From Paolo Cognetti's book 'The Eight Mountains': 'Well anyway, there’s nothing like the mountains for making you remember...' Our latest long read on The Winding Trail is all about peaks, valleys and a lifelong distance relationship with high places... the-winding-trail.com/2026/05/08/o...

This is my favourite sport in story of the year… the Cocodona 250 is a 400-km ultramarathon in Arizona, won outright by Rachel Entrekin, who also broke the course record (male or female). When this photo was taken, she’d been running for 56 hours. What a boss.

I’ll be offering a free English-language tour of Museum Karlshorst (the place where Nazi Germany signed the unconditional surrender in 1945) as part of the special programme for May 8, starts 4.30 pm. www.museum-karlshorst.de/veranstaltun...

Whatever happens in the second half of this race, the past day or so of following Cocodona is already my favourite sporting story of the year… and who knows what is to come!

Following the Cocodona 250 is so wild… I’ll have gone to bed twice before the winners have finished. I don’t know how they do it… #runfar

SAVE THE DATE: A panel and reading inspired by WG Sebald, in English, in Berlin, June 6th. How does the past fall upon the present? Who gets mourned and how? Why this constant feeling of vertigo? Feat. Scraton, Kruger, Watts. Submissions NOW OPEN for readers >>> www.lettretage.de/programm/seb...

To our friends, the families, survivors and everyone who has carried Hillsborough with them since 1989, we’re with you today and all days. Lots of love. #YNWA #JFT97

The last few hours watching Paris-Roubaix has been unbelievable. What a race. What drama. What a finish. Fantastic from Wout, chapeau!

It is a lovely day for a half marathon around the Schlachtensee (four times!). And (most of) the run was lovely too :-) #gettingthereslowly

Springsteen and Morello in Minneapolis last week. The energy, the anger and the band are all there. His guitar solo at the end never fails to make me laugh, which (along with the anger) is something we need in these dark times... youtu.be/Qyt3nMFN-Ec?...

Our latest post on The Winding Trail is our guide to the Malerweg in Saxon Switzerland... 116 kilometres over eight stages, or pick one for a great day hike through the sandstone mountains: the-winding-trail.com/2026/04/04/o...

Home in time for a Sunday blossom stroll along the Berlin Wall Trail and then back along the Panke to the flat. The fleeting visit of the blossom each spring is one of my favourite sites (and sights) of memory in this city that is full of them… #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

A Sunday long run dropping down from Menston to follow the Wharfe to Ilkley. A misty but beautiful morning in Yorkshire… #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor #morningrun #gettingthereslowly

Springtime stroll out from Menston… #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

My latest piece for The Winding Trail… walking the city in Kathmandu the-winding-trail.com/2026/03/19/t...

The happiest of birthday to my best friend in the world. Love you to the moon and back… x

We are open for submissions again! Send us your prose and poetry about The End of the World by the end of March. More details here: www.elsewhere-journal.com/submissions

The village has a beauty even under grey skies. All trails from the way marker lead back here, having reached out in all directions across the fields and through the forest. Each walk or run from the house offers a multitude of options… which should we take today? #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

The joy of the night train. The magic of crossing countries and continents through the darkness and why the aim is not only the destination but the pleasure of the journey itself. My essay for The Winding Trail: the-winding-trail.com/2025/07/25/t...

Happy birthday to Bluemoose Books, who I have now known for 15 years. They are 100% independent and published my novels Pig Iron (2012), Beastings (2014) and The Gallows Pole (2017) and continue on a path to literary glory.

Our latest newsletter is about the travel and its impacts, both positive and negative. the-winding-trail.com/2026/03/08/p...

This is a gentle, thoughtful, wonderful newsletter. #booksky

Good luck to all my friends in Nepal. I hope the vote brings the first steps towards a positive next chapter for this beautiful country. As always, you are all on my mind and close to my heart x

If you like writing and photography about place, travel and the outdoors, then check out The Winding Trail and if it takes your fancy, sign up for our newsletter. We’d love to have you along for the ride: the-winding-trail.com/newsletter/

An early morning run with the birds up to the top of Brandenburg’s second highest “mountain” (you run the hills you have). Absolutely lovely start to the day. #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

The walk to work. The morning light over the fields was a soul-lifting start to the week… #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

Contemplating the line in the world. Our latest piece on The Winding Trail comes from Denmark's North Sea coast, a wild and windswept place that took us on a journey through memory from the Irish Sea to the Baltic shore... the-winding-trail.com/2026/02/19/f...  #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

This is me, @katyderbyshire.bsky.social and @ajbwells.bsky.social about to start our chat about the life and work of Christa Wolf. Luckily we only found out Wolf’s daughter was in the audience after we’d finished!

Come along to our Christa Wolf event in Berlin tomorrow to hear @katyderbyshire.bsky.social read from her translations—and more—while we explore Wolf's post-Wall legacy in discussion & texts submitted from all across town >> psst also it's free >> www.lettretage.de/Termine/chri...

The latest long read on The Winding Trail is from the wild and windswept western coastline of North Jutland in Denmark. It is a story of storm surges and crooked trees, lighthouses that have been moved to stop them falling into the sea, and the poetic prose of Dorthe Nors...

Morning light above the Müllerstraße… #boulderingberlin

Tomorrow night! Come and join us :-)

On Saturday I'll be reading a new piece inspired by Christa Wolf at this fantastic event, after @katyderbyshire.bsky.social @paulscraton.bsky.social and Alex Wells discuss the grande dame. sites.google.com/view/mayroec...

They did it! Congratulations to Nepal’s cricketers who won their first ever T20 World Cup match against Scotland… having taken England so close in the first match of the tournament. Brilliant stuff… hope all my mates in Pokhara and Kathmandu are proud and having a party!

A morning walk through the wintery city… strolling Berlin #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

And Thomas Mann learned pretty quickly that “non political” is in itself a political stance. I thought we were beyond having to make this decidedly obvious point but clearly not…

Want to write something for is and read with us at our event later this month? There’s still time to submit…

deadline closes FEB 10TH send us your BEST

"We failed to protect our winters, and now we don’t know how to handle it when it makes a ghostly return..." Our latest newsletter from The Winding Trail went out into the world this morning. the-winding-trail.com/2026/02/06/p...

A short Sunday run during which Fläming never felt so wild and inhospitable, except… a good proportion of this run was done on the immaculately cleared bike paths that link the villages and keep people moving whether on two wheels or two feet, whatever the weather… #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor

Available from all good bookshops!

Our latest piece for The Winding Trail is all about our unexpected trip to the Netherlands and how it is sometimes in the moment when plans are derailed that journeys of discovery begin... the-winding-trail.com/2026/01/17/t... #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor #travel

It exists!

Den Haag in the snow…

Netherlands. This was not in any plan, but quite taken by Den Haag and surroundings…

Thirty years since the end of the greatest comic strip of all time… and it landed with a message of joy…

It's almost the end of the year and no more books will be finished before the clock strikes midnight tomorrow night, so it's time to year my favourite reads of the year…

Our latest postcard from The Winding Trail. In it, we reflect a little on the strange, calm beauty of these days 'between the years' and share a short film about Nepal and link to some of our latest writing and photography, including a long read from Japan. the-winding-trail.com/2025/12/28/p...

Between the years…

Christmas walk to our local lake… #adventuresbeyondthefrontdoor