This blog is pretty dormant, but a quick post should people be interested.
I’ve just completed my fourth year of reading a book a week (just about!). You can see my quick review of Year 4’s reading, and what I’m looking forward to reading next year.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2020.
Though the day job is keeping me very busy, I’ve been just about keeping up with reading a book a week – a solid mix of crime fiction, literary recommendations and non-fiction of interest. Given the generally bleak tone and context we appear to be living in, in a Trumpian Brexit-y world, I thought it might be worth sharing some books that can provide some inspiration, some ideas and, to steal the title from one of them, some hope in the dark. Enjoy – and do suggest your own recommendations below.
1) Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit – a wonderful book which, despite being more than 10 years old, resonates perfectly with today’s polarised world. She advocates hope and critical thinking, for activism to be fun, and to not be sidetracked by perfectionism or by the scale of the challenge. Great stuff.
2) Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman – of course, this Dutch historian has recently gone viral with his ‘speaking truth to power’ video at Davos, but he has plenty of interesting ideas beyond just higher tax rates. Indeed, the aspects of this book that I enjoyed most were those where he was discussing how to change the broader economic system in terms of what we view as ‘progress’ and in how we think of as employment & ‘efficiency’. A dose of optimism.
3) We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawale (or a Feminist Manifesto in 15 Suggestions) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – both short and succinct books, which have their initial grounding in a TED talk, these are a compelling read on why, simply, we should all be treated equally. The latter book, written to a friend’s daughter, is particularly good in being practical and forward-looking. One for you, your husband/wife, and your son/daughter alike.
4) Grit by Angela Duckworth – I’ve recommended this before, but it still stands the test of time, and in a world where people bang on about moonshots and scaling unicorns, it reminds me of the importance of persistence and commitment allied to purpose. The research behind the maxim that ‘we overestimate what we can achieve in the short term, and underestimate what we can achieve in the long term’. Keeps you keeping on.
5) No is Not Enough by Naomi Klein – the title says it all, really; this is Klein’s take on the rise of Trump, particularly, and she is compelling on how this relates to ‘brand’ especially. The book then gradually turns to how we can all react, respond, rebel, convene and make practical progress – because, well, just saying no is not enough.
And a bonus fictional read to inspire and provoke:
6) Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata – a wonderfully weird, funny tale about a woman who doesn’t fit into society (as other people define it) but does feel perfectly at home working in a convenience store. It has much to tell us about social norms, being inclusive, outwardly-imposed ambition, and focusing on health and happiness. Highly recommended.
[You can read the reviews of all of these and more on the Dogeared Man blog; see most recent reviews here]
As it now says in the About section of this blog, I’m focusing on my role at Social Investment Business, so this blog is paused, bordering on dormant. Hence no post since January.
I thought it might be useful to give a bit of an update on what we are doing over at Social Investment Business, though, and link to some recent articles from myself & the organisation as a whole. Hopefully of interest to loyal readers of this blog….
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Work Activity
We run a variety of programmes and funds dedicated to supporting charities and social enterprises to become more resilient. Check out the full list here.
I’m particularly excited about the Forward Enterprise Fund, a new investment fund focused on helping those who are coming out of offending and/or addiction. Get in touch if you know of organisations operating in that field looking for support & finance. The Reach Fund we manage for Access also continues to work well – providing grants for short, focused pieces of work to enable social investment deals to get over the line.
We are also providing the project management & secretariat for the implementation taskforce aiming to build a culture of social impact investment. This is focused on influencing mainstream finance, and you can find out more about that via the link. Right now, there is an open call for evidence on better (non-financial) reporting – it’s short, important and closing imminently >> click here to submit info.
Finally, we have entered a new strategic partnership with Social Tech Trust, formerly Nominet Trust. Early stages, but I’m excited about what we can achieve together in digital / tech for good.
