It all begins in Urk.

My first research trip back to the Netherlands.

I’m a few days away from my first research trip back to the Netherlands for this first book/video/audio/everything project that I’m calling Ten Walks Explain Everything.* So here’s a quick note about what I’m doing there and why, and why the Netherlands is the first (of very many I hope) Ten Walks project.

I’m hoping to knock off four walks, visit a farmer and a policeman, get the first words of my book down on the page, and record lots of video and audio. Perhaps the most intriguing part of my itinerary will be teh walk that I plan to do in Flevoland. This lesser-known corner of the Netherlands is where I’m starting my book with a walk between Emmeloord and the singular town of Urk.

Flevoland is in effect a reclaimed province, an artifical bit of dry land forged out of waves and silt in the 20th century. Except for one little place: Urk. The town used to be an island, stuck out on the grey waves of the Ijsselmeer. When land was drained to create Flevoland, Urk was joined to the mainland on three sides. Before this, Urk was considered by most other Dutch to be a peculiar place of extreme religion and fishing. Now, in 2024, it’s considered a peculiar place of extreme religion and fishing. During the Covid lockdowns it seemed to be the epicentre of riots and mischief, with a very different sensibility to the familiar Vermeer-tinged Netherlands of Delft, where we lived.

For me, Urk began to stand for the ‘other’ Netherlands, something that sat a long way from international stereotypes or common understanding of what made the country tick. Urk helped me to see the country with more nuance, with a more enquiring mind, putting together pieces of a jigsaw that existed on a different, alternative plane. When Geert Wilders did so well in last year’s elections it sounded like many foreigners (and not a few Dutch) were shocked and surprised. I wasn’t, because I’d come to realise that there was much more to the Netherlands that meets the eye. I’d been to Urk.

So the walk to Urk is on my itinerary for next week. I can’t wait. Walk #2 is in Zeeland, looking at Dutch geography. Walk #3 goes through the miraculous industrial farmland of Westland, ending in my beloved old home of Delft. And if I have time I’ll be doing Walk #7, in Rotterdam. There’s a lot of ground to cover, but I’ll be staying in three of my favourite towns: Delft, Middelburg and Zwolle. I’ll doutless have a glass of beer and a cheese toastie. And I’ll be taking notes for my book, which will be called ‘Orange Sky and Rising Water’.**

But it’s not just about the book. I was trained and spent a good chunk of my life as a multimedia journalist (see photos below), so I’m planning on making this a video and audio project too. I’ve a dinky little camera and a few accessories (I’m blown away by what you can do now, compared to the kit we used to carry around in my early days in BBC Newcastle in the 1990s) and I’m going to make every walk into four videos - and audio podcasts too. I’ll find a way to get digital, interactive maps up and running for those who want to follow in my footsteps. I’ll be explaining the Netherlands by walking across it, but not just in print.

Why? Well books are funny things. They bring in prestige and some profile, and an enormous amount of satisfaction to a lifelong bibliophile like me. But they require enormous effort and usually give very little back in terms of money. My plan is both to raise the profile of the book by providing other material that accompanies it, and to generate other material that may have the potential for monetisation in the future. It’s an experiment.

When I left the BBC to take charge of communications at the start-up foreign policy think tank ECFR I had seen that the monopolies of old media companies were being destroyed. Tech advances meant that non-media companies (not to mention 16 year olds in their bedrooms) could compete in producing audio and video. The means of distribution was blown open by podcasts and Youtube and the internet. If others could create or leverage brands, fund at an appropriate level, and exercise editorial and quality control, they could compete.

This is now commonplace - although not everybody has thought through what has been taking place and its implications. (Maybe I’ll find time to write about this sometime soon.) For me, after launching and making zillions of podcasts for ECFR and WRI, Ten Walks Explain Everything is my chance to put my ideas into practice with my own brand, my own style of journalism, and with a book at its centre.

I think that’s very exciting. And I hope it results in something that some of you out there find engaging and useful. Thank you. And for those still reading, here are some old photos of me journalising on the airwaves from Lithuania/Russian border, Kosovo and Sierra Leone (and yes, I’m wearing a pair of shorts):

* I don’t like the fact that Ten Walks Explain Everything works out as ‘TWEE’, but it’s better than my original plan to call the project ‘Walking Explains Everything’.

** The orange sky refers to the fact that on a typically cloudy night, the sky above Delft and Westland glows orange thanks to the endlessly lit ranks of glasshouses that fill the countryside.