Ingrained

Pick it Up: If you're a craftsperson or artist. If you're a person who is fascinated with making things with your hands. If you love nature writing. If you're looking for a beautifully written memoir as your next read.

Memoirs focused on the author's vocation have a special pull - whether it is James Herriot's wonderfully entertaining and heatrwarming tales of a vet's life, Anthony Bourdain's gritty culinary life, or Hope Jahren's botanist life in Lab Girl. Callum Robinson's Ingrained may now be one of our favourites in this category. You don't need to be a woodworker or know anything about this craft to thoroughly enjoy this beautifully written memoir that blends the author's personal journey with a deep appreciation for the craft of woodworking and the natural world.

Robinson, the son of a schoolteacher and a master woodworker, begins to assist his father in his workshop from his pre-teen years and eventually apprentices under him. Initially he resists joining the family trade as it were, and attempts to find his own way in the world, before realising that woodworking is all he knows, and wants, to do. The lessons absorbed from his father, his discipline and dogged attitude to finding solutions, rubs off on Callum, who certainly needs it in the phase of his career the book covers.

While stepping back in time every so often to cover his formative years and his relationship with his father, the book's focus is on the adult Robinson who has his own business (Method Studio) that he manages along with his wife, an architectural designer. Making bespoke and highly complex pieces for some of the world's biggest brands, they have a niche business with a small team of three expert woodworkers in additon to Callum himself. But when a large project that was to pay the bills for the next year suddenly and inexplicably falls through, the couple faces a perilous situation financially, and must find a way to pivot.

Through evocative prose, Robinson reflects on the challenges and joys of working with his hands in the modern age and offers a thoughtful meditation on creativity, labor, our relationship with nature, and the enduring value of objects made with care and intention.