Treasured Islands

When the advance copies of a new publication pop along in the post, the excitement is high as the box gets ripped open. It’s been months since I penned the last words of Treasured Islands and since then the editors and designers have been busy. So much time passes from the end of the written

Stockport Air Raid Shelters

Stockport Air Raid Shelters Days Out Underground. Some of the attractions in my Days Out Underground book are in out-of-the-way places, but not so the feature of Chapter 1 – this one is right in the middle of a big town. Stockport, near Manchester, has a secret beneath its streets. As shoppers pass by on

Subterranean Peak District Gems

I enjoyed a return to Treak Cliff Cavern this week, a gem of the Peak District where you can literally see gems underground. Never one to tire of the fossils and Blue John stone within the cavern walls, I always like to head back to the family-run attraction and spend some time beneath the limestone

Murky History Beneath Edinburgh

On the rare occasions I get invited into a radio studio to do an interview, I’m never at my most comfortable. For a start, I’m not very good talking about myself and I’m so wholly focused on not making a mistake that I inevitably make a mistake. This week, to mark the launch of my

Going Underground! Treak Cliff Cavern

Although you might think the best sights to see in the Peak District are the hills, waterfalls and villages that dot many a landscape, the real gems are found beneath the surface – quite literally!   Castleton is a small village close to Kinder Scout and Mam Tor. It’s beyond Hope, as the local joke

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