The weather has been dreadful for weeks: sodden garden, fields underwater, and rivers breaking their banks. Plenty of curlew flying near Dunstanburgh Castle though, and I also saw my first ever Bean Goose, looking suspiciously orange-footed among a flock of Pink-footed Geese.

"No university library should be without this book. No municipal library should be without one either." My thanks to Conrad Brunstrom for this lovely review of my book The Unnatural Trade. Review: conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/01/06/t.... Buy the book at www.brycchancarey.com/bookshop/unn...

I’ve been at the University of Glasgow this evening, where they appear to cover the full spectrum of Scottish Enlightenment.

Last call! ASLE-UKI online seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature & Environment. Thur 29 Jan, 15:00-19:00 GMT. With me, Eric Gidal, James Metcalf, Nicolle Jordan, Alessio Mattana, Annette Hulbert, Jodie Matthews, & Tobias Menely. Register FREE at asle.org.uk/events/semin...

Polling suggests we passed peak Reform last autumn and the Tories are making a modest recovery. So Zahawi, Jenrick, Braverman et al are rats fleeing TO a sinking ship which, under the weight of all those failed and unpopular Tories, is only going to sink faster.

"An outstanding addition to a burgeoning field in slavery scholarship". My thanks to Ryan Hanley for this lovely review of my book The Unnatural Trade in The American Historical Review. Read the review at: doi.org/10.1093/ahr/.... More about the book at: www.brycchancarey.com/bookshop/unn...

Please join the @asleuki.bsky.social online seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature & Environment. Thur 29 Jan, 15:00-19:00 GMT. With me, Eric Gidal, James Metcalf, Nicolle Jordan, Alessio Mattana, Annette Hulbert, Jodie Matthews, & @tobiasmenely.bsky.social. Register at asle.org.uk/events/semin...

Fog on the Tyne? Actually, the Tyne, foreground, is clear. Those low clouds are following the course of the River Derwent, a tributary of the Tyne. As seen from the B&Q car park in Scotswood!

It's just a couple of weeks now until the ASLE-UKI Online Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature and Environment, on Thursday 29 Jan 2026, 3-7 pm GMT. All welcome! Further details and FREE registration information at: asle.org.uk/events/semin... @asleuki.bsky.social @bsecs.bsky.social

I’m in Oxford for #BSECS2026 at Pembroke College, having braved blizzards to get here. No snow in Oxford, but there is plenty of light and shade.

Snowy afternoon in Alnwick Market Place.

We took our traditional new-year birding walk around Boulmer, Northumberland, this year and stayed until sunset. We saw 32 species including hundreds of lapwing and golden plover, smaller numbers of grey plover, plus widgeon, eider, curlew, and even a song thrush and grey wagtail on the beach.

"A forcefully argued, carefully constructed account of naturalism lending fuel to abolitionism." My thanks to Chris Townend for this very generous review of my book The Unnatural Trade in Slavery and Abolition, 46:3 (September 2025) 772–73. Read the review at doi.org/10.1080/0144...

Spare a thought for St. Nicholas tonight. He was a brilliant bishop who took part in the Council of Nicaea, but he grew old and fat. When the theological work dried up, he moved to the North Pole, began to hang around with elves, and was forced to take work as a night-shift delivery driver.

For the shortest, murkiest day of the year, Rosie and I walked around Gibside near Gateshead where there were woods and lakes, a ruined mansion, a Palladian chapel, and a colossal Whiggish statue of Liberty with her cap and staff at the end of a half-mile-long oak avenue. A modest estate.

Regent Street is looking angelic tonight while Oxford Street is having some light rain.

It’s a pleasingly grey morning in Seahouses, with atmospheric views to Bamburgh and the Farne Islands.

It's great to see so many signing up for the @asleuki.bsky.social Online Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature and Environment, on 29 Jan 2026, 3-7 pm GMT, but there's still room for more! Further details and registration information at: asle.org.uk/events/semin...

Newcastle Airport is planning to expand and they want your feedback. You can see their expansion masterplan and leave comments on their website - but hurry, the consultation closes on 30 November 2026. www.newcastleairport.com/corporate/co...

#COP30 is about to agree a climate deal that doesn’t mention fossil fuels, which is a bit like an alcoholic agreeing a plan to tackle his addiction without mentioning the vodka.

A snowy morning in my garden. A proper Northumberland November!

I’m teaching Oliver Goldsmith’s 1770 Deserted Village tomorrow. He says princes can be made and unmade and that the country is in trouble when the super rich accumulate wealth and farmers are put out of business. How on earth do I make any of that relevant to today’s students?

Shocking to see Panorama’s dodgy editing of Donald Trump. Is this the kind of honest, responsible journalism that we’ve come to expect from the show that exposed the failure of the Swiss spaghetti harvest as far back as 1957?

A huge range of studies covered by @charlottegoodge.bsky.social & Thomas Leonard-Roy, from @brycchancarey.bsky.social’s The Unnatural Trade to @rhyskamjones.bsky.social's ‘Queering Thomas Gray’s Celticism’. Itching to get reading & #editing! @englishassociation.bsky.social @cecs-york.bsky.social

A date for your diary: Please join the ASLE-UKI Online Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature and Environment, 29 Jan 2026, 3-7 pm GMT. Convened by Brycchan Carey (Northumbria) and Tess Somervell (Oxford). Further details and registration information at: asle.org.uk/events/semin...

