Tom Pritchard
@tomepritchard.bsky.social
PhD at Cambridge researching British walking-writing (medievalism, myth, belonging, protest) | Copywriter & editor
📍 Ventnor, Isle of Wight / Cambridge
📍 Ventnor, Isle of Wight / Cambridge
Noticed that the swifts have left Ventnor when I laid in bed this morning without this sort of non-stop silliness. Roll on next summer. ☀️🌊
August 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Noticed that the swifts have left Ventnor when I laid in bed this morning without this sort of non-stop silliness. Roll on next summer. ☀️🌊
Such good journalism. And so interesting re: the relationship between walker-writers and their work, bullshitting the bullshitters, non-fiction and 'true' stories, publisher appetites etc etc...
I spent months on this investigation and gathered docs from the UK courts, Land Registry and a French local authority, to show that Raynor and Moth Winn's story is not as they claim. @tortoisemedia.bsky.social @observeruk.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
The real Salt Path: how the couple behind a bestseller le...
Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. We can reveal it was far from the truth
observer.co.uk
July 7, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Such good journalism. And so interesting re: the relationship between walker-writers and their work, bullshitting the bullshitters, non-fiction and 'true' stories, publisher appetites etc etc...
Reposted by Tom Pritchard
WE WON!
The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. This is a huge win for access to nature.
But we're just getting started.
It was never just about Dartmoor.
We’re fighting to extend the right to roam, swim, and sleep under the stars - across all of England.
The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. This is a huge win for access to nature.
But we're just getting started.
It was never just about Dartmoor.
We’re fighting to extend the right to roam, swim, and sleep under the stars - across all of England.
May 21, 2025 at 10:55 AM
WE WON!
The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. This is a huge win for access to nature.
But we're just getting started.
It was never just about Dartmoor.
We’re fighting to extend the right to roam, swim, and sleep under the stars - across all of England.
The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. This is a huge win for access to nature.
But we're just getting started.
It was never just about Dartmoor.
We’re fighting to extend the right to roam, swim, and sleep under the stars - across all of England.
Reposted by Tom Pritchard
"Win or lose in the Supreme Court, we now want the government to step up and pass a right to roam act, to protect and extend public rights of access to nature across England.”
@lewis-winks.bsky.social ahead of this morning’s verdict on wild camping on Dartmoor:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
@lewis-winks.bsky.social ahead of this morning’s verdict on wild camping on Dartmoor:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Dartmoor case set to decide future of wild camping
Hikers can pitch a tent under the stars on the moor without permission, but for how much longer?
www.bbc.co.uk
May 21, 2025 at 6:38 AM
"Win or lose in the Supreme Court, we now want the government to step up and pass a right to roam act, to protect and extend public rights of access to nature across England.”
@lewis-winks.bsky.social ahead of this morning’s verdict on wild camping on Dartmoor:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
@lewis-winks.bsky.social ahead of this morning’s verdict on wild camping on Dartmoor:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This made me want to carouse in the great mead hall of my people and toast the swifts' return with a drinking horn. Thanks for it, @nicwilson.bsky.social!
Over the wave-wellings scream the wind-riders
arriving in cloud-tribes with songs of great journeys
building their air-hearths on citadels and mead-halls.
arriving in cloud-tribes with songs of great journeys
building their air-hearths on citadels and mead-halls.
May 5, 2025 at 1:59 PM
This made me want to carouse in the great mead hall of my people and toast the swifts' return with a drinking horn. Thanks for it, @nicwilson.bsky.social!
A real joy to be at the launch of 'Is A River Alive?' tonight, with my supervisor and friend @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and a room full of brilliant and interesting people. Viva la riva! 🌊🌿
May 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
A real joy to be at the launch of 'Is A River Alive?' tonight, with my supervisor and friend @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and a room full of brilliant and interesting people. Viva la riva! 🌊🌿
Year 23, somehow, of the Easter Monday palgrimage to St Albans.
More convinced than ever that the answer to all of that (*gestures widely at the world*) is to grab some old pals and do a big walk. 🙏
More convinced than ever that the answer to all of that (*gestures widely at the world*) is to grab some old pals and do a big walk. 🙏
April 22, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Year 23, somehow, of the Easter Monday palgrimage to St Albans.
