December 2025
A round-up of some of the things I’ve been writing, reading and doing this month.
Welcome to my last round up of the year, I’m sending this one out well before the end of the month so that I can take a complete break over the Christmas and New Year period. It’s been a busy few months and I think it’ll do me good to switch off for a bit.
Writing
Substack
Published elsewhere this month
S is for Shire is the last instalment of CPRE Bedfordshire’s A-Z series that I’ll be writing as I left my role yesterday. In this one I go right back to the beginning to ask how Bedfordshire got its name and what life was like for those early residents of the area.
My latest comms explained blog post looks at the difference between communications and marketing.
Work in progress
To be honest, it’s overstating it to call it a work in progress, but I have the germ of an idea for a novel. Over the years I’ve written fragments of a few that have been cast aside at varying degrees of completion, and got as far as getting one out on submission. I received some helpful feedback on that one but ultimately it got left behind. I hope I’ve learned a lot from those experiences, plus the success I’ve had placing a few poems and short stories has given me the confidence to try again. I’m feeling my way into the story at the moment and it’s very early days but fingers crossed that it can perhaps become a creative project for next year.
What I’ll be reading next
After I handed in my notice at CPRE Bedfordshire, I bought myself a couple of books as a treat to unwind with in the gap between leaving and Christmas. Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives by Lucy Mangan has been on my wish list for ages, I loved her memoir of childhood reading, Bookworm, and this follow up on adult reading promises to be just as enjoyable. The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell is the follow up to Impossible Creatures which I devoured last year.
Freelance diaries
This month I’ve been refreshing my website’s comms consultancy offer page to give more clarity on the key ways in which I can help potential clients. It hand been focused around what stage an organisations communications were at, with a particular focus on new organisations or projects. However, this simply didn’t match how organisations thought about their needs or how the queries were landing in my inbox so it became clear that some reframing was in order!
It’s now built around three key offers:
Content ideas and strategy – generating ideas and developing simple strategies for content.
Writing support – copywriting and editorial support to help make short and long form writing as effective as possible.
Resource packs and guides – creating reference guides and resource packs, tailored to the organisation or project, to support their work.
Crucially, these are also all things I enjoy doing so I’m hoping that these early tweaks will help encourage readers that I can help them with their particular issue and land me work that’ll be rewarding. I also started off thinking of the writing and the comms consultancy sides of my work as two separate things but they’re not. Working out how to better integrate the two things into one offer has been one of the most important and satisfying steps forward.
I’ve got some nice looking projects lined up for the first couple of months of 2026 so I’m looking forward to having this as my sole focus rather than managing it alongside a part time job. After nine years, yesterday was my last day with CPRE Bedfordshire, the countryside charity. I’ve been touched by the messages I’ve received from our past and present staff, trustees and volunteers, and the gifts, plus last catch up over a low key lunch in the office yesterday.
Looking back - 2025 on Substack
I try not to obsess about stats here as I’ve always had enough of that to do at work but out of curiosity I took a look at my best performing post of the year and it turns out to be this one which is a short post about our visit to Broadway Museum & Art Gallery back in May.
In my series revisiting favourite childhood books, The Complete Borrowers by Mary Norton came out on top. I was delighted to see a lot of love for the series in the comments!
From my Bedfordshire posts, this one where I review Vera Brittain’s biography of John Bunyan did best which is perhaps because it’s of interest on multiple levels – the book, Brittain herself and John Bunyan.
Thank you
A huge thank you to all my readers in 2025, I hope you’ve enjoyed the posts – I’ve certainly enjoyed your comments! I hope everyone has a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year, and I’ll see you in 2026 with the first post in A brief history of Bedfordshire in plants and animals.
Happy Christmas and good luck with your new ventures.
Thanks for making this a more interesting year Shelley, and all the best for 2026. Merry Christmas! 🎄🥳☃️