Topic description and stories

'Swifts' lithograph from Carry Akroyd's 'Found in the Fields' series (detail)

Poet, activist, bird watcher: exploring John Clare as nature writer

29 Aug 2017

At a symposium next month (15 September 2017) academics, artists and ornithologists will share their responses to the work of 19th-century poet John...

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Nan Shepherd celebrated: the Scottish writer who knew mountains

04 May 2016

The writer Nan Shepherd (1893-1981), who was quietly acclaimed in her lifetime, is the face of a new Royal Bank of Scotland bank note. One of...

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Swaddywell Pit near Helpston, Northants

'Besom ling and teasel burrs': John Clare and botanising

20 Sep 2014

A symposium taking place on Tuesday (23 September 2014) at Cambridge University Botanic Garden will unite artists, writers, scientists and literary...

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Crummock Water, Cumbria

Landscape, literature, life

29 Feb 2012

Over the past few years, the genre of ‘nature writing’ has seen a new sense of urgency, fostered by a growing awareness of a natural world under...

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Peak District

Going feral

01 Sep 2007

Are there any wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Robert Macfarlane has travelled in search of them, reflecting on the meaning of &lsquo...

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