Wild Words – a free magazine featuring writing about Dartmoor

Wild Words is a great magazine of Dartmoor writings, produced by the Dartmoor Preservation Association (I was the DPA chief executive many moons ago). Wild Words features extracts from my books Gibbet Hill and Wayfarer’s Dole. Do take a look…

Wild Words is now out and free to download. Honoured to see a couple of my bits of writing included, amongst so many talented Dartmoor authors. A great enterprise, and many congratulations to Helen Bruce and the Dartmoor Preservation Association for producing such a brilliant addition to Dartmoor’s literature. Terrific illustrations too. Click on the link to download your free copy – and enjoy. Dartmoor – Wild and Free – For Ever

Stories of connection, landscape and hope

Dartmoor has always been a storied landscape. In todays high pressure world, where nature must jostle for space alongside industry and technology, against a backdrop of shifting climate and unpredictable weather, these stories have become more important than ever. Used in activism and online messaging, they convey a wealth of meaning, ready for everyone to discover.

In some places, these tales can be physically seen, and even touched. Bowerman’s Nose, inspiration for the logo of the Dartmoor Preservation Association, can be found near the village of Manaton and accessed by a relatively gentle climb up onto the moor. Upon first look, the landmark is an impressive granite stack, left standing after the softer rock and soil around it eroded away. On closer inspection, it seems to be shaped a little like a face in side profile, complete with a generous nose! With a little asking around, or reading up online, Bowerman’s Nose becomes Bowerman, a hunter turned to stone for disturbing a coven of witches. The nearby rocks of Hound Tor are his faithful hunting dogs.

Wild Words is a compilation of writing inspired by Dartmoor. It began as a callout to local writers, essayists, diarists, poets and lyricists and quickly became a wonderfully eclectic selection of pieces written on, featuring or prompted by the moor. Our vision is that, through reading and sharing these stories, people will discover, or strengthen, their connection to Dartmoor. We believe that a strong connection to the landscape inspires activism, accountability, stewardship and a sense of responsibility.

‘We are immensely grateful and heartened that so many people have given their time and talents to Wild Words. We hope that they will inspire others and give voice to the things people feel about this special landscape.’ -Tom Usher, CEO of the DPA

Download the full Wild Words Magazine HERE

Wild Words magazine

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My New Country Book

Out now and still at the pre-publication price!

Free Roamer and Trespasser John Bainbridge looks at why the British were – and still are – denied responsible access to much of their own land.

It shows how events through history led to the countryside being the preserve of the few rather than the many, leaving us with a present-day Britain where just 1% of the people own 50% of our countryside. A country where Common Land has been reduced to just 3% of the landscape.

This book tells why we should no longer think of ourselves as trespassers in Forbidden Britain, but Free Roamers, claiming back the land that has been stolen from us.


Here are the landscapes to which access is still denied, the vast stretches of moorland and downland, mountains and woodlands. The book sees how only recently landowners tried to restrict access and lawful camping on Dartmoor, leading to the largest people’s land rights protest for over a century.

From Scotland to the south coast, from the Lake District to Dartmoor, here are the stories telling how we lost our rights to the land – and how, by campaigning, we can get it back. In this book John Bainbridge describes the fights to regain the right to roam over Kinder Scout in the Peak District, Latrigg Fell in Lakeland, Winter Hill in Lancashire, and the recent battles on Dartmoor.

On a vagabonding tour through Britain’s most delightful countryside and forbidden tracts, John Bainbridge charts the history of access and assesses the present state of the law, which gives access on foot to only 8% of our land. How a new generation of landowners are trying to fence us out of our heritage. This book looks at the past, the present and towards a more hopeful future where land access is concerned.

Redolent of country air, with nature and archaeology dealt with in graphic style, the book urges the people of this country to become Free Roamers, to take back our ancient freedoms and explore all our countryside.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

Free Roaming – The Compleat Trespasser is an expanded version of John Bainbridge’s earlier trespassing book, The Compleat Trespasser – bringing the story of the Right to Roam up to date, and re-examining issues dealt with in the previous edition.

