Sunday book review – Cairn by Kathleen Jamie

  Kathleen Jamie is Scotland’s National Poet or Makar, and this book is a collection of personal notes, prose poems, micro-essays and fragments. The idea is that they are arranged here like the stones of a cairn.  I was slightly nervous that this might be too ‘literary’ for me – but it wasn’t. Here are…

Being a conservation investor – 2, The National Trust

My latest book, Reflections, proposes that we all consider ourselves as conservation investors. Here, I wonder whether I should invest my money for conservation in The National Trust? Background: I have occasionally been a member of The National Trust but I’ve come and gone – mostly gone – click here. The subscription rate is high…

Shotswitch – not much switching after 4 years

The annual examination of the claims made by the shooting industry over their good faith in removing lead shot from their hobby through voluntary means by 2025 are given their annual fact check – click here for paper just published. But it is summed up perfectly by this graph: Lead shot was found in 93%…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 35 by Nick MacKinnon

Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…