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Ken Smith was born 28 th October 1947 in a small village in Derbyshire. He tells us he’s an ordinary bloke. No special powers. Offers no great spiritual insights. No great secrets of how to survive in the wilderness beyond being prepared. He describes himself as The Tramp of Treig. He follows a long tradition of wanting to live alone in an isolated spot of great natural beauty in the Scottish Highlands. He quotes Henry Thoreau: ‘Not till we have...

I like books like this. Hidden history doesn’t follow the kings and queens route. I’m biased in that way because those are not my people. Have little to do with what I know. James Crawford suggests we look and see. ‘Just how much of the past still lives with in the present. An invitation to explore the unexplored and make pilgrimage to the lost and overlooked. An invitation to ‘use the country itself, as its own map’ Our mind doesn’t need to put...

I’ve read bits of Joan Didion’s writing and decided to read more. South And West translates into two sections on ‘Notes on the South’ and ‘California Notes’. She explains: ‘John and I were living in Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles. I had wanted to revisit the South, so we flew there for a month in 1970. The idea was to start in New Orleans and from there we had no plan…I seem to remember John drove.’ Her autobiographical impressions resurfaced in...

This week two pieces in particular lodged in my brain and wouldn't let go. Poem of the Week is onemorething's beautiful and thoughtful 'The Loneliness of a Cuckoo'. We're used to thinking of them as the bad guys of nest-stealing, but this poem contemplates what identity means when you don't have your own place in the world: The Loneliness of a Cuckoo | ABCtales Story of the Week is Mark Say's 'Dinner with Adele'. It's far more than just another...