Writing & Reports
We’ve released two recent reports; the first a few months back is a hugely important, in-depth look at our work on business support and readiness programmes over the last 5 years and more. It dives into what we have learned and makes a clear set of recommendations for what we (and the wider sector) should do in future. If you work in the social sector, a read is highly recommended >> Strength in Numbers
The second, much shorter report we released this week, which takes a look at recovery, restructures and mergers in the social sector (and what finance & support could help more organisations). We commissioned external experts Eastside Primetimers to write it, and I think it’s a valuable contribution to the thinking on this topic >> Match Points
Other recent blog posts that might be of interest include:
>> The time is now for social value from our chair Hazel Blears (written before the recent government announcements on this topic)
>> Keeping your friends close and your customers closer by me, on putting customers at the heart of our work
>> Our gender pay gap by our head of People, Shelby Bradley
>> Is social investment perpetuating or challenging inequality?by Owen Dowsett from the Centre for Social Justice Innovation at Dartington
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Hope all that’s of interest – a final note: we are recruiting two newly-created senior roles, so do spread the word and share the link: Director roles. It’s an exciting, busy and (hopefully) impact-ful time to be involved.
So I’m a fortnight into a new role, and just back from a few weeks holiday, so I’ve had the luxury of doing a fair bit of reading and thinking, rather than ‘doing’ per se. I’m sure that won’t last and the email volume will rise….but here’s the five things I’ve found most interesting, insightful, inspiring or challenging. Hope you think so too:
1) Us white charity CEOs need to talk – my background is the same as Thomas Lawson, CEO of Leap Confronting Conflict, who wrote this powerful call to action. I’m going to be returning to this regularly on privilege, prejudice (personal & subconscious), lived experience and diversity. [a side-note, McKinsey’s latest research reinforces the link between diversity and positive company financial performance; though this shouldn’t be the prime motivator]
2) For this ‘Righteous Entrepreneur’, fighting hunger goes way beyond food – I had the privilege to spend a bit of time with Mike Curtin of DC Central Kitchen at an event, and he’s a lovely, down-to-earth guy. This is a great, in-depth article on the organisation’s work. Their eight rules of ‘righteous’ entrepreneurship are worth repeating:
3) BlackRock’s Message: Contribute to Society, or Risk Losing Our Support – normally I wouldn’t include the CEO of an investment firm sending a letter, but this was interesting in that it is a large player on the investment side (they manage $6 trillion apparently) talking squarely about social purpose, and how every company must make a positive contribution to society. Understandable then that this has been welcomed (and indeed heralded) by many in social and impact investment, especially in the US. Although of course nice words need to translate into action – BlackRock are one of the investors who seem to have profited from ‘shorting’ Carillion in the past year, for example….
4) The power of little: 6 things you need to know about small and micro community organisations – an interesting post from Nicola Frost of the Devon Community Foundation, and an insight into the so-called ‘below the radar’ organisations that are so crucial in communities (and aren’t necessarily conservative) with their understanding of place and connection.
5) Grant-Makers Must Learn New Tricks – this short provocation paper is part of a series from NPC, commissioned by Lloyds Bank Foundation, looking at how foundations and other funders can do more than just give grants: through non-financial support, through direct advocacy, and through building the knowledge (through research) and capacity of organisations they support to influence and advocate too. Recommended reading.
And a bonus bit of suggested listening. The Criminal podcast is unfailingly excellent, and I’ve learned a lot listening to it over the months (years?). One of the most recent episodes, The Choir, goes beyond being interesting though – it is a profoundly affecting interview with Professor Lawrence Lessig (a pretty famous internet-specialist law professor in the US). Not an interview about his day job, but about the abuse he suffered in his childhood. For anyone who doesn’t understand the profound repercussions that such abuse can have throughout someone’s life, or how an institutional environment (& the people who populate it) enables it to happen, should listen. In fact, anyone should listen, if you want to hear what courage, articulacy, and honesty sound like.
As regular readers of this blog might know, my new year’s resolution two years ago was to read a book a week for that year (2016) – a resolution that has become a habit and a blog (http://dogearedman.wordpress.com); you can read fuller reviews of all the books I mention here on that blog. This year has been a busy one, so I’ve read a lot of relatively undemanding crime and police procedural thrillers that provide a bit of escapism and a neatness that real life cannot. In 2018, I’m hoping to up the quotient of non-fiction and literary fiction in the mix – and achieve an equal gender author split (I was a bit out this year with 28 books by men and 25 by women). Anyway, here’s my top 10 fiction and non-fiction from the year, and below that the five books I’m most looking forward to reading in the year ahead.
