Essays & Articles
Submit your essay, article, or commentary. We publish all three forms.
Three Forms. One Platform.
Tales From A Harrogate Caravan publishes essays, articles, and commentaries from independent writers. All three are forms of nonfiction writing but they have completely different DNA — written for different purposes, following different rules, and aiming for different reactions from the reader. Choose your form and submit.
| Feature | Article | Essay | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Driver | Facts, data, and interviews | A central argument or thesis | A personal reaction to current events |
| The Voice | Objective and detached | Analytical and reflective | Opinionated and subjective |
| The Goal | To inform or educate | To persuade or explore an idea | To critique or interpret |
| Where it Lives | News sites, magazines, journals | Academic papers, literary journals | Op-ed sections, blogs, columns |
Published Articles
Articles published on the platform.
What is Lorem Ipsum?
By Stanley Bolt
A short account of Lorem Ipsum, the dummy text of the printing trade, from its Cicero roots to its role in desktop publishing.
Why the Leeds Open Mic Competition Had to Die
By Malcolm Sinatra
A veteran open-mic singer on a scene that now rewards imitation over voice, and an argument for letting the competitions go so that somebody can finally stand on a stage and sing.
Why Busking on The Headrow is Rubbish Now
By Malcolm Sinatra
There was a time when walking down The Headrow in Leeds meant you might hear proper singing. It is just a racket now.
Wassily Kandinsky — Yellow-Red-Blue (1925)
By Stephanie Rogers
An exploration of geometry, colour, and the spiritual forces that shaped one of the Bauhaus's most important paintings.
The Watchtower and the Inferno: Similarities Between Dante's Inferno and Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower"
By Glen Bushey
Reading Dylan's 1967 song as a modern, compressed version of the structural logic of Dante's Inferno.
The Philosophical Perambulations of a Superior Mind: A Phenomenological Walk through Leeds alongside Shakespeare, Lincoln, Socrates, and Johnson
By Manny Wheelman
A perambulation through Leeds in the company of the greatest minds history has produced, and the one it has yet to recognise.
The Ontological Persistence of the Common Idiot: A Nietzschean, Freudian, Marxian, Chaplinesque and Benny-Hillian Phenomenology of Woodhouse, Leeds
By Manny Wheelman
A Nietzschean, Freudian, Marxian, Chaplinesque and Benny-Hillian phenomenology of Woodhouse, Leeds — and of the figure who survives every attempt to redevelop him.
The Nasty Uppishness of Jumped-Up Literary Agents
By Stanley Bolt
On the velvet rope, the jargon, and why becoming a literary agent does not make you the Archbishop of Literature.
The Metaphysical Decrepitude of the Common Market: A Nietzschean, Marxian and Freudian Excavation of Kirkgate Market
By Manny Wheelman
A Nietzschean, Marxian and Freudian excavation of Kirkgate Market — on fishmongers, butchers, bakeries, the stink of ordinary existence, and one man's quiet certainty that he alone has understood the place.
The Last Great Skill of Accountancy
By Sarah Boteccini
On AI, the death of billable hours, and why the only skill the profession has left is explaining why being replaced is an exciting opportunity.
The Socio-Philosophical Transvaluation of Urban Space: A Nietzschean, Freudian and Marxian Phenomenology of Harehills, Roundhay and Alwoodley
By Manny Wheelman
An intellectual excavation by a man who, having observed Leeds rather carefully, has concluded that almost everybody else has misunderstood it.
Proper Tea for Proper Blokes: Why the Artisanal Coffee Shop is Ruining Britain
By Backbone Brian
The greasy spoon is the engine room of the nation. The artisanal coffee emporium is beard oil and damp grass.
Poetic Duels – Viking Times
By A.G. Munson
How Viking poets fought with verse rather than swords, and why the duel survives in Iceland today.
Men Ride BMWs Whilst Ladies Ride Harlies
By Backbone Brian
A partisan field guide to Britain's two motorcycle tribes: the BMW rider who crosses three countries before breakfast, and the Harley rider who has polished his chrome so thoroughly he has forgotten where he was going.
