Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark

by Dan Richards

There is something special about the night.

For many, just the idea of it conjures thoughts of starlit skies, romance, of being tucked up in bed. For others, the night means fear, vulnerability and sleeplessness. At night things go bump, owls take wing and foxes prowl.

Overnight is a celebration of all things nocturnal, a hymn to nighttime wildlife, travel, dreams and art.
Along the way, Dan Richards meets a fascinating array of people who labour while the rest of us sleep, and brings their work into the light.

From night terrors to the glow of watching the dawn break on the summer solstice, Overnight will change the way you think about the hours after dark.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Biography, Memoir

379 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 27, 2025

About the author

Dan Richards' first book, 'Holloway', co-authored with Robert Macfarlane & illustrated by Stanley Donwood, was published by Faber in 2013.

In 'The Beechwood Airship Interviews' (HarperCollins, 2015), Dan explored the creative process, head-spaces and workplaces of some of Britain's most celebrated artists, craftsman and technicians including Bill Drummond, Dame Judi Dench, Jenny Saville, Manic Street Preachers, Jane Bown & Stewart Lee.

'Climbing Days', his third (Faber 2016), saw him set out on the trail of his pioneering great-great-aunt and uncle, Dorothy Pilley & I.A. Richards. Following in the pair's foot and hand-holds, Dan travelled across Europe, using Dorothy's 1935 mountaineering memoir as a guide. Ending up atop the mighty Dent Blanche in the high Alps of Valais.

'Outpost: A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth' (Canongate, 2019), is an exploration of the appeal and pull of far-flung shelters in mountains, tundra, forests, oceans and deserts; landscapes and which have long inspired adventurers, pilgrims, writers, and artists.

'Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark', a book celebrating the night and exploring the nocturnal operations which sustain, repair and protect the world whilst most of us are asleep, is set to be published by Canongate in March 2025.

'Only After Dark', a BBC Radio 4 series with a similar focus to 'Overnight', was broadcast in December 2022.

Dan has written for various newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, Economist, Esquire and Monocle.

He lives in Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Katrina Clarke]

In a mixture of travel, memoir, history, and social study, Dan Richards takes the reader with him on his journeys and adventures to meet people, wildlife and stories that exist in the dark of night. Nurses, dock workers, bakers, rescuers and charitable volunteers, the variety of people are unified by their passionate care for all that is vulnerable and vital. The night may be expected to be full of fear or the emptiness of sleep. However, Dan discovers a colourful and dynamic community of people who show us that the world never stops and that there is possibility, comfort and joy to be found in the darkest hours.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan Richards nimmt seine LeserInnen mit in eine besondere Welt: die der Menschen, die nachts arbeiten. Ihre Arbeit wird nur selten gesehen, ist aber deshalb nicht weniger wichtig.

Die nächtliche Reise beginnt mit einem Besuch im Containerhafen in Southampton, dessen Umfang und Logistik dem Autor einen ersten Blick auf die Größe seines Vorhabens geben. Der Abschluss an einem prähistorischen Ort mit besonderer Bedeutung für den Autor und seine Begleitung zur Sonnenwende könnte davon nicht unterschiedlicher sein.

Dazwischen liegt viel Menschliches und Persönliches: Dan Richards ist mit Streetworkern auf den Straßen von London unterwegs, die trotz allem, was sie sehen, nicht ihren Optimismus und den Glauben daran verloren haben, dass ihre Arbeit etwas bewirkt. Er erzählt von den Nächten, die er als COVID Patient auf der Intensivstation verbracht und nicht wusste, ob er seine Familie wiedersehen würde. Er ist in Finnland auf den Spuren der Mummins unterwegs und begleitet die Fahrer bei den 24 Stunden von Le Mans, fliegt im Rettungshubschrauber mit, reist mit der Fähre auf die Shetlandinseln und macht eine Fledermauswanderung im schottischen Wigtown.

Beim Lesen bin ich in die besondere Atmosphäre der Nachtarbeit eingetaucht. Wenn die Menschen gefragt wurden, wie sie ihre Arbeit zu der Zeit, in der die meisten schlafen, empfinden, sind die Aussagen ähnlich: nachts unterwegs zu sein, aus welchem Grund auch immer, bedeutet ein anderes Wahrnehmen, ein anderes Sein. Man ist fokussierter und sieht oft Dinge, die beim Licht und Lärm des Tages untergehen. Aber es ist ihnen auch bewusst, dass die oft gegensätzliche Routine ihren PartnerInnen und Familien vieles abverlangt.