1) The Power by Naomi Alderman – loved this from start to finish; if you were to tell people it’s a ‘feminist’ novel, some might turn away and run for the hills, but it is thrilling, exciting, funny and challenges any number of preconceptions along the way. A must-read in post-Weinstein, #metoo times.
2) Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders – it won the Booker prize, so I’m not exactly unveiling any shock recommendations here, but this was great. Genuinely unlike any other book I’ve read, and inventive and creative in the way I have come to enjoy from Saunders’ books of short stories (which I would also highly recommend).
3) My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout – another book that made all the book of the year lists (last year and this year) and it’s a very quiet, unassuming, devastating story of a woman and her relationship with her mother. Insightful, troubling and moving in equal turns, it’s elegantly and sparely written but packs a real emotive punch.
4) A Beautiful Young Wife by Tommy Wieringa – a strange, evocative short novella from this Dutch author that stayed with me a lot longer than many others I read: beautifully crafted and enchanting in the way it details the breakdown and break-up of a marriage.
5) Home Fire: SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2017
[non-fiction now….]
6) Grit by Angela Duckworth – one for those who think hard work and commitment and persistence and resilience matter as much as disruption and (academic) intelligence and breakthrough innovation. Duckworth has taken a simple premise and dedicated a lifetime to testing out the theory in different ways, and has plenty of tips that are applicable – in everything from recruitment to schooling.
7) The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry – Perry is brilliant on male foibles, the crisis of masculinity, and on diagnosing the problems (and potential answers) to the situation we find ourselves in. I loved the TV series he made about this (and the associated series of artworks) and this is wonderful too. Read alongside Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawale, a great series of pieces of advice to a friend on how to raise a feminist daughter, and Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, which is short, eloquent and rightfully angry.
8) The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich – a really unusual memoir which intermingles the author’s personal family story with the disturbing and troubling tale of a murder case she works on as a young lawyer. Fascinating detail about both families emerges, and though resolution remains distant, I found this unputdownable.
9) Utopia for Realistsby Rutger Bregman – it’s certainly felt like a year when we’ve needed some optimism and hope and ideas about how things can get better, and Bregman’s book is full of those. Universal Basic Income remains one of his key ones, but there are many more here to set the brain running: much food for thought, and it’s an inspiring read. (If you want to be thoroughly depressed, I’d suggest All Out War which lays out all the detail and story behind Brexit).
10) Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance – heralded as giving the insight to how Trump got elected, this is a really interesting look at poor white hillbilly families in mid-America and the circumstances they are in (and how hard and difficult it is to escape them). It’s probably been a bit overhyped (I’m not sure how universal Vance’s story is), but it’s compelling stuff and paints a bleak picture of the heart of the USA.
For what it’s worth, if you’re interested, the best new crime writers I came across this year were Stav Sherez and Jane Harper; both worth your time on the commute / beach.
The five books I’m most looking forward to reading in 2018 are:
1) Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra – this doesn’t look cheery but I hope it might help me understand the trends and motivations underlying a more divided world
2) Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Raceby Reni Eddo-Lodge – like Mishra’s book, this comes highly recommended by lots of different people
3) Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World by James Ball – this might already be out of date, but as the nature of communication (and communication channels) changes so quickly, the role of evidence, ‘truth’ and authenticity grows
4) Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine – I remember reading about this a while back, and it’s meant to be a great insight into the punk / music scene and the realities of life on the road.
5) Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant – all about resilience and what to do when Option A goes out of the window (in Sandberg’s case, when her husband died suddenly); I enjoyed (most of) Lean In and hopefully there will be some nuggets here
For those more interested in fiction, novels lined-up include The Party by Elizabeth Day, Man With A Seagull On His Head by Harriet Paige, Larkinland by Jonathan Tulloch, The Girls by Emma Cline and, for a crime fix, The Intrusions by Stav Sherez and a couple of Ruth Galloway mysteries by Elly Griffiths.
Have a great 2018 everyone.
It’s been a couple of months since I last updated this blog, and that’s partly because this is always the busiest quarter of the year in the social sector, or at least at Social Enterprise UK. Added to this normal season of awards, events, tender deadlines, research reports and more has been added the fact that I’m changing jobs – in January I start at Social Investment Business, leaving SEUK after 6 years.
