Ben Short on life as a charcoal burner in west Dorset

Ben Short was a man who looked like he had it all - a glamorous career in advertising in London, a flat in Hackney and a flashy motorbike.

But something wasn't right, the 51-year-old says, inside, he was screaming.

"I felt like I was hanging onto a cliff edge by my fingernails. I just couldn't tell you how awful that experience was.

"I was at an advertising agency in the West End earning a lot of money and doing a lot of foreign travel. What might outwardly seem glamorous was really more a lot of hard work and not actually much fun.

"In that life I was living eight years of anxiety and at the end of that I just couldn't carry on."

Something had to give, Ben said, and he made a decision to leave that life behind.

"A lot of people said I was really brave, but it was very simple. I had to do something, so I walked away from it. It was scary and it was a relief at the same time."

Ben moved to Cambridge and started working for the National Trust.

"I wanted to be outside. I'd been stuck at a desk where I'd often still be in the office at 10pm and we'd be working on slogans and adverts until 2am. After that I needed to get outside. I'd grown up living on a small farm in Hampshire and I wanted to get back to more of that kind of thing and simplify my life."

One of the world's oldest crafts dating back to pre-Roman times became the fit Ben was looking for - charcoal burning.

"I first came across charcoal burning when I was eight-years-old and went on a school trip to the woods and saw it happening and it stuck with me, there was a kind of magic to it. I'm quite a romantic and the idea of working in the woods appealed to me," he said.

Taking himself into the woodland has an energising, healing effect Ben said, with the methodical rhythm of loading wood into a kiln.

"Most of the time I'm OK but sometimes I'm getting anxious and the wood energises me.

"The woods have a meditative quality to them and you do become attuned to the rhythms of nature. It's an interesting place where sometimes there are cold spots and places where the birds don't sing."

Ben worked outdoors in South Somerset and East Devon before 'settling' in West Dorset, which he has called home for the last eight or nine years, working on land around Eggardon Hill.

Ben Short

At first he lived in a cabin but now returns to a real home in town after spending two or three nights a week out in the woods. And he has made the kind of life for himself that he yearned for, becoming a father later in life with a two-year-old son, Silus.

The idea for a book came about in 2013 when Ben was thinking about writing his story. And part of getting it down on paper was to get something out of those eight years of 'absolute anguish' in London, he says.

"I thought that writing a book would be a positive thing coming from that - I could reclaim those years."

After submitting some of his writing to publishers, Ben was one of few authors who get picked up from among an average 10,000 submissions a year from budding writers. His story eventually resulted in a bidding war between two publishing heavyweights.

"They could see the story as life and as relevant. I suppose my story was archetypal," he modestly says.

Picture: Joya Berrow

"I think the pandemic has made my story seem more relevant. I changed things a long time ago but a lot of people are started to feel like they want to live life differently and are probably still moving towards making that change. it can be a bit of a slow burn."

Ben cooks outdoors on a fire and says the best way of getting through cold winters is to wear the right clothes and avoid getting wet. 'It's the wet that's the killer.'

Out in the woods Ben isn't completely devoid of technology. He bought a smart phone a few years ago and now finds it hard to get through the day without Instagram.

"It does help to keep in touch with things," he says. "When you're out on your own it's a comfort and a bit of a lifeline. I'm not a complete hermit!"

Ben Short taking a break

As as for becoming a role model for those who want to simplify their lives and leave the rat race, he says: "I'm philosophical about it.

"If the book helps and gives them some succour or help that's really good. I would only be nervous about being that kind of figure if I was conning people but I'm not, this is my story and this is what happened to me.

"If I look back and think about it I was in London earning a lot of money but I was mentally ill, I wasn't happy.

"I think happiness is a fleeting thing and for me it is more about being content."

Burn - A Story of Fire, Woods and Healing by Ben Short is published by Sceptre in hardback at £16.99.