Twenty years as a writer: a first look at The Farthest Shore
A few thoughts about the long and winding road to the publication of my new book.
Category: Writing
What’s in a cover design? →
It’s often said that the cover is the most important element of any book. Here’s a glimpse into what goes into creating a non-fiction cover.
Writing (two) books during the pandemic
It’s a hell of a time to be an outdoor writer, isn’t it? Since the COVID-19 pandemic kicked off early this year, I have written not one but…
OWPG Award for Excellence for my TGO magazine feature ‘Summits and Skylarks’
This weekend, my wife Hannah and I headed to the Norfolk Broads for the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild AGM and awards dinner. Updated 2019-10-11 with corrected information…
New Sidetracked digital feature: No Borders
My latest digital feature for Sidetracked magazine is special – an essay on life and death, mountains and war, lightning and ethereal beauty. I believe it’s some of…
A new Commonplace Book
For many years I have kept quotes and snippets from everything I’ve read, adopting the ancient technique of the ‘commonplace book’ to facilitate later analysis and interpretation. Until…
Forty years of The Great Outdoors
An important milestone for the most authoritative voice in British hillwalking and backpacking Today, the 40th anniversary issue of The Great Outdoors went on sale. Here’s what TGO…
Things I wish I’d known as a new writer
A few things you won’t learn on that creative writing course Of all the emails I receive each week, a small but growing number are from new writers…
A roundup of my published outdoor writing in November 2017
It’s been a busy month for outdoor writing. I’ve written a number of features for The Great Outdoors – skills pieces, interviews and more – an interview for…
NaNoWriMo week three: capitulation
After just over 25,000 words, I’m calling it quits on NaNoWriMo 2017. It was always going to be a tall order, if I’m honest – I noted before…
A standing desk experiment
I spend far too much time sitting down. My work day is normally 10.00-18.00, and most of that time is spent sitting in a chair, immobile. Time to…
NaNoWriMo – mid-month progress report
After the near-effortless progress of the first week, I expected the second week to go just as easily. But my progress is slowing and I’m finding it more…