"Look at it this way"

I'm currently reading Nicholas Crane's new book on the history of Britain's footpaths: how they came about originally following the drowning of Doggerland , and were then refined by successive waves of change: horses, the Roman invasion etc. It's a dense and scholarly work, with plenty of points of interest and relevance to geographers exploring the connections between people and the landscape. He's taking his book on the road in a series of talks, with three confirmed so far. Here's the description for his talk at Stanford's book shop at the end of the month . He's also speaking in Exeter and Stamford. Walking is a cornerstone of British identity and the most popular form of exercise in the UK. But how much do we know about the paths that we walk? What is their history? Why do they follow the routes that they do? Are they permanent? Can we designate more of them?​ The Path More Travelled is a coast-to-coast history of footpaths from the stone age paths...

  A cross-posting from my Geography in/on Film blog. Check it out! A new film called 'Our Land' explores land ownership in the UK and the role of trespass. Free tickets are funded through the BFI Escapes initiative. Our Land dares to tread where few have trespassed before, asking the timely question of who has the right to roam in the English countryside? The UK is a wild and beautiful place, but the vast majority of it is off limits to the general public, with 92% of land and 97% of all rivers in England not legally accessible. At the same time, it is a landscape shaped by centuries of inheritance and tradition, with land held and cared for by families across multiple generations. Our Land takes us to the heart of the ‘Right to Roam’ movement as it embarks on a provocative trail of mass trespass, campaigning and education, while also exploring landowners’ concerns around environmental protection and the danger such widespread access could pose to a landscape already  under th...

A lovely short film...

Thanks to David Alcock for sending me details of this event.  It's a lecture to be hosted by Bradford Grammar School with Professor Jurgen Neuberg from Leeds University. It will take place on Monday the 27th of April at 6pm. Scan the code to book your ticket(s).

On my recent trip to Iceland, I had some time to explore the Hafnarhús - an old industrial building down by the harbour which is now a modern art museum / gallery. Hafnarhús is located in the oldest part of Reykjavik, where the town’s boats and first docks lay. The building was erected in the 1930s and at the time it was one of the largest buildings in the country. It was renovated by Studio Grandi architects in 1998-2000 to house Reykjavík Art Museum. I was drawn there by one particular exhibit which had previously been Iceland's entry for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2025. I read about this at the time. Lavaforming is a proposal on how the brutal force of lava can be turned into a valuable resource, capable of lowering atmospheric emissions through its future use as a sustainable building material.  The exhibition tells the story of a future society that has learned to tame lava flows, utilise them, and thus turn a local threat into an...

Useful for GCSE Living in Norfolk I am never too far from the sea, and erosion is a regular feature of local news programmes. The Look East evening news programme mentioned a documentary that has been put together by the news team, exploring the region's issues with coastal erosion. It's called 'Against the Tide' and can be viewed on ITVX.