Free Roaming – the Compleat Trespasser is available in hardback and paperback, and as a Kindle eBook.

Buy it now at a cheaper price, valid for just a fortnight from today.

Free Roaming – The Compleat Trespasser: Amazon.co.uk: Bainbridge, John: 9798270758295: Books

Free Roaming – The Compleat Trespasser (John Bainbridge Walking Books) eBook : Bainbridge, John: Amazon.co.uk: Books

The New Inspector Abbs Mystery

Anne’s new book “Death of a Stranger” is out – set in Keswick in the Lake District. A very different Keswick from the one we know today, a town which is a mixture of traditional industries and a burgeoning Victorian tourist trade. It’s a complete in itself fourth in her series of Inspector Abbs Mysteries.

The past is a haunted place… A puzzling murder for Inspector Abbs…

1874. Josiah Abbs, and Sergeant Reeve, are sent north to the remote Lake Country. A young woman has been murdered in curious circumstances. A recent arrival, who found work in a temperance hotel.

The small town of Keswick is crowded with summer visitors, eager to enjoy picturesque Derwent Water and its mountainous surroundings.

Was the dead woman simply one more stranger? Then why was her face destroyed…? With limited time and no shortage of suspects,will Abbs discover the heart of a disturbing mystery and find a ruthless killer…?

Here’s the order link.

Death Of A Stranger (Inspector Abbs Victorian Mysteries): Amazon.co.uk: Bainbridge, Anne: 9798289766267: Books

Death Of A Stranger (Inspector Abbs Victorian Mysteries Book 4) eBook : Bainbridge, Anne: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Writing the Newgate Shadow

The fourth book in my William Quest series – The Newgate Shadow – was published a week ago. Actually, it should be classed as the fifth book, for Gibbet Hill is really part of the Quest Saga, even though it’s set in 1817 and William Quest only appears at the very end.

But Gibbet Hill is the true, complete in itself, prequel to the Quest books. For it is in that book that the shape of Quest’s future life is drawn out by his predecessors, Josiah Quest and Jonas Lyddon. And it’s in Gibbet Hill that we first meet some of the Quest characters, such as Jasper Feedle and Harry Blizzard.

About three years ago, I began a novel called “Daniel Moonlight”. It was set in Quest’s London, though William Quest was to have been very much a fringe character, making only a brief appearance. Daniel, who appears in The Newgate Shadow, and Albert Sticks were to have been the main characters. Daniel as a young innocent lad who comes to London and has his first brush with the underworld. Sticks as his instructor and protector.

I wrote just a few scenes before abandoning the book, mostly because I found the premise for the book very limited. Roll on a couple of years, and – having finished Gibbet Hill – I thought the time had come to produce another William Quest adventure. It seemed to me that Daniel’s story should be incorporated into the new book, so that we might see some elements of the Victorian underworld from another point of view from that of Quest and his associates.

I think what this shows is that you should always hang on to pieces of writing you didn’t finish. You never know when you might be able to use them! In fact, Daniel’s venture into the London of 1854 helped considerably with the structure of the new book.

In The Newgate Shadow, Quest has moved on considerably from his earliest exploits, not least because I don’t think you should keep repeating yourself in a book series. By the 1850s London was changing. New roads were being built, demolishing some of the old city, rookeries were being pulled down, there was more efficient policing, and a greater call for political reform. The underworld was still there, but its nature was changing. How Quest copes with these changes forms an important part of the new novel.

But there are still the wild adventures along the banks of the Thames, the menaces to those who are fighting for justice – those elements never go away.

The New William Quest Novel by John Bainbridge

The Newgate Shadow, the fourth William Quest novel, is published today in paperback and on Kindle.

Join William Quest and his nefarious associates in their most dangerous adventure so far…

Three names on a death list – one of them is William Quest.

The darkness is finally closing in. Quest’s enemies are gaining ground, determined to destroy everything he and his allies believe in.

From out of the shadows steps a man with no face…

A new adventure in the menacing underworld of Victorian London.