Writing

An informal archive of essays, longer pieces, and short notes. New pieces appear when there is something worth saying, which is less often than I'd sometimes like.

Selected essays

The kitchen table, in winter. On a habit of long winter afternoons spent at a kitchen table doing nothing in particular. About 2,400 words.

A second-hand book, with marginalia. On finding another reader in the margins of a paperback bought in a country market. About 1,800 words.

A walk, taken slowly. On the same village walk taken a hundred times, and what changes. About 1,400 words.

The woman next door. On a neighbour who lived alone for thirty years and the small things she taught me without ever meaning to. About 3,200 words.

Letters that didn't get sent. A small set of essays about correspondence — written, never posted, found years later. About 2,000 words total.

Longer pieces

On the question of the second house. A longer feature on the moral question of owning a second home in a small village where local families can no longer afford the first one. Originally written for a regional magazine, lightly revised here.

The vanishing pub. A reported piece on the closure of an old pub in a particular village, and the slow work of a community trying to buy it back. About 5,000 words.

Notes

Short fragments, reading notes, things that didn't grow into an essay but felt worth keeping. Posted irregularly, never with much ceremony. Recent notes have included: a small list of books re-read this year; a fragment about the colour of November light in a particular part of the country; an unfinished thought about why some good writers stop writing.

Where the writing has appeared elsewhere

Pieces of mine have appeared in a handful of small literary magazines, a couple of regional features publications, and one anthology of essays on rural life. I don't keep a full bibliography on the site, partly because it would feel like a kind of advertising, and partly because the small magazines tend to go offline after a few years and the links wouldn't last. If you'd like to read a specific piece I've mentioned, write and I'll find a copy.

Reading along

If you'd like to be told when new writing goes up, the simplest thing is to email me and say so. I keep a short list of readers who have asked, and I send a brief note (a sentence and a link, nothing more) when something new is here. The list is not on a mailing platform; I just write the message and send it.

Email: [email protected].