More convinced than ever that the answer to all of that (*gestures widely at the world*) is to grab some old pals and do a big walk. 🙏
More convinced than ever that the answer to all of that (*gestures widely at the world*) is to grab some old pals and do a big walk. 🙏
Looking forward to seeing The Robs talk about The North Road at Cambridge Literary Fest next week -- join me if you're about!
🎟 👉 www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/rob-c...
🎟 👉 www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/rob-c...
This–– @robcowen.bsky.social’s The North Road––is out today.
It's magnificent: one of the best books you'll read this year.
A polyphonic walking-up of the ghosts & lives of the Great North Road; a bravura act of imagining in which RC seems to slip supernaturally between times & minds.
So, so good.
It's magnificent: one of the best books you'll read this year.
A polyphonic walking-up of the ghosts & lives of the Great North Road; a bravura act of imagining in which RC seems to slip supernaturally between times & minds.
So, so good.
April 18, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Looking forward to seeing The Robs talk about The North Road at Cambridge Literary Fest next week -- join me if you're about!
🎟 👉 www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/rob-c...
🎟 👉 www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/rob-c...
T-shirt weather, abandoning the laptop for a big loop walk along the coast, and coming alive like a houseplant at the feel of some actual sun. March is good, isn't it?
March 5, 2025 at 9:43 PM
T-shirt weather, abandoning the laptop for a big loop walk along the coast, and coming alive like a houseplant at the feel of some actual sun. March is good, isn't it?
My grandma was the gardener. This is a poem my grandad wrote about watching her potter about in their garden.
"Everything is at is should be,
As everything ever has been."
"Everything is at is should be,
As everything ever has been."
February 13, 2025 at 12:03 PM
My grandma was the gardener. This is a poem my grandad wrote about watching her potter about in their garden.
"Everything is at is should be,
As everything ever has been."
"Everything is at is should be,
As everything ever has been."
Appreciate the Glück poem isn't really about snowdrops, but I always think of it around now. And of my grandparents, and my grandma saying 'well Arth, we've made it through another winter' when the snowdrops and aconites came up in their garden. An odd and interesting little node of connections.
February 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Appreciate the Glück poem isn't really about snowdrops, but I always think of it around now. And of my grandparents, and my grandma saying 'well Arth, we've made it through another winter' when the snowdrops and aconites came up in their garden. An odd and interesting little node of connections.
Setting this as an Out Of Office for my paid work while I'm getting stuck into my PhD work. (From @golden_frog_inn on instagram)
February 5, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Setting this as an Out Of Office for my paid work while I'm getting stuck into my PhD work. (From @golden_frog_inn on instagram)
Love a bit of Sebaldian melancholy with my coffee.
Happy Tuesday, all. Life slopes downwards toward decay and entropy. Former glories are lies. Dressing gowns are flammable.
👍 👴 🔥
Happy Tuesday, all. Life slopes downwards toward decay and entropy. Former glories are lies. Dressing gowns are flammable.
👍 👴 🔥
February 4, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Love a bit of Sebaldian melancholy with my coffee.
Happy Tuesday, all. Life slopes downwards toward decay and entropy. Former glories are lies. Dressing gowns are flammable.
👍 👴 🔥
Happy Tuesday, all. Life slopes downwards toward decay and entropy. Former glories are lies. Dressing gowns are flammable.
👍 👴 🔥
Watched the day disappear around the neighbours' house over 15 minutes this evening.
January 25, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Watched the day disappear around the neighbours' house over 15 minutes this evening.
Slàinte mhath, all! 🥃
Tonight is Burn’s Night and to celebrate here’s a fantastic medieval recipe for haggis! 🐏🎉
@bodleianlibraries.bsky.social MS. Ashmole 1439, f. 35r
@bodleianlibraries.bsky.social MS. Ashmole 1439, f. 35r
January 25, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Slàinte mhath, all! 🥃
Loved the vision and variation of Glenn Ligon's 'All Over the Place' at the Fitzwilliam -- and if you think museums are for nerds, you can see 'Waiting for the Barbarians' (nine English translations of the closing lines of Cavafy's poem) without even having to step inside. Great stuff.
January 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Loved the vision and variation of Glenn Ligon's 'All Over the Place' at the Fitzwilliam -- and if you think museums are for nerds, you can see 'Waiting for the Barbarians' (nine English translations of the closing lines of Cavafy's poem) without even having to step inside. Great stuff.
