Set in a silver sea: the glory of Britain’s islands
Alice Albinia reminds us that Orkney was a trading station long before London, Iona the epicentre of Celtic Christianity and Shetland a haven for liberal Udal law
England in infra-red: the beauty of the country at night
Moving stealthily through starlit fields and woods, John Lewis-Stempel marvels at nature’s many dark mysteries
From hearts of oak to hulls of steel: centuries of the British at sea
An ocean of clichés surrounds Britain’s maritime history, from Chaucer’s Shipman to the ‘little ships’ at Dunkirk. Tom Nancollas, whose…
The map as a work of art
’Tis the season of complacency, when we sit in warmth and shiver vicariously with Mary and Joseph out in the…
Eager for beavers : the case for their reintroduction
Conservationists are frequently criticised for focusing on glamorous species at the expense of others equally important but unluckily uglier —…
Our rivers, as much as our oceans, are in urgent need of protection
Geography can be history and history geography — and sometimes the most obvious things are overlooked. Laurence C. Smith’s Rivers…
The treasures to be found mudlarking by the Thames
The 1950 B-film The Mudlark tells of an urchin who ekes out an unpleasant existence scavenging the slimy Thames foreshore.…
A remote island tribe in Indonesia makes whaling seem positively noble
Our relations with cetaceans have always been charged with danger and delight, represented by the extremes of the Book of…
Simplicius Simplicissimus and the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War
On 23 May 1618, Bohemian Protestants pushed two Catholic governors and their secretary through the windows of Prague Castle, in…
Class observation
A hoicked-up small boy sits astride a yoked-up heavy horse, while three sun-stained men smile at posterity. Hairy hooves press…
Spurred on
‘Old radicals become quietist’ a character in Valley of the Weed tells Plant, the appropriately-named private detective investigating the disappearance…
