• A Short Night Walk Amongst the Living and the Dead.

    An after-dark wander in the company of lost deserts, nocturnal hunters and spectral ammonites. Henry Rothwell One cold December night not so long ago, I was woken by an unearthly sound. It was a sound quite unlike any I had heard before, and as it faded while I was trying to place it, I began …

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  • Gilbert White’s Swallows, by Tim Dee.

    Where are we at home? What is it to feel at home? In these days and weeks, now stretching to months, when we have been sent home and told to stay there, I have been thinking about what home might signify to the birds I have been watching from my back garden and front porch in …

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  • Grave Goods – Tim Dee.

    The Crossing It looks bad from where I am. I’m on some sort of river-side and waiting for a ferry. There are no birds, which is strange. The river must be wide; I can’t see the far bank. But the atmosphere suggests that a boat is due. Others are waiting too; there are quite a …

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  • 'Rooks amongst Branches', Ralston Gudgeon (1910-1984), oil on canvas.

    ‘Wild Life in a Southern County’ by Richard Mabey.

    ‘Richard Mabey is among the best writers at work in Britain. I don’t mean among the best nature writers, I mean the best writers, full stop.‘ So says Tim Dee, in his review of Richard Mabey’s latest collection, ‘Turning the Boat for Home‘. I’m happy to agree, and even happier to share one of the essays …

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