An old friend, a flask of coffee, and a few miles in the frost before work this morning.
January 8, 2025 at 10:00 AM
An old friend, a flask of coffee, and a few miles in the frost before work this morning.
Great stuff on @righttoroam.bsky.social as a way for farmers to reconnect with their communities, poss Defra incentivising of access etc -- far from a farmer vs walker binary.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Get on my land’: the farmers who want strangers wandering their fields
A growing number of landholders are joining forces with right-to-roam campaigners to boost public access to the countryside
www.theguardian.com
January 8, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Great stuff on @righttoroam.bsky.social as a way for farmers to reconnect with their communities, poss Defra incentivising of access etc -- far from a farmer vs walker binary.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Tom Pritchard
On this (Boxing) day of walks, some good walking/access news:
c. 40,000 miles of historic rights-of-way in England & Wales have been reprieved from deletion from the “definitive map” of such paths.
Great work @ramblers.org.uk & other campaigners on this.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
c. 40,000 miles of historic rights-of-way in England & Wales have been reprieved from deletion from the “definitive map” of such paths.
Great work @ramblers.org.uk & other campaigners on this.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Defra scraps England deadline to register thousands of miles of rights of way
Campaigners jubilant after government heeded warning 2031 cutoff would mean loss of precious footpaths
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2024 at 9:44 AM
On this (Boxing) day of walks, some good walking/access news:
c. 40,000 miles of historic rights-of-way in England & Wales have been reprieved from deletion from the “definitive map” of such paths.
Great work @ramblers.org.uk & other campaigners on this.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
c. 40,000 miles of historic rights-of-way in England & Wales have been reprieved from deletion from the “definitive map” of such paths.
Great work @ramblers.org.uk & other campaigners on this.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
A play in three acts from a walk earlier this week.
#1 tip for helping a sheep out of a fence? Put your phone away and heave it. 🐑✌️ 1/3
#1 tip for helping a sheep out of a fence? Put your phone away and heave it. 🐑✌️ 1/3
December 5, 2024 at 9:43 AM
A play in three acts from a walk earlier this week.
#1 tip for helping a sheep out of a fence? Put your phone away and heave it. 🐑✌️ 1/3
#1 tip for helping a sheep out of a fence? Put your phone away and heave it. 🐑✌️ 1/3
That's me done in Cambridge until the new year. See you in 2025, Emmanuel. 🙏👋
November 29, 2024 at 5:43 PM
That's me done in Cambridge until the new year. See you in 2025, Emmanuel. 🙏👋
Feeling very lucky to have caught Wayne Mcgregor's adaption of Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy at the Royal Opera House yesterday.
Wild, ambitious, emotional. Music by @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social. Big recommend if you get the chance.
Wild, ambitious, emotional. Music by @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social. Big recommend if you get the chance.
November 24, 2024 at 11:28 PM
Feeling very lucky to have caught Wayne Mcgregor's adaption of Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy at the Royal Opera House yesterday.
Wild, ambitious, emotional. Music by @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social. Big recommend if you get the chance.
Wild, ambitious, emotional. Music by @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social. Big recommend if you get the chance.
New sleep paralysis demon just dropped (she's lovely). Morning, all. 🌅
November 22, 2024 at 9:20 AM
New sleep paralysis demon just dropped (she's lovely). Morning, all. 🌅
Hi all -- feel like I've just walked into a room full of interesting people. By way of a quick intro:
I'm Tom. I'm a writer and researcher with an interest in walking, landscape, medievalism, folklore and folk ritual, pilgrimage, protest and the politics of land ownership.
Happy to be here! 👋 🙏
I'm Tom. I'm a writer and researcher with an interest in walking, landscape, medievalism, folklore and folk ritual, pilgrimage, protest and the politics of land ownership.
Happy to be here! 👋 🙏
November 17, 2024 at 5:20 PM
Hi all -- feel like I've just walked into a room full of interesting people. By way of a quick intro:
I'm Tom. I'm a writer and researcher with an interest in walking, landscape, medievalism, folklore and folk ritual, pilgrimage, protest and the politics of land ownership.
Happy to be here! 👋 🙏
I'm Tom. I'm a writer and researcher with an interest in walking, landscape, medievalism, folklore and folk ritual, pilgrimage, protest and the politics of land ownership.
Happy to be here! 👋 🙏