When I have a bit of time for thinking and reading, I have somewhat inevitably, therefore, been turning towards articles about leadership. So I thought I’d share six that I’ve found useful, challenging or enlightening in recent weeks.
1) 12 Lessons (Un)Learned from a year of philanthropy. The McConnell Foundation in Canada have long been one of the leaders in their field, and this is an interesting and insightful reminder of humility, being on-hand, thinking as a network and more.
2) 5 things digital leaders do differently – a nice, succinct post from Zoe Amar which, although something of a marketing piece for her (highly regarded) programme with the SSE, has some good content. Some of the points apply regardless of the word ‘digital’ in front of them (“Digital leaders embrace risk”; “Digital leaders have insatiable curiosity”) and there is some interesting stuff on how digital can aid customer relationships, business development and transparency.
3) Leadership in public service is too punitive and too unforgiving – this is an interesting response from a headteacher to Theresa May’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference. A reminder about the importance of empathy and not pretending that leadership is heroism.
4) 4 steps to driving social change through people – while I’m not wild about the title (the article is very much about achieving things with people!), this is a candid and insightful piece from Mark Norbury at UnLtd. I think the part about a constant, continuing clarification of what not to do (or a framework for making those decisions) resonated most with me.
5) How can we build on clicktivism to harness diversity – this piece by Becca Bunce details how she became an ‘accidental’ leader and campaigner (on the Istanbul Convention combating violence against women), and is part of ACEVO’s ‘30’ series to celebrate 30 years of existence. It’s excellent and challenges the lazy thinking of people (like me) who dismiss online campaigning as ‘slacktivism’. It’s also excellent on the ability of online tools to expand diversity but also to restrict it.
6) Good Leaders are Good Learners – HBR articles have a tendency to disappear up their own fundament, but there is some useful stuff here about being in learning mode and supporting the development of that mindset in others.
Enjoy!
I jokingly said during the general election earlier this year that I wasn’t so much in search of excellence (a la Tom Peters) from the parties but in search of competence. An old joke that I stole from a voluntary sector leader giving a speech: but like all the best jokes, it has a big grain of truth in it. I was reminded of this, listening to the HBR podcast the other day. The HBR podcast is a mixed bag: quite often it features management consultants who have invented some new thing about big companies in order to sell themselves to the same big companies, who largely trundle on as they did before (recent examples of this genre include “how to survive being labelled a star” (we’ve all been there) and “reduce organisational drag”, both of which are consistently moments away from disappearing up their own fundament). The title of the last episode caught my eye though: “Basic Competence Can Be A Strategy” (link is to the transcript of the podcast).
It’s an interesting listen/read – largely about management, and how people think they are all above-average, and how many are simply missing the fundamentals. Setting an agenda for meetings, taking actions and following up on them, washing your hands before surgery, taking the time to ensure people understand or know what the plan is…and so on. It reminded me of another book on a similar topic, the Checklist Manifesto (by the wonderful American healthcare writer Atul Gawande) which, as the name would suggest, largely promotes the checklist as a way to ensure things get done: in the right order, and that nothing gets missed. This can apply everywhere – when people call Social Enterprise UK, a list can ensure we don’t miss anything key (do you want to join? Do you want to be signed up to the newsletter? Here are the organisations that can help with x and so forth).
I was also reminded of it by the nonsense that is the NFL GamePass in Europe right now. For the uninitiated, NFL is the organisation that runs American Football in the US; I’m a fan, so I enjoy watching the games. You can do this illegally via streaming, but I have paid for the GamePass app which is (or has been) a great way of watching and moving between games every Sunday. It’s not a cheap product, but it works really well, and so I’ve been happy to pay for it. I’m also such a fan that, along with some other social enterprise types, I’ve been going to the American Football games in London for about a decade.
In their wisdom, ahead of this season, the powers that be at NFL / NFL UK have decided to licence GamePass to a new European developer / promoter (a new joint venture created by Bruin Sports Capital and WPP). Unfortunately, in their wish to, I assume, squeeze more dollars out of the game, they have managed to create a product that a) has fewer features // b) costs the same // c) doesn’t work for many on the platforms they previously used // d) can’t be paid for in instalments. Additionally, just for fun, they’ve thrown in some major errors on payments (some people want to pay and can’t; some have been charged and aren’t being refunded). And for the cherry on top, there has been no communication from the people who made the decisions.
