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The Villager is where I write about whatever takes my fancy. If you subscribe today, you'll get full access to the website as well as email newsletters about new content when it's available. Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows The Villager to continue to exist. Thank you!

My first novel was actually called Villager and would have been a very different book if it was called The Villager but, despite this, a lot of people insist on calling it The Villager. At the same time, that’s undeniably what I am: I live in a village now, grew up in a village and have, during less than half a century on the planet, somehow managed to reside in a grand total of eleven other villages. I love to explore the countryside and write about it but I’m interested in innumerable other things too: these range from 1970s Habitat Catalogues to crumbling architecture to old Ladybird books to records to interdimensional portals. Sometimes, I think I’m chronically interested in everything, which is also probably the reason I’ve not yet managed to become an expert on anything.

The way the writing works on here is I wake up with an idea in the middle of the night, or sometimes even in the middle of the day when I’m actually already awake, and think “I absolutely HAVE to write about this and will feel less of a person if I don’t” then I write about it, which is more or less the opposite of how writing seemed to work back in the mists of time when I wrote for the national media. I now write primarily for me, for the love of the pure process of it, to learn and to challenge myself. I want to come out of the other end of every book I write, every piece I write, slightly changed. I’m so glad that this space exists where I can do that, and I’m grateful for every bit of support I receive along the way. At present I’m keeping nearly all of the pieces here free but there are a few extras for paid subscribers - including an exclusive first look at new short fiction, even before my editors - and every paid subscription allows me to do more of what I love and keep myself sane in an increasingly crazy world.

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