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!

I’m staying in Stranraer tonight. The abandoned ferry terminal in front of the hotel sadly reminds me of what Daniel Defoe said of nearby Kirkcudbright: “Here is a harbour without ships, a port without trade, a fishery without nets, a people without business.”

I'm delighted to announce that my book The Unnatural Trade has been shortlisted for the @asleuki.bsky.social Book Prize! The full list is at asle.org.uk/2025-asle-uk.... You can find out more about the book and order at www.brycchancarey.com/bookshop/unn.... Many thanks to the ASLE-UKI judges!

I've finished the eighteenth century! My clerical naturalists database now contains biographies and links for all individuals born before 1801, many of whose careers reach into the 1880s. You can find our more about the project and access the full list at www.brycchancarey.com/naturalists/

I was just in Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire, admiring the ‘Leaves of Southwell’. These 13th-century stone carvings have astonishingly accurate representations of oak, hawthorn, and field maple alongside dogs, pigs, and dragons vying with priests, nuns, princes, and kings.

In preparation for taking some annual leave, I’ve done nothing but deal with email for the past six and half days. At last, I’ve reached this mythological symbol just half a day into my leave period. Now, please may I request everyone’s assistance in keeping it that way!

You know you’re in Northumberland when there are sheep on the beach, castles on the horizon, and a vehicle that’s not going to pass its MoT.

Today I’m reminded of Lord Lundy, “who was too freely moved to tears and thereby ruined a political career”.

More noctilucent or night-shining clouds at midnight in Alnwick tonight. This time the dark low-level ‘night-time’ clouds contrast well with the shining high-level ‘day-time’ clouds.

The view from my window in Alnwick at midnight tonight. These I think are called noctilucent or night-shining clouds.

This month's update to my database of clerical naturalists brings the total to 1187 individuals. The most recent addition is Thomas Betson, (c. 1436–1516), rector of Wimbish, Essex, and author of the last monastic herbal produced in Britain. See the full list at www.brycchancarey.com/naturalists/...

It’s a grey morning in Queensferry

I’ve been looking at Pictish carvings in Perth today, and visiting a reconstructed hill fort nearby. The Perth museum have created a light show to suggest how the St. Madoes cross-slab might originally have looked when painted.

I’m in Stirling for a few days which, unusually for a Scottish city, perhaps uniquely, has an eighteenth-century pub in which Robert Burns once stayed. @literarybritain.bsky.social