Hello again! So this year, I'm doing an MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University--or as I'll be calling it from now on: my course at BSU.
I've been attending classes for about a month now, and I love everything about the course. I love the workshops, the tutors, my coursemates, and the work I've been doing on the course. In the very beginning of the year, I went to a talk hosted by some graduates of the program who are all now published, successful authors. I'm not sure anything has made me more excited about my future in my entire life. It's been a blast so far.
If I had any doubts about turning down jobs and flying halfway across the world for a degree that is unmarketable, they have all been positively obliterated.
And while this course would have been perfect for me even if the classes were taught in a basement in Detroit, the actual campus is a huge plus.
Welcome, my friends, to my school for the year:
This is Corsham Court. My classes are in the rooms just above my head. The library is in the wing to my right. Here's one of the library reading rooms:
A better view out of that window:
Corsham Court was reportable built on the site of the seat of an old Saxon king with the glamorous name of "Ethelred the Unready." The oldest parts of the current house were built in the late 1500s--and those stables remain untouched from that time. In the mid-1700s, they decided to expand the house and hired Capability Brown (given name: Lancelot Brown) to design the expansion and the park surrounding the house.
Capability Brown is probably THE most famous landscape artist of all time, and that's saying something, as there are a ton of big names in the world of landscape art.
Or maybe there aren't.
Anyway, the gardens around Corsham Court are amazing.
While I believe you can write anywhere, Corsham Court is definitely a place for writing. It's full of history and art, sham ruins, gardens, wooded paths to get lost on. It feels important and scholarly and unknown.
When I walk down the drive to class, it feels like I'm walking towards something truly great, a feeling that is amplified by--but not rooted in--the building.
Best,
Julia