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Nottinghamtopia

Thoughts On Finishing A Novel

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A Pleasant Illness: Thoughts From The Desk Of A Vinyl Nerd

* I have been in a huge, even-more-time-consuming-than-I’d-thought-it-would-be phase of finetuning my record collection recently. I’d call it a spring clean, if it hadn’t gone on since long before spring and I felt totally confident that it is going to be 100% finished before summer. Part of my

Native Tongue (A Short Story)

This is a short story I wrote a few months ago exclusively for paying subscribers which I’ve now decided to post for everyone to read for free. If you would like to upgrade to a paid subscription to this site it helps me post more regularly. There’ll also

Dear Amazon Drone Complaints Department

“Dear Amazon Drone Complaints Department. I was informed that my package would arrive between 9.31 and 10.12 and that my drone would be Silas. Package did not arrive until 10.43, which was doubly frustrating since the package contained an avocado, and 9.31-10.12 was the one

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The Home Stretch

A subscriber to this page who read my most recent book, Villager, told me, "Good luck topping that." I've been doing my best over the last few months. I can just about see the end now, a few hilltops - or, perhaps more aptly considering the

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Seven Great Things About Badgers

Subscribe now I came up with this list during my research for my frequently quite badgery ninth book, 21st-Century Yokel, which was published in 2017. It would not be an overstatement to say that my life was very badger-themed at the time. I fed peanuts and cat biscuits to the

Why Write?

A Few Thoughts, From The Middle Of A Novel

Thank you (and an offer of a free signed book)!

It’s been a busy six months of Substacking for me. I wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who has subscribed during that time and helped me work towards a point where I can spend more time writing and less time promoting that writing. I appreciate everyone who

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Radishes

We picked and ate the last of the radishes today. They were my favourite food when I was eight and not much has changed. I can never understand why they remain so unfashionable: it’s not as if they’re cucumber or something. This year’s crop were all very

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The Manor

Subscribe now 2020 was the year I moved back to the South West after a brief spell in Norfolk - although to my mind it felt less like moving and more like running back for forgiveness, as a person might into the arms of a lover whose finer points they

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A Compendium Of Thoughts About Possessions

Subscribe now * I often fantasise about having no possessions. Well, maybe not none, but the bare minimum: the amount you could easily shove into a medium-size van. The stuff you really need to get by. Plus a few nice lamps, the especially brilliant books and records. But then when you