Writing in residence
After our writing competition which ran during Sound Walk September 2021, we now have permanent writers (and poets) in residence.
Highlights
Women walking in sisterly solidarity
A despatch from our story-writer-in-residence Penny Walker. 30th April Golders Green station to Highfield Avenue, and back 1.5 miles I am by myself among strangers who are friends: women walking together in sisterly solidarity. We meet just before six, outside Golders Green station, on the small semi circle of grass where the buses turn. At
Taking the right PATH
Our current poet-in-residence, Elizabeth Fevyer takes her kids to Toronto and wonders where everyone is. We arrive in Toronto one evening at the start of February half-term, as swathes of North America are recovering from some of the heaviest snowstorms in decades. We’ve barely left the airport taxi rank before one of my sons points
It’s a dog’s life
Join Damaris West, our poet-in-residence and Ann de Forest, host of Walking America in an evening of sharing favourite poems about dogs and walking with them. Have you a favourite doggy poem that you would like to share? Whether commanded by a whistle or tied to a leash, carried in a bag or let loose
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The river has desire lines
Penny Walker, 2026 story writer-in-residence, who invites you discover where a river might flow River Pant, Essex. 2 miles 13th January 2026 Seven of us and a dog walked down the track, watching for the flow and rise of water under our boots. We had detailed LIDAR maps from official agencies of the river’s current
Mapping Copenhagen
Penny Walker, 2026 story writer-in-residence, weaves a flash story as she walks through Copenhagen. 12th – 14th February 2026 22 miles We walk from the station to the hotel. I use the map on my phone. The distance is so short that it surprises me. I am good at maps. I can read street names,
New Year’s Day, 2026 – 6 miles, Lee Valley Park, UK
We welcome Penny Walker, 2026 story writer-in-residence, who invites you discover a chilly morning walk We didn’t see in the New Year. We woke long before dawn to drop our daughter and her husband at the airport. At South Mimms services the universe rewards us with veggie sausages, a cyber pink sunrise and the year’s
Arthur – the first month
Arthur’s first month Poet-in-residence Damaris West takes on a new four-footed companion After my Italian rescue dog Galileo (mostly cocker spaniel) died of dilated cardiomyopathy, I vowed I would never have another dog. For one thing I’d be making myself vulnerable to a repeat of the tragedy. For another, a physical disability interferes with my ability to
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Why Didn’t You Fly
Why didn’t you fly, my boyfriend replied (with a crying face emoji). It was a Thursday evening in late February, and I’d messaged to say I was already feeling sleepy despite having another train journey – of three hours – to embark on once I arrived by Eurostar in Paris. He asked me this before,
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A Dearth of Much-Loved Butterflies
Every natural historian must have noticed that over this past summer in the UK there have been much reduced numbers of our normally commonest butterflies: peacocks, red admirals, small tortoiseshells, painted ladies. We’re told this was due to the wet, cold, windy spring, although the general decline in most species is a long-term trend, related
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A riverside walk along the Thames Path
It’s a bit of a mash-up, but somehow it seems to work. You can get down and dirty with mud, bushes and wetlands one minute. And then the next, admire opulent Georgian houses, shiny newbuilds and quirky eateries on this Fulham to Chiswick section of the Thames Path. The Thames Path was launched in 1996
Walk away, walk away, walk away, we gotta move on to a better day
73,866 lyrics. 103 artists. 50 albums. There’s no shortage of songs with “walk away” imbedded in the melody, concealed in the cadence. So many ways crooners beat rhythms to withdraw, abandon, forsake, maroon, shuck off, disown. Go on the run. Applaud a lucky break. Is walking away as simple as strolling round the corner, or
Why you should walk barefoot on a Caribbean beach: an acrostic wonder of wanders
Why you should walk barefoot on a Caribbean beach: an acrostic wonder of wanders Walk barefoot on Pinneys Beach, walk barefoot on the longest beach on the island of Nevis, a four-mile blanket edge stitched with silken sand, loose strands of froth running between your toes. Avoid the track most taken, avoid the considerable conference