Part story, part soil.
There was a time when the bedtime books lost their magic. I'd be sitting with my daughter, reading the same stories over and over. Stories that had once sparkled, but now felt rather flat. She was growing, curious, alive with imagination. So instead of reading, we started making things up. One sentence would lead to another, and suddenly we were inside a world no one had written yet.
She would ask me, "What happens next?" And often, I didn't know. The characters told us when they were ready. It felt less like we were inventing stories and more like we were tapping into something already alive.
One day, she said, "You should write these stories down, so everyone can enjoy them." And that was it. The seed was planted.
At the time, I was still wrapped in a life that looked like success: money, work, busyness, distraction. But none of it felt real. I started to feel that what mattered most wasn't on any screen or schedule. It was time and love, and the look in her eyes when the story surprised us both.
So I walked away from that corporate world.
Now I live in the mountains of central Portugal, in a tiny house I built with my own hands. Growing vegetables. Tending to bees. Drinking from the spring that runs through our land. Writing stories that remember what the world has forgotten. We called this life The Beekeeper Writer because it's part story, part soil and entirely alive.
The first books became Leila's Light. The honey became Mel da Terra, our raw, forest born honey, gathered from bees that live among chestnut and black walnut trees.
None of this was a plan. And it all started with a bedtime story.
From the East Midlands to a mountain valley.
It all began in a busy corner of the East Midlands. A place of traffic, routines and the low hum of everyday life. In the middle of it, a father and daughter began making up stories, with imagination rather than screens or scripts. Wild, silly, thoughtful tales told at bedtime or shared on walks.
Those stories stayed with me. They grew roots. What started as fun between us became sketches, then chapters, and eventually a book series called Leila's Light.
Alongside the writing, life began to shift. Bees arrived. Honey arrived. Trees were planted. A tiny house took shape. The seasons changed and everything began to slow down. Now those stories have a home.
Before writing, I spent many years in the UK construction industry: surveying, tendering and project management on historic buildings, major refurbishments, self builds and off grid developments. I'm also a qualified plumber and gas engineer. That practical life runs through everything I write.
Thank you for walking with us.
Marc Swift, The Beekeeper Writer
To inspire a more conscious and connected world through storytelling and sustainability.