I spotted this poster on the community noticeboard of my local supermarket. I’m glad to see the word is getting out and I hope to see vast crowds at the Whittingham Memorial Institute next Wednesday evening to hear my talk about William Turner, the Tudor botanist from Morpeth.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust are appealing for donations to save the Rothbury Estate, a breathtaking mix of moorland, woodland, rivers, and farmland. Until 30 September, whatever you give will be doubled, up to £100,000. You can find out more and donate at www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals/roth...

My travel plans for the week reveal one way British English is clearer than American English: American: I'm going to Sheffield Wednesday! British: I'm going to Sheffield on Wednesday.

We're teaming up with Alnwick Playhouse to present Christo Waller's film Leaving it Better, a compelling story of what happened when environmentalists met with Teesdale farmers. Join us on Tuesday 7 October, 7.30pm. Admission FREE! More information and book at alnwickplayhouse.co.uk/event/leavin...

ASLE-UKI Online Seminar Eighteenth-Century Literature and Environment 29 January 2026, 3:00-7:00pm GMT Convenors: Brycchan Carey (Northumbria University) and Tess Somervell (University of Oxford) Further details: asle.org.uk/events/semin... Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/asle-uki-s...

📣Did you know that ASLE-UKI members are entitled to a 30% discount via Taylor and Francis? You can access this on our website: asle.org.uk/green-letters/

📣Green Letters: Call for Applications for Co-General Editor For details, please visit asle.org.uk/green-letter...

Just had a grand day out in #Coldstream - first at the museum (sadly at risk of closure) with a fascinating exhibit on the Coldstream Guards, then the Guards Monument overlooking the Tweed, and finally tea and a walk round the lake at the Hirsel, home of the Douglas-Home family.

Here’s a lovely rainbow visible from my back garden in #Alnwick this evening, although as usual the crock of gold appears to have landed in the castle rather than the town centre.

I’ve been at High Hauxley on this rather grey day today where at 3pm sharp every birder, and every bird, was startled by the emergency phone alert test. But saw my first snipe, ruff, pochard, shoveler, and goosander of the year, and my first ever wood sandpiper. Success!

I'm very excited to learn that my book The Unnatural Trade is one of the final seven candidates for the 2025 Society for the History of Natural History Book Prize (The Thackray Medal). My thanks to the @sochistnathist.bsky.social readers! You can see the full list at >> shnh.org.uk/news/announc...

The deadline for submitting proposals for #BSECS2026 is only two weeks away. Get scribbling! #skystorians #18thC 🗃️ This year's theme is 'Big and Small', 7-9 January, Pembroke College, Oxford. www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

"Carey’s razor-sharp key insight is that C18th abolitionism engaged as much with emerging environmental and life sciences as with the moral philosophy with which it has long been associated" - Monique Allewaert reviews The Unnatural Trade in the William & Mary Quarterly: muse.jhu.edu/pub/275/arti...

I was at Kilkenny Castle today with @rosiepaice.bsky.social and Páraic Finnerty. It has many C17th and C18th portraits of the Butler family - Dukes of Ormande - their family, and English royals. If you’re after Stuart monarchs, come here, but if it’s Hanoverians you’re after, try elsewhere.

I visited the Hill of Tara, Co. Meath, today with @cobrunstrom.bsky.social and @rosiepaice.bsky.social This ancient site has prehistoric burial sites, ancient carvings, the Irish Stone of Destiny, and fabulous views over most of central Ireland. As recommended by generations of high kings!

Despite Seamus Heaney’s warning, I did park along the Flaggy Shore and try to capture the slate-grey lake full of swans, the glittering sea, somewhat less wild on an August evening, and the flagstones full of fossil corals like ghostly ferns pressed into the limestone.

The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE-UKI) conference in Galway is concluding with novelist Lisa McInerney reading from her Cork novels and in conversation with Patrick Lonergan. A fabulous end to a fantastic conference! @asleuki.bsky.social

In the cavernous lecture hall at the @asleuki conference in Galway, John Brannigan is giving his keynote talk “On the place of herons in archipelagic writing”.

If you’re at the @asleuki.bsky.social conference in Galway, take a look at my book The Unnatural Trade on the book stall. I have copies for sale at the special conference price of €30 - ask me in the coffee/lunch breaks. If you’re not in Galway, find out more at brycchancarey.com/bookshop/ind...

I’m in Galway this week for the conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment UK and Ireland (@asleuki.bsky.social), which this year has the theme of “Erosion”. Conference organiser Ashley Cahillane is giving us a warm welcome!

We have a new review on our website: Nayanika Shome reviews Brycchan Carey's The Unnatural Trade: Slavery, Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1650-1807 (www.bsls.ac.uk/2025/08/care...)

I took a drive around the Connemara coast this afternoon. Visibility was often poor but the stunning landscape invariably shone through.

"Among the many virtues of The Unnatural Trade... are its deep knowledge of abolitionist thought, its systematic approach to cultural and literary history, and its striking and persuasive turns of phrase" -- Timothy Erwin's review in Modern Philology. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

I paid my respects to W.B. Yeats today. I stopped at his grave in Drumcliff church, Co. Sligo, in the shadow of Ben Bulben. Yeats was the one who really turned me on to the power of poetry. Thank you.

I’ve been walking around Donegal today - including the Eske Estuary, the ruined abbey, and the once ruined but now partly restored castle. I saw my first kingfisher of the year in the river under the castle!