Mir haben die unterschiedlichen Charaktere und Schicksale gut gefallen, von denen Dan Richards erzählt hat. Alle schienen echte Freude für ihre Arbeit zu empfinden. Das mag zum Teil an der jeweiligen Arbeit selbst, aber auch an der Tages bzw. Nachtzeit liegen. Man ist eine kleinere Gemeinschaft und kann/muss sich auf die Menschen, mit denen man zusammenarbeitet, ganz anders einlassen.

Das Buch ist eine Mischung aus vielen kleinen Geschichten mit den unterschiedlichsten Menschen und Stimmungen. Für mich war es die perfekte Kombination.

[Cameron King · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dan Richards has managed to identify a very interesting topic for a book. It is a shame that he simply wrote a book about himself instead.

If you want to learn more about the nocturnal world and the people who live and work in it, avoid this book.

If you want to read a half-baked memoir about a self-important middle class millennial getting Covid, going on walks, talking to celebrities, and reading poetry in a bothy in the Cairngorms because he needed a break from all this hard work, this is the one for you.

Exhausting.

[my.bookshelf.87 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars.

Each chapter focuses on different experiences which occur overnight, whilst the majority of the world are sleeping. Nurses on night shift, lifeboat crew, overnight ferry, bat conservation experts etc. It's a book which covers a variety of experiences. My reason for giving it 3.5/5 stars is that some chapters simply didn't hold my attention. Overall though, it's a great concept for a book.

[Olivia]

oh sweet jesus this was boring

dnf

[Dave Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I love about Richards somewhat quirky, homey, quiet, gentle journey into the time and space we call "overnight" or "after dark," is how it doesn't overburden its reader with heavy themes or insights. This is not to say it lacks substance: the stories it tells are engaging. It is simply to say that one can read it without needing it to feel heavy or urgent. This is easy to bring with you to bed, giving one good company to welcome those later hours in with.

In some ways this caught me off guard. I was expecting something more philosophical. What I got were simple stories of everyday people with a single unifying context: they happen between the hours of dusk and dawn. You get the odd insight along the way, and moments of clarity in terms of the authors own motivations for embarking on this research journey, but by and large these are stand alone stories that use this shared context as a window into our shared humanity. That might be a worker doing night shift. That might be a hospital ward where things have to run 24/7. That might be a northern climate where there are long seasons of darkness. It also can be early morning workers up before the light of dawn getting things ready before the masses wake up. There's even a chapter on the famous multiday car race, looking at drivers who drive through the night.

For me, one of the distinct memories this book evoked was that surreal night I spent on my way back from Ukraine to Winnipeg. After an overnight train from Lviv to Krakow, and following a long day visiting Auschwitz, I had to manage a night in Krakow without a hotel room as I waited for my flight to depart the next morning.

It was difficult to sleep, as not only did I have my luggage, there were also workers ensuring that you couldn't, banging a stick on the ground in front of me every time I nodded off. Recognizing the futility of my efforts, much of my time was spent wandering and walking. Memories of the bigness of the night sky and the surrealness of being halfway across the world from the place I called home. Realizing how different things look in the dark than they did in the light. Listening to the sound of the famed trumpet bellowing out from on top of the cathedral tower and into the old city square. The weight of the day, which I hadn't anticipated, settling and abating.

This is a memory that remains firmly implanted in my mind in a way that only the most vivid ones can and do. As someone who seeks the early morning and tends to avoid the late nights, this was an experience that was very much out of the norm. But I suppose that's waht makes it unique and special when set within the framework of my life and experiences.

Appreciate this book. As I said, don't expect anything heavy, just enjoy the journey for what it is.

[Andy Weston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was hoping for.
I wanted much more focus on nature and wild places, and instead there is probably two-thirds of the book on urban settings.

[Sophy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this one after having worked years of nights in the health care system and knowing that there is so much more to "just sleeping patients" (we wish). I thought there would include a proper look at night shift work and what is faced by night shift workers. No. This wasn't to be.

Dan Richards spends most of this book talking about himself and his "Covid journey". I get it mate, I really do, Covid put you through the wringer and fucked you up. So then the chance you get to speak to health care professionals who work the night shift should have been paramount yet you made it all about you. We heard nothing of constant admissions to A&E 24-7 with patients having to perch on trolleys in the corridor in pain, harrowing resuscitation attempts at three in the morning, sundowning patients with dementia trying to batter you with their walking stick because they think you're in their house, lack of fresh nutritious food for night shift workers because canteens are closed and the only option is a vending machine if you're lucky, the bone weary tiredness when you could cry trying to drive home in the morning with the windows wide open to make sure you don't fall asleep. No, nothing, it was all about Dan and his brush with Covid. Honestly, night shifts in hospitals could have made an entire book alone if he had bothered to step outside of his own experience.

The chapter on Southampton Docks was interesting, as was the chapter on bakers and the crew of the overnight ferries in Northern Scotland.

