Dan Taylor

  • Displace

    ‘How do we even begin to have a conversation about the gargantuan problems of finite resources, personal ethics and social change in a framework that renders an individual life seemingly powerless?’ Laura Sillars raises this question in her foreword to A Sick Logic, a collection of writings, photos and field guides that raise questions and…

  • Island Story Short-listed

    Remarkably, Island Story: Journeys Through Unfamiliar Britain has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for best political writing, 2017. There has obviously been some confusion or administrative error with my inclusion, but it is an honour to be in the company of some truly excellent titles. I am grateful for all the support of my…

  • Island Story – out with Repeater Books next year

    Originally posted on Searching for Albion: Island Story: Journeying through unfamiliar Britain will be out next year with new imprint Repeater Books. Read an excerpt of my rides through the North-East here. It’s a concise and fresh write-up of the journey meticulously detailed here. Readers will be familiar with what happens (all the beer, breakdowns…

  • Manchester, impressions

    Dawn, Albert Square Golden light streaks down Mount Street, casting shadows over William Gladstone, cast in metal and stone. Pigeons are stirring, the occasional swooshing of a passing taxi’s interrupted by the gentle swishing of a sweeper-truck. I’ve landed here without a ticket or an alibi, into a city with no clear exit or entry.…

  • New writing

    I’ve been unexpectedly blessed with hundreds of new followers following a recent share of my poem ‘1914 and all that’. Hello to you people! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the writing. This blog will be a little quiet for the next few months, so please visit www.searchingforalbion.com, where I publish new writing by the day. Scroll…

  • Departing

    Last night has now eaten into this morning, and here I am with my empty bottles and missing time, making a half-hearted attempt at an audit. Let’s spare the scribbles and agree that there’s a certain pleasure in always being busy and late for things. But it’s not always that delightful. J.G. Ballard’s right: in…

  • 1914 and all that

    I travelled with a friend around northern France a couple of weeks back, cycling around Boulogne, Amiens and Lille. The Ch’tis were very friendly and accommodating with my Franglais. We met a lot of very good people and had a few adventures. We also visited Albert, headquarters of the British during the Somme offensive. ‘Somme’…

  • By bike

      Yes, I have gone mad… but I’m starting to plan something along these lines over next summer, followed by more travelling overseas. There’s a couple of projects in mind I want to develop on the road. When they become clearer in my mind, I’ll share them here. They’ll be pretty exciting, these coming months.…

  • Belgium

    See more of my journeys in Gent, Antwerp and Bruges here. Is it not unfair to curse the man or woman who wastes or misuses words needlessly? Or who obstructs our path in order to take a photograph of an image recorded ten trillion times before? They weren’t the first to introduce the custom: they…

  • Towards conscious inertia – Canterbury – St. Eustace

    Note: this is a long travel photo-essay. Enjoy, when you have time… Do you remember that Dostoevsky quote from last time? If not, it’s from Notes from Underground, in a version translated by Jessie Coulson for Penguin and reprinted in 2003. On page 43 our unknown anti-hero announces: ‘Last of all, gentlemen: it is best…