Apparently Xmas is coming. I'm out today with the xmas bookstall from @gritstone publ co-op, UK's only author-run publisher. @windhovering.bsky.social @andrewmccloy.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social @chrisgoddardmap.bsky.social

Lovely to return to Hebden Bridge, memories of access-campaigns and Walkers are Welcome events, this time to celebrate 25th anniversary of Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000. Wet walk to Mere Stones, formerly forbidden land, then conference where all pledged to press government to act for access

My piece for @yorkshirebylines.co.uk now live yorkshirebylines.co.uk/region/right...

Some homework this week will be to read this summer's report from the APPG on outdoor recreation and access to nature, and its recommendations to a #Labour government that pledged to increase access in its manifesto outdoors.inparliament.uk/outdoors-all... 2/2

Glad you enjoyed the conference, Doug. Yes, a big challenge but one I think we can meet!

A stimulating day at the Right to Roam conference at Hebden Bridge discussing how to extend access to the countryside & tackle the govt’s unfinished business! @philbrickellmp.bsky.social @andymacnaemp.bsky.social @campaignerkate.bsky.social @amyjanebeer.bsky.social @andrewbibby-writer.bsky.social

Breaking now for workshops. How can we get Parliament to move on this?

We're under way! Conf on Freedom to Roam 25 years on from CRoW access legislation. Here's Amy-Jane Beer from @righttoroam.bsky.social speaking. @ramblers.org.uk @campaignerkate.bsky.social @campaign4parks.bsky.social @britishmountainwmn.bsky.social @openspacessociety.bsky.social

‘Step up for access’: call to government on landmark law’s 25th anniversary | OSS | November 2025 share.google/GEaKXEeLoiW7...

Coming up tomorrow, our Freedom to Roam conference celebrating 25 years of countryside access legislation in E&W and discussing what new rights we need. @campaignerkate.bsky.social @campaign4parks.bsky.social @ramblers.org.uk @righttoroam.bsky.social @andymacnaemp.bsky.social

Hebden Bridge Town Hall getting ready for our Freedom to Roam conf on Sat week. 25 years since the last access legislation, time for a new Act! @righttoroam.bsky.social @ramblers.org.uk @openspacessociety.bsky.social @philbrickellmp.bsky.social @andymacnaemp.bsky.social @guyshrubsole.bsky.social

A post on private land ownership and access to nature. Some of the best nature in Sussex is in SSSIs were access is not permitted by owners, often related to making money out of pheasant shooting. @guyshrubsole.bsky.social excellent on this! See: whoownsengland.org @righttoroam.bsky.social

It might look like we’re at bible class, but in fact we’re celebrating the 60th anniv of the #Pennineway by reading from our books to a packed audience as part of the Todmorden Book Festival. Great to share a platform with @anitasethi.bsky.social @andrewbibby-writer.bsky.social & chair Pam Warhurst.

All set for our session on the Pennine Way! @anitasethi.bsky.social @andrewmccloy.bsky.social

Looking forward to this later today!

I'm off this afternoon to celebrate the story of the Pennine Way at #Todmorden Book Fest, with two other authors @anitasethi.bsky.social and @andrewmccloy.bsky.social. Ah, those northern hills! Should be a good session!

Not long to go now to this event, marking 25 years of access legislation in E&W and campaigning for further access rights. @ramblers.org.uk @righttoroam.bsky.social @openspacessociety.bsky.social @philbrickellmp.bsky.social @andymacnaemp.bsky.social See you there!

Highly commended award for excellence, from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, for Gritstone author (and founder) @andrewbibby-writer.bsky.social : The Borders, The Lands We Share. Buy your copy here: gritstonecoop.co.uk/product/bord...

🥾 Celebrate 60 years of the Pennine Way by joining @andrewbibby-writer.bsky.social, @anitasethi.bsky.social & myself at Todmorden Book Festival on 9th November. We’ll be discussing what this remarkable trail means to use & reading extracts from our books. todmordenbookfestival.co.uk/whats-on/

Well OK I will blow my own trumpet just a little and mention the accolade my book The Borders: The Lands We Share has just received. Runner-up in the Outdoor Book of the Year awards @gritstonebooks.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social

Our books are distributed by Cordee if bookshops are struggling to find our stock. But you can also order direct from us, with free p&p, and we have a fantastic range of outdoors titles gritstonecoop.co.uk

A walk today in surprisingly ok weather to the independent hostel at the back of Skiddaw, Skiddaw House. The occasion? The annual get-together of authors and photographers in the Outdoor Writers & Photographers Guild.

Tony Harrison's obit in the papers today. V sadly no longer one of our greatest living poets. His sonnet National Trust is on my mind. In it he reflects (no, not on the NT) but on language, concepts of nationhood, power and class. All in 14 lines. It's online, here I think:https://poetryarchive.org

A good news story from #HebdenBridge. The heritage #signal box, empty and unloved for 8 years, has been saved for the community by Calder Valley Community Land Trust. In due course it'll become a heritage centre and quirky holiday accomm.

Not great weather today but I took myself off to the old quarries at Penistone Park near #Haworth to see Steve Messam's contribution to #bradford #2025 yr of culture. Definitely worth the visit.https://www.stevemessam.co.uk/towerbradford?itemId=bx886d6c6mggg1lrc7zecyvsb439xen

The excellent #Todmorden Book Festival has just published its 2025 programme. Pleased to be there sharing the stage with @gritstonebooks.bsky.social colleague @andrewmccloy.bsky.social and @anitasethi.bsky.social. We'll be celebrating the 60th birthday of the Pennine Way.

