Writing
Books
I've written a few books recently, all about living a greener life, in various ways.
Just out is Junk for Joy!, where I've re-used and 'upcycled' lots of broken, thrown away things to make lovely bits and pieces for my house. And then written about it. My favourite piece in the book is probably the filing cabinet I covered with purple paint, old kimono fabric and flourescent stencils. It's a lot more attractive than it sounds!
In 2009, Mend it! came out. This is a classic reference book to help fix almost anything that might go wrong around the home, from a broken loo to re-covering an armchair.
In 2008 I wrote a series of four books with a range of short tips for living a greener life. They are illustrated in some style by Aaron Blecha.
All my books are published by Kyle Cathie, who also produce my favourite, highly recommended book of curry recipes, '50 great curries of India', and are based locally to me, in Camden Town.
They have been very good at promoting the books abroad too - translated editions are on the shelves in France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Estonia, Japan and, slightly weirdly, Brazil.
Buy the most recent books direct from the publisher by clicking on the cover images on the right. Amazone links are provided for the older '50 ways' books, and I recommend their 'marketplace' to get things from a smaller bookseller rather than their giant warehouse.
I also penned a chapter for the Atheist's Guide to Christmas in 2009, which covers my own atheism and ways to have a greener, secular Christmas, all in a fairly light-hearted way (what else would you expect from me?). All proceeds to the Terrence Higgins Trust.
Articles
As a campaigner, Principal Speaker for the Greens, spokesperson for the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s and candidate for Mayor, I've often been asked to write opinion pieces for papers and magazines. Here's a few of the still-live highlights from the past few years.
Gordon Brown's eco-towns are not green
Talking the walk. And the bike
Should we allow people to waste money on 4x4s?
Blogging
Here I blog occasionally about my work and opinions that won't fit into my campaign or work writing.
At Campaign for Better Transport, I blog regularly about roads, speed limits, motorways, planning and other related topics.
Below, you can also read the archives of my two-year stint on the NS website, where I cover lots of different subjects, from copyright laws to climate camping.
One of the perils of blogging is the comments fired back when you put your opinions out there, and I attracted some quality trolls at the NS who tore apart everything I said in the most insulting way. However, even these weren't bad enough to scare me off forever. I'm aiming to run a fairly loose comments policy on this site, but we'll see if the evildoers from NS find me and ruin it!
I've posted regularly on Twitter for a while now and I still can't bring myself to use the word 'tweet' in any context where I'm not explaining why I hate it. I think I'm fighting a losing battle with that one, however.
Me
