{"id":498,"date":"2026-09-20T08:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T08:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/home\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T08:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T08:34:31","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Author · Speaker<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The drought ended eventually. Some things it taught me didn’t.<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Four books written from a kitchen table, about the year the rain stopped and what it left behind. For anyone getting through a hard stretch without much ceremony.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe new book<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpeaking topics<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Photograph — fictional<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Written for & spoken at<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The new book<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ten Dry Years<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The year it didn’t rain, and what I did instead of panicking<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Everyone remembers the year it didn’t rain. Fewer people wrote down what actually happened once the news cameras left and the paddocks turned the colour of toast. Ten Dry Years<\/em> is that record — plain, occasionally funny, and not especially interested in being brave about it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Written the way it happened — mostly at the kitchen table, in whatever order the memories turned up.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead a sample<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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All four books →<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\tOn stage<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A festival talk that leaves the room a few words short of “fine”, and better off for it.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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An hour or so, no notes, and a story that does more work than advice ever did. Festivals, libraries, community halls — wherever people want it told plain.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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—<\/b>Festivals<\/i><\/span>—<\/b>Community halls<\/i><\/span>—<\/b>Years on the road<\/i><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Figures fictional<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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“The paddock didn’t care how I felt about it. That was, it turns out, the whole lesson.”<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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From Ten Dry Years<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Free chapter<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Read chapter one, plus a letter when there’s something worth saying.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Short, plain, and mostly about weather and getting on with it. No courses, no funnel, unsubscribe in a click.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n
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<\/p>

    <\/ul><\/div>\n
    \n
    \n<\/fieldset>\n
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    <\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n\t

    \n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>

    <\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-498","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511,"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/498\/revisions\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lite.buildprosites.com\/tom-ashcroft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}