ART AND MORE

ART AND MORE

My mum, Jo - whose work you can find here - has very kindly handed me some of her original linoprints to give away to any new paid subscribers who opt for the reduced price annual subscription or founder member option today I absolutely love the hedgehog (which originally appeared in my book Notebook) and the hare (which originally appeared in its hare-tinged precursor Ring The Hill). Once you’ve subscribed, I’ll send you an email to for a postal address then get one of these off to you (this counts for any new annual subscriber, worldwide, by the way). The offer is open until midday tomorrow, Friday 21st April (UK time).

Yesterday was the first time ever that I was able to see all the paperback versions of my most recent five books - the ones published by Unbound - together in my house. It felt good. So many years of hard work, stubbornness and shutting out the voices - some of them very real - that told me I couldn’t do it and that nobody would be interested. I wrote eight more obedient books before these - what I have more or less come to view as a training period that just happened to be conducted in public - but it’s these five that I care most about: the ones I wrote with total freedom, for me, which as a result of that are 100% me. I’ve just ordered another stack to sign and sell direct to people in the UK so please email me via my website if you’d like any of those. I’ve also got a limited selection of postcards featuring my parents’ art to give away free with them, including some maps of Underhill, the village from Villager, by my dad. I am happy to send overseas too, but I really don’t like charging people the current crazy international postage rates, and all the books can be purchased much less expensively from Blackwells, with free worldwide delivery. (Speaking of which, I will be appearing at their Literary Festival next month, in case anybody happens to be in the Oxford region on the 24th.)

Villager is now exactly two weeks into its life in paperback. I’m hoping that the overwhelming amount of lovely early feedback I’m getting might soon turn into a groundswell that will help get a few more copies into the shops, and possibly a few foreign language editions out there, in time. I’ve had countless messages from so many of you about a potential audiobook, to join the ones of 21st-Century Yokel, Ring The Hill and Help The Witch, so I’ve decided to go ahead and record it myself over the coming fortnight, then pop it on Audible. I might also do one for Notebook while I’m at it, so watch this space.

Thanks for reading! Lots more writing to come on here very soon…