alexandra Pringle at the hotel
Silk Road Slipper co-founders Faiza Khan, Alex von Tunzelmann and Alexandra Pringle at the hotel © Ismail Zaidy

There are countless writing retreats, often organized in picturesque locations such as the south of France and which largely appeal to a certain section of the English middle class. This literary double act, however, was determined to establish a fully immersive workshop with practical exercises, seminars, individual commentary and the central attraction of a guest author. He master classes held in Marrakech started in November 2023 with Shehan Karunatilaka as the first guest author. Esther Freud (February 23-28) and Alan Hollinghurst (2-7 March) are the main billing for the upcoming Spring Masterclasses, which cost £3,200 per person (with a £1,000 deposit payable upon acceptance).

With combined experience in writing, book publishing and editing, teaching, and literary talent brokering, the founders offer a 360-degree approach. Where Pringle leans toward memoir and fiction, von Tunzelmann he delights in crime and history. “Before Silk Road Slippers, I was one of those people who thought writing couldn’t be taught, but I had to eat my words when I realized there was something joyful about the process of freeing people. to be creative,” says von Tunzelmann, author of best-selling history books, including Fallen idols: twelve statues that made history (2021). “That’s invaluable, whether you’re going to write professionally or not: it’s liberating. There are many retreats where guests find the space and time to write, but without advice or teaching. Ours is a training ground – it’s hard work!”

A masterclass on Silk Road slippers, with personalized notebooks and gift baskets
A masterclass on Silk Road slippers, with personalized notebooks and gift baskets © Ismail Zaidy

Over five days, attendees (maximum group size is 14) learn from every angle, starting with a 15-minute writing exercise each morning, followed by a full day of classroom lessons covering a variety of topics, from plot synopsis to character development, first and second drafts, editing, and finding an agent. “It’s very public and participatory and builds a lot of trust, but it can be tense and emotional,” says Pringle, who has more than 40 years’ experience, notably as editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury, previously at Virago. and which has nurtured new authors such as Lucy Ellmann and Esther Freud, as well as William Boyd, Margaret Atwood and Khaled Hosseini. No experience necessary. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve written a book before or not.”

Novels by four of the guest authors

Our Afternoons by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)

Our Afternoons by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)

My friends from Hisham Matar (Viking)

My friends from Hisham Matar (Viking)

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud (Penguin)

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud (Penguin)

After Lives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Riverhead)

After Lives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Riverhead)

“I think we’re very international,” Pringle continues. “My mother is Moroccan, Faiza is from Pakistan and Nesrine is from Sudan. We have lawyers, journalists, academics, business leaders, CEOs from Syria, Iraq, Panama, Australia, the United States, Oman and Scandinavia. “They are people who have achieved a lot in life and now want to learn to take advantage of their creativity.”

Starting new ventures can happen at any age. “I’ve worked on screenplays, nonfiction books and radio documentaries, and in all of them storytelling is key,” says von Tunzelmann, 47, who is a good partner at Pringle. They train contagiously and happily alternate between concepts and reality. “I don’t use the R-word,” laughs Pringle, now 70, when asked about his “retirement” from Bloomsbury. “I want this part of life to be about joy and adventure. “I spent my 70th birthday in the desert with my son and I look forward to the next 10 years.” Not far behind, she is also working on her own book titled Caravan – a memoir of herself as a young woman not knowing she was Jewish and tracing her story back to generations of Moroccan Berber Jews. It was sold in a bidding war, and Pringle gave the rights to the independent publisher Canongate and Simon & Schuster in the United States. “Writing is about what is deep inside us; It’s something tender. I’m writing my book because I want to know who I was when I was young. “If you write something personal, you have to be honest and go deeper than you think necessary, and that is painful and strange,” he says. Pringle jokes that by the end she will have done everything in publishing (agent, editor, writer) except sell books.

Both also provide practical advice. Von Tunzelmann learned from his parents, both academics, that too much research and planning can be counterproductive. “You have to start writing, otherwise the research will have no substance,” he advises.

The co-founders with those attending the workshop in the hotel gardens
The co-founders with those attending the workshop in the hotel gardens © Ismail Zaidy

The business of publishing and writing has changed dramatically in the last decade with the rise of publishing conglomerates and marketing, and the decrease in time spent with authors. On the plus side, social media spaces like BookTok and Substack mean new writing can penetrate widely. Pringle cites the example of The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, the retelling of a Greek myth that went viral among teenagers and has sold more than two million copies worldwide.

Silk Road Slippers (which also runs day workshops in London) offers post-course advice and mentoring, which is invaluable when a first-time writer is ready to look for an agent. “Where are you going? It takes a lot of people to publish a book and it takes a lot of time. Unlike the credits that appear after a movie, we are all behind a screen,” says Pringle.

The alchemy of writing is best activated in a conducive environment and the course is held at Jnane Tamsna, a small boutique hotel in the Palmeraie area of ​​Marrakech, a city that has spawned novels such as the coming-of-age tale of Esther Freud. horrible curly. It is owned by Pringle’s friends, Meryanne Loum-Martin, a French-Senegalese lawyer, and her husband, the American ethnobotanist Gary Martin. They have landscaped the nine-acre biodiverse grounds, which are dotted with swimming pools. “We all gather for botanical cocktails and dinners that Meryanne designs as sets,” Pringle says. “From excursions to the medina to walks through the hotel gardens… everything is a Russian doll full of stories,” adds von Tunzelmann. The “great magic” of writing – a phrase they borrowed from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book – is that once equipped with pen and paper or keyboard and screen, you are never sure what extraordinary thing might be unleashed.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *