About Bimbling, Books & Beer
I’m Dan Smedley, the creator behind Bimbling, Books & Beer.
Through my work I explore landscapes, stories and the quieter moments that reveal themselves when you slow down and spend time outdoors. Walking, filmmaking and storytelling sit at the heart of everything I create.
Many of the projects begin with a simple idea: go somewhere interesting, move through the landscape slowly and see what stories emerge along the way. Sometimes that leads to long coastal walks. Other times it becomes a Hidden History film, an outdoor cooking session or a book discussion from somewhere along the journey.
While Cornwall is where much of this story began, Bimbling, Books & Beer is really about curiosity. Exploring places, noticing the details most people pass by and sharing the experiences that come from spending more time outside.
The Stories Behind Bimbling, Books & Beer
Walking through Cornwall’s landscapes is where Bimbling, Books & Beer started. Its mainly what its all about. When life felt chaotic, getting outside and putting one foot in front of the other was the simplest way I found to slow everything down.
Those walks slowly turned into something more. They became the backdrop to the stories I now tell through film, photography and voiceover, from long stretches of the South West Coast Path to quieter inland paths most people never notice.
In many ways, walking isn’t just part of Bimbling, Books & Beer. It’s the reason it exists at all
The UK’s landscape is full of stories hiding in plain sight, and I love heading out to uncover them.
Old mine workings, wartime defences, abandoned industry and forgotten structures that once shaped the coastline.
Hidden History is one of the newest series within Bimbling, Books & Beer, but it’s quickly become one of the most important. It came from a desire to refocus my filmmaking around stories I genuinely wanted to tell.
Through the series I explore these places and bring their stories back to life through film, photography and voiceover. It’s also the series where I’ve grown the most creatively, pushing my videography, drone work and on-camera confidence further than ever before.
Books have always been part of Bimbling, Books & Beer, but for a long time I don’t think I fully understood just how important they were.
They began as a way to step out of the noise of the world. A quiet escape and, in many ways, a shield. Reading gave me the confidence to spend time on my own, to slow down, and eventually to start exploring places solo.
Over time I’ve realised they’re much more than that. Books now sit at the heart of the Bimbling, Books & Beer ecosystem, even growing into their own dedicated YouTube series where stories and landscapes come together.
After a long walk, there’s nothing better than a good local pint.
What started as simply enjoying a beer after being outdoors slowly introduced me to the world of craft beer and the people behind it. Brewers, bar staff and regulars who care deeply about what they make and the places they create.
It’s a community I honestly never knew existed, but one I’ve come to value hugely. From small taprooms to characterful pubs, the beer side of Bimbling, Books & Beer celebrates the places and people that bring others together.
Where the journey continues
Bimbling, Books & Beer started as a way to slow down and reconnect with the landscapes around me. What began as a simple idea has grown into a full time storytelling project, shaped by curiosity, exploration and the stories that reveal themselves when you spend time in a place.
Where it goes next is deliberately open. Some stories begin on quiet Cornish paths, others lead further afield. What matters most is following that curiosity and sharing the journeys that come from it.
If you’d like to explore the work so far, you can dive into the different projects and series that make up Bimbling, Books & Beer. If you’re interested in collaborating, you can find more about working together here. You can also follow the journey on Instagram or support future work through Buy Me a Beer.