The Alchemy

'I was completely blown away by The Alchemy. Anna Vaught will liberate you from the trappings of perfection and teach you how to create incredible things from every single piece of you, including all those bits you believed were always holding you back. This is not just for writers: I think everyone should read this book.' (Kat Ashton, Head of Courses, Jericho Writers) '‘The Alchemy is the writing guide we all need: wise, funny, deeply compassionate, it meets us where we are and gently suggests that’s a place where wonderful things can happen. Do not despair – read this instead.' (Shelley Harris, author, lecturer in English Literature and Director of MA Creative Writing Programme, University of Reading) 'This beautiful and empathetic book seeks to recover for writers the immense value of what Wordsworth calls ‘wise passiveness’ that ‘can feed this mind of ours’. It reminds us that not-writing is sometimes a kind of writing, and of the importance of downtime, productive failure and bubble baths. Anna Vaught’s unique writing guide is, above all, an act of kindness to authors everywhere.' (Jonathon Taylor, author and Professor of Creative Writing, University of Leicester) 'LOVED The Alchemy: it’s what every writer and would-be writer needs; a friend who is at the same time knowledgeable, but also kind, funny, compassionate and wise; who knows what it’s like to feel insecure, but who has been through every kind of fire, and has come out indestructible.' (Joanne Harris)