Robert Ashton

Robert Ashton

Non-fiction author fascinated by how we can learn so much about our future, from our past

www.robertashton.co.uk
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Available for

Workshop, Talk, Reading, Interview, Commission a book

Audiences

Age 7 to 11, Age 11 to 14, Age 14 to 16, Age 16 to 18+, Further Education, University, Adult

Genres

Biography, Business, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Self-help

Book types

Non-fiction for adults

Organisations

Details

Robert Ashton is a social entrepreneur, author and Quaker. Over the years he has set up a marketing agency, advised countless growing businesses, founded a social enterprise that provides apprenticeship training and successfully campaigned for the establishment of his local community foundation.

His books on starting and growing a business are accessible, practical and based on experience rather than theory. His presentation style is informal, inclusive and engaging. The stories he tells about the successful ventures he has worked with, and some of the tough lessons he learned along the way inform, inspire and help people see their own opportunity. He has also written a book about prejudice and another about homelessness and believes that everyone should have an equal chance in life.

In 2019 he took a year off to study, graduating from the University of East Anglia with a creative writing MA. His dissertation was the first three chapters of Where are the Fellows who Cut the Hay a book that explore how rural life continues to evolve. His research revealed that people are rediscovering a sense of community that had all but been lost over the past 60 years when we all became more mobile and supermarkets replaced village shops.

Robert's next book, Down to Earth will be published in July 2026, and takes its readers on a journey to meet people who make their living working with soil.  From gardeners to gravediggers and archaeologists to agriculturalists this book reveals how too often, we to often take soil for granted and why that is not good for us, our community and our planet.

Books by Robert Ashton

While I will always be a social entrepreneur, I am now writing books that I hope will help others change the world. I graduated in 2020 from the University of East Anglia with a creative writing MA and am currently working on a book about how life is evolving in rural East Suffolk, building on the work of oral historian George Ewart Evans. My research showed that people are starting to return to almost forgotten ways, and rediscovering the sense of community that has been almost lost over the past 50 years. As well as writing, I founded Leiston Book Festival in 2024, which focused on nature writing and is attended by more than 200 people each September. I also support a creative writing group at my local high school, and particularly like working with year six youngsters as they prepare to transition to secondary education. Longlisted for a 2024 Wainwright Prize Shortlisted for the 2025 New Angle Prize
IBSN: 978-180018298
Where are the Fellows who Cut the Hay
Where Are the Fellows Who Cut the Hay? is an ode to rural life, charting traditions of the past, how they were lost and why we need to reconnect. Exploring the relationship between everyday items and the communities that make them, Robert Ashton provides a snapshot of twenty-first century England. Where are the people who grow barley, milk cows and produce wool? How have their farming methods become less ethical, sustainable and natural over time? And what are we doing today to reverse that change? Inspired by ...
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Waterstones Amazon
IBSN: 9780955963254
Any Spare Change
Nobody sets out to become homeless or to sleep rough. But circumstances can conspire against you, leaving you vulnerable, frightened, very alone and perhaps even abused. Norwich Quaker Robert Ashton decided to he wanted to understand what led people to live sleep rough in our cities and spent summer 2019 talking to people in and around the streets of his city.
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Waterstones Amazon
IBSN: 9780857080608
How to be a Social Entrepreneur
A book for budding social entrepreneurs, written by an experience soxial entrepreneur. This book tells you what you need to know to lead sustainable social change in our world
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Waterstones Amazon
The Entrepreneur's Book of Checklists
Easy to navigate and simple to read, The Entrepreneur's Book of Checklists is not written to be read froom cover to cover, more to become an invaluable source of reference at every stage of the small business journey. As important as an evangelist's bible, or a car mechanic's workshop, this book will be used, heavily bookmarked and become a much worn friend. Each checklist is backed up by supporting advice or a real life case study - see how the tips have already helped someone just like you.
Amazon
IBSN: 9781444795295
Sales for Non-Salespeople
If you know how to sell, you know how to succeed. Selling is the most important, and perhaps the most misunderstood workplace skill. Once you understand how to sell you will become more persuasive, naturally and confidently. This book has four sections, enabling the reader to focus on their most pressing need: * Selling basics - a simple, explicit guide to the sales process; * Selling yourself - and how to get noticed, connected and respected; * Selling to colleagues - presenting, persuading and getting promoted;...
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Waterstones Amazon
IBSN: 9780273772170
How to Start Your Own Business for Entrepreneurs
Relevant to entrepreneurs of any experience, it covers absolutely every aspect of starting a business from bullet-proof plans to the best way to structure a business for a successful sell-on later. It includes information on brand management, customer service, marketing, financials and staffing, so you are fully prepared to set sail on your business journey.
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Waterstones Amazon
IBSN: 9780273710219
The Life Plan
Changing your life does not have to be a daunting process. All you need to remember, is that the key to successful life change is lots of small, but positive steps, that together create huge impact. The Life Plan contains 700 of these small steps, leading you step by step through each area of your life.
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Waterstones Amazon

Keywords

CHANGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP HISTORY QUAKER RURAL