I celebrate the ordinary, the remarkable in the everyday. I tease out the rich frontier between the familiar and the unknown. I am fascinated by the process of change, how we shed our personal and collective skins. I don’t believe in grand narratives. I think the meaning is carried in the fragments of our lives. When you put the pieces together you can glimpse a deeper picture emerging.

My Holine books are contemporary travel writing. They are intimate portraits from life on the city and rural waysides: the comic, the forgotten, the natives, the discarded lives, the rubbish. Each book is a jigsaw of little windows onto the real world of people, work, and places, and the passing moment. The individual pieces are written on the hoof and rearranged not by time but by meaning. I create unusual juxtapositions which can give fresh insights. Some find in them an antidote to stress.

My background is varied. I served my indentureship in English and Scottish journalism before working two seasons as an organic gardener at the Findhorn Foundation gardens in the mid-seventies. I have worked in therapeutic gardening with children and adults (Mulberry Bush School, Richmond Fellowship). I was the training officer for Horticultural Therapy in the mid eighties, and wrote two therapeutic manuals for adults and children. During the 90s I worked extensively as a storyteller in schools, museums, woodlands, and later at the Larmer Tree, Bath and Swindon Literature festivals. My second novel—The Little Big Step (1997)—explored rites of passage by building gardens with emotionally disturbed children. In Clattinger: An Alphabet of Signs from Nature (2008) I invented 26 new words to portray my inside moments with nature.

My qualifications include: Journalism/Sub-editor(NCTJ); Facilitator to work with small groups(IDHP). I have published ten books, including two novels. The first one was shortlisted for a Guardian Commonwealth Literature award.

“Unusual, attractive and original talent” —The Guardian

“A rare gift with words...A sympathetic and engaging Everyman.” —Resurgence

Visit Peter's website: http://www.peteralfredplease.co.uk/