I began this Substack five years ago this month. In that time, I have published hundreds of articles, talks, reports, essays and podcasts here on a bewildering range of topics, from Irish holy wells to the future of the nation state, and from robot monks to transgenderism. Subscribers have come and gone, and continue to do both. There are now nearly 85,000 of you reading this.
So I thought it was time to provide a user’s guide to the Abbey of Misrule, and my work more broadly. Here is a map to help you navigate what you will find here, and in a few other byways on the web in which my words can be found.
I began this Substack to write a series of analytical essays about what I call ‘the Machine’: a system of technocracy that impacts our culture, economy, ecology and spirit. I wrote thirty essays in all, over two years. Later I took these essays, edited and rewrote them, and turned the whole thing into a book. It was published last year as Against The Machine, and became a New York Times bestseller. As part of the promotion for the book, I recorded six podcast conversations with interesting thinkers, which I called ‘The Machine Sessions.’
When my work on the Machine was done, I began to turn my attention to the other central interest that was consuming me: my newfound Christian faith. I was baptised, late in life, just a few months before I began writing here, after a long process of conversion which I detailed in an essay for First Things, called The Cross and the Machine. This became one of the most widely-read essays I’ve ever written.
Since then I have written a number of essays here about my personal Christian journey, and Christian culture more widely. In my fiftieth year I made a pilgrimage to fifty of Ireland’s Holy Wells, and wrote about each one. Later, I began a weekly series of pilgrimages to other Christian sites, which is currently on hiatus, but will resume later in 2026. I began a Christian book club, ‘The Scriptorium’, which will also return this year. I have also been writing a series of lives of people I call ‘wild saints’ - Christian wilderness ascetics - which will be published as a book in 2027.
Here a few of the key essays and series. Many more can be found in the archive.
I’ve been a writer for thirty years, and this Substack is just one (and the most online) of my projects. Over that time, I’ve also written ten books, which these days I divide into a few categories:
Four non-fiction books exploring the age of the Machine, and its impacts on nature, culture and spirit. Beginning with my 2003 anti-globalisation travelogue One No, Many Yeses, and climaxing in last year’s Against The Machine.
Three interlinked but standalone novels, set over 2000 years of time in England. Beginning in 1066, and ending a thousand years from now.
I’ve published two volumes of poetry so far, with a third due later this year.
This one doesn’t fit into any categories yet devised. A strange semi-memoir, it appeared in 2019, and will be republished in a new edition soon.
The books above can all be found on my personal website, which is the only other place you will find me on the internet. It is also home to:
Finally, there are also a couple of places in which I have collected various interviews, podcasts, talks, short films and other audio-visual things I have been involved in over the years. Visual things can be found on my YouTube channel, while The Chantry is the section of the Abbey in which audio of talks and interviews live.
I support my work online at present with voluntary subscriptions or donations. This opens up my work to those unable to pay for it, and makes it free for all. But this is only possible with your support. Everything I have written here, right from the beginning, has been made possible by the direct support of my readers.
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