2026 will, with a bit of luck, be the year I finish the book (or, at least, the year I submit the completed manuscript to the Press). I am working towards a Christmas submission deadline, and January therefore marks the beginning of the end of a period of research that has kept me fascinated, compelled, and a little frazzled for at least the last fifteen years. Although I still have some archival and library research to do this year, my main focus is on completing the book’s remaining chapters, of which I have two-and-a-bit long empirical chapters to write, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Since starting a period of research leave in September (praise be to the British Academy for the award of the Donald Winch Fund Fellowship), I have finished the chapter dealing with Macintosh’s experiences in India, and have written two thirds of the chapter dealing with the authorship, reading, reception, and translation of his book. This has been a virtually all-consuming task and I have unfortunately found little time to share work in progress on the blog.

As ever, the process of writing is a combination of analysis and discovery. As much as I refine my understanding of Macintosh’s world in the process of writing, so that world becomes richer and more complex as a result of the connections, realisations, and surprises that inevitably come or are revealed through the process of writing up research. The net effect of this is that the end point of each chapter only ever seems to recede, like the phenomenon of false summits in mountaineering. That is, for me, part of the excitement that comes from research, but it is also a source of anxiety as the thought that I am likely already beyond the contracted word length for the book makes me dread the unpleasant task of cutting that will need to take place in the future.

I began writing in earnest more than five years ago, in November 2020, in a small gap between lockdowns and homeschooling. In many ways, the book has been something of a refuge from a turbulent and upsetting world in that time and while I am very eager to be finished, I suspect I will miss my safe space when the work is finally done. Right, 342 days till Christmas. Let’s crack on.