Dan Sumption’s adventures in the real world
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A Year in England’s Last Wilderness
It’s been a year since I posted my last update, and we’ve been in our new home for 16 months, so I thought it time to let you know what we’ve been up to in our off-grid life. By the way that’s Molly in the photo (and our house in the background). When I posted […]
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The Best Books I Read in 2022
According to Goodreads, I read 64 books this year. Here are the few which I most enjoyed: books which have bored a hole and nested inside my mind, books which I know I will remember fondly in years to come. Where possible I have added links to places where you can buy the book, and […]
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2021 and Peakrill Press
2021 was a landmark year for us. After starting and ending a new job in Sheffield’s Moor Market at the end of 2020, I spent the year unemployed; the strangeness of COVID-19 bored on; and in June, we sold our house and left Sheffield, after 23 very happy years living there. We did not have […]
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A Night in The Cummings Hotel
I know that very few people are interested in other people’s dreams – I’m rarely that bothered about them myself – but the other night I had the most intense and clear dream I’ve had in years, and so I’m sticking it up here mainly for my own records… We were staying in a hotel: […]
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Nice Weather for Fish
In the last year, thanks to lockdown, I have started playing Dungeons and Dragons again, for the first time in over 30 years. Now, I have also written and published my first role-playing adventure, for D&D or any OSR-type game. Ladies and Gentlemen, please enjoy Nice Weather for Fish. Many thanks to Martin F Bedford […]
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A Middle-Aged Man Returns to Viriconium
Vrico. Pastel City. The City, and the city, and city …of dreams. I first came here as a young man. Seventeen. Through a portal in one of those London termini, I’d almost swear it was St Pancras. The old one of tunnels, caves, and condensation in huge waiting rooms. Except there was a bookshop, selling […]
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What is the “Refugee Crisis”? And why should you care?
AKA: why are there suddenly refugees everywhere, and when are they going to go away? (Hint: never) This is a summary of the notes I took on the first day of the effect.org “Hacking the Refugee Crisis” expedition in Athens. More on that in a bit, but first… Crisis, What Crisis? Today, globally, there are […]
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Second-Hand Time
When I was small, I owned a plain-covered hardback book of Russian folk-tales. It was my most terrifying possession. It scared me, just to be in the same room as this collection of child-eating stepmothers, Baba Yagas, and terrors beyond imagination. Second-Hand Time, by Svetlana Alexievich is that book, grown up. Alexievich transcribes the words […]
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Stranger than We can Imagine
I want to tell you about the two most brilliant books I have read this year.
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Makers, Inventors, Designers and Engineers
In the panel session at yesterday’s Maker Assembly Sheffield there was a really interesting question from John Moseley. To paraphrase: “what happened to inventors?”
Got any book recommendations?