Author | Writer | Photographer
simonwhaley 
In this week’s bumper, double issue of The People’s Friend, there’s an article about my visit to Europe’s biggest tinsel-making factory: Festive Productions, near Cwmbran, Wales.
They’re a fantastic bunch of people there, and we had a laugh as they showed me round the factory. Cheryl Roach is the Production Manager, and she gave me the guided tour. Here are a few photos that didn’t make it into the published piece.
The front cover image of the bumper, double issue of this latest issue of The People’s Friend is of Ironbridge in the snow. It’s inspired by an image the magazine found a few years ago. When they commissioned me to write the piece, I asked them what colour the bridge was in the picture. Answer: grey. I then had to tell them that the Iron Bridge had recently undergone some restoration work and English Heritage had painted the bridge in its original colour: reddy brown. So, they had to change the colour of the bridge in their image!
I’ve been producing walking route descriptions for Country Walking magazine since 2004 (so my feet ache a bit now 🤣), and I always hope that my route descriptions are easy to follow.
It’s not that writing route descriptions are difficult – they’re not. It’s editing them to fit the 500-word count set by the magazine (and then hope they still make sense) that’s the challenge!
Have you signed up to my occasional newsletter yet? As a thank you, you’ll be sent a link to download a free collection of some of my previously published short …
The December issue of Outdoor Photography magazine has one of my images in their Viewpoint section. It was taken during Christmas week last year, while I was staying in Grasmere. …
Selfridges are well known for their Christmas window displays (Check out this link for this year’s displays). But how much work goes into creating these displays and when do they …
The November 2019 issue of Country Walking contains a route I did around Radnor Forest and the quaint hamlet of Bleddfa, in Powys. If you’re looking for a route where …
Check out the October issue of BBC Countryfile magazine for my Welsh Border Seven Castle Challenge.
This month’s theme is castles, and sitting on the border with the country with more castles per square mile than any other country in the world, I had to have a go at getting as many castles as I could into one article. In fact, I could have got many more, but these are the ones that I suggested you could visit in one day (although the magazine has suggested you may wish to make a weekend of it).
October marks the 40th anniversary of the death of one of this country’s most famous engineers: Barnes Wallis.
To commemorate this, I’ve written a piece for the October issue of Best of British magazine looking at one of Wallis’s lesser known escapades in the Welsh Elan Valley.
If you’ve been following my Twitter account you’ll have seen I’ve been in the Lake District for a few days.
It’s been a changeable week, weatherwise, which has meant the lighting has been wonderful. After rain for most of the day yesterday, I nipped out to Tarn Hows, near Hawkshead Hill, just as the sun came out.