Ingrained
The Making of a Craftsman
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4.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION
A captivating memoir that immerses readers in the life of a Scottish carpenter as he perfects his craft, builds a business, and reflects on what inheritance and shared responsibility really mean.
The eldest son of a master woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by wood and trees, absorbing the lessons of craftsmanship in his father’s workshop. In time he became his father’s apprentice, helping to create exquisite bespoke objects. But eventually the need to find his own path—to chase ever bigger and more commercial projects and establish a workshop of his own—drew him away. 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—an antidote to a culture where everything seems so easily disposable. As he does so, he brings us closer to nature and the physical act of creation—and we begin to understand how he has been shaped, as both a craftsman and a son.
Blending memoir about work 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.
Callum Robinson’s return to the wood is an unforgettable exploration of:
A Father and Son StoryThe Art of WoodworkingScottish Nature WritingAn Antidote to Throwaway Culture
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this reflective debut memoir, Scottish woodworker Robinson recounts the beginnings of his career and details the near-ruin of his bespoke carpentry business. Weaving in vignettes from his 1980s childhood, memories of woodworking with his father, and rapturous passages about his love of the natural world, Robinson covers the daily grind of his craft while meditating on the spiritual implications of creating work that's likely to outlast him. The narrative hinges on the threat Robinson's woodworking firm faced after it lost a significant client, recounting how Robinson, his wife, and his employees pivoted to open a furniture store. Much of the book luxuriates in the physical details of Robinson's craft, but he has more than labor on his mind: in writing about the process of building a chair, for example, then considering how that chair might be used by the people who purchase it, Robinson assigns deep meaning to the careful construction of objects in a fast-paced world that often prizes cheaper alternatives. Robinson's lyrical prose ("The low winter sun, as much a stranger as we were to the windowless porch, followed us meekly inside") and dedication to his craft will appeal to artisans and appreciatorss of all stripes.
Customer Reviews
Ingrained
Excellent writing, great storytelling, very informative and insightful!