Authors should _never_ look in bookshops for their titles. That way lies despair. But my eye was nevertheless caught in @waterstones.bsky.social in #York by my latest book peeping out at me. Books by my @gritstonebooks.bsky.social colleagues also on the shelves. Nil desperandum.

Just leaving #Leeds and an event I really wish hadn't had to happen. The local branch of my union @nujofficial.bsky.social were marking the deaths of so many #journalists and media workers trying to report what is happening in #Gaza. A sombre occasion.

Nice to see this piece in @theguardian.com on an organisation dear to my heart. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The eight members of @gritstonebooks.bsky.social, so far Britain's only author-led publisher, pose here at #Beverley Bookshop, a fine indy #bookshop, before heading off for our Awayday #coop meeting. @cumbriapr.bsky.social @windhovering.bsky.social @chrisgoddardmap.bsky.social

On my way to Beverley, along with the seven other members of @gritstonebooks.bsky.social UK's first author-run #coop publisher. It's our Awayday, to discuss our strategy to 2030. @cumbriapr.bsky.social @andrewmccloy.bsky.social @windhovering.bsky.social @coopnews.bsky.social

Nice to see my new book The Borders- The Lands We Share on the shelves in @samreadbookseller.bsky.social in Grasmere. Support #indybookshops! @gritstonebooks.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social

#coop day at @foxandgoose.org coop pub in #hebdenbridge. And @gritstonebooks.bsky.social is here too. Britain's first author run coop. @coopnews.bsky.social @coopsmark.bsky.social @cooperativesuk.bsky.social @coopstudiesjournal.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social @chrisgoddardmap.bsky.social

Remembering Jesse Gray, #coop pioneer & co-host of first ever ICA conf. #iyc @cooperativesuk.bsky.social @coopsmark.bsky.social @coopstudiesjournal.bsky.social @coopfutures.bsky.social His grave in #Hebdenbridge @coopnews.bsky.social

A great walk yesterday in the sunshine on once forbidden moorland near Boulsworth Hill on the Lancs/Yorkshire border. A recce for the No-Longer-Trespass walk to be held on Sat Nov 29 in #hebdenbridge as part of national conf on right to roam. @righttoroam.bsky.social . 25th anniv of CRoW Act.

The reviews are coming in now for my new book The Borders: The Lands We Share. Here's a nice one from Viewpoint mag @campaign4parks.bsky.social . "A compelling read" - ah, cockles of this author's heart warmed. @gritstonebooks.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social @andrewmccloy.bsky.social

Thank you, Mark, v kind review.

The excellent Northern Soul online mag has a piece up about my new book The Borders: The Lands We Share. Find it at www.northernsoul.me.uk/borders-land.... @gritstonebooks.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social @righttoroam.bsky.social @ramblersscotland.bsky.social

Ah, it's enough to make any author well chuffed! Here's my new book in the window of The Reading Room, the #indybookshop in #Melrose in #scottishborders. A lovely well curated bookshop. @gritstonebooks.bsky.social

Lovely review of my new book The Borders: The Lands We Share just up on @northeastbylines.co.uk. Thank you to journalist Peter Sagar. northeastbylines.co.uk/news. @gritstonebooks.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social #northumbria #northumberland

A particular thank you to @thisjanscott.bsky.social for her help

Yes, properly launched into the world last night, my book The Borders: The Lands We Share. @gritstonebooks.bsky.social @andrewmccloy.bsky.social @cumbriapr.bsky.social @windhovering.bsky.social

Great new book from @andrewbibby-writer.bsky.social launched this evening to a full house in Hebden Bridge. ‘The Borders: The Lands We Share’ explores landscape & life both sides of the Scotland/England divide - available from gritstonecoop.co.uk @gritstonebooks.bsky.social

Always exciting to see a new title. The launch in Hebden Bridge of @andrewbibby-writer.bsky.social new book: The Borders, The Lands We Share gritstonecoop.co.uk/product/bord...

An early morning explore of the v northernmost section of the English Coast Path at #Berwick. My @gritstonebooks.bsky.social colleague @christophergoddard.bsky.social is writing the definitive guidebooks. 2vols out, 2 to come. @ramblers.org.uk

I'm visiting indy #bookshops where you can get my new book The Borders: The Lands We Share. Haven't yet mentioned the three great bookshops in Northumberland, @forumbooks.bsky.social in #Corbridge, the bound in #WhitleyBay and Accidental Bookshop in #Alnwick. @gritstonebooks.bsky.social

This afternoon I've been in Edinburgh visiting indy #bookshops. Buy my newly published The Borders: The Lands We Share at Topping and Co (great to hear of their forthcoming new shop in York), or at @lighthousebooks.bsky.social or at @typewronger.bsky.social . @gritstonebooks.bsky.social

Talking of good indy bookshops, I need also to mention Mainstreet in St Boswells and The Reading Room in #Melrose and Cogito Books in #Hexham. All stocking The Borders: The Lands We Share.

Really delighted to visit the excellent #indy #bookshop @wedale-bookshop.bsky.social this morning. I'm in Scotland this week for promotional activities for my new book The Borders: The Lands We Share. @gritstonebooks.bsky.social.

One way to help solve the #housing crisis... bottom-up community endeavour. Well done Calder Valley Community Land Trust who've been showing off this afternoon the latest empty property they've brought back to life. @communitylandsc.bsky.social