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Why Write?
A Few Thoughts, From The Middle Of A Novel
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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
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
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
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A Factual Report Of An Encounter With Some Cows During A Walk in England
Cows were like, ‘What are you doing in our field?’ and I was like, ‘Well, it’s actually a public footpath. It says so over there, on a sign.’ And cows were like, ‘We don’t do signs.’ And I was like, ‘Well, if you want extra evidence, it’s
MEMORIES OF THE TIME I RENTED SOME LEAPING DEER
Subscribe now It was autumn: everything was dying, including me, but the attractive beckoning mists of that season were underway, and I was in a “seize the day” kind of mood so I decided, against the advice of many close acquaintances, to go onto RightMove and rent three leaping deer
Househunting On Behalf Of My Cat: A Poem
Subscribe now I am househunting on behalf of my cat But there doesn’t seem to be much on the market right now It is not as if she is asking for the moon on a stick Just a quiet place, away from main roads With no moronic asshole dogs
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The Black Tree
Subscribe now The Black Tree was what everyone in the village called it. Nobody alive remembered a time when it hadn’t been there or hadn’t been black. A perplexing runt amongst its tall confident siblings, it never got bigger, never went into leaf, never died, never withered. It
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Old Photos
* I sometimes forget that in a pre-smartphone age most people didn’t take a lot of photos of their everyday life. My family did, and I am thankful for that, especially as I get further into the researching and writing of my new novel, which is set in the early
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THE MYSTIC HEDGE: A PHOTO ESSAY ABOUT ANOTHER QUITE UNSETTLING CORNISH WALK
Subscribe now Winter was finally over, the wild garlic had shot its load, and, although the car boot sale had been rained off, the sun was attempting to prise apart the clouds and just the right amount of refreshing breeze was tickling the infant bluebells in the hedgerows, so it
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Reviews Of Some Crisps I Have Eaten Recently
Subscribe now Isn’t it great that we no longer have public beheadings in the UK, as well as having central heated houses and toilet roll and vinyl records and Penicillin? I think so, and I certainly would not like to go back to the many drawbacks of the Before