Setting aside personal irritation, (I’m waiting to see if they can sort it out before putting down any £), this is a great example of how basic competence is key to business. None of this is complicated: if you are changing something that works, give yourself enough time to make sure the replacement works; don’t remove payment options (that actually lose you customers); don’t change key useability of things without letting customers know in advance; and don’t be silent in the face of a barrage of emails, social media and fan forum criticism. And yet, it can be missed in the search for the next big thing, or on what other stakeholders (Investors? New business partners?) think is important. We all have our own equivalents of the new app, or the change to existing systems; & our own examples of taking the eye of the ball of the basics.
The lesson isn’t ‘don’t ever change’, obviously – small improvements and big leaps of new strategy are crucial at different times to businesses growing and staying relevant. But changes bring risks: and where they affect your main customers, they are critical. The lesson for all businesses is to plan well, do the basics, tick the things of the list, and constantly communicate with your customers. They are the heart of your business, and neglecting them is, well, incompetent.
[image by the wonderful thisisindexed.com ]
I was happily scanning Twitter the other evening and came across a tweet from charity luminary Martin Brookes who asked “Charity types – can you recommend good articles, books or thinkers on what modern/21st century charities should look like, please? Thanks.” It’s worth checking out the answers from people more plugged into current charity thinking in response to the tweet. A couple of links that I’ll be following up on include articles on digital futures and ethics particularly.
I threw in a few suggestions, more from the social enterprise perspective, and it got me thinking about what would be the books that I would recommend to someone trying to get good insight and practical thinking for their social enterprise, responsible business, enterprising charity or new ethical start-up. So here are the ones that I rate, use and draw on myself.
Written by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod, this follows the Good to Great template of Jim Collins and tries to establish the key factors that make a successful charity or social enterprise. It’s obviously US-centric, but there’s plenty of interest here that still stands up a full decade after the first edition (it was updated in 2012): on leadership, on how to inspire advocates, on earning income (in pursuit of mission) and on combining service with advocacy.
Tim Harford is best known for his Undercover Economist colum in the Financial Times, and for being at the helm of the excellent More Or Less statistics podcast. This book is well worth a read, too, though – because at a time when social sector organisations need to a) test out new approaches b) have constrained resources and c) have no idea what is round the corner, being able to adapt is critical. There are important lessons here on how to ‘bet small’ with new ideas, on how to be resilient, and how to respond to changing conditions.
This book by Susan Cain has had me thinking more deeply about the ‘workplace’ and ‘team’ than probably any other in recent years. Social enterprise is about inclusion and accessibility, and we rightly focus on the track record of better representation of women, those with disabilities and those from different ethnic backgrounds. But this book too, at its heart, is about inclusion – of those who learn, work, communicate and contribute differently. As someone who chairs networks, convenes groups, facilitates workshops and tries to build a team and foster a culture, it’s a hugely relevant and important read. Unless you’re not interested in how you get the best out of everyone in your organisation…
I read this a long time ago, but still go back to its core essentials. The Heath brothers have written a couple of books since (about making decisions and about making a big change) but I think both pale compared to this, their first, which focuses on how to get messages across. For many in the social and ethical business space, this is a key area – we still underinvest in marketing, we still struggle to refine and articulate a core message (either for individual enterprises or as a movement) and yet we have the best stories: of transformation, of change, of the future. There’s some good practical advice in the Heaths’ SUCCESS formula that’s worth taking note of.
Beth Kanter is one of the most engaging and informative writers on all things social sector (aka non-profit) in the US. For many years, she was my go-to read on social media meets social sector, and this more recent book focuses on self-care – of individuals and organisations. As the oft-repeated saying goes, survival rate is meant to refer to the enterprise not the founding entrepreneur – and the swiftest route to not creating impact is to burn yourself and your team out. Thinking about that from the start – and what a similar approach might mean for your organisation – make this a good, healthy read.
