The greatest hits…

I know you’re a busy person. This is the ‘Best of’ compilation of my career so far:

  • Authored my first book, ‘National Parks: The UK’s most inspiring landscapes’, a mammoth journey through the natural history, cultural heritage, and artistic legacy of the UK's 15 national parks. It will be published by Ithaka Press (Bonnier Books UK) and Max Ström in July 2024.

  • Was a monthly contributor to The Guardian’s country diary column on natural history and the countryside for eight years, and wrote a string of articles for the paper’s travel section.

  • Edited The Great Outdoors - the UK’s longest-established hiking magazine - for five years, reinvigorating a much-loved and respected legacy brand through strong editorial, a creative-led commercial strategy, and SEO-driven online growth.

  • Worked as the British Mountaineering Council’s hillwalking officer for six years. I helmed the Mend Our Mountains campaign (a high-profile initiative which raised almost £1 million for upland conservation work), wrote extensively for the organisation’s website and magazine, and worked with a diverse range of volunteers and partners.

  • Wrote the words to accompany Royal Mail's 2020 special stamp collection on the UK's national parks.

  • Won an OWPG award for excellence for my feature on walking in the West Bank with Shat-ha, a Palestinian hiking club.

  • Made appearances in national broadcast media including BBC Breakfast, BBC Look North, Sunday Morning Live, ‘Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike’ and others, debating issues like path erosion, access and rewilding.

Read some examples of my work

….and here’s the longer story

Watching the sun sink into the Atlantic from a wild camp on a remote mountain in Scotland; waking up above oceans of cloud in the Dolomites and Pyrenees; seeing morning light break over Mont Blanc while climbing a 4000-metre mountain in the Alps; huddled in my sleeping bag staring up into a Sierra Nevada sky so densely crowded with stars I couldn’t recognise constellations.

These experiences in the high places and wild spaces of the world are some of my most vivid memories. Mountain adventure is the form of travel I have been drawn to most in recent years, with its promise of spectacle, challenge and immersion within nature. But for me, all forms of travel, at their best, can be a means of shedding light on our relationship to the rest of nature, each other, and our role in the world.

An exciting part of travel for me is discovering the connections between expressions of culture - whether food, art, architecture, literature or music - and the environments they arose from. This ‘cultural geography’ is something I find especially rewarding to explore in my writing; subjects where natural and human histories interweave in interesting, exciting or poignant ways. The stories embedded in landscapes are a recurrent theme of my work and writing; the endlessly fascinating ways that people shape place, and are shaped by it.

The best bits of my upbringing were spent hiking in the landscapes of northern England, particularly the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, seeding a lifelong love of nature (and a nerdish obsession with geology). Following early adulthood travels and treks in South East Asia and New Zealand, I decided to try and apply my professional skills as a writer and journalist to the worlds of travel, outdoor adventure and the environment.

That decision has led to a range of roles rooted in writing, journalism and editing, but at times I have branched into environmental campaigning, crowdfunding and communications. My professional roles or social media utterances have also led to several appearances in national broadcast media, debating environmental subjects.

I have been fortunate enough to hike extensively in the countryside of Britain, from the Hebrides to Cornwall; trek and climb in a host of mountain areas in Europe; and enjoy travels in Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Kerala, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, California, and more. In more recent years I have tended to undertake less long-haul travel, partly for environmental reasons, but also for the reward of developing deeper connections with landscapes closer to home. The country I keep getting drawn back to is Spain, with the Picos de Europa mountains in the country’s north and the Moorish-influenced cities of Andalucia becoming particular favourites.

Images on this page

  1. Watching a sunrise over the Lake District from a wild camp with a friend. Photo by Dan Toal.

  2. The mountain of Friero in Spain’s Picos de Europa, as seen from the precipitous descent from Collado Jermoso. Photo is my own.

  3. Enjoying some excellent Catalonian cuisine. Photo by Danielle Robinson.

  4. Exploring the smaller backwaters of Kerala, with lushness and birdlife all around. Photo is my own.