Our Story
Meet the Women
We’re Saska & Meg — two book-loving mamas, home educating five wild kiddos between us, and co-creators of Her Story Retreats.
We’re deep in our granny eras — give us tea, sourdough, sprayed edges, and a quiet corner to read. But we also know the real-life mess of motherhood, burnout, and needing a space to breathe.
HerStory was born from that place: where love for family meets the sacred need for rest, reflection, and deep connection with other women.
We’re building the retreat we always wished for.
Once upon a time..
HerStory began — quite literally — with a love for books, filthy ones at that. A small group of girlfriends, spread out across Cumbria, craving connection and craving stories that weren’t always “literary” but were always liberating. We looked around and found the usual book clubs a little too stiff, too polite — and let’s be honest, a little too beige. So we made our own.
Once a month, we met in the best cafés and hidden foodie spots we could find — making the journey worth it, always. What started as a shared obsession with smutty novels quickly became something more. We laughed until we cried, shared the kind of truths that only slip out when you’re talking about fictional characters… and suddenly realised, we’d created something sacred.
What we’d built wasn’t just a book club. It was a council, a kind of modern-day sister circle where literature (in all its messy, brilliant forms) was the spark — but connection was the flame.
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Then in January 2025, we took things one dreamy step further. We rented a huge, mock-Tudor mansion on the shores of Wastwater and hosted a winter retreat for our families and wider community. It was chaos and magic: kids running wild in the woods, film nights projected on the walls, communal meals, games by the fire. And in the pockets of shared parenting, we found something golden — time. Real time to read, reflect, and talk. By the end of that week, one thing was clear: we wanted to do this again. But next time, just for us. No distractions. No responsibilities. Just deep rest, beautiful books, and the kind of soul-nourishing connection that only happens when women gather with no one to care for but themselves.
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And so, HerStory Reading Retreats was born. A space where women can slip into softness. Into stories. Into laughter. Into luxury — the kind that’s usually out of reach alone, but becomes magically possible when we share it.
We don’t follow prescribed reading lists. We don’t pretend to have it all together. We bring books that make us feel something, and stories that stir conversation — sometimes hilarious, sometimes raw. We hold space, pour the wine, and pass the pages.
Because this is more than a retreat.
It’s a return — to ourselves, to each other, and to the stories that make us who we are.