Welcome to Yorkshire is featuring my Walkshire walk from Langthwaite to Reeeth via Fremington Edge on Friday 15th October. Readers of 'Stone Tomb' will recognise the area where a walker went missing on his way to the pub. If you pop into the Red Lion you may meet the landlady who Nina questioned about his disappearance! There are spectacular views from Fremington Edge before descending into Reeth for a well-deserved pint or pot of tea. Reeth is not too far from Mills...

John Keats’ poem ‘To Autumn’ describes the season beautifully; it has been misty here in Swaledale and there is an abundance of mellow fruitfulness: blackberries, sloes, elderberries and rose hips that seem plumper than usual this year. It is the month when the new school year begins and I am clearing my own desk, ready to start on the next novel; plotting has begun already but the serious writing will be done during the autumn and winter when I am not distracted by...

It’s the beginning of the school holidays and suddenly the villages in Swaledale are full of visitors.  Some are day trippers travelling from the North-east, West Yorkshire and further afield to enjoy the countryside. They are the fair-weather visitors, possibly staying long enough for an early pub meal but disappearing before the light fades. Some campers disappear when the rain falls for more than a few hours but families in holiday cottages or bed and breakfast accommodation...

I recently discovered that supplies of my books were getting dangerously low and a visit to the printer was called for. Before I moved to Yorkshire I was using a London-based company but it seemed sensible to find a reliable printer in the local area who could take on the job. Luckily, I discovered ‘Imprint Services’ in Northallerton and Andrew has been producing the books expertly for a number of years now. Today I was picking up more boxes of “Corpse Way” and...

There was a last minute change to the route of the Welcome to Yorkshire “Walkshire Walk of the Day” on 11th June and the focus shifted to “Lead Mines of Swaledale”, a six-miler that starts at Surrender Bridge and follows Old Gang Beck to the Old Gang Smelting Mills. Visitors are often surprised by how much of the old workings are still visible.  For those interested in learning more about everyday life in Swaledale when lead mining was a thriving industry, there...