Literary charades: The Writing School, by Miranda France, reviewed

A recent YouGov survey found that 60 per cent of Britons dream of being writers, compared with 31 per cent who dream of being film stars. Although the chances of success, or even subsistence, are equally remote in both professions, aspirant authors flock to the country’s ever-proliferating creative writing courses.

Miranda France’s splendid third book, blending fact and fiction, is set on one such course: a week-long residency in a rural retreat house, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Arvon Foundation at which France has taught. The unnamed narrator, a Spanish translator and travel writer with two novels to her name, leads an eclectic group of 12 students, in tandem with Tom, a poet, who, having been likened to Ted Hughes, is doing his best to act the part.

On the second day, the tutor cites a passage from William Trevor’s short story ‘Widows’ as a model of economical description. France proceeds to match it in her pithy portraits of the students. Four stand out: Peter, a septuagenarian, who plans to write detective stories set in Roman Bath and has compiled a list of errors in France’s book on Spain;  Sheena, a tax inspector, eager to chronicle her neighbour’s attempt to murder her with a ceremonial sword in a dispute over hedges; Lily, a quiet Chinese-American insurance broker with resounding talent; and Nick who, having taken a previous course, has also seen its potential as a fictional setting and produced a pornographic novel featuring relentless sex acts between two tutors and a visiting writer.

There are no such antics on the current course. Although one participant leaves, complaining that she isn’t having as much fun as she expected, the others mix happily and creatively. Both the formal and informal group sessions are sharply described, with close readings of extracts from Sylvia Plath and Lorna Sage, and reminders of Jane Austen’s 16-year wait to find a publisher for Pride and Prejudice, leavened by literary charades.