Husband is reading a political biog which contains this fantastic anecdote about George Brown, the boozy Deputy Leader of Harold Wilson’s cabinet:

Sorry, but book is out next week & promo I must. You know - 3 yrs work & all that, & through some big stuff. And the wonderfully kind @joannacdobson.bsky.social has said this about it; & I’m utterly made up: “there’s a universality about it …I’ve never read anything quite like it.’ #booksky

Such an important book. Pubd by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social edited by Anna Chilvers & Clare Shaw. I'm thrilled to be alongside a bevvy of wonderful writers & poets. My New Guinea bit is a far cry from Walshaw but highlights bog significance globally. We must fight to protect them all. #BookofBogs

"There were five of us judges. Stanfords put together the shortlist, then we read the six books over a couple of months before coming together to discuss them." fivebooks.com/best-books/b...

To ‘ultra-crepidate’ (19th century) is to lecture others on subjects you know very little about.

‘Potus, in full manuka honey-hued visibility, appeared thrilled with the spectacle in his honour.’ — @jemima.bsky.social, in today’s @financialtimes.com, captures the Trumpery in Windsor.

I toured UK council estates and learned this: all our lives are poems just waiting to be written | Rowan McCabe

Our Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction remain open for submission until 5pm on Monday 22 September. Apply online today for your chance to win a prize of up to £10,000 to support your first commissioned work of non-fiction: rsliterature.org/rsl-giles-st...

New and forthcoming books on travel and place: @peteralanross.bsky.social journeys through Ancient Britain & Ireland; Miles Morland goes round the world -- twice -- on a motorcycle; and @bfox.bsky.social spends the Covid pandemic with curanderos in Peru. deskboundtraveller.com/new-books-on...

The final deadline to enter the #SEJAwards is tomorrow, September 16, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Enter now! www.sej.org/initiatives/...

How did I miss Saturday's Guardian Country diary? Two campers settle down for the night, the farmer arrives in a Range Rover... and Eben Muse (@ebenmyrddin.bsky.social) overturns expectations. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

We’re delighted to announce the 2025 #WainwrightPrize Winners! From powerful storytelling to vital conservation work and bold illustration, this year’s winners reflect the richness, urgency, and joy of writing about the natural world. wainwrightprize.com #StoriesThatConnect

Strong long list for the £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, including 'Lone Wolf' by @adamweymouth.bsky.social & 'The Finest Hotel in Kabul' by Lyse Doucet: deskboundtraveller.com/weymouth-and....

‘Israel is committing genocide in Gaza’, say world’s leading experts www.channel4.com/news/israel-...

In 2006, Joanna Pocock traveled from east to west across the United States by Greyhound bus as she mourned her miscarriage. Seventeen years later, now in her midfifties, she did it again.

Dipping again into the work of Byron Rogers, who died earlier this month. Reminded that he was a journalist, author, biographer, part-time speechwriter to the Prince of Wales... and a master of the drop intro.

Sam Freedman nails it.

From a lost horizon in Worthing to Shangri-La... deskboundtraveller.com/from-a-lost-...

Fifty years since Springsteen released 'Born to Run', and it's still helping me hit the road...

Lovely piece by Keith Blackmore in @theobserveruk.bsky.social on how, as a lost and lonely teenager, he was saved by Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’: observer.co.uk/culture/musi....

I reviewed Greyhound by @joannapocock.bsky.social for this week's @ftweekend.com. Much of what the author witnesses on her journey across the US is bleak but there are profound moments of grace and I didn't want the ride to end www.ft.com/content/2089...

Angela's tireless – and peerless – compiling continues ...

The camera never lies -- but it can be used to suggest that we're looking at something other than what was there, especially in the Arctic... deskboundtraveller.com/lighting-loc...

The camera never lies -- but it can be used to suggest that we're looking at something other than what was there, especially in the Arctic... deskboundtraveller.com/lighting-loc...

In 2021, with Covid restrictions easing, I was introduced to the rewilding project at Knepp (@kneppwilding.bsky.social‬) and — thanks to a painting in the downstairs loo — transported back to Nicaragua… deskboundtraveller.com/lighting-loc...

We’re thrilled to announce the 2025 #WainwrightPrize shortlists! From climate and conservation to poetry, place and powerful storytelling for young readers, this year’s books celebrate our connection to the natural world. Explore them all: wainwrightprize.com #StoriesThatConnect

We have some of the finest writers on nature around Contributing to : The Book of Bogs - which is publishing in September. The destruction of our bogs and peat lands. Including: Amy Liptrot @horatioclare.bsky.social Robert McFarlane Edited by Anna Chilvers & Clare Shaw

In the Writer’s Reads column of the new issue of @geographical.co.uk, I give a shout-out to some brilliant books, including: The Last American Road Trip by @sarahkendzior.bsky.social Daybreak in Gaza by @matthewteller.com Black Ghosts by @noosarowiwa.bsky.social

Thank you so much to @ellencph.bsky.social for engaging so deeply with the issues raised in GREYHOUND. 🙏 observer.co.uk/culture/book...

What was it like to move home during the pandemic? Something like this... deskboundtraveller.com/lighting-loc...

Coming tomorrow with @shafikmeghji.bsky.social youtu.be/dTp_ubRU6Qk?...

Never been a fan of heavy metal, but I do love the writing of Elif Shafak. Having read her tribute in @theobserveruk.bsky.social‬ to Ozzy Osbourne, I'm thinking maybe I need new ears: observer.co.uk/news/opinion....

Congratulations to Jeff Young, winner of this year’s TLS Ackerley Prize for his highly original and exhilaratingly written memoir ‘Wild Twin’, published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social‬

What real humanitarian organisations are saying about Gaza…

Some very exciting news yesterday - Night Train to Odesa won the Highland Book Prize! www.shetnews.co.uk/2025/07/22/s...

Night Train to Odesa by journalist Jen Stout has won the Highland Book Prize www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article... (£)

Answering a call of nature…?

Following birdwatchers, as they have followed birds, has taken me to places I would never otherwise have seen... deskboundtraveller.com/lighting-loc...

The perfect poem to recite in your head on a morning run when the temperature already feels like 23C at 9 o'clock: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42891/....

Following birdwatchers, as they have followed birds, has taken me to places I would never otherwise have seen... deskboundtraveller.com/lighting-loc...

Summer evenings and beautiful light at County Antrim’s Causeway Coast. 📸 Alistair Hamill Photography

An essential read from the Holocaust scholar ‪@omerbartov.bsky.social‬.

For a story: I'm looking to talk to runners who had to drop out of a half marathon or marathon (or anything in between) because it was an "unusually" hot day. I would need to use your real name in the piece. (I know "unusually hot day" is not really a thing anymore but you know what I mean).

The TBR pile is tottering, but after reading this interview I've somehow ordered another book...

Just the weather for…

Its front section may no longer look like a newspaper, but The Observer is still producing some tremendous journalism.

Long list for the 2025 Wainwright Prizes for writing on nature and conservation: deskboundtraveller.com/wainwright-p....

Insightful piece by @stevenhyden.bsky.social on Springsteen's 'Lost Albums': www.theringer.com/2025/06/26/m...

And the last thing you need, as you retreat indoors from the sweltering heat...