Category: Guest blog

Patrick works for Green Alliance as the policy assistant for the Greener UK Unit. Greener UK is a group of 14 major environmental organisations, with a combined public membership of over 8 million, united in the belief that leaving the EU is a pivotal moment to restore and enhance the UK’s environment. He holds an…

Dewilding Basingstoke One thing leads to another. This all harks back to the saga of Basingstoke’s beleaguered Common Toads, a story that not only continues but also evolves. So as summer approaches, and all those young toadlets leave their breeding ponds, perhaps an alternative title for this blog might be ‘Toad Rage – metamorphosis’. To…

Authors and photographers, Paul and Rob spearhead the international competition Bird Photographer of the Year (BPOTY) whose lead judge is Chris Packham. Woodlands have been on my mind recently, what with my growing interest in Rob’s local patch Ramridge Copse. Perhaps because of that when I glanced at my bookshelves the other day I spotted…

“I must tell you something of the Beaver”. When William Harrison the Canon of Windsor wrote those words in 1577 he presented his description of the beaver he knew in the following fashion “Certes the tail of this beast is like unto a thin whetstone, as the bodie unto a monstrous rat: the beast also…

Rewilding – a personal perspective There was a time in my life when the worst question you could ask me was ‘Where were you born?’ I would squirm and try to change the subject but if pressed I had to answer ‘Basingstoke’. In my formative years this was a source of deep embarrassment. Jane Austen…