Ingrained: The making of a craftsman

The perfect book for anyone who has ever whittled something out of wood or dreamt about doing so. Longlisted for the 2025 Carnegie Prize for Excellence.

A New Yorker ‘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.

‘A gem of a book … a hymn to family and living a life you love.’ DAILY MAIL

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

’Mesmeric’ SPECTATOR

’‘Consistently lovely’ NEW YORKER

‘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.’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘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

’A book that is covertly a love poem disguised as a father-and-son story, an apprentice’s learning of an exotic craft, a hymn to the eternal mystery of trees, and a tribute to the flat-out joy of gifting. Enchanting.’
BILL BUFORD, author of Heat and Dirt

‘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

‘Instantly 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.


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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.

In beautifully wrought prose, Callum tells the story of returning to the workshop, and to the wood; to handcrafting furniture for people who will love it, and then pass it on to the next generation – antidotes to a culture where everything seems so easily disposable. As he does so, he brings us closer to nature, and to the physical act of creation. Close enough to smell the sawdust, to see the wood’s grain and character and to feel the magic of furniture coming to life. At the same time, we begin to understand how he has been shaped, as both a craftsman and a son.

Blending memoir and nature writing at its finest, Ingrained is an uplifting meditation on the challenges of working with your hands in our modern age, on community, consumerism, and the beauty of the natural world – one that asks us to see our local trees, and our own wooden objects, in a new and revelatory light.