Going to Ground, an Anthology of Nature and Place

In 2013, Little Toller Books set up The Clearing, an online journal for new writing about nature and place by both new and established writers. The aim was to create a dedicated space for writers to explore and celebrate landscapes, finding distinctive and sometimes startling visions of place: rural, urban, suburban, industrial, post-industrial, fantastical and natural.

Since then The Clearing has grown an international audience, garnered enthusiastic reviews, supported writing projects and has helped emerging writers at the beginning of their careers.

In Going to Ground is some of the best and most distinctive writing from The Clearing’s archive of hundreds of essays and poetry. Its themes are natural, political, historical, archaeological, ecological, scientific, personal, urgent and true, from more than thirty extraordinary writers.
Contributors include: Tim Dee, Nancy Campbell, Tim Hannigan, Ann Lingard, Kathleen Jamie, Eleanor Anstruther, Kerri ni Dochartaigh, Nic Wilson, Alex Woodcock.

Jon Woolcott is a writer and publisher, who has lived in Dorset for twelve years, and grew up nearby in southern Wiltshire. He currently works for the acclaimed independent publisher, Little Toller, where he also edits The Clearing, the online journal for new writing about place and nature. He has been Communications Officer for Cranborne Chase AONB, (straddling Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset), and held senior marketing and buying roles for Stanfords, Waterstones and Ottakar’s. His writing, which often focuses on Dorset, has appeared widely, including for The Guardian, Caught by the River, The Bookseller, Sightly Foxed, Echtrai Journal and History Press.