Go your own way
The best writing takes readers on a journey. In Tom Cox’s case, it’s through rural life, nature, wild places, earth magic, folklore, psychedelia. All of these have been explored, literally and imaginatively, in his beguiling non-fiction, including 2017’s quirky, boundary-blurring bestseller, 21st Century Yokel. A highlight of a writing career defined by gently but defiantly going his own way, Tom’s newest book, his debut novel Villager, takes the reader on his strangest and most gloriously idiosyncratic trip yet, on an excursion through interconnected tales that draw the reader off the map and deeply into the story of Underhill.
The experience of reading a Tom Cox book is a bit like setting off on a walk to an unfamiliar place in the company of a trusted guide. No matter how strange things get in Villager, you go along, knowing that it will all make sense in its own good time. ‘Walking is such a crucial part of it,’ says Tom. ‘I walk so much. I have my best ideas on walks. The best ideas in this book didn’t come in front of a computer screen, they came seven miles up a hill, when I get these flashes. When you’re walking with friends you’re telling each other stories, and the stories are better. I came back to Devon and money is difficult when you write books full-time and have given up journalism, and I wondered about giving guided walks but I wrote this book instead – a guided walk around a fictional landscape.’
The landscape in Villager is familiar to Tom, but different.
‘It’s set on an imaginary moor – not Dartmoor,’ he says. ‘I live on Dartmoor
