Some kind words from former students.

Memoir and Life Writing course

“A most enjoyable and informative short course that I would highly recommend to all aspiring memoir writers. A huge amount of ground was covered as Duncan steered us through the topics, offering individual, insightful advice with positivity and good humour.” 

– Jean Church

“I gained such a lot from joining Duncan’s memoir writing course. Having the focus of weekly sessions and Duncan’s structured, informed guidance was hugely helpful in pushing my writing forward. I really enjoyed hearing other people’s writing and found the sharing and group feedback very useful, as were all the prompts and exercises. Highly recommended.” 

– Chloe Edwards

“I found Duncan’s course inspirational! It was extremely well structured and it turned a daunting ambition into plausible, achievable, practical steps. Duncan created a safe and supportive environment in which students could share their output which was invaluable, given the potential sensitivity of the subject matter (our own lives). I loved it!”

– Michele Moore

“After nearly two years of Covid-related frustrations, the spontaneity of my last minute decision to join Duncan’s course – and his graciously including me just 45 minutes before the first session was due to start – was the best thing I’ve done since 2019! The group was small enough to make me feel comfortable – to share some of my writing and to ask questions – but big enough to ensure a diversity of people, each with different reasons for wanting to write and able to give varied feedback. The whole atmosphere was one of positivity: the combination of Duncan’s advice with lots of mutual encouragement from the rest of the group being the perfect way to get me over that terrible hurdle of ‘Where do I start?’ Thank you!”

– James Sclater

“I really enjoyed the December 2021 Memoir and Life Writing course and was glad I was able to get to all the sessions as every one was valuable. There were lots of opportunities for writing with constructive feedback as well as a wide variety of extracts from authors works to read and discuss. I am clearer now about where my strengths lie and areas I could develop. I would recommend the course.”

– Gil Reynard

“Duncan is an incredibly talented writer, a great teacher, inspiring and motivating. He has great taste in books, I’ve ended up reading about subjects which I have never even been vaguely interested in yet which I have thoroughly enjoyed. He’s organised but also easy going with a good dose of sense of humour. I was initially timid sharing, however Duncan and the rest of the group were encouraging and kind. I met wonderful and talented writers and looked forward to listening to their stories. My love for writing has well and truly been ignited.”

– Yasmin Saab

One-to-one consultations

“Duncan provided some great insights and ideas on how to strengthen my submission package (early chapters, synopsis, query letter) for my debut novel. With a very quick turnaround, he reviewed my draft, made written comments and we had an extremely useful one-to-one chat. He combined a big picture, eagle-eye view of the novel with a forensic, line-by-line analysis of what was working and what wasn’t.  I think the draft improved a lot after my session. He was also very prompt in responding to my queries in a follow-up email.  I would highly recommend Duncan.”

– Stuart Gillespie

“I was confident in my manuscript but when it kept being rejected by agents I decided to go to Duncan Barrett for the opinion of a professional editor and writer. He was very encouraging; the writing was good, the characters were well drawn and the premise was really interesting. But the structure of the novel… Duncan told me things about the structure which I hadn’t thought of and things I’d thought of but didn’t want to hear from someone else. His suggestions were wide ranging and detailed but he always left it up to me to make the final decisions. He made me think. I took his advice and the book is an altogether better piece of work for it. When you write a novel there is simply no substitute for first class professional editing like this.”

– Nick Le Mesurier