I Killed a Man Once
By A.G. Munson
A dream, a house in Portland, and a kitchen knife that felt too real.
From Heath and Wilson to the Politics of the Present
By Gareth Pennington
On Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, devaluation, the three-day week, and why the modern political class has inherited the problems without the patience.
Commentary on Composition VIII by Wassily Kandinsky
By Stephanie Rogers
Painted in 1923 during Wassily Kandinsky's tenure at the influential Bauhaus school, Composition VIII stands as a landmark masterpiece of geometric abstraction.
Why hasn't luxury living created a beating heart?
By Bernard Hare
City centre regeneration is stealing Leeds' soul, says Bernard Hare.
Why can't life everywhere be so rich and creamy?
By Bernard Hare
I asked a Muslim friend if he prayed a lot, to which he replied: 'Only when I'm on an aeroplane.'
If You're Not Invited to the West End Dinner Party, You've No Chance of Getting Published
By Patrick Bollaty
In London's publishing world, the manuscript is rarely the deciding factor. Talent helps. A strong proposal helps. But the real currency is access.
We all would feel the payoffs of heroin on prescription
By Bernard Hare
When Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), proposed in February that some heroin addicts should have their fix handed out by the NHS, I could have fallen off my chair.
The Problem with Literary Nepotism
By Patrick Bollaty
Nepotism in publishing doesn't just disadvantage outsiders — it can convince insiders they earned what a connection gave them. An argument for reading the work, not the name.
Remembrance of things past
By Bernard Hare
A photographic exhibition chronicling northern working-class life in Leeds reveals just how much the city has changed over the past 40 years, writes Bernard Hare.
On The Existence of God in Burmantofts: A Philosophical Excavation
By Manny Wheelman
A Nietzschean interrogation of faith, deprivation, and the search for meaning in inner-city Leeds. On the death of God in Burmantofts and what fills the metaphysical vacuum.
Miracle cure
By Bernard Hare
For nearly a decade, all efforts failed to get Louise off the drugs that led her into prostitution. Still only 23, she is at last determined to kick the habit - thanks, says Bernard Hare, to improved support and the hand of fate.
It's business as usual at the 'terrorists' breeding ground
By Bernard Hare
I've always liked the Beeston area of Leeds.
Growing pains
By Bernard Hare
Where did it all go wrong for Louise? Once a cheeky, freckle-faced girl, she is now a prostitute addicted to crack cocaine - and is still only 23. Her friend, author Bernard Hare, pieces together her harrowing life.
Going under
By Bernard Hare
With the apparent indolence, hedonism and serial degeneracy of Britain's most chaotic families again under official scrutiny, Bernard Hare reflects on life in the underclass.
From Industrial Heartland to Persistent Deprivation: The Social Trajectory of Middleton, Belle Isle, and Hunslet Since the 1950s
By Manny Wheelman
Middleton, Belle Isle, and Hunslet form a contiguous belt of south Leeds that once embodied the city's industrial strength and working-class community life. By the early twenty-first century large parts of the same area ranked among the most deprived localities in England.
The Failure to Pull on a Saturday Night While Pissed
By Sarah Boteccini
A comic anatomy of the British Saturday night: three pints too many, an opening line that lands like a brick, and the unshakeable conviction that next week will be different.
A Life in Brown and White
By Bernard Hare
Louise and Claire are trapped in a destructive cycle of prostitution and drugs. Now the government wants them off the streets. But things aren't that simple, they tell Bernard Hare.
A Day Being Thick
By Sarah Boteccini
Every human being eventually faces a day where their brain simply refuses to collaborate. On the universal, humbling phenomenon of cognitive low-power mode - and why it might be worth more than we think.
The London Publishing Clique
By Stanley Bolt
If you are a writer from the North, you can write your backside off and still find yourself staring at the literary equivalent of a velvet rope. On the gatekeepers, the velvet rope, and why Northern writers are done asking for permission.