Looking Back at 2016

The year that quietly changed everything

There’s a trend on social media at the moment where people are sharing photos from 2016 and reminiscing about how much better everything was a decade ago.

I was reluctant to join in. I’m quite enjoying getting older (so far) and try not to waste too much time looking longingly back to the past.

And when I do think back to 2016, I have two overriding memories: Brexit and Trump.

Was 2016 really such a wonderful year?

But curiosity won and I scrolled through my photos from 2016.

It turns out 2016 was a bloody brilliant year!

It was a year of many firsts for me. A year of big changes. A year that quietly nudged my life in all sorts of unexpected directions.

2016, it turns out, was far more pivotal than I ever gave it credit for.

Here are some of the photos that reminded me why.

The year got off to a great start when Layla (aged 8) and I visited the Harry Potter studios on January 5th, a few days after completing The Deathly Hallows together. It was a long day trip to Watford from Devon, but well worth it. We made a return visit a few years later when Rachel, Leo and Kitty had caught up with the books.

A few weeks later, I ran my first ever ultramarathon – the Endurancelife South Devon Coastal. The event took place in some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever experienced.

But I loved it and became strangely hooked on doing more of these stupid challenges.

My writeup of that run turned into my book Chasing Trails: A Short Fun Book about a Long Miserable Run.

If you’ve not read it, it’s available here for free.

In April 2016, Rachel and I ran our first two marathons together – the now defunct Salcombe Marathon and the Rome Marathon. There were a few arguments and tears – and a 15-minute hold-up mid-race due to a wedding (see Did Not Finish) – but our marriage survived, and we’ve run countless marathons together since.

A few months later, I ran my first ever unofficial marathon, setting off with some friends one morning after dropping the kids at school and returning home in time to collect them. They emerged from school with handmade medals for us.

Most of the marathons I run nowadays are unofficial. Sadly, the children no longer make me medals.

Rachel completed her first ever triathlon in 2016. She rode a mountain bike and cycled into a hedge, but also really enjoyed it.

In September 2016, I did my longest ever swim – the Dart 10k. I hated every second of it and swore I’d never do another. That was, until I heard about the gold swim hat awarded to those who complete it three times (see Did Not Sink).

I met and cycled with the bearded legend Sean Conway, during his World’s Longest Triathlon.

We also had some fantastic family holidays in 2016, including two weeks’ camping in France. Ten years, and many camping holidays later, the campsite we visited in the Dordogne is still the best we’ve been to.

We booked a last-minute Airbnb in St Ives for a few days just before Christmas in 2016, and had a wonderful time exploring Cornwall. We visited the Minack Theatre, the Eden Project, St Michael’s Mount and Zennor. I also returned to Land’s End for the first time since setting off on my penniless adventure. I even wore my boxer shorts for the occasion.

We had a weekend in London to celebrate my niece and nephew’s christening, and I went to Madrid for a weekend with my old school and football friends from Northampton.

We spent an embarrassingly large portion of the weekend in various Irish pubs. When in Spain…

Rachel’s sister and her family came to stay during October half-term, and we took one of our first proper family trips to Dartmoor. It sparked an obsession with the National Park that’s still going strong today.

As well as Chasing Trails, I also published Not Tonight, Josephine in 2016. I didn’t have particularly high expectations for it, but it ended up becoming my second most popular book. It was the first time since ending my photography career in 2014 that I genuinely felt I’d made the right decision.

Towards the end of the year, Rachel and I squeezed in another two marathons together.

There was the Cornish Marathon, where we earned a nice grey hoodie, and the Barnstaple Marathon, where we met a very hungover barman in Ilfracombe who was absolutely convinced he was my brother.

Oh, and 2016 was also the year I went to a friend’s 80s-themed birthday party dressed as He-Man.

Looking back at these photos has made me realise how easily the big headlines of a year can drown out these smaller, wonderful bits that make up life. At the time, global politics made 2016 feel like a seriously depressing year. But a decade later, it’s clear that there were a lot of positives too, and that so many important parts of my life were quietly beginning.

It’s exciting to think about what new memories, new changes and new firsts 2026 will bring.

If you’ve dared to look back at your own photos from 2016, I’d love to hear what you found.

*** Clicking that ❤️ below gives the algorithms a friendly nudge, helping more people discover this post. If you enjoyed it, please feel free to share or restack.***

All my Substack posts from the last two years are available in these four compilation books. Each book covers six months of posts and includes a lot of photos. They can be read in any order.