Rebecca Evans, Centre Director

Before joining Arvon, Rebecca worked for international development charities and before that, in publishing. She also spent too much time on trains commuting between Hebden Bridge and London, spent too many hours in uninspiring offices and too little time indulging her passion for creative writing. 

Before she knew what Lumb Bank was, she used to walk by and gaze wistfully through the gates towards the house’s beautiful walled gardens. Thankfully, Rebecca doesn’t engage in wistful gazing anymore but she still finds Lumb Bank an inspiring place to work and learn.

Now responsible for the buildings and grounds, Rebecca never knew how much joy could be had from slipping on a pair of wellies and checking on the septic tank. 

Liz Flanagan, Centre Director

Liz grew up in Hebden Bridge and came to Lumb Bank on a school course years ago for a wonderful life-changing week. She went off and lived in London, Paris and Brighton - working mostly in children's publishing for ten years, and also having two lovely daughters of her own - before realising that this is the most beautiful valley in the world, and very sensibly coming home again.

Arvonistas at Lumb Bank are often torn between exploring the woods or sitting down at their desks and writing the next draft – till they realise they can take a notebook and do both at once.

Best bits about the job include meeting her favourite writers, watching people bond on the first night, the view, the look on someone’s face when they’ve just read out their first poem, and Rachel’s puddings.

Rachel Connor, Centre Assistant

In a former life Rachel lectured in English at the Universities of Salford and Glasgow.  She first came to Lumb Bank on a Starting to Write course in 2004.  She hasn't stopped writing since and her debut novel, Sisterwives was published in 2011.

At Lumb Rachel is responsible for managing provisions and food.  She considers herself fortunate to have landed the perfect job for a food-loving writer, in which she can indulge her addiction to food magazines, tweak recipes and invent new puddings.   

Other things she loves about working for Arvon: fantastic colleagues; the welcoming look of the table, newly set, before dinner on the first evening; meeting a constant procession of interesting and entertaining people.  And how, every week, she gets to witness first-hand the transformative power of words.

Becky Liddell, Administrator   

Becky is a literature graduate and former (secondary school) English teacher. She then went on to work in the museum and heritage sector for many years, managing learning, access, school and community projects.

She spent many happy hours walking in the woods around Lumb Bank before applying for the job as Administrator, so jumped at the chance to work in the beautiful house on the hill.

A keen poet as a child and young adult, she is plucking up the courage to start writing again, inspired by the creative environment in which she now finds herself.

Ilona Jones, Administrator (currently on leave) 

Ilona studied French and Russian at university, accidentally worked in market research, very purposely disappeared overseas for a while and eventually came back to beautiful Yorkshire. She sails and snowboards and, if asked what her favourite book is, runs a hundred yards shouting “It depends what falls off the bookshelf! I don’t think I have one favourite. Does that make me weird?”

She adores reading everything and anything and can’t think of a better place to work than in the wild and stunning Pennine landscape of Lumb Bank. Nor can she think of a better job than enabling hundreds of people to write even more for her to read one day.