Just Write — You Never Know Who’ll Read It

Fiona Cameron Lister
4 min readDec 7, 2018
Photo: Fiona Cameron Lister

A few months ago I was in a shop selling second hand goods — quite a novelty in our part of Italy — and as usual I made a beeline for the books. They were almost all in Italian apart from one, the intriguingly titled Thoughts of a Clodhopper, which the owner gave to me free of charge!

It turned out to be an inspirational treasure trove of beautiful writing. I have no idea why it ended up in that little shop all those miles from home, but I’m glad it did.

In this slender volume the writer, Ernest Ballard, shares his thoughts about simple living, love of the land and the real location of true values. It is a lovely little book, but this is the part that interested me most:

I desire to explain why I try to write at all. It is because at times an irresistible force compels me: I cannot rest until I have made the attempt to crystallize such thoughts — but then I am faced with an utter incapacity to find words to convey clearly what I want to say. And if… these few fragments of thought that the soil has taught me, give those who honour me by reading them any pleasure, and possibly help them to see greater beauty and understand a little more of the mysteries of life, then to my readers I dedicate this effort and my rewards will indeed be great.”

I have searched for Mr Ballard online (the book was published at least 45 years ago I think) but there is no trace of him. And yet the fact that he bothered to follow the “irrestible force” and set his thoughts on paper has led me to enjoy what he has to say and to share it with others online. It’s ironic really, as he is not greatly in favour of technology, but I think he would understand.

I own another slim book, bought at a local market from a fed-up looking lady standing alone at a stall decorated with green and brown woodland scenes and acorns. In front of her was a pile of pristine books, seemingly untouched since the market had opened several hours before. I went over to try and cheer her up and to buy a copy. The book was called Casentino: I Mestieri d’un Tempo (Casentino — the Crafts of a Bygone Age) and like the Clodhopper book, was not written by a professional author, but by an ‘ordinary’ man — Ademo Rossi — who wanted to document local crafts that were dying out so that the younger generation would…

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Fiona Cameron Lister

Experienced British writer/editor/mentor in Italy | MWC semi-finalist| Loves words, history, humour, unusual subjects| Contact: fcameronlister@gmail.com