Happy Birthday to the Pennine Way!

This is Andy Bentham. He’s a Park Ranger in the Peak District National Park and he’s pictured here with his pride and joy. It took him the best part of a week to make this oak gate that’s going to be fitted into a fancy dry stone wall in Edale. The centre panel will have

Could you stomach a life afloat?

Some of them were extremely well kept. Shiny coats of paint, solar panels optimistically placed along the roof, neat pots of flowers placed on the deck. It really added to the serenity of the walk alongside the canal. It’s some years since I last walked down a towpath. I used to live in Lancaster and

Desk or exercise bike? What’s the best location for a writer?

George Orwell famously took himself off to the Scottish island of Jura to pen 1984, allowing himself to become engrossed in tranquillity and isolation for the creation of the dystopian classic. I’m writing this blog as I sweat away on an exercise bike in my one-time garage that now acts as a cold office for the