My writing website

Hi there—welcome! I'm George B. Hill

'A man may always write when he will set himself doggedly to it.'   [Samuel Johnson]

Thanks for visiting my site! Please check out my list of pages...

I write in both secular and faith genres, on the environment, on science, and in fiction. All but one of my books are self-published. Please enjoy my free work, at the bottom of this page and elsewhere, and consider...

► My new anthology of short stories, etc. (Many of them were written or started at Association of Christian Writers area group meetings). It is:

Tales of the Unexpected God with a subtitle of 33 Short Stories and Other Pebbles. The 'Pebbles', which I suppose will create different types of ripple, include seven poems, two song lyrics, a children's tale and several brief non-fiction reflections. The short stories are actually more of the length of 'short short fiction' or even 'flash fiction'. and are mostly based around biblical stories about Jesus plus some contemporary faith and fantasy pieces.

► My recent article on how I came to write the history of my former company, now (sadly, of course) made world-renowned by its COVID-19 vaccine. 'Is There a Story in Science' describes the work (and the background prayer) that led to my book, and appeared in the Winter 2021 edition of Christian Writer magazine and can be read here.

► My stories of my hilarious 'fuel-free' green birdwatching 'list' year in 2020. In five episodes, they were published in Bird News by CAWOS (Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society), and a summary became 'Star Letter' for Summer/Autumn 2021 in the RSPB's magazine Nature's Home. You can find links to the full versions and my other true wildlife tales here

► My self-published novels:

► My travel nonfiction:  

Island Collecting: 111 Ways to Downcarbon (2019)    [Available on Kindle for £2.99 here. (In print, it's only available expensively, with colour images.)]  —A treasure-trove of facts, stories and histories from islands around the British Isles and across the globe. How can we enjoy islands without flying or wasting fossil fuels? Or can we celebrate islands with no travel at all? To download the free TABLES and KEY from the above Kindle book, please click here. 

► My one TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED book: 

Alderley Park Discovered: History, Wildlife, Pharmaceuticals    [Carnegie Publishing (2016), to buy click here - only available as a printed book].             —— A richly illustrated coffee-table account of both the history of a great English family (the Stanleys of Alderley) and their stately park; and the (first authorised inside) accounts of the discoveries of  several world-famous cancer and other medicines (including atenolol, tamoxifen and the massive new lung cancer drug osimertinib). A historic record, to fascinate both lay and scientific readers, of sixty years of pharmaceutical research by the company that was my employer as ICI, Zeneca and now the famous AstraZeneca.

► My non-fiction faith books:

Alternatively, go to:

► My occasional song-writing. Learn more here.

► My Twitter series: @hillintheway  for tweets from my account Bible Margin Jottings

► My maps (drawn to accompany my novels and my nature guides) here.

► Or try my SHORT STORIES and other free writing:

—— On this website  . . . enjoy many free short stories, dramas, poems ranging from social justice to science comedy, children’s material, nature trail guides, reflections, etc., plus my personally drawn maps, all of which you may download or print off and use for free, provided you observe my simple Conditions of Use - if you would be so kind. 

For something unusual, try my nature essay entitled 'A Eulogy to the Denizens of Chelford Station', an account of 30 years spent on a railway platform (!) that achieved literary greatness by being posted on that paragon of local excellence, the Chelford Village Website.

               Comments are welcome - please follow the links to my general Blog or to my Contact Me form. Enjoy! 

       ► Or read below the publication of which I am most proud:

'From the Street' - although published only by display, I am told (by one of my daughters) that this poem of mine hangs on the wall of a hostel for the homeless in Birmingham: 

From the street

From the street, no window lights a colder room;

All homes shine softer than a homeless bed.

I lived inside the glass, until my doom

Of growing brought – unwonted – words all hard said.

Unsay them no-one would; I fled that night –

Or rather, light fled me and washed its hues of day.

The street that beds me now is black, yet white

With silent eyes of ice that stare my way.

They glimpse me only as a face beyond the pale,

While I watch them, whose ease I grew to hate.

With beaming bars, their windows shape my jail:

My cardboard blanket fails to liberate.

Remember! - when you see by coloured day

Young homeless on the streets, for whom few pray.

                                             (George B. Hill, March 2013)

googlee8d4c2602a71e6ed