Telling a life – yours or someone else’s: is it telling a lie - or telling the truth? – or a half truth? It’s up to you.

This course – auto/biography -  work on different elements of the life story: primarily the central character (but don’t ignore the minor ones).

Then there’s narrative, the story, the events – which to include or exclude, which to embellish, which to play down. Is it long or short? Don’t forget your readers: they like a story.

Structure: begin with the beginning: ‘Jasper Rees was born on the 29^th of etc etc’, or ‘ Jasper Rees had one ambition in life – to climb Mt Everest’. The structure is totally flexible and entirely up to you: it could begin with a funeral or end with a  birth. It can have chapters or none, be long or short.

Mood and Style: is the work purely factual ? - imaginative, sombre, humorous, nostalgic, serious, mischievous, sad, plain, frivolous?

Th course is looking at various works in this genre, including the ongoing work of the members.  The course leader suggests exercises as a way of stimulating and focusing the authors’ creativity. He will faithfully read and give feedback on the work of the course members.

The course meets monthly on a Monday morning but can be at any other as time agreed by the group. The meetings are held in the course leader’s home and currently has six members; there is limited scope for expansion.  It is planned that the course will run until members feel they have no more to gain or give, or when the planned individual works are completed.

Simon Watson November 2025

You must be a member of Midhurst u3a to participate in our groups