Little Toller Books

13/10/2025

'A geologically inclined pastoral; an ode to the Lakes; an eye-opening portrait of post war bucolicism; an unravelling of family secrets...and a dogged quest for the trail of Kurt Schwitters whose collages form a template or model for this extravagantly variegated book.' Jonathan Meades

Just over a week ago we launched a Crowdfunder campaign for Jennifer Potter's new book, which resurrects a pivotal artist - Kurt Schwitters - and places him firmly in the soil of Potter's native Lake District, where Schwitters lived, and died, as a penniless refugee in 1948. Derided as a 'degenerate artist' by the N***s he fled Germany and having been interned as an 'enemy alien' he travelled to the Lakes.

Schwitters was one of the rising stars of modern art in Germany in the 1920s and 30s, making art from rubbish and found objects. But once he settled into the Lake District he dashed off a series of landscapes, portraits, collages and abstracts, allowing his new home to seep into his work.

Jennifer's book is not a biography, not a memoir, not an art book; it occupies a beguiling space between genres, and shines a new light on the artist's final years and his last, great, unfinished work.

Excitingly we reached the target for the Crowdfunder in just a few days, but would like to raise more money to produce the book that Schwitters' and Jennifer richly deserve. Working with the author we have an exciting range of rewards for supporters of the book.

Take a look at the Crowdfunder page, where you can also see a video of Jennifer describing her wonderful book.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/looking-for-mr-schwitters---a-new-book-1

07/10/2025

80% of Britain’s bogs and peatlands have been drained, stripped or irreversibly damaged over the last 200 years, but they still contain more carbon than all the forests in UK, France and Germany combined. Often viewed as wasteland, these landscapes are brimming with biodiversity and play an essential role in how we mitigate the extremes of climate change. Walshaw Moor in West Yorkshire is one such place.

Renowned for its blanket peat bog, Walshaw Moor is a breeding habitat for endangered ground-nesting birds, such as curlews, lapwings and golden plovers. It is also the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and the poetry of Ted Hughes, and is much-loved for its network of footpaths threading into the Upper Calder Valley and the South Pennines. In recent years, however, the future of Walshaw Moor has been threatened by a proposal to build England’s largest onshore wind farm.

The Book of Bogs began as a community response to this threat, and has grown beyond the Moor into a wider celebration and campaign for bogs and other peatland ecologies. With original poetry and essays from over 40 established authors and new voices, the collection combines natural history, archaeology, culture, myth and adventure, offering insight into why these landscapes are at the forefront of debates about energy and land use. The book delves into the boglands like never before, relishing in the sweep of heather, the glow of moss and the stillness of peat waters.

We're delighted to have worked with Clare and Anna, the editors of the book, and the amazing contributors: Robert Macfarlane, Amy Liptrot, Patti Smith, Horatio Clare, Nicola Chester, Alys Fowler, Guy Shrubsole, and many others, too numerous and talented to list here in full.

The Book of Bogs is out now, from your local bookshop, or our website: https://www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/little-toller/the-book-of-bogs-edited-by-anna-chilvers-and-clare-shaw/

29/07/2025

Waterstones has included Unschooled, Caro Giles' urgent and important memoir about how school doesn't work for many children, in their preorder offer. Order it on Waterstones website before the end of July using the code SUMMER25 to get 25% off.

Unschooled is published in early September.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/unschooled/caro-giles/9781915068439

25/07/2025

We're DELIGHTED that Jeff Young's Wild Twin has won the 2025 TLS Ackerley Award for a memoir of outstanding literary merit. It's a richly deserved win for a great writer, and a good friend. Wild Twin is available from your bookshop, or online at our website. https://www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/little-toller/wild-twin-by-jeff-young/

14/07/2025

23rd July, Foyles Charing Cross Road! Jeff Young, Catherine Coldstream and Clair Wills, for the TLS Ackerley Prize.

17/06/2025

Some brilliant news! Wild Twin by Jeff Young has been shortlisted for the TLS Ackerley Award, awarded every year for a work of autobiography. It's a fantastic achievement and richly deserved. The other two shortlisted books are Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (Chatto and Windus) and Missing Persons by Clair Willis (Allen Lane).

The judges said of Wild Twin 'A highly original book about the pursuit of romantic ideals, and the workings - and failings - of memory. It's written in extraordinarily vivid, at times almost stream-of-consciousness prose, that brilliantly reflects the unusual life it describes.'

