My husband found his beekeeping course after going to a talk on it advertised in the local library, so it's worth looking on their noticeboards. Failing that, this site Beekeeping Courses UK Beekeeping for Beginners and Advanced Beekeepers has details of beekeeping courses all over the country.

As for books, there is Teach yourself bee-keeping by Claire and Adrian Waring and the "bible" is Guide to Bees and Honey by Ted Hooper.

Bees start swarming in May (husband is outside in a very attractive bee suit as we speak, building new frames for a hastily-added hive after missing some queen cells in one of his hives with the result that half the hive swarmed and are even now in an upside-down cardboard box in a bush in the garden) so if you get on a course now, you may be in luck with getting your own hives quite soon.

Best of luck with it and hope this helps.