24-Nov-2017: 158 years ago today saw the publication of my hero Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’. What better excuse could I possibly need for choosing today to launch my own book, ‘On the Moor: Science, History and Nature on a Country Walk’.
On the Moor · Zanzibar · container ships · giant ground sloth · Barry Lopez · indigenous people · Cambrian Explosion · Little Toller · Iain Sinclair
iPads · s-town · babylonian astronomy · Patti Smith · James Kelman · star-stuff · golden age of photography · conveying life's wonders · horses · bees · organ donations
John Tyndall · Galápagos cormorants · why English is so odd · Thoreau & Darwin · anthropological discoveries · mass-extinction hyperbole · WG Sebald · yellow rattle · Inigo Thomas · Mars exploration
woodpeckers · ambrotype portraits · W.G. Sebald · a deserted hamlet · mission creep · prime meridians · W.H. Hudson · podcasts · street photography · bonkers · tapirs · coiners
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
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?
Patti Smith · when your taste exceeds your talent · Spinosa · giant snowballs · reconciling longitude · two toddlers in a trench coat · opinions that need to be justified · Earth's days lengthen · the universe has 20 times more galaxies than we thought · dinosaur tail preserved in amber · John Berger
Anglesey · lost exploration craft rediscovered · writing advice from Rebecca Solnit · volcanic sunsets · Ted Hughes · typographical tips · a strange way to estimate π · Dull Men’s Club · street photography · free speech · Alexander von Humboldt
Patti Smith · W.G. Sebald · Sexual Selection · Roman chicken · Robert Graves · Swallows & Amazons · Thames Estuary · James Brindley · Spoonbills