When sitting down to write a letter, it always pays to calm one’s mood, collect one’s thoughts, and have a plan.

People might consider you eccentric for being different, but this is good. Leaders and visionaries are not conformists afraid of standing out.

As with writing by candlelight, one’s greatest ideas come from ‘the flickering’ between darkness and light.

What I am interested in, what I write and care about, exists in the slow lane, somewhere between hand-ploughed fields and a pint of real ale.

Water creates so much beauty, life and mystery.

We are all Clapping Monkeys, but while some of us smile, others look around to see if anyone has noticed.

Eight months in the woods have hardened me, or at least firmed up my beliefs that if a man’s going to fend for himself, then he needs to leave his credit card at home.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it, this notion of simplicity? Simple things done simply by a simple person. But it’s not as simple as it seems.

Leaving the rat race is easy. All you have to do is quit your job, sell your house, and go and live in a tent in the middle of nowhere. It’s staying out of the...

Writers who copy or plagiarise others are dreaming in another man’s sleep.

Individuality and creativity are slowly dampened by a normal job with normal people.

Reality is just a matter of perception.

Confront the page that taunts you with its whiteness. Face your enemy and fill it with words. You are bigger and stronger than a piece of paper.

Organic life cannot be far from water.

If, like me, you suffer from lack of self-confidence you’ll know that the term is made up of two conflicting words, and that confidence isn’t easily found in the self.

I admit to being prone to deep thinking, which – given that I’m emerging from dark times – can take me to some very sombre or profound places. But this is no bad thing. I...

To not use a talent to the best of your ability is to stifle the thing that makes you most special. It is like plucking the wings off a butterfly.

I like to start slowly, and then ease up as the day progresses.

I’m pretty sure I’m the only author who intends to take the longest possible route to a destination that will always be over the next hill.

There’s merit in being different, inspiration in being individual, courage in being unique, and freedom in being yourself.

Doing nothing can be as rewarding as doing something. And doing very little can be as productive, in a creative sense, as doing a lot.

The pen that was once a gift has come to represent all that I hope to achieve.

One cannot help but identify with the life-giving quality of water, not just to quench our thirst, but for our emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

It’s ironic that those who lack self-confidence are often the ones who find it hardest to say no.

The process of creation begins way before one starts writing.

Often I have found myself gazing up at clouds – yesterday’s seas and tomorrow’s streams – to think of them as floating on an ultraviolet sea, beyond which is the infinity of space that presents...

I dropped my gardening tools, threw my bicycle over a hedge and went in search of fortunes laid beneath the hangman’s noose.

I write into an old book that smells of dust and whose pages are floppy with damp. Sometimes the ink splodges onto the paper, other times it will barely leave the nib of my pen.

Why should we change that which makes us unique?

You have to feel the bite of the wind to appreciate the warmth of a winter coat.

Look back, but never look down.

As an angler and a gardener, I cherish each drop of rain that falls.

I wasn’t born to fetch, or sit, or accept a beating. I’m here to be me, to write, and know my purpose.

Progress isn’t always good. There’s a reason why ‘breakneck speed’ is described as such.

Books are the most important of all my possessions. They capture the thoughts, feelings, dreams and lives of their authors, welcoming us into their worlds and inspiring us to emulate their adventures.

I like tea so much that I’m considering changing my name to Bergamot so that I can exist in a perpetual state of Earl Grey contentment.

Rarely will I write indoors, even if it means getting wet during rain, or my hands numb in winter.

The thing that matters most is what matters to you, not anybody else.

December, being the last month of the year, cannot help but make us think of what is to come.

Rural and traditional escapism. That’s my angle. Places and events where we are free to relax and be ourselves, where nobody tells us to hurry along or conform or grow up. Somewhere we can properly...

It’s the wonderment of water that makes it so appealing: thoughts of what’s beneath the surface, or out there beyond a watery horizon.

It is possible to escape the complexities, challenges and pace of modern life. All we have to do is close our eyes and picture a quiet world where time moves slowly.

It is possible to be happy and successful by living on one’s own terms.

Dreams free us from normality. Daydreams, especially, take us somewhere between the real world and the dream world.

Imagination is the real magic that exists in this world. Look inwards, to see outwards. And capture it in writing.

The young man only looks to the future because he has lived little; the old man looks to the past because he has little left to live.

A pen that has clocked up a million words, a lifetime’s memories, is worth more than the centrepiece in a jeweller’s window.

Take a step back and view the world through your eyes, not someone else’s. Listen to your heart and decide what you really want.

Every layer of complexity creates greater distance from life’s simple truths.

Everything from the humble woodlouse to specks of dust moving through a ray of sunlight. Each tells a story.