Dr Penny Bradshaw

Interested in PG study in the fields of literary, cultural, heritage & environmental studies? Why not come along to our Open Day on Sat 8 Nov to find out more about our MA Literature, Romanticism & the English Lake District, based at our Ambleside campus: www.cumbria.ac.uk/events/open-...

Inspired as I always am at this time of year by our MA work on Beatrix Potter’s mycological studies, I have ‘gathered’ a little collection of fungi from recent walks 🍄🍄‍🟫

One of the highlights of the year: our MA student visit to The Armitt Museum and Library, to study the extraordinary mycological watercolours produced by Beatrix Potter in the 1890s as part of our engagement with the development of children’s literature in the Lake District 🍃📚🍄🍄‍🟫

Lovely walking post from one of our current MA students 📚🍃

Professor Angela Wright is editing Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho for The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ann Radcliffe.

Discover how this groundbreaking Gothic novel shaped Radcliffe’s legacy and why it remains essential reading: player.sheffield.ac.uk/events/editi...

#GothicFiction

YouTube video by Polly Atkin Companions of Nature: from sickbed consolations to mimic hootings

It's taken over 24 hours to get this uploaded with passable captions, but here's my talk from last night @cumbriauni.bsky.social with @drpennybradshaw.bsky.social on #TheCompanyOfOwls and #DorothyWordsworth. Including some terrible slights on robins, and blackbird impressions. youtu.be/goiC3hhlsx4

The last of the day’s light 🍂

The next event in our free monthly Cultural Landscapes series will be a talk by Cultural Historian, Dr Sue Allan, on 'Folk song, music & dance in the Lake Counties', taking place at our Ambleside campus on Tue 4 Nov. See here for details and to book a place: www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/per...

A wonderful start to our 25-26 Cultural Landscapes event series with a superb talk by
@pollyrowena.bsky.social which drew together material from her books ‘Recovering Dorothy’ & ‘The Company of Owls’ to explore modes of companionship with our fellow creatures & the wider natural environment 📚🍃🦉

Penny Bradshaw introducing Polly Atkin, in front of title slide of her 'Companions of Nature' talk

Polly Atkin in front of an image of 3 owlets

Great start to the 7th series of 'Cultural Landscapes' talks tonight: @pollyrowena.bsky.social on 'Companions of Nature' - launching the paperback edition of her book, 'The Company of Owls' @drpennybradshaw.bsky.social @samreadbookseller.bsky.social

Join us tomorrow evening at our Ambleside campus for this free talk by the brilliant @pollyrowena.bsky.social. Details and booking link can be found below 🍃📚

Autumnal nature art 🍂🍄

Join us on our Ambleside campus next Tuesday evening for this free talk with the brilliant @pollyrowena.bsky.social. All welcome - details and booking link can be found below 🍃📚🦉

As the garden has taken a bit of a battering over the last few hours, this seemed a good moment to make a last gathering of summer’s gifts for a little autumn display 🍂💐

Before the storm: beautiful autumn colours in Ambleside 🍂

Daphne Du Maurier, After Midnight: Thirteen Chilling Tales for the Dark Hours (Introduced by Stephen King) - Special indie edition with orange spredges, stood on the bookshop counter with bookshelves beyond.

Daphne NU Maurier www.samreadbooks.co.uk/product/daph...

On October 16th the paperback of #TheCompanyOfOwls is out - approx 30% more pocketable and more affordable than the beautiful hardback - but just as iconic thanks to Matt Underwood's #TawnyOwl print. Get an early copy at my (free!) talk in Ambleside, Oct 7th. #BookSky #NatureWriting #BookTalk

Day of leave to take my wonderful father for lunch and to the theatre - the latter was to see a superb and highly recommended production of ‘Death on the Nile’ at The Lowry 🎭

Interested in PG study in the fields of literary, cultural, heritage and environmental studies? Why not come along to our Open Day on Sat 4 Oct to find out more about our MA Literature, Romanticism and the English Lake District, based at our Ambleside campus: www.cumbria.ac.uk/events/open-...

I will be giving a talk on 'Children’s Literature and the Evolving Cultural Landscape of the Lake District' at the Armitt Library & Museum in Ambleside on Tue 30 September (2pm). Further details & booking link can be found here: armitt-library-and-museum-centre.arttickets.org.uk/armitt-libra....

It seems particularly moving to be reading this having spent the day discussing the work of another great 20thC northern poet, Norman Nicholson. Both brought something significant and new to the British poetry scene and both left a mark shaped, in part, by their northern roots.

An extraordinary day, showcasing so many impressive critical and creative responses to Nicholson’s work. Numerous highlights, from a brilliant & moving keynote from Dr David Cooper on ‘half a lifetime’ of reading Nicholson, to some superb and really inspirational papers from our MA graduates 📚🍃

How lovely- thank you Grace 😊

Absolutely golden week in Ambleside for our first week of MA teaching, in which we have explored the late 18thC ‘discovery’ of the Lakes, ideas about the human relationship with the natural environment, and the development of a link between the child and nature in the Romantic period📚🍃

Looking forward very much to hosting this symposium at our Ambleside campus tomorrow. We have a fantastic line up of speakers including Dr David Cooper as keynote and a number of our MA graduates who are giving papers 📚🍃 #LiteraryLandscapes

Photograph credit: Shaw and Shaw

The first event in our 2025-26 Cultural Landscapes series will be a talk by @pollyrowena.bsky.social: ‘Companions of nature: sickbed consolations & mimic hootings', on Tue 7 Oct (6.30pm) at our Ambleside campus. Details & booking link for this free event here: www.ticketsource.co.uk/cultural-lan...

For those who might like a copy! 😉

www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/l...

#BookSky

An afternoon of leave yesterday was spent on a gentle sunny meander around Cockshott Point - an area of Windermere’s shore which in the 1920s was in ‘imminent risk of disfigurement’ and which Beatrix Potter campaigned and raised funds to protect 📚🍃 #LiteraryLandscapes

One of my brilliant doctoral students, @whitbyabi.bsky.social will be talking about Anne Lister and Dorothy Wordsworth at this online research summit on Saturday 18 October. Visit here to see the full programme and to book a free place: www.annelisterresearchsummit.org/2025

Such a glorious day and one worthy of a proper walk under blue skies and through woods where light was filtered through a lingering canopy of leaves. Then coffee in the garden in the company of Dorothy Wordsworth’s ‘Rydal Journals’. As Sundays go, it was pretty much perfect 📚🍃