"I was here. I tried. I felt everything. And I left behind a whisper, just in case someone was listening." - Guardian readers reveal what their last letter would say: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

A Merry Christmas to all you good folk. Thank you for supporting and helping me with the publication of The Postal Paths. And thank you to all posties for your good work, especially at this busy time of the year. (Illustration: Trina Schart Hyman - from Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales).

If you're still looking for a Christmas present for a postman/woman, a retired postie, someone who wants to be a postie or someone who just loves walking Britain's beautiful footpaths, can I recommend The Postal Paths by... er, well, me 😉?

Who would your last letter be to? And what would it say? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The village in the Grand Canyon, America, where the post is still delivered by mule... share.google/PiioSHoqUGNu...

One of my newish Christmas traditions. Reading 1 of 24. Highly recommended. Thank you @postalpathsguy.bsky.social for a treat that goes on from year to year.

The wonderful TV adaptation of Leonard and Hungry Paul has ended. Can I, therefore, advise those suffering from @ronanhession.bsky.social withdrawal symptoms that there is one of his short stories available on t'inter web... www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

#Booksky Just finished reading this brilliant read from @postalpathsguy.bsky.social If you like walking books as well as history and stories of characters from the past this is thoroughly recommended.

Tonight (Monday October 27th 2025) at 10pm on BBC2. The brilliant Leonard and Hungry Paul from @ronanhession.bsky.social

I am going to take a break from social media for a while. I'll pop back with any important news (or pictures of really cute kittens), but in the meantime, thanks for your continued support and stay well - Alan.

"These servants of the State are frequently unreliable, capricious in their duties and liable to prolonged absenteeism," - March 1953 and boss David Gamman testifies to MPs about the Post Office's laziest employees: Cats share.google/f6XlKH3ZjfQK...

Also, good to see an article about @postalpathsguy.bsky.social’s excellent book The Postal Paths in the same issue

The Hundred Year Stone in Derwentwater #Cumbria UK. Created by artist Peter Randall-Page to mark the centenary of the National Trust.

A belated tip of the pen to World Letter Writing Day... a bit of fun from an illustrated letter to my nephew Henry.

In case of a letter writing emergency, break open beautiful correspondence from Member No. 999… (lovely post always comes to the rescue and saves the day!) ☺️🚨✉️ @postalpathsguy.bsky.social

Rare editions of books by Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter are coming up.for auction including this almanac featuring Postman Peter Rabbit... issuu.com/jammdesign/d...

My thanks to Dr Baldwin for sending me this archive picture of postman Sam Parker outside his postman's hut in Churchill and Blakedown, Worcestershire. Sam rested here and also repaired boots at the hut as a way to earn extra money. #UKHistory

Bookshop owners tell me they always know if an author or any of his relatives have been into the bookshop. I wonder if this Jersey bookshop realises my brother is on holiday there this week?!

Walking down the peat-cutters path in Eskdale #Cumbria towards the village of Boot.

Visiting the stone circles on the fell between Miterdale and Eskdale #Cumbria

A stop-off at the ruins of the former Nanny Horns Inn at Miterdale #Cumbria - featured in a local legend about a gruesome murder.

A day of adventure with friend @Niallsspence starting with an encounter with giant rhubarb 😱

My three-year-old nephew is obsessed with Postman Bear written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler so I had to decorate his birthday envelope appropriately (I just hope the letter from Axel's lawyers gets lost in the post!)

Here's a good idea: Let the public hitch a ride with the rural postman, easing congestion, providing better rural public transport and just making life nicer. But sadly the Postbus was ended on this day in 2017 😢 #OTD www.postalmuseum.org/blog/the-sto...

This will sell out in a few hours (despite the fact I'm in it!) A sumptuous Christmasy evening of readings, music, recipes, and more . A Cumbrian Christmas Cracker - Wednesday, December 3rd, at Keswick Theatre, #Cumbria. Don't delay - book it now. www.theatrebythelake.com/event/cumbri...

A trip to Yorkshire this weekend gave me the chance to explore the postal path walked by Mary Blackman from Dalton village. The path goes through a wood and stream which is just gorgeous. I'll tweet the full 4-mile path when I've finished the research. Watch this space!

Something different for #postboxsaturday .. I like to decorate my letters with stamps. Ones from the Channel Islands are not legal tender from England but even so they have some gorgeous stamps to buy such as this series on Alderney postboxes. www.guernseystamps.com/Alderney-Pos...