Babies and sleep studies (of the author, again, what a surprise!) did nothing for me. The rest of the book just paled into one big sentence really.

This book could have been something really profound and amazing but the author's insistence on concentrating on himself totally got in the way, bringing this down to a 2 star read for me at most.
What a disappointment.

[Philippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the concept of this; it explores a beautiful and intriguing set of people and ways of life. It would be impossible to read this and feel unchanged about nighttime.

As a long-term insomniac, I loved reading about other people who are also up in the dark hours, and it's certainly made the middle of the nights feel less lonely to know so many other people are awake at the same time.

The chapters cover a wide range of situations that keep people up overnight, and the difference between them sometimes felt a little jarring. There were some beautiful, poetic, insightful moments, and some chapters where I wished the writer had gone a bit deeper, maybe lingered a bit longer. Some chapters captured my interest to a much greater extent than others, although I guess that's inevitable with any book which moves between so many different places and people.

I was particularly captivated by the chapter compiled in quotes from newly postpartum mothers. The nights up with my baby have been some of the longest and the loneliest I have ever known - but also some of the most perfect. I have never read anything which captured the complexity of managing the night wake ups as well as this chapter did. I'm grateful to Dan for giving these women space on the page without feeling the need to editoralise their words. This chapter alone made it an incredibly worthwhile read for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and Canongate Books for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book this is.
If it is that poetry enables us see the ordinary as extraordinary, this is a kind of poetical non-fiction.
I found myself drawn into each night world - entranced by Dan Richards’ empathic enthusiasm - and just wanting to keep on listening, annoyed when I had to interrupt. It’s fascinating to have small, often overlooked wonders of this world uncovered for you.
Richards’ erudition is worn very lightly - to illuminate, rather than exclude the reader. It is often very funny, most often self deprecating - he is acutely aware of his own absurdity at times, but the wit is never cruel or sneering.
He is frequently moved by the kindness of others in this book, but I think this book itself is a book of great kindness, always sensitively aware of vulnerabilities in others.
In this world that so often feels cruel, ignorant and frightening, the attention and delighting in of this book is so necessary, a bolstering joy.

[Catherine Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Overnight and genuinely liked it, and it’s the kind of book that you can pick up and open to any chapter and instantly be drawn into a particular world. Dan Richards has a real eye for the people who keep the night moving - the crews on the overnight ship to the Orkney Islands, the crane operators in the Southampton dockyard, and the bat conservationists. He writes about them with a clear respect for their skill, patience, and quiet professionalism, creating a feeling that you’re moving through these worlds almost like a somnambulist, quietly observing without disturbing anything.

There’s also a deeply human side threaded through the book - Richards’ own hospital stay with Covid gives certain passages a reflective, vulnerable tone that contrasts nicely with the practical, work-focused sections.

For me, Overnight is immersive, humane, and full of worlds you don’t often get to spend time in.

[Neil Fulwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hit and miss odyssey through the wee small hours. Early chapters are excellent, Richards grittily sketching the reality of working the night shift at major port, being part of an air-sea rescue team or capturing the hallucinatory experience of the nocturnal stages of the gruelling 24 hour Le Mans race. There’s also a lovely chapter on Tove Jansson, tying in the comfort that her book ‘Moomintroll Midwinter’ gave Richards as an insomniac child with an excellent Nordic travelogue, and there’s a wonderful final chapter on the Shipping Forecast which would have been a much better conclusion to book than the drippy epilogue that actually rounds it out. Elsewhere, Richards struggles to retain his own interest let alone engage the reader’s.

[Becci · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading - and loving - Outpost, I was eagerly awaiting Dan Richards's next book. Overnight journeys through the night in all its forms, from newborn babies to night terrors, and from hospital wards to helicopter hangars. With curiosity and compassion, Dan introduces us to the people who keep things ticking over as so many of us sleep.
Whether you're drawn to the shudder and shake of the MV Hjaltland as she sails from Shetland in gale force winds, lifeboats launching into the darkest of nights, or the courage of Moomintroll in the depths of winter, Overnight will cast the hours of darkness in a new light. I highly recommend this fantastic book.

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book but I’m afraid just not my cup of tea (and I think separating it into night work and night living didn’t necessarily benefit the flow). However, top chapters on the Dusty Knuckle and St Mungos work in London - two sides of the London night.

[Andy Helliwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of encounters with night workers, plus some memoir following a COVID brush with death, I found this an absorbing, thoughtful, generous-hearted read.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful meander around things of the night from an overnight ferry to the Shipping Forecast via babies, bats and so much more.

[Jeremy Jl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb imagination, sincere research and sublime writing. A masterclass in non-fiction writing