Orion’s belt-buckle
In celebration of my adopted star.
Newsletter No. 6: A borrowed dog
woodpeckers · ambrotype portraits · W.G. Sebald · a deserted hamlet · mission creep · prime meridians · W.H. Hudson · podcasts · street photography · bonkers · tapirs · coiners
Book review: ‘The Gallows Pole’ by Benjamin Myers
18th-century Yorkshire meets the Sopranos: intrigue, betrayal, murder, and revenge in the Calder Valley.
Newsletter No. 5: Incongruous owl
dawn chorus · Simon Armitage · the invention of the telescope · huge, sprawling collaborations · Withnail & I · book smells · re-assembling Darwin’s research notes · converting walks into words · Daniel Dennett · writing letters · humanist politics · dentistry with stone tools · analysing penguin poo · Melissa Harrison · Robert Macfarlane · swallows
‘Spiritual’ won’t do
In which I seek a better word to describe a profoundly uplifting sensation.
Book review: ‘Built on Bones’ by Brenna Hassett
15,000 years of urban life and death.
Book review: ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’ by Annie Dillard
Pulitzer-Prize-winning ruminations on the natural world.
Book review: ‘Selected Letters of Philip Larkin’ (Anthony Thwaite, ed.)
Hugely entertaining correspondence from one of Britain’s most popular poets.
Undermining religious tradition: a time-honoured religious tradition
Religious tradition has been being ‘undermined’ in Britain since recorded history began—most of the time by people of a distinctly religious persuasion.
Newsletter No. 4: Paint to pufferfish
Robert Macfarlane · Hilary Mantel · Martha Sprackland · Viking wool · Charles Darwin's reading habits · human evolution · praying to Elrond · drawing · making ink · Rebecca Solnit · insectivorous plants · do pufferfish hold their breath?