Ingrained

The making of a craftsman

By: Callum Robinson

Narrated by: Callum Robinson

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE INDIE BOOK AWARD 2025 FOR NON-FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024

Ingrained is a love letter to trees, timber and craftsmanship – and to finding your own voice.
The eldest son of a Master Woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by wood and trees, absorbing craft lessons in his father’s workshop, playing amongst the sycamore, oak and Scots pine that bordered his home. In time he became his father’s apprentice, helping to create exquisite bespoke objects. But eventually the need to find his own path led him to establish his own workshop; to chase ever bigger and more commercial projects, to business meetings, bright lights and bureaucracy, to lose touch with his roots. Until the devastating loss of one major job threatened to bring it all crashing down. Faced with the end of his business, his team and everything he had worked so hard to build, he was forced to question what mattered most.

Blending memoir and nature writing at its finest, Ingrained is an uplifting meditation on the joys and challenges of working with your hands in our modern age, on inheritance, community, and the beauty of the natural world.

'Robinson's prose is humorous and macho, taking its lead from the gruff, sensual delivery of food writer Anthony Bourdain' FINANCIAL TIMES

‘A debut that’s both a paean to the art of woodworking and a memoir about creative endeavours’ OBSERVER

'Mesmeric' SPECTATOR

'Robinson's chiselled, elegant prose is the sound of a bright new voice in non-fiction.'
SOPHY ROBERTS, author of A Training School for Elephants and Lost Pianos of Siberia

'A beautifully cut and crafted masterpiece inlaid with insight and polished with the pure joy of nature.’
CHRIS PACKHAM, author of Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir

'Original. Rare. As beautiful as trees... A masterpiece.'
JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL, author of Meadowland, The Running Hare and The Wood

''What a joy this is. I love the epic quest-ness of it, the wry humour, total graft, risk-taking and downright scariness of Callum's bold adventure. Utterly life-affirming.'
MEL GIEDROYC

'A delightful book about the art of craft; a hard-carved woodworking romance written with tenderness and an almost sensual attention to detail. I can smell the resin and the soft, fresh sawdust. I can feel the bite of dense grain beneath the blade. Quite magical.'
CAL FLYN, author of Islands of Abandonment

© Callum Robinson 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

Critic reviews

A debut that’s both a paean to the art of woodworking and a memoir about creative endeavours.

Robinson’s prose is humorous and macho, taking its lead from the gruff, sensual delivery of food writer Anthony Bourdain . . . But wood, in all its facets, remains at the heart of his writing. Robinson is poetic about the pageant of ash, beech and pine but also pragmatic.

A gem of a book ... a hymn to family and living a life you love ... Callum is the virtuoso with words that he is with woodcraft. His book is intimate, elegant and soulful; it is an ode to nature’s gift of wood and how the deftness of the artisan can shape it into something wonderful. (Annie Brown)

When [Robinson] rolls out the names of trees ... it's as mesmeric as Edward Thomas listing wildflowers. Which is apt, because Robinson is a fine writer, sometimes poetic (Maggie Fergusson)

A ‘Best Book of 2024’: This memoir honors not just the art of carpentry but the passion of labor itself …a call for all of us, whatever we do, to do it with passion and care.

Natural, never over-polished, accessible, and finely wrought.

Ingrained is a beautifully written memoir which sheds light on the delicate skill of a craftsman ... if this makes it sound as if this book is only of interest to carpenters, think again. This memoir is a delightful read, engaging, page-turning and touchingly revealing.

A profound and intimate memoir written in stylish prose that grows on you like the smell of freshly sawn timber. Instantly, it deserves a place among woodworking classics like The Village Carpenter, The Wheelwright’s Shop and Woodland Crafts in Britain. (Robert Penn, author of The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees)

Honest, original and true – written like a good novel, with that very rare merit of exploring the doubt and criticism necessary for any great art or craft, be it writing or carpentry. (Lars Mytting, author of Norwegian Wood and The Sister Bells Trilogy)

A delightful book about the art of craft; a hard-carved woodworking romance written with tenderness and an almost sensual attention to detail. I can smell the resin and the soft, fresh sawdust. I can feel the bite of dense grain beneath the blade. Quite magical. (Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment)