Trying to write a novel? A Marrakech ‘book camp’ might unlock your literary skills

There’s nothing like shopping to form a bond between strangers. It was the glue for two women of letters who met at Lahore Literary Festival a few years ago. “We ended up hanging out, talking about books and shopping. There is a great picture of us in an old haveli. I remember your hair was bright blue, and a blue parrot settled on your shoulder,” says Bloomsbury editor Alexandra Pringle of her encounter with future creative partner, the writer and historian Alex von Tunzelmann. The blue hair is long gone, although von Tunzelmann has gone for purple ahead of their next writing masterclass.

Together with their mutual friend, editor and literary consultant Faiza Khan (Pringle had hired her to run the Bloomsbury list in Delhi), they talked of opening a boutique with a curation of goods and artefacts truffled from their travels. “We realised that our love of objects is founded in storytelling – I do believe everything holds a history and a life,” says Pringle, who lives on a houseboat in Chelsea filled with Staffordshire figures, fine porcelain and ancient finds from Morocco. The idea of a writing retreat then blossomed with the input of author and journalist Nesrine Malik, and, in 2022, Silk Road Slippers was founded.

There are myriad writing retreats out there, often staged in picturesque locales such as the south of France and largely attracting a certain tranche of middle-class England. This literary double act, however, was determined to establish a fully immersive workshop with hands-on exercises, seminars, one-on-one feedback and the central attraction of a guest author. The masterclasses held in Marrakech got underway in November 2023 with Shehan Karunatilaka as the first guest author. Esther Freud (23-28 February) and Alan Hollinghurst (2-7 March) are top billing for the upcoming spring masterclasses, which cost £3,200 per person (with a £1,000 deposit payable on acceptance).

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