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…
Tag: Bob Berzins
Guest blog – Midhope track, a final resolution by Bob Berzins
Bob Berzins is a campaigner and activist. His previous guests blogs here all focus on the management, or mismanagement, of upland areas such as the Peak District, Walshaw Moor and the North York Moors. See also his novels Snared and The Last Crow. Of all the environmental damage found on grouse shooting moors, road building…
This blog’s books of 2024.
I have reviewed 52 books on this blog this year – a wide-ranging varied selection including many high quality works. If you are looking for a Christmas present for a nature-loving naturalist then this list might give you some ideas and I’ve whittled it down to a shortlist of 10 books that most impressed me…
Mid-week book review – The Last Crow by Bob Berzins
Another novel about the murky upland world of somewhere near you? Badgers, grouse moors, lords, rich businessmen, snares, machetes, rifles, Hen Harriers, modern slavery and so much more. It’s a good follow-up to Bob’s previous novel Snared (see review here). If you enjoyed Snared then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this too. And, just like Snared,…
Guest blog – The Midhope track by Bob Berzins
Bob Berzins is a campaigner and activist. His previous guests blogs here all focus on the management, or mismanagement, of upland areas such as the Peak District, Walshaw Moor and the North York Moors. See also his novel Snared. In 2014 and 2015 two surfaced tracks were constructed on the grouse moors of the north…
Guest blog – Enforcement of the Burning Ban by Bob Berzins
Enforcement of the Burning Ban – a long road to justice My life has changed a lot over the last couple of years and it now seems normal to chat to a police officer sitting at my kitchen table. He was taking a witness statement from me about harassment from gamekeepers. I explained what I…
This ‘track’ must go
Bob Berzins wrote about this track in February 2017 and again in January 2019. This planning case has now been settled with the landowner having to remove the track, reinstate the vegetation and pay costs. This is a good result, though a slow result – see here for details.
Guest blog – Failure to assess and monitor Protected Sites by Bob Berzins
Bob Berzins is a campaigner and activist. His novel Snared is available now. His previous guests blogs here all focus on the management, or mismanagement of upland areas such as the Peak District, Walshaw Moor and the North York Moors. Natural England: Failure to assess and monitor Protected Sites means we all pay Most Pennine…
Sunday book review – Snared by Bob Berzins
As regular readers of this blog will know, Bob Berzins has written several guest blogs here, mostly about goings on in the Peak District but also about other upland areas. This book, written by Bob Berzins, published by Bob Berzins and, because I can’t find an acknowledgement to anyone else in the book, probably the…
The Midhope track
Regular readers with good memories will remember the Midhope Track. This is what it looks like at the moment (above). The logs from the image below have been added to the plastic track but they are now sinking into the bog. Bob Berzins wrote about this track back in January 2019 and February 2017 (click…