Publish a Micro-Memoir in 30 days
PUBLISH IN 30 DAYS
A life story. Just not the whole life.
A short course, delivered by email, that ends with a real book on your shelf.
What this is
Thirty daily emails. Fifteen minutes of work a day. At the end, a book – A5, full colour, professionally bound, about 48 pages – posted to your door from the printer.
You’ll write about a person, a place, a time, or a thread of your life that matters to you. Not the whole story.
A fragment, done well.
I read every reply for the six weeks from when you sign up. Questions, drafts, stuck moments – send them and I’ll write back.
I made one myself this way recently, in roughly the timeframe you’ll have.
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Why I made this course
For some years I wrote obituaries for The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Telescoped life stories, none longer than 2,000 words. Incredible people, sensational lives, two thousand words each. It was impossible not to feel they’d been short-changed – but the alternative was no obituary at all.
What I learned in those years is the thing this course is built around: a fragment, done well, is better than a whole life left unwritten.
And it doesn’t need to summarise a whole life, either. It could be about one narrowly defined part of a life.
For ten years, I’ve taught life writing at the Arvon Foundation and elsewhere, mentored published authors, and run earlier versions of this course privately. The current form – 30 days, by email, ending with a printed book – is the version I’ve found works.
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Next cohorts
Starts Monday 25 May 2026 (£150)
Starts Monday 3 August 2026 (£350)
Starts Monday 2 November 2026 (£350)