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Head of PeopleNorthwind Summit Festival directorHarbourside Literary Festival Programme leadThe Long Room Series Chief Operating OfficerFieldstone & Co.
Iris Calder
Author · Speaker · Essayist
Writing and speaking about attention — what we give it to, what it gives back, and how to find it again when it goes.
New book — The Long Attention — out 14 March↓01 — The book
The Long AttentionThe Long Attention
We did not lose our attention; we lent it out, a few seconds at a time, to things that never gave it back. The Long Attention is a book about slow reading, deep work and ordinary afternoons — and a practical guide to taking the time back.
Hardback · 320 pages · Harbour & Finch · 14 March 2027
Iris Calder
The Long Attention
Harbour & Finch
“Clear, humane and quietly radical. You will read it slowly, which is the point.”
— The Meridian Review
Harbour & Finch
The Long AttentionIris Calder
02 — Ideas
Three ideas I keep coming back to.Three ideas I keep coming back to.
- 01
Attention is a budget, not a battery.
You cannot recharge what you never stopped spending. The work is deciding where it goes before the day decides for you.
- 02
Boredom is the doorway.
Almost every good idea arrives in the ten minutes after we resist the urge to reach for something. Protect those minutes.
- 03
Depth is a place you go back to.
Deep work is not a heroic sprint; it is a room you return to daily, at the same hour, until it becomes easy to find.
03 — Speaking
Keynotes that leave a room quieter, in the best way.Keynotes that leave a room quieter, in the best way.
- T1
The Long Attention
The book as a keynote: why focus erodes, and the small daily structures that bring it back. 45 or 60 minutes.
- T2
Meetings Without Noise
For leadership teams: fewer meetings, better questions, and a calendar that protects the people doing the work.
- T3
Slow Reading in a Fast Company
A workshop on reading deeply at work — reports, research, each other — with a practice the room can keep.
- T4
The Quiet Hour
An intimate talk and conversation for festivals and libraries, with a reading from the new book.
- 140+
- keynotes given
- 22
- countries
- 4.9
- average rating
Represented for speaking by North Lantern Speakers
04 — Praise
The only talk at the summit people were still quoting a month later — and the only one that changed how we run our Mondays.
Iris speaks the way she writes: precisely, warmly, and without a single wasted sentence.
A rare speaker who makes an audience of four hundred feel like a conversation of four.
We booked a keynote and got a new way of working. The quiet-hour idea is now company policy.
←→
As heard & read in
- The Meridian Review
- Northern Ledger
- Signal Weekly
- The Long Read Quarterly
- Harbour Radio
- Common Ground Podcast
- The Meridian Review
- Northern Ledger
- Signal Weekly
- The Long Read Quarterly
- Harbour Radio
- Common Ground Podcast
05 — Contact
Speaking, interviews, or a letter now and then.Speaking, interviews, or a letter now and then.
For keynotes and workshops, tell me about the room and the date. For the newsletter — one essay a month, never more — just leave your email.
hello@iriscalder.example