It’s been a busy time since May, but it should never be too busy to post a blog. Call it selective laziness. Anyway, conscience (or something) has summoned me with a faint but persistent trumpet blast, so now I’m writing…

Thanks to the initiative and drive of my friend Nicola Worsick, author and illustrator of the Captain Cuthbert and Scat the Cat books for children, ably supported by my outstanding fellow-author Pamela Turton, we’re running a BookFest in Glossop on Saturday July…

Having been furiously busy with editing for the previous three weeks I awarded myself a two-day holiday in Whitby, taking the train there on Thursday 18th April and returning on Saturday 20th. A twelve-hour day of catching up with backlog…

Apparently the answer is “Yes”, though in some cases ‘debate’ seems a less apposite description than ‘tirade’ or ‘tantrum’. President Trump is not alone in declaring the notion of climate change a ‘hoax’. Two weeks ago, Sir David Attenborough presented…

A little while ago, the Australian rugby union fullback Israel Folau posted a message on Instagram stating that drunkards, thieves, homosexuals and atheists were destined for Hell. As a result, Folau has been ejected from the Australian team for making…

Charlotte Holley of Gypsy Shadow Publishing, Texas, has e-mailed to tell me that The Definitive Biography of St Arborius of Glossopdale and his Thin Dog, by a Learned Academic has been published in e-book form today, Tuesday April 2nd 2019,…

After the record-breaking February warmth, the weather has returned to something like normal; in other words, it’s been predominantly chilly and damp but unpredictable from day to day. Nevertheless, spring is decidedly here. Daffodils bloom, other spring flowers such as…

While Tim Knebel and I and our cameramen were busy making the films of South West Peak folktales last summer, I followed up my earlier contact with a splendid eccentric called Frank Parker, who lives near Flash. Flash is the…

In most of Britain during the past week we’ve had the highest ever February temperatures. It’s been warm and sunny, more like a fine spell in May than the final phase of winter. It won’t last – a down-turn in…

On several occasions during the past several months I’ve told friends that I’d like to write a novel about our valley’s 16th century folk hero, Harry Botham. Briefly: the landlord, the earl of Shrewsbury (whose family had acquired Glossopdale after…