Ways of Life is an evolving compendium of travel stories, essays and conversations exploring the connections that make places meaningful. Join me in search of wonder, simplicity and common ground.
I travel solo in an old Land Rover Defender, with a floppy hound and only a vague sense of direction. My objective is merely to appreciate the world around me, and to unlock ways to share it with you.
Most of my writing falls into one of these 3 buckets
Sketches. Fleeting exercises in curiosity and observation, from places far and wide (like Lincolnshire for example, or Abruzzo in Italy.)
Travel Journal. More in-depth examinations of places and life on the road, like this three-part journey in the Outer Hebrides, or this walk in Perthshire.
Journeys in Place & Time. Investigations into hidden historical connections in the world around us, and where to find them. Here’s one about a concrete shipwreck, and this one’s about a doomed project to industrialise the Isle of Harris.
(These ‘buckets’ feel less helpful the more I write, so I’m considering ways to re-shape this.)
Sometimes my most miscellaneous posts end up being among my most popular. For example:
For the keenest of travel beans…
If you want to access to my chunkier posts and full archive (everything more than a year old), I’ve set paid subscriptions to the cheapest that Substack will allow: £3.50pm or £20 for a year.
I also have a fledgling podcast where I share some of my favourite passages of travel writing, and attempt to extract lessons that we can use to help improve our own experiences of travel. It’s called Reading The Road and you can find it here.
Your subscription would mean the world. 🌍
