Between 2020 and 2025 I published 119 essays which totalled over 200,000 words. They covered everything from cloudwatching to birdsong, from the death of lunch to the end of the extremely online era, from pylons and foxes to insomnia and discouragement and pretentiousness and pretty much everything else in between.
They are collected here for you to download and read at your leisure1:
Writing these essays helped me (and hopefully a few others) to stay sane during the era of lockdowns, division, confusion and cryptocurrency mania. I aimed to be a voice of reason in unreasonable times and a model of calm-bordering-on-idleness in a time of hustle and greed and needless busywork.
I think, if I may say so myself, that I was largely successful in what I set out to do with these pieces.
Over the months and years I have received many kind and encouraging emails and messages2 and a plethora of insightful comments3 and I was able to gather enough generous, money-paying subscribers4 to weather a protracted period of unemployment and become a Full Time Professional Man Of Letters for a while, a fact which in retrospect strikes me as being miraculous.
But I realise now that I have said everything that I have to say in essay form. I have taken non-fiction as a medium as far as I can.
The fact remains that of everything I have published online, it is the small handful of short stories that I have posted to date that have proven to be the most rewarding, nerve-wracking, infuriating, life-affirming, terrifying, joyful and fulfilling5.
Fiction, then, is the path that I have to pursue.
I’m sure- given what I’ve learned during my years of writing online- that following this path means that I will lose money and subscribers hand over fist and that the likes and restacks and open-rates and such will all plummet. So be it.
If fiction isn’t your bag and this is where we part ways then I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. It has truly meant the world to me. And if you are reading this and saying ‘Yes! Finally!’ then I want to thank you for your patience.
This is just the beginning.
TJB.
P.S. long-time readers will know that nothing I publish is behind a paywall. I like to keep everything is 100% free. That being said if you do feel compelled to reimburse me for this free Collected Works etc you can always click on the button below:
Thanks to Ruth Gaskovski for reminding me how important it is to prioritise making your work available for readers to enjoy offline.
They know who they are even if they don’t know just how much they have done.
Conversely having an essay ‘go viral’ is a strange and unnerving experience and not one that I would necessarily recommend or wish upon anyone.
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