Gathered Grounds

This 12-part series from 2015–16 marked my first attempt at creative writing about landscape since my teenage years. Each month I wrote a thousand-word textual portrait of a single place. Alongside parallel pieces by my friend Michael Rush from his own landscape on the edge of the Peak District, we gathered them together in a project called simply 24,000 Words. His invitation – and steady encouragement – was the spur that started the writing that I have not stopped in the decade since. Gathered here are my contributions, given a new title. Rooted chiefly in my Pennine valley, there are three further-flung forays, to the Yorkshire Dales, the Essex estuarine landscape of my childhood, and the arable fields of the Humberhead Levels.