Writer · Smallholder · The Moneyless Man
Mark Boyle
Mark is the author of The Moneyless Man and The Way Home. He writes by hand, by the light of a lamp, from a smallholding in the west of Ireland.
Photograph: Serena Renner
Latest from Mark Boyle
The Way Home
Tales from a life without technology
In December 2016, Mark Boyle gave up the phone, the computer, electricity and the conveniences most of us take for granted, and set about building a life by hand on a small plot of land in the west of Ireland.
The Way Home follows his seasons there: foraging and fishing, growing and gathering, chopping wood and hauling water, getting to know his neighbours and the land around him. It is a quiet, searching book about what we gain when we give up the conveniences of modern life, and what we lose by keeping them.
The Books
Stories of a simpler, wilder life
Money creates a kind of disconnection between us and our actions.
Mark Boyle
A Life in Practice
Ideas, lived rather than argued
For nearly two decades, Mark has tested his ideas on himself first, by living them. These three experiments have shaped his life and his books.
2008 – 2011
Living without money
On Buy Nothing Day 2008 he stopped using money altogether. He grew and foraged his own food, lived in a caravan and heated it with a wood-burning stove. He kept going for almost three years.
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2015
The Happy Pig
On his smallholding in County Galway, Mark and friends turned an old pigsty into a free pub, rebuilt with cob, cordwood and wattle and daub. Everything on the menu cost nothing.
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2016 – present
Life without technology
In December 2016 he unplugged for good: no phone, no internet, no electricity. He wrote by hand, by the light of a lamp, and posted his work by mail.
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About Mark
From Donegal, by way of Bristol, to the land
Mark was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, in 1979 and studied business in Galway. In his final year, a film about Gandhi left him with a question he couldn't shake: what would it take to be the change you want to see? In 2002 he moved to Bristol and spent six years managing organic food companies.
The answer took him from founding the Freeconomy Community to almost three years without money, and from there home to Ireland and a life without technology. Along the way came four books, translated into more than twenty languages.
Read the full biography →
Columns & Essays
Written by hand, sent by post
Mark has written for The Guardian for many years, first as “The Moneyless Man” and later in his series on life without technology. Each piece is written by hand and posted to his editors.
His essays cover rewilding, boredom and attention, community, and the hidden costs of modern convenience.
Explore his writing →
Get in Touch
Write to Mark
Mark lives a slower life than most, so replies can take a little while, but he reads every message. Readers, journalists, event organisers and publishers can get in touch by email or through this site.
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