Category Archives: Writer

Interview with authors

Shane O’Mara talking walking

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Andrew Stuck is peppering Shane O’Mara with a number of questions as we pace around Queens Square in Bloomsbury London

As a professor of experimental brain research with a couple of best selling books on Walking and on talking this Dublin resident must be one of the most eligible guests on a Talking Walking episode.

Shane is also very familiar with Bloomsbury and this square in particular, as it is home both to the Institute of Neurology and to the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience where he has many colleagues and friends to discuss his research findings with.

As a listener to this podcast, you are probably only too aware that walking is good for coming up with creative thoughts and resolving problems, but like me, you may be unaware of how that happens and thankfully Shane has got the answers.

34’58” 16.4 MB

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Laroche a.k.a. Luce Choules talking walking

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Coming to the final day of the Walking Art and Relational Geographies conference (2024) that has included a walk from the city of Girona to where we are now in Banyoles, Andrew Stuck is with visual artist and writer, Laroche a.k.a. Luce Choules. They have just given the keynote this morning, a performance lecture, as they call it, described in the conference programme as ‘Material Fields: surveys, mappings and counter-cartographies’ – a live performance using a format of projected imagery and narrated script to invite an audience on a poetic journey across the natural, managed and urban territories of Europe and beyond. 

In our conversation we discuss Laroche’s interest in fieldwork and how they have established a network of fellow thinkers to explore ‘fieldwork as research and art form’, as well as how they compose their performance lectures. 

24’23” 11.4MB

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Marlene Creates talking walking

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In May 2025, multi-award-winning Canadian photographer and environmental artist Marlene Creates is in Brighton, England, and Andrew Stuck takes the opportunity to meet her there.

They are walking in woodland not far from Preston Park train station and Andrew invites her to compare their surroundings to where she lives on the island of Newfoundland off the east coast of mainland Canada.

Marlene uses the 6-acre patch of old-growth boreal forest where she lives as an outdoor studio and now spends much of her time there observing how it changes with the seasons, photographing what she sees, and writing poetry to describe the unseen.

She’s been sharing this forest with primary school children, inviting them to go on multidisciplinary guided walks to learn about the nature of their local ecosystem, as well as concurrently bringing back to light terms in the Newfoundland dialect through video-poems.

Andrew and Marlene chat about her unusual field research back in the 1980s, when she came to Britain and rode thousands of miles on a 1968 Vespa motor scooter, and they discuss her walking art practice. The podcast ends with her reading a list poem composed of over 100 verbs that describe ways of walking. We retreated indoors to make the recording of Marlene reciting the poem. She also shared other words and phrases related to walking that she found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English that she would like to be brought back into common parlance.

39’43” 21MB

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Feature Image credit:  Bernard Fougères

Matt Gilbert talking walking

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Matt Gilbert, the author of the ‘Richly Evocative’ blog has had a collection of poetry published recently called ‘Street Sailing’.

Andrew Stuck and Matt are on a walk together through Dulwich Woods part of the Great North Wood, an area where Matt volunteered to undertake conservation work.  

Frequently walking through the woods has been key to much of Matt’s creative writing process and in their conversation, Matt talks about his approach to writing prose as well as to writing poetry, and gives insight into the contemporary poets who have influenced and inspired him.

Although brought up in Bristol, Matt spent much of his life in West Norwood, what one newspaper described as “an anonymous suburb of South London” – a remark that has rattled Matt and prompted him to write the ‘Richly Evocative’ blog.  

22’57” 10.8MB

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Emily Wilkinson talking walking

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Graphic designer, illustrator. art and health practitioner, turned Walking Artist, writer and Desire Lines podcast producer, Emily Wilkinson is now studying for a PhD researching therapeutic landscapes.

Based in north east Wales, it is not practical for Andrew Stuck to meet her in person and go for a walk, and instead they record an interview over a Zoom call.

Perhaps it is a little indulgent on Andrew’s part to be interviewing a fellow podcaster, but in doing so Emily reveals a lot about the value she places on writing (as a portable art form), and on listening and recording conversations. She believes Walking Art can contribute to building confidence in the young and generating creative opportunities for marginal groups as well as for others.  30’15” 14.6MB

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Emma Cunis talking walking

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After 20 years of corporate life, international travel, and living overseas, Emma Cunis had been diagnosed with ME Chronic Fatigue.  She returned to Dartmoor where she had grown up as a child and slowly but surely walked herself back to better health.  She subsequently set up  a guiding business that she calls “Dartmoor’s Daughter”, helping others on their personal transformative journeys through getting closer to nature.

Living in London without a car, as Andrew Stuck does, getting to Dartmoor in the far south west of England, to undertake an interview, was challenging, so Emma and he agreed to record the interview on a Zoom call.

He is intrigued by her choice of “Dartmoor’s Daughter” as a business name, and how she makes a living as a walking professional, but he is also interested in what aspects of corporate life she has been able to apply as well as what aspects of walking she feels would benefit those in the corporate world.

