A deep dive into writing about 21st C intimacy and relationships.
While love and sex are ancient archetypal human drivers, we’re now in a New Time, an age of online dating sites and all that goes with it. Writing candidly about our 21st century personal lives and intimate relationships takes some courage. Finding love via the Internet has become a new normal. However, for many of us, the quest for a loving partnership, in itself an invitation to be vulnerable, has become atomised, de-personalised and fraught. Two experienced writers, memoirists and Tantrikas have devised this unique writing course to support and guide you. Come, bring your stories, in any form you like, fiction, memoir and poetry. We can help you unpack your stories from the front line of sex and love and also provide a baseline of hope.
Where: Mandala House, Magoulades, Corfu
When: 1-5 June 2026
Course Fee: £550.00
What this course offers:
* Morning writing workshops with Marianne and Monique
* Delicious lunch at Mandala House
* Evening activities and readings
Workshops will include:
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How to write honestly when part of you wants to hide.
i.e. “What will other people think?”
Navigating fear of judgement — from family, exes, partners, readers and strangers on the internet.
How to look after yourself without self-censoring.
How to write true and hard about hurts.
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What is sex? The mainstream media paints sex in 2D. In this workshop we look at realism and sexuality, the joy and the pain too, the longing, the good sex and the bad. How it all really looks as we age, as we adventure as we try, succeed and sometimes fail. We’ll look at writing real sex.
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Some of our favourites - good sex by men and women
In this workshop, we’ll look at some examples of good erotica and sex written either in poor taste or…
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A look at the GOLD we all have inside us - what our life experience has taught us. Building, for our readers, a point of view that they can trust - i.e. three things we’ve learned about your heart, three things you’ve learned about your body, write about your first kiss. How does your life look now that you can look back? What wisdom can you impart?
Evening Activities & Readings include:
Your tutors talk: You’re not Alone. One evening on the course
Your erotic library - from classic to contemporary - fiction and poetry
Poetry - erotic poetry - from Sappho to today - Marquis de Sade
On erotic writing - build your library around you - literary erotic library - contemporary or sapho - classic, modern, confessional, these books give us the courage to write, we are not alone. Use examples of sex memoirs, sexy stories - memoir takes a certain courage, and fiction and poetry are different.
Your Course Leaders:
Monique Roffey, FRSL, is an award-winning Trinidadian born British writer of novels, essays, literary journalism and a memoir.
Her latest novel, Passiontide, was published in June 2024. The Mermaid of Black Conch,won the Costa Book of the Year Award, 2020, and was nominated for eight other awards.Her other Caribbean novels, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle and House of Ashes have also been nominated for awards. Archipelago won the OCM Bocas Award for Caribbean Literature in 2013. Her work has been translated into many languages and adapted for screen. She is a member of the Hard Art collective and co-organiser of Hey! Festivals. She is also a Professor of Contemporary Fiction and a member of the Centre for Fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Marianne Power is a journalist and the author of the global bestseller Help Me!, published in twenty-five languages. Her wry, funny, down-to-earth journey through the world of self-help captured readers’ hearts around the world.
Her second book, Love Me!, explores different ways of having a life full of love and sex as a single woman in her forties — via tantra retreats, pussy gazing and breakdowns about what her Irish Catholic family would think. Cosmopolitan called it a must-read book on sex, The Guardian named it a “gold star beach read,” and her mother is slowly getting used to it all.
Marianne has taught hundreds of writing workshops, helping people — especially those who don’t think they’re writers — to pick up a pen, trust their voice, and see what emerges on the page. She is known for creating spaces where people feel safe to tell the truth.
Practicals, Logistics, Travel Info & Accommodation
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Fly to Corfu Airport (CFU)
It takes about an hour to drive from Corfu Airport to Arillas.
If you’d like to arrange a private taxi in advance, try Stathis +30 698 029 4020
If you’re happy to get a shared minibus, this can be cheaper but will take a bit longer.
There’s no public transport around Arillas apart from the GreenBus, which has two buses a day from Corfu Town.
There are hire car options at the airport and in Arillas, and it is cheaper to book this in advance. Though shop around the car aggregators. This is a local service.
You may like to consider getting here a day or two early, or leaving a day or two later to hang around in Arillas or explore Corfu old town.
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Mandala House is Alison Pilling’s private home. We’ll be holding our workshop in the olive press. As there’s no public transport, you’ll need a car/ebike or scooter to get up to Magoulades, which is a 10-minute drive from Arillas.
You can easily find Mandala House on Google Maps. It’s the yellow house with blue shutters and black gates near the torpedo in the village square of Magoulades. On-street parking is usually available outside Mandala and by the village square.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/obb1NAhSL4nkCpdH6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy
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Booking.com and Airbnb have many options available,
Green Corfu is a local travel office.
https://www.brouklis.com/index.php/accommodation.html
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Ina’s - vegan/vegetarian cafe,
Brouklis Taverna
Akrotiri - stunning view and a walk to a shrine.
Soundgarden hosts Ecstatic Dance on a Sunday, which is a 12-minute drive from Arillas beach.
If you have a car, you can drive to Afionas and walk to Porto Timoni, & enjoy the views and food at these restaurants: Panorama, Luuma, Anafoufou.
Bring good shoes if you’d like to walk down to the double bay at Porto Timoni.
It’s a 15-minute drive to another beach nearby in Agios Georgios
For more general info: https://arillas.com/
To join, please email Marianne and Monique at lushcorfu@gmail.com
For questions about Arillas, Alison Pilling is our ambassador on the ground. sexypolymath@icloud.com