The winner will be announced at a special event at Foyles Charing Cross Road on 23rd July. Tickets available now: https://www.foyles.co.uk/events/tls-ackerley-prize-2025

16/06/2025

Next Monday, 23rd June! Peter Hahn reading from and talking about his memoir of life on an organic vineyard in the Loire Valley, Angels in the Cellar, at Dulwich Books. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/angels-in-the-cellar-peter-hahn-tickets-1360271491649?aff=oddtdtcreator

02/06/2025

Happy publication day to the amazing Horatio Clare!

We Came By Sea, Stories of a greater Britain is an untold story of the small boats crisis, a story which shows the best of us. It is the story of the volunteers who help thousands of refugees in Calais, of the lifeboat crews mounting one of the great search and rescue operations of all time, of an unrecognised, uncelebrated, all but unknown Britain which is giving its all to help the vulnerable and desperate. It is a journey through an unexamined nation, a nation which is as truly great and good as the people in the dinghies believe Britain to be. It is not the story we have been told, and it is a true story.

Look out for reviews and events!

Available from bookshops and our website https://www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/little-toller/we-came-by-sea-by-horatio-clare/

Author photo: Billie Charity and Hay Festival.

22/05/2025

This coming Tuesday! Will be excellent!

‘…this book is more than a description of wine making, it is a celebration of nature and a love of the land, the seasons and the soil, and how these things can nurture the soul.’ Caught by the River

If there’s one thing we know about , it’s that they publish darn good books. So when they approached us about hosting an event with one of their authors, one whose hardback is now already being reprinted just weeks after publication, there was only one possible answer.

Twenty years ago Peter Hahn had a breakdown while in the back of a London cab. Emotionally exhausted, he no longer recognised himself inside the corporate world that demanded so much of him. It became urgently clear the only way to stop the downward spiral was to find a path out. Since then, Peter has found his way to , a small, ancient farm in the Loire Valley, where he grows and makes small batch organic wines.

Angels in the Cellar invites us to spend a year in Peter’s company among the vines, where he reflects on the land, his life, regenerative farming, and the lives of the small group of people he works with. We join Peter through the seasons, pruning the vines and harvesting the grapes by hand, before we follow him to the cellar, where the alchemy begins – and the angels take charge.

An evocative, poetic account of a year spent working with nature, Angels in the Cellar is also a powerful repudiation of the global economy, its obsession with hyper-consumption and its impacts on the land and its ecosystems.

You may have read Peter’s story in the press in recent weeks. Even better to come and hear it first-hand at . Tickets on sale now via our website (link in bio) or from FOLDE HQ.

08/04/2025

In 2021 we published Charles Foster's extraordinary book, The Screaming Sky. Later shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, Foster follows swifts on their amazing journey across the world in perpetual summer. The book's gorgeous cover art and illustrations within are by Jonathan Pomroy.

Every year since we have reprinted The Screaming Sky, timing it to arrive in bookshops just as the swifts return to our shores, and 2025 is no exception. Order from your local bookshop or our website: https://www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/little-toller/essays-monograph/the-screaming-sky-by-charles-foster-paperback/

01/04/2025

The excellent people at Caught by the River have made Ken Worpole's Brightening from the East their book of the month. For an extract from this brilliant collection of essays on landscape, memory and the ideas that filtered through the Essex plotlands, see their website.

Newly published by Little Toller Books, Book of the Month is Ken Worpole's 'Brightening From the East: Essays on Landscape and Memory’, which tells stories of arcadian dreams among the shabby plotlands of eastern England. Read an extract on the site today, on The Peculiar People of Essex: https://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-worpole-brightening-from-the-east-extract-book-of-the-month/

01/04/2025

In June, we publish Horatio Clare's We Came by Sea.

We Came By Sea, Stories of a greater Britain, is the untold story of the small boats crisis, a story which shows the best of us. It is the story of the volunteers who help thousands of refugees in Calais, of the lifeboat crews mounting one of the great search and rescue operations of all time, of an unrecognised, uncelebrated, all but unknown Britain which is giving its all to help the vulnerable and desperate. It is a journey through an unexamined nation, a nation which is as truly great and good as the people in the dinghies believe Britain to be. It is not the story we have been told, and it is a true story.

We're thrilled and proud to be publishing this book with Horatio.

Horatio Clare

Pre-order from your local bookshop, or our website: https://www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/little-toller/we-came-by-sea-by-horatio-clare/