Coffee, scone and The Keswick Reminder at Threlkeld cafe. All is right with the world ❤️

Loweswater #Cumbria - a (thankfully!) overlooked corner of the Lake District.

A sad farewell today to fellow journalist Tracy, taken too young. Her funeral was at Loweswater in Cumbria - a valley she loved. It was also loved by writer Joyce Grenfell, who regularly stayed there. This is from one of Joyce's poems...

Thankyou @suesconsideredt.bsky.social ..

One of my current research projects is finding the old postal paths walked by postmen and women around Forest-in-Teesdale (County Durham). This is the old post office pictured in 1906 with the Redfearn family standing outside...

I picked up three copies of this beautiful booklet by Polly Atkin @pollyrowena.bsky.social while visiting @samreadbookseller.bsky.social in Grasmere yesterday. The perfect gift for friends far away. Ten Poems from the Lake District share.google/nc6f2Ozxjtup...

Born on this day, 1895, Rural postman Simon Evans. Gassed in the trenches in World War I, he sought out the job in #Shropshire to help his lungs recover. His 18-mile daily walk is now a tourist trail. SIMON EVANS WAY: share.google/RJVNqBPThkoi...

And now for something completely different... The new Royal Mail special issue stamps (first class only 😡) feature Monty Python:

My thanks to @niallsspence.bsky.social for introducing me today to Eyebright, Sneezewort, Pixie Cup and other flowers at Eycott Nature Reserve near Greystoke. The star of the show was Cumbria's very own Marsh Grass of Parnassus...

Many lonnings (dialect = 'lane') in Cumbria have local names such as Wine Lonning or Bluebell Lonning but only a handful are named on the footpath sign. Even fewer are named on OS maps but this one - Seacross - is on a sign and the map. It's in Embleton.

Kind folk who have enjoyed my book, The Postal Paths, have asked about researching any postal paths in their locality. Yes please! I have included tips on my FAQs page which includes a link to a Google map where I note rumours of any paths I have found... sites.google.com/view/postal-...

"I found the poems in the fields, And only wrote them down" - John Clare

Most footpaths in Britain are fairly 'rough and ready' but hats off to the good folk of Hincaster in #Cumbria who seem to care for Pump Lane with sensitivity and love ❤️

"The only lasting peacefulness is Nature" - Happy Birthday to Beatrix Potter. In my book, The Postal Paths, I tell of her friendship with Dunkeld's rural postie Charles Macintosh - both lovers of the natural world.

Harry's Puddle - this spot near Hincaster, Cumbria, is where sheep were once washed. It's now 'drained' and a stretch of a B-road, but it still regularly floods, hence the depth gauge.

Article in today's Guardian on UK Slow Ways project @slowwaysuk.bsky.social ... www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Sometimes, the best option is to leave our angry world and opt instead to be swallowed up by a country lane where the only noise is a gentle stream and the wren is your only other visitor.

This is one of the sweetest stories you are ever going to read...❤️ Grantham couple get back 1962 love letters found in canal.#letters #handwrittenLetters www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I joked with @fellranger.bsky.social that he could save a lot of time by asking AI to draw the fells in a pen and ink style. So I asked Grok to draw Scafell Pike a la Wainwright. Here's the result. I don't think Mark should be too worried!

"We want to imbue the landscape with a lot of personality" - pen and ink artist Mark Richards ( @fellranger.bsky.social ). My thanks to him and the Armitt Museum for sharing memories and artistic tips today. Mark illustrated my book, The Postal Paths.

Can you believe that Shipping Brow Gallery in Maryport wasted money framing one of my letters?! Fortunately, once you get past that, you can view the work of real artists such as #paintedletter patron saint, Percy Kelly, William Mitchell, Alan Roper and Natalie Burns #Cumbria

Me and my little book (The Postal Paths) featured on local TV this week. It was filmed at Ambleside, Cumbria - the postal path of Jean Brennand, which climbs up to the Kirkstone Inn. You can watch it here. www.itv.com/watch/news/d...

P.S. to those who kindly came to my talks (and for those who didn't!)... I have a micro-website where I am adding additional material on postal paths including more detailed maps of some of the routes mentioned in my book. It is at sites.google.com/view/postal-...