• About
    • Our Story
    • Contact
  • BOOKSHOP
    • New Books
    • Nature Classics
    • Essays & Monographs
    • Biography & Anthology
    • Artist Editions & Prints
    • Oliver Rackham Library
    • Ebooks
    • Richard Mabey Library
    • Memoir
    • Subscriptions
    • SEASONAL BOOKS
  • The Clearing
  • My Account
    • View My Account
    • Order History
    • View Basket
    • Checkout
    • Ordering & Shipping Info
    • Privacy Policy
Cart …
Little Toller Books
  • About
    • Our story
    • Contact
    • Ordering & Shipping Info
  • BOOKSHOP
        • LITTLE TOLLER – Books we publish
          • New Books
          • Artist Prints
          • Nature Classics
          • Memoir
          • Essays & Monographs
          • Biography & Anthology
          • Oliver Rackham Library
          • Richard Mabey Library
          • Ebooks
          • Subscriptions
          • ALL BOOKS – Browse all our books
    • THE CLEARING
        • the clearing

          An online journal published by Little Toller Books that offers writers and artists a dedicated space in which to explore and celebrate the landscapes we live in. Our contributors are encouraged to go forth and find distinctive visions that startle us, rural or urban, modern or prehistoric, industrial, post-industrial, fantastical, natural, political, however they come. But each must be meaningful, surprising, felt.
        • READ THE CLEARING
        • Submissions & Mentoring

        • Harry and Pierse by Hana LoftusWhat drew Becker to crouch in the fields day after day, obsessively documenting his neighbours as they worked?
        • Montol and Midwinter Light by Ysella SimsWe wind through the streets, the rain giving way to the winds of the next winter storm.
        • The Lost Dens of Leicester by Sharon TyersSixty years later, I often find myself deep within our den in my dreams.
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • My Account
      • View My Account
      • Order History
      • View Basket
      • Checkout
      • Privacy Policy
    …
    Loading cart contents...

      Loading posts...
    • Dear Kadu by Pam Zinneman-Hope

      At the beach we hunt

      among Jurassic clays and shales

      scanning and sifting the Charmouth shingle,

      searching the shoreline.

      July 22, 2024
      Poetry, The Clearing
    • Return to the Banyan Tree by Chandra Ganguly

      Some friends of mine here in the West seem to make do. They make South Indian filter coffee at home, they grind rice and dal and make dosas and idlis.

      July 8, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Summer Bells and Rain by Virginia Astley

      The trees are moving in a strange way, like pantomime trees with actors in them who, at any minute, might leave and head across to somewhere else.

      June 17, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Rebecca and the many Ghosts of Menabilly by Gemma Elise

      With my parents and my grandparents, we played French cricket and pétanque and frisbee.

      May 28, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Seven Romanesque Churches by Alex Woodcock

      Alex Woodcock, author of King of Dust, takes us on a tour of seven unmissable Romanesque Churches.

      May 28, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • A Chiffchaff Sings by Martin Maudsley

      And I thought to myself:

      He has seen nearly a century of seasons –

      Fresh flowers, leathery leaves, ripe fruit.

      May 13, 2024
      Poetry, The Clearing
    • A Year of Cows by S. V. Morgan (Part One)

      I move among them, barely disturbing them now. I have become a kind of familiar.

      April 23, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Six New Poems by Daril Bentley

      The profession and art of direction
      as by flash of fish in the sea.
      How flawless synchronized swimming
      in the air is done.

      April 15, 2024
      Poetry, The Clearing
    • Lost Gardens: a time traveller’s itinerary by Fiona Davison

      I spend my time diving into accounts of old gardens and, more often than not, these gardens have not survived the passage of time intact.

      April 8, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • The Sensory Attunement Coracle by Ryan Powell

      Each spring a coracle king or queen would be chosen through a lottery and  this person given to the river as a symbolic offering.

      March 25, 2024
      Essay, Film, The Clearing
    • Granite is the hardest word by Jennifer Hunt

      Granite stacks surround these islands, shape-shifting with the tide.

      March 18, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    • Circling Home by Laura Parker

      Encircled by magic. No wonder the land has held me in its thrall.

      March 1, 2024
      Essay, The Clearing
    Show more All posts are shown

    About

    THE CLEARING is an online journal published by Little Toller Books that offers writers and artists a dedicated space in which to explore and celebrate the landscapes we live in. Our contributors are encouraged to go forth and find distinctive visions that startle us, rural or urban, modern or prehistoric, industrial, post-industrial, fantastical, natural, political, however they come. But each must be meaningful, surprising, felt.



    Submissions

    The editors welcome original submissions in written, audio and visual genres. Submission should reflect The Clearing/Little Toller’s concern with the natural environment, but within this broad subject-matter we encourage a diversity of interpretation and approach.

    If you’d like to submit work to The Clearing, please email theclearing@littletoller.co.uk. Please refer to the submission guidelines. While we receive many submissions we will get back to you as soon as we are able.

    Categories

    • Diary (33)
    • Essay (243)
    • Film (16)
    • illustration (11)
    • Interview (14)
    • Photography (4)
    • Podcast (6)
    • Poetry (124)
    • Reading (2)
    • Short Story (1)

    You May Also Like

    • Harry and Pierse by Hana Loftus
      What drew Becker to crouch in the fields day after day, obsessively documenting his neighbours as they worked? […]
    • Montol and Midwinter Light by Ysella Sims
      We wind through the streets, the rain giving way to the winds of the next winter storm. […]
    • The Lost Dens of Leicester by Sharon Tyers
      Sixty years later, I often find myself deep within our den in my dreams. […]

    Podcast

    • A walk along Chesil by Sarah Acton
    • I’m a bat, I’m totally a bat
    • Paul Kingsnorth in conversation with Charles Foster: a podcast

    From the Archive

    • Peter Larkin – Excerpt from ‘Eyes on Open Leaves’
      “Eyes on Open Leaves” was suggested to me by a …
    • New Poems from Sumana Roy
      I Want To Be a Tree   I want to …
    • Six New Poems by Daril Bentley
      The profession and art of direction as by flash of …
    . . .

    Whats in the name

    Tollern river valley in West Dorset. Recorded in the Domesday survey as Tolre, derived from a Celtic word for stream in a hollow valley.

    Subscribe


    • Facebook
    • Twitter X
    • Instagram
    • Email

    Little Toller Books Ltd © Copyright 2009-2026. All Rights Reserved