Monkey & Whale Publishing
Monkey & Whale Publishing
We Believe Stories Matter
My name is Ben. My wife, Beth, and I are pursuing the dream of building an independent publishing business, Monkey & Whale, from our home in Derbyshire, UK.
Inspired by a love of storytelling and our Christian faith, we seek to publish works of beauty, wonder, and fun wherever they are to be found.
Our Mission
To enrich the lives of as many people as possible through the publication of the finest storytelling.
Our Values
Excellence
Truthfulness
Beauty
We strive to do our personal best every time.
Storytelling which resonates with the real world.
We aim to publish work that fills the soul with wonder.
Fairness
Authenticity
Publication is always based on a work's merit.
We will never knowingly accept AI-generated work for publication.
The Wanderer's Post magazine publishes fiction that uplifts, inspires, and challenges us all to strive for a better world.
Whoever you are, no matter your age or background, take a break from scrolling and enjoy the offline experience of exploring new worlds through carefully curated short stories, poems, and art pieces, created by new and established writers and artists. All contained in a print-only magazine.
Interested in stocking our magazine in your bookshop or local store? We can offer trade prices on a sale-or-return basis. Send us your sales enquiry today.
We Believe Stories Matter
I remember feeling a strong sense of shame and failure as a boy of about 8. Others had mastered reading and were devouring books while I struggled to piece together a single phrase. At least I had the illustrations to look at. It was the inspiring artwork of E H Shepherd, Arthur Rackham, and Beatrix Potter that fired my imagination.
Stories matter because they're for everyone.
Then came the day I'll never forget when I absentmindedly opened up Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and realised I could make out enough of the words to have a guess at the rest and have a vague understanding of the story. I had been teaching myself to read without knowing it!
To this day, I struggle to read new words phonetically - my brain's not wired that way. But I can take a stab at the meaning of each series of unknown squiggles, based on the context. That's how I taught myself to read - one word at a time. Treasure Island, Ivanhoe, Great Expectations, Call Of The Wild, and many other classic works of fiction soon followed. These weren't school projects. They were the first books I ever read and it was magical!
Stories matter because they help us grow.
I branched out into crime-solving with Hercules Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. I went adventuring with The Swallows & Amazons, Howard Pyle's The Adventures Of Robin Hood, Alistair MacLean, Bilbo Baggins, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. I'll always be grateful for the absurd humour found in Three Men In A Boat, Winnie The Pooh, and Just William.
Stories matter because they are fun.
I've enjoyed many books since Kidnapped. Less than some of you, but a fair few nonetheless. Growing up, a few had a profound impact. Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place, The Pilgrim's Progress, and RC Sproul's the Holiness Of God spring to mind. But so too does The Count Of Monte Cristo, which taught me that pursuing darkness ends in despair ...and that reading 117 chapters on a laptop screen is not worth the resulting migraine! The Wind In The Willows gave me a love for woodlands, winter, and the countryside. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings and C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe left me with an ache for a world I have yet to see.
Stories matter because they change us.
In short, stories are a gift. A gift that is all the better for sharing.
We need more good stories in our world now more than ever. That's what The Wanderer's Post is all about.
Join us for the ride.
Get In Touch
If you are interested in stocking our publications or would like to discuss your project or story, drop us a line below.