Paul Kingsnorth+

The Trap

A conspiracy theory

The Hermit and the Pilgrim

A wandering year - and a new publishing project

The Wake: Questions and Answers

i will tell the triewth

The Monthly Salon: July

And a reader discount on my forthcoming paperback

The Wake is here! (again)

Ask me anything, and win a signed copy

Kingdom of Trees

Lives of the Wild Saints #13

The Monthly Salon: June

News and conversation

The Return of Buccmaster

Sum thing is cuman

The Monthly Salon: May

Take the floor, my friends, and speak

A Map of the Abbey

An introduction to this Substack, and my wider work

Once and Future Saints

Three prophecies for England

The Monthly Salon: April

Talk about anything you like

The Easter Rising

Christ will be the green leaves

The Monthly Salon: March

Books, news, conversation

Splendour of Fire, Speed of Lightning

Learning from Saint Patrick

In the Desert of the Heart

On the desire to abolish myself

Walk Away From The Sea

Lives of the Wild Saints #12

The Monthly Salon: February

News, events, conversation

Writers Against AI

Choose your story. Take your stand.

How to build a Goddess

The changing face of St Brigid

The Monthly Salon: January

A conversation, some videos and other bits and bobs

Going Under, Coming Up

Theophany, rebirth and the future of the Abbey

The Advent Salon

Merry Christmas one and all

Of Slugs and Saints

An announcement

The Monthly Salon: October

Our regular conversation club reconvenes

News, Events and Updates

A smorgasbord of Machine-shaped things

Escaping the Brave New World

Six ways to resist the Machine

Restoring the Moral Economy

The 2025 Wendell Berry Lecture

Mark Boyle: The Butlerian Jihad

Over pints of Guinness in Mark Boyle's self-built off-grid cabin, we discuss technological creep, FOMO, FOBI, living without money or electricity, screen life versus intimacy, and precisely where we sit on the Uncle Ted Spectrum. Paul Kingsnorth's book 'Against the Machine' is published on 23rd September 2025. Pre-order details and special offers here: https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/against-machine More on Mark's books can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/903838.Mark_Boyle

Mary Harrington: 'The only way out is through.'

This week I'm talking to Mary Harrington. Mary is a writer, thinker and author of the excellent and thought-provoking book 'Feminism Against Progress.' We talk about motherhood, the sexual revolution, abortion laws, social media, gene-edited babies, the internet of bodies, the importance of cooking for your family and whether Mary is indeed ‘the Paul Kingsnorth for ladies.’ After that, we really warm up. Paul Kingsnorth's book 'Against the Machine' is published on 23rd September 2025. Pre-order details and special offers here: https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/against-machine Mary Harrington w

Father Stephen Freeman: 'Modernity is a heresy.'

Father Stephen Freeman is a retired Orthodox priest from the American south who writes and speaks powerfully about the violence of Machine modernity, and the Christian antidote to it. In this episode of The Machine Sessions he talks to Paul about death, America, Oliver Cromwell, AI and radical Christian love as an antidote to techno-dystopia. Paul Kingsnorth's book 'Against the Machine' is published on 23rd September 2025. Find out more and pre-order here: https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/against-machine Father Stephen's blog 'Glory To God For All Things' can be found here: https://glory2godfo

Martin Shaw: The Merrie vs the Machine

This week I’m talking to Martin Shaw. Martin is a mythologist, storyteller, author and founder of the West Country School of Myth. He is also an old friend; we have taught and worked together many times over the years. Here we plunge into the undergrowth, investigating the meaning of myth, stories in the post-modern age, Robin Hood, Christ in the greenwood, and the rebirth of the ‘Merrie’ as an antidote to depressing technocracy. My new book 'Against The Machine' can be pre-ordered from all good bookshops, or from here: https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/against-machine Special offers are avail

Caroline Ross: 'They can't code this.'

This week on the Machine Sessions I'm talking to Caroline Ross. Caroline is a wild materials artist and teacher, as well as a writer and author of two books: 'Found and Ground' and 'Drawn from the Wild', both of which teach the reader how to make and use wild materials in art. Caroline and I talk about (post)modern art, Daoism, Christianity, AI as a form of spiritual hubris, Paleolithic cave paintings, whether tool making was the Fall, and how making brushes from swan feathers is a form of resistance to the Machine. My new book 'Against The Machine' can be pre-ordered from all good bookshop

Iain McGilchrist: 'Change your Way of Seeing.'

My first guest on The Machine Sessions is Iain McGilchrist. Iain is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar. He is the author of 'The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World', and more recently the epic 'The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World.' Iain and I discuss the left-right brain distinction and what it means, ask whether the Western world is mentally ill, talk about the importance of the Four Ps, and look at how we can begin to free ourselves from thinking and seeing like ma

Welcome to the Machine Sessions

Paul Kingsnorth introduces The Machine Sessions: a weekly podcast series built around the themes of his new book 'Against The Machine'. Read more about, and pre-order 'Against The Machine' here: https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/against-machine Paul's Substack, The Abbey Of Misrule, can be found here: https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/

Deepfake World

The summer solstice prompts the return of a very old question. How far do we need cut ourselves off from the deepfake anticulture of the Machine in order to perceive the God-soaked reality? Do we all need to become Desert Fathers, or Mothers? How? You can watch the story of Father Lazarus, who I mention in my vid, at the link below. Everybody should. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5mgNHV-EAk&list=PLFF0AE2889CB3EA46&ab_channel=ChristianYouthChannel

Empty Throne, Empty Tomb

Struggling on the first day of Lent, I think aloud about the spiritual void at the heart of the West, and the monsters that are rushing into it. As in this 40 day crawl towards the astonishing tomb, could it be that the only way out is through? Ned Denny's poetry collection 'Ventriloquise' is pubished by Carcanet: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781800173316 Please consider subscribing to the Abbey of Misrule: https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/

The Pen, the Cross and the Abbey

With a head full of cold and a very special fire iron, I talk about the fate of the Christian writer in the age of the Machine, and about the future of my work at the Abbey of Misrule. Thanks to Jaroslav Flidr and his blacksmithery tutor Dan Tokar for my Abbey-branded hot toddy poker. It was forged in Sheperdstown, West Virginia, to the design of an English blacksmith named Stuart Hill. The short film I talk about in my video, by Fr Seraphim Aldea of Mull Monastery, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15xkPmoh2EQ&ab_channel=MullMonastery You can find my ongoing writings at th

Wild Twins 2021: the teaser

Wild Twins is a course run by writer Paul Kingsnorth and artist Caroline Ross. Over the course of three weeks in March 2021, we'll bring together a group of people around live Zoom classes, pre-recorded videos, art and writing assignments and the use of handmade wild materials, to unite artist and landscape in search of wild beauty.

Rewild Your Words teaser

This is the introductory film for the online course REWILD YOUR WORDS, run by Paul Kingsnorth's Wyrd School. For more, and to sign up, visit: https://wyrdschool.thinkific.com/courses/rewild-your-words Over the course of four films, containing talks, readings, writing exercises and more, this course will break you out of your comfort zone and open your writing up to the wildness without and within. No experience is required.

The Beauty of Things

A talk by Paul Kingsnorth at Tor House, Carmel, former home of poet Robinson Jeffers, on the poets' work and the world today. August 2017 -Video Upload powered by https://www.TunesToTube.com

Mowing grass with a scythe

Demonstrating the art and craft of mowing grass with a scythe, at the West Country Scythe Fair in June 2012. Scythe made by Peter and Ashley Vido of Canada, and wielded by Paul Kingsnorth of England. www.paulkingsnorth.net/scything