The dining table at Newton Walled Garden
A white linen table cloth can be as terrifying as the blank page. Both are beautiful and full of potential, but where the hell do you start to tell the story? Read more
Archive for Books
Photo story: Plucking a goose for Christmas
I have recently written a piece for Spectator Life on why goose are back in fashion this Christmas – following the news Theresa May favours goose over turkey. Here is a photo story about how I plucked and gutted my own goose for Christmas, making sure to save the fat for the roast potatoes – just like our Prime Minister likes them. Read more
How writing The Ethical Carnivore taught me the true meaning of Thanksgiving
Free-range turkeys raised with care by farmer Lucy Beattie
Writing The Ethical Carnivore taught me how to shoot, fish and butcher animals. Most importantly, it taught me to be grateful for the meat we eat. Read more
Photo stalking the red deer stags on Ben Damh
This 8-pointer stag is in the height of the rut, roaring to demonstrate his willingness to fight for the chance to mate with the hinds.
If you have already read chapter 14 of The Ethical Carnivore, you will understand this is a little bit of a postscript… Read more
Blowing my cover…
The cover of The Ethical Carnivore published by Bloomsbury September 2016
After much deliberation, The Ethical Carnivore has a cover and the build up to publication has begun. Read more
In which I meet my illustrator…
Learning to shoot with Chris Wheatley-Hubbard of Four Feathers. Illustration by Sam Goodlet. I like my ‘flippers’, like I could swim away…
The Ethical Carnivore is to be illustrated by Sam Goodlet, a talented artist and a vegan… Read more
Photos of farmers – because we probably don’t appreciate them enough
Producers supplying Farmdrop, an online farmers’ market that provides Londoners with fresh produce.
Pork, chicken, lamb, beef, eggs, dairy – it all came from a farmer getting up early and working on your behalf – as these Farmdrop producers did. Here are some other farmers that I have met during research for my book The Ethical Carnivore. I will try and update it as I go along… Read more
The Easter Bunny: Overcoming Watership Down
Rabbit features in much of our childhood literature but it will also feature in the kill to eat diet.
I am often asked why I have not eaten more rabbit on this journey. The simple answer is that it takes time to learn to shoot a rabbit properly. There is also the Watership Down problem. Read more
Gregg Wallace didn’t like my vegan shepherd’s pie, so I made a real lamb roast
Wild soay sheep
This blog is about to get bloody. Sorry, but I did say I was writing a book about only eating animals I have killed myself. This means at some point I will have to kill something. The point is to do it in as humane a way as possible and to educate people about where meat comes from. Read more
H is for Human too
H is for Hawk has won the Samuel Johnson prize
The world is going crazy for H is for Hawk, the first memoir to win the Samuel Johnson Prize. I think I know why. Read more
