Well, so far so good. I now have a simple selfbow made from ash. The day was spent in the selection and preparation of the wood, then shaping and forming of the bow - lots of sawing, planing, sanding and filing all under the expert eye of Mark Cooper. Thoroughly enjoyable and a great pub lunch was included too.
Now all I have to do is make some arrows (tomorrow), tiller the bow and then fire it.
The key thing with this course is that it gives you the knowledge to know what to look for in a length of wood and what to do with it, so that your next bow will always be better than the last (or first) one.