:ater this year, I’m planning to walk the St Peter’s Way—a 45-mile pilgrimage route stretching from Chipping Ongar to Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex. It’s not the Camino de Santiago (though I hope to walk that too one day), but it is a path rich in history, faith, and meaning. St Peter’s Way traces some of the…

One of the more subtle tensions I’ve noticed in modern public life is the growing discomfort with faith being visible in civic spaces. Not necessarily hostility—though that does exist—but a quiet unease, as though belief should be kept private, like one’s PIN number or Netflix password. And yet, throughout British history, it was not only…

In a calendar filled with meetings, briefings, ribbon cuttings, and responsibilities, the idea of a “free Saturday” is a rare and precious thing. When the stars aligned in February and I found myself with an unexpected day off, I faced a familiar question: What to do with it? Now, I’ve never been drawn to the…

When people outside Harlow hear the name, they tend to picture tower blocks, roundabouts, and the phrase “new town” thrown around with either derision or vague unfamiliarity. But there’s another Harlow—an older, deeper one—that deserves to be remembered and retold. I’ve spent much of the past year exploring that hidden history through a project tentatively…

Christmas is a time for tradition. For my family, part of that means a carefully prepared cheeseboard served after the main meal—warmed by good company, good wine, and a slight, inevitable debate about which cheese is best. But this year, as I was laying out the Baron Bigod and Black Bomber, I found myself thinking…