Joe Ennis grew up near Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, where he remembers seeing the glow of Coventry burning on the horizon during the Blitz in 1940. Childhood recreations included train-spotting, collecting birds eggs with impunity, and long bicycle rides between youth hostels - activities which informed his future writing.

Joe undertook National Service in the Royal Air Force. Disappointingly for his younger daughter, Annabel, he only ever took to the air in a glider. Annabel later went on to marry an RAF officer.

Apparently oblivious to the swinging 60's, Joe Ennis began to carve out a career as a civil servant in London, where he met his wife Eve. In 1969, Joe and Eve married and moved to Rainham, a commuter town in Kent.

The tedium of the daily train journey was passed by reading book after library book on a wide variety of topics, including British wildlife, ancient and majestic trees, disappearing rural life, vernacular architecture, and of course Britain's railways past and present.

In August 1978, Joe started contributing a column to Action Forum, a free monthly community magazine for the rapidly-growing population of Rainham.

Joe's 'Rides from Rainham' explored local places of interest by bicycle. Spoiler alert: Joe's travelling companion and literary foil 'Kemsley' was in fact Joe's bicycle: a three-gear Raleigh 'Palm Beach'. It was a ladies bicycle, bought by then-nursery nurse, Eve, in Bristol for a week's wage. This thrift reflected the post-war era Joe and Eve grew up in.

Joe's articles were often accompanied by an illustration or sketched map, sometimes drafted by his own hand, or occasionally by Eve.

After nearly tow decades, Rides from Rainham was retired and Nature Notes sprung to life in Action Forum. In Nature Notes, Joe's destinations were no longer limited by pedal-power, and he invited his readers to enjoy nature and the changing seasons in places accessible by foot, bicycle, car and train.

This website is an archive of Joe Ennis' writings, which generously share his eye for detail, wit, and love of history - both natural and anthropological. In this fast-changing world, Joe has inadvertently documented things already relegated to the past. Conversely, some things never change, and Joe's skilful observations will still resonate and inspire.