Abundance: a book made here, with you

Friday 16 May 2025

The summer before last, I woke up with an idea for a book fully formed in my mind¹. Clear as a bell. Title, the short core summary and some detail of what it would be: Abundance, a year of writing about what I eat, what my garden and the landscapes of this part of East Devon give me, a recipe, all written live, in the moment, once a week.

It was burning a hole in me and I knew it had to be written.

I felt relief. Not because I had an idea about what I might write - I am rarely short of those - but even then I sensed this might be the single commitment that might help switch off a background noise: I felt that I was living parallel to myself, too distracted by the ping of communication, deadlines and commitments to live, to notice and to better be part of what was happening around me. I had no idea then of the breadth of the rewards I would get from writing it. More on that another time.

I immediately knew I wanted to write Abundance here, that this would be its home. When I told my agent, she thought I was mad, but I knew: committing to it being written here, almost in real time, for a lively readership across the world, was the writing element of that deal I was making with ‘now’, with being more present, with paying attention.

And so in early autumn 2023, with a readership of a few thousand, I started writing Abundance here. The dog slipped a disc, the Siberian chives were full of seed, and I made focaccia.

Four weeks after that first instalment, four publishers had made contact.

I wasn’t trying to get a publisher interested - I had a contract to write another book - but it became immediately apparent that Abundance had to be that next book. That publishers were interested is at least in part because you welcomed it in to your week, you’ve commented, liked, shared and given it a life beyond mine. Thank you - I am very grateful.

And so here we are 18 months later, and we - you and I - are part of a community of 20k, with more joining us from all over the planet, every day. How wild is that.

Together we have made a book happen - it will be published in late August, and it feels only right and proper to reveal the cover here, before anywhere else.

Here it is…I hope you like it.

(Right click the cover and select ‘Open Image in New Tab to see it much larger)

Isn’t it gorgeous.

So gorgeous that I contacted the illustrator - Carolyn Jenny Gavin - to ask if I could buy the original. It will soon be framed and in my office.

I can’t wait to share the actual book with you in a few months time. And in the meantime, Abundance - in its original form, here - continues beyond the book’s cover. I hope you’ll remain part of it here, with me.

More soon, and thank you again

Mark x

1. Back in 1964, Paul McCartney woke early one morning with Yesterday fully formed in his mind. I say fully formed; the melody and chords were in his head, but no lyrics or title. So perfect and familiar was it, that he assumed he had just recalled someone else’s song. John, George and Ringo assured him they’d never heard it. He worked on it, originally calling it ‘Scrambled Eggs’ until the lyrics crystallised. For this false equivalence, and this false equivalence alone, I’m going to lay claim to being this postcode’s Paul McCartney for the rest of the weekend.