The essays

Essays, written slowly.

On notebooks, walking, reading and the small town at the bottom of the valley. Filter by topic, or start with the newest.

An open notebook with handwriting and a fountain pen on a dark wooden desk, filled notebooks on the shelf behind

Notebooks

·

9

min read

The case for a paper notebook

What a pen remembers that a phone forgets.

A beech wood in autumn colour above a river in a steep Yorkshire valley

Place

·

6

min read

October, and the light goes

The valley in the first cold week, and why I write earlier in autumn.

Six sharpened pencils, a small knife and shavings on a sheet of paper

Craft

·

8

min read

Pencil forgives

Why every first draft I write starts in pencil.

A walker on a moorland path beside a drystone wall under a grey sky

Walking

·

11

min read

On walking without a destination

A defence of the aimless walk, and the notes it leaves behind.

A leaning stack of books, a mug and a green desk lamp by a window

Reading

·

7

min read

The books on my desk this autumn

Six books I'm reading slowly, and one I gave up on.

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A steep cobbled street of stone terraced houses with a lit shop window on a wet morning

Place

·

10

min read

What a small town teaches a writer

Hebden Bridge, the library and the woman at the bakery who reads every issue.

A hand marking up a printed manuscript with a red pen, a mug and a folded map beside it

Writing

·

12

min read

How I edit: three passes and a walk

My editing routine, from the first read-through to the last cut.

A shoebox full of handwritten letters on a wooden floor under the stairs

Writing

·

5

min read

Letters I keep

On the reader letters in the shoebox under the stairs.

As read in

  • The Guardian Country Diary

  • BBC Radio 4

  • Slightly Foxed

  • The Northern Review

  • Granta

  • Caught by the River

  • Countryfile

  • The Bookseller

  • The Guardian Country Diary

  • BBC Radio 4

  • Slightly Foxed

  • The Northern Review

  • Granta

  • Caught by the River

  • Countryfile

  • The Bookseller