Whichever way you look at the data, there is a growing number of social and ethical start-ups being established by a whole range of people. And an almost equivalent number of intermediaries giving support, advice, business plan frameworks, funding, investment and legal structures advice. At Social Enterprise UK, we also have a rewritten and re-designed start-up guide coming soon, to respond to the level of demands and enquiries we get. For a more personal perspective and one that I think rings true from what I’ve seen in our world, I recommend Liam’s book – it’s real and honest about the anxiety, about the money, about the basics and about much more besides for budding (and current) social entrepreneurs.
Underlying the growth of social enterprise and hybrid business models is an increasing understanding and acceptance that the way that capitalism and business is run currently is simply not working. I wrote about some of the aspects of this in my recent post on an inclusive industrial strategy (value, productivity, growth, resources), but there are people who’ve been giving substantive thought to this for years. Kate Raworth is one of those – someone proposing what economics and economic thinking should look like in the future. If you want some intellectual heft and academic clout to back up your arguments, start here.
Social mobility, creating opportunity and the myth of meritocracy seem to me like some of the central challenges and problems we face. This book by Lynsey Hanley is a memoir but one with universal learning and appeal, particularly on how the physical walls and barriers are matched by psychological ones. A must-read for anyone wanting to get a personal insight into housing, employment and opportunity in modern Britain.
One of the central premises of social enterprise and, even more so, co-operatives and mutuals is that it puts employees, the community, and beneficiaries (or service users or whatever other synonym you want to use) at the heart of the business in a different way: in the governance, in decision-making, in the design of programmes and so on. But this premise isn’t always carried through, and I think there are still lessons to learn from other sectors. This book shares learning from some businesses big and small, and from years of customer service and satisfaction research: good insights aplenty.
In this space where charity meets business, where money meets mission, the trade-offs between the commercial and the social are always at the forefront; indeed, they are at the centre of many of the main debates and areas of contention in social enterprise. This book by Michael Sandel is a brilliant exploration of how far the commercialisation and marketisation of our society can and should go – and what those limits mean for the world we want to live in and want to build. Thinking to inform your day-to-day.
A final dose of reality. It’s long been my view that much of success in social enterprise (indeed, in most things) is down to passion and perseverance. The imported myths of Silicon Valley incubation and super-speed scaling apply to only a small sub-set of (mostly tech-based) social businesses, and most of the other successes have passion, perseverance and commitment in common. Combined with luck, timing, and a great team, perseverance is as critical a thing to have in your locker as anything. And now there is research to back up this view – which provides the solid underpinnings to this book, which should give hope and succour to every entrepreneur who is battling to not only stay afloat but do more and do better.
Happy reading!
I’ve written a blog over at Social Enterprise UK towers which might be of interest, all about what an industrial strategy for an inclusive economy might look like. Which mostly talks about:
– being growth agnostic
– changing how we think about productivity…and value
– creating opportunities and being unafraid of ownership
– using procurement for policy ends
It’s been an extremely busy start to the year. I know that saying “I’m busy” is often code for saying “I’m important” but I’m using it in the literal rather than the self-puffery sense. We just had one of our flagship events, the Social Value Summit, with 340 people from across sectors, and have our health conference coming up in early March. Both gone/going well, but logistically stretching. Along with some interesting work with members like HCT and SASC and with councils like Staffordshire and Cheshire & Warrington, a new chair, business planning, Buy Social training with companies, the next State of Social Enterprise (& international versions), advocacy with a (new-ish) government, and the core work of membership recruitment and retention. It definitely feels like we are doing more for less (or more with less people, certainly – I’m thinking of including ‘how many people do you think work at Social Enterprise UK?‘ in our membership survey as a proxy indicator for ‘punching above our weight’). And it’s enjoyable as well as hard work.
It’s also been a very non-London January and February, which is great. So far this year, I’ve been to Birmingham (x2), Bolton, Leatherhead, Liverpool (x2), Oxford, Stafford, and Wolverhampton. Cardiff, Leeds, Middlewich, Plymouth and Totnes all follow before the end of the month. As ever, the benefit of racking up the rail miles is a chance to listen and read interesting material, as well as try and catch up on the emails. So here’s a few things I’ve read recently that I found interesting – well worth making time / train trips for.
Happy reading.
Nick Temple 