Ingrained: The making of a craftsman

Shortlisted for Wainwright Prizefor Nature Writing 2025

Ingrained is a love letter to trees, timber and craftsmanship and to finding your own voice.

The eldest son of a Master Woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by wood and trees, absorbing craft lessons in his fathers workshop, playing amongst the sycamore, oak and Scots pine that bordered his home. In time he became his fathers apprentice, helping to create exquisite bespoke objects. But eventually the need to find his own path led him to establish his own workshop; to chase ever bigger and more commercial projects, to business meetings, bright lights and bureaucracy, to lose touch with his roots. Until the devastating loss of one major job threatened to bring it all crashing down. Faced with the end of his business, his team and everything he had worked so hard to build, he was forced to question what mattered most.

Blending memoir and nature writing at its finest, Ingrained is an uplifting meditation on the joys and challenges of working with your hands in our modern age, on inheritance, community, and the beauty of the natural world.