My blog

This is where I share updates on my writing and conservation work, thoughts on topical conservation issues, and news about nature and the artists who are inspired by it.  Sometimes I blog about other stuff, too.

If I could have one wish…

…as we continue the countdown to Kunming, it would be for the UK governments to sign up to 30x30… AND REALLY MEAN IT

Continue reading →

World Migratory Bird Day

Saturday 8 May is World Migratory Bird Day 2021. For many species, what seems like a perilous journey at the best of times has become a serious threat to their futures.

Continue reading →

How radical do we need to be?

Reflections on recent developments that point to some new thinking on nature.

Continue reading →

Lockdown Spring

In the latest in my long-read essay series, a look back to the lockdown spring of 2020, and forward to a season of renewed hope: the unique season that is the British springtime.

Continue reading →

Mabey@80

“To renew the living fabric of the land so that it also replenishes the spirits of its human inhabitants seems to me as close as one can come to a single expression of the aims of a total conservation policy.” Richard Mabey The Common Ground

Continue reading →

Nature’s New Year (2)

Part 2 of my long-read essay on thoughts about the new year: new years in general and this one in particular.

Continue reading →

Nature’s New Year (1)

At two minutes past ten in the morning, on Monday 21 December, the sun's solstice will occur. A traditional turning of the new year, and a welcome moment at which to turn thoughts towards 2021.

Continue reading →

Back on the circuit!

It may be a virtual event, but the Kendal Mountain Literature Festival later this month is a welcome return to the festival stage after a summer of seeing appearances vanish from the diary.

Continue reading →

Framing Nature has landed!

Framing Nature is on its way to a bookshop near you! On this page you'll find all the information you need if you're thinking about buying it, or if you are a bookseller, reviewer or journalist.

Continue reading →

Extinction – who cares?

To mark the publication on Monday of Framing Nature - conservation and culture, this long-read essay compiles edited excerpts on the subject of extinction and loss

Continue reading →