28’39” 13.4MB

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Stone circle in ancient Dartmoor
Foraging and dowsing in ancient Dartmoor

Saira Niazi talking walking

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The people Andrew Stuck interviews tend to be talented, resourceful and resilient or a combination of each, one might describe them as ‘can do’ people. Saira Niazi is not only a ‘can do’ but is a ‘has done’ and ‘will do’.  She has worked in many roles, between jobs, a dozen or so years ago she set up Living London, leading walking tours that she called ‘Wanderings’, seeking out ‘hidden gems’ in part to satisfy her own curiosity and finding others to share her discoveries.

Saira is a recent recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and travelled to New York and San Francisco seeking out what she calls ‘Renegade Guides’ those have a similar passion for exploration and sharing knowledge.  She has returned home to Tooting in south west London and written and published the ‘Renegade Guide Handbook’.     22’51” 10.7MB

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Henry Fletcher talking walking

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Andrew Stuck is on Sutton Heath in Suffolk with Henry Fletcher, author, way finder and wilderness guide turned walking artist. He is fairly confident that he is not going to get lost as Henry has more than a decade’s experience in guiding people in Iceland in much harsher conditions than they are encountering on a Spring day in May.

With the help of Jay Simpson a fellow trail maker and workshop facilitator they authored the Banff Mountain Literature Award-winning “Wayfinding in the Westfjords” along with a companion trails map and two other guides to the local ecology and walking conditions. The books include reflections and responses from scores of participants who have taken part in artistic residences and trail restoration workshops that Henry and Jay devised and led . By raising money for the publication through a kickstarter crowd funding campaign they were able to hire a book designer, a botanical illustrator, as well as translating the books. 

It turns out that although they have created far more than a walking guide with a book filled with beautiful photographs and artwork, Henry as a self-proclaimed way finder is not someone inclined to use a guidebook or to follow a well marked trail, so Andrew is intrigued how in creating this suite of books and map may have modified Henry’s own practice. Similarly Henry is an enthusiastic supporter for the world trails network, for which he created a film festival and a series of artist talks.

32’31” 15.2MB

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Image credits: Julie Wegner, Jay Simpson, Henry Fletcher

Stephen Ford talking walking

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Author and long-distance walker Stephen Ford and Andrew Stuck are walking through woodland beside open fields with traffic on the A3 rushing past half a mile away.

It’s not the first time that Stephen and Andrew have met to record an interview. Six weeks ago they had walked across Esher Common together and much to Andrew’s embarrassment he discovered that his voice recorders’s hard drive was full to capacity, so much of the interview wasn’t actually recorded.

Stephen forgave him this ‘schoolboy error’ and this time proposed that they walk on common closer to Claygate.  As you will discover from their conversation, there’s a necklace of publicly accessible common in this part of Surrey, that is much frequented by dog walkers and joggers. The interview opens with Stephen talking about where it is they are walking. 21’59” 10.3MB

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Woman with spectacles smiling

Kim Goldsmith talking walking

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Andrew Stuck planned meeting up with Australian Kim Goldsmith sometime in advance, knowing that she would be returning from a residency on Skye with her partner and would only have a short time in London. They were staying in a hotel just south of Kings Cross, so Andrew met them there, with the intention of finding quiet spaces nearby in which to record an interview. Andrew accompanied Kim on a walk towards the Camley Street Nature reserve and Old Saint Pancras Churchyard, both of which he assumed would be quiet, calm spaces.

Kim is a sound recordist and a digital storyteller, and considers herself an environmental artist, like others, whom Andrew has recorded who have a practice in sound, it would seem inevitable that wherever they go sounds and noises intrude on their conversation. The interview with Kim was no exception, as you will discover.

The good news is that Kim took it in very good spirits! What could possibly go wrong? 22’58” 10.8 MB

Andrew Howe KV Goldsmith July2023 walking on Whixall Moss
Kim by the Wambuul Macquarie River June2022
Kim listening to kelp Skye Aug2024

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Emma Griffin talking walking

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Emma Griffin is a transport journalist, turned pedestrian activist, and maker of Footways maps of London, that identify calm and pedestrian-friendly routes and streets for us on foot to enjoy. One such route is the canal-side towpath, that Emma and Andrew Stuck walk along when they meet at Haggerston in Hackney, or so it should be, however, they have to share the path with inconsiderate cyclists. Emma argues that cyclists are part of the solution towards a more pedestrian-friendly London, as are Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, and the real battle is with the car drivers. 26’09” 12.3MB

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Billboard in Aldwych
London Central map
Obverse of Hackney map

Julius Smit talking walking

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As a former specialist photographer in an academic library, Julius Smit has always been fascinated by the composition of words and pictures. Through a series of walks on the South Downs and in and around Eastbourne where he now lives, Julius has been publishing ‘zines and chapbooks of his poetry and photography, that he has printed and gives away to people he meets on his walks. Andrew Stuck meets him early on a February morning, to walk along the promenade in Eastbourne, and discuss the process Julius follows to create his ‘zines, and how he views his efforts as a way to resist the digital world and encourage us all to slow down. 29’51” 14 MB

Julius Smit

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Eye-Glass Zine covers created by Julius Smit: