A Doe, A Deer
by Ben Myers Summer in Yorkshire arrived for four days last Easter and then disappeared behind a curtain of rain. All my plans for being outdoors were jettisoned in favour of staying at my desk writing a new book, punctuated only by daily trudges through mud and mulch. I treat these walks as one-man marches [...]
Caught by the Reaper
Words & picture by Charles Rangeley Wilson. Christmas Eve brought Moby Dick to the coast of North Norfolk: a fifty-five foot sperm whale washed onto the beach within yards of a public car park and access path in Old Hunstanton. The decomposing corpse of Moby – Ahab may have been inside it – soon became [...]
R & B on the River Thames
Rivers & Boats & Rhythm & Blues: on BBC Radio 4 this evening, the first in a series of 15 minute radio documentaries going out under the banner, Kenneth Cranham On The Water. The subject this week is Eel Pie Island, 1964. Home then to the young faces of the burgeoning British R & B [...]
On Holme Beach
by Danny Adcock. As I crest the dunes a flock of fieldfares take flight, and lifting from the spiked sea-buckthorn bushes circle back behind me over the golf course. The distant tide is visible, but only just. There’s a stillness to the morning that stretches out across the landscape. The sky and horizon blend in [...]
I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces
16 January 2012 // Miscellany //Music
I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces – Music in Vernacular Photographs 1880-1955. Reviewed by Ian Preece: I can definitely remember the point, some time in my late twenties/early thirties, when looking back at old family photos suddenly became really sad. 1970s holidays; rainy days in Lincolnshire; caravans and bungalows on the east [...]
Here’s A Health to the Hooden Horse!
by Becky Stewart. This year I got my first taste of a truly traditional Thanet Christmas – A Hoodening! An ancient pagan custom marking the winter solstice that dates back many centuries and whose definitive meaning is so lost in time no one will ever know it’s true origin. Many theories abound. Even at the [...]
George Green (1793-1841): A Miller From Nottingham and Quantum Physicist.
A tribute from Emma Montagu. I’ve always loved Windmills. I remember the Thornton windmill, near Blackpool, from when I was 3 or 4. It sat back from the high street unloved, dirty and forgotten about. Fenced off. When we went back last year it had been ‘restored’ by building a shopping centre round it and [...]
From Kenython to Kathmandu
Seth Jackson, son of artist, environmental activist and Caught by the River contributor Kurt Jackson, is in Nepal working with the WWF for four months. He’s keeping a blog which I’ve been enjoying reading so I thought I’d pass it on. The post below dates from the start of the blog, August 2011: From Kenython [...]
The Water Boatman’s Song
10 January 2012 // Miscellany //Radio
Nature: Episode Two – The Water Boatman’s Song Sound recordist Tom Lawrence captures the underwater sounds of Pollardstown Fen in Ireland. Writer and narrator Paul Evans joins Tom for a journey into the Fen to hear these sounds for himself. The programme was produced by Sarah Blunt for the BBC Natural History department. First broadcast [...]
New in the Shop
9 January 2012 // Birds //Miscellany
Murmuration – now available in a limited edition DVD! press release: Islands & Rivers are very excited to announce that they have made Murmuration into a really special DVD; with the original Murmuration film in highest quality, plus a second film of the exclusive extended Murmuration footage with the original natural audio, and a third [...]
