David Cooper

‘Each time I’ve been to Fingal’s Cave, the sense of natural magnitude dwarfing human endeavour has been inescapable. Turner’s painting amplified the feeling: a luminescent, natural arch opening into the unfathomable past’: Fiona Stafford on Staffa.

I’d encourage everyone to read this heart-breakingly beautiful piece by @wildtwin.bsky.social intoday’s paper & then, if you haven’t already done so, buy a copy of ‘Wild Twin’ from @littletollerbooks.bsky.social amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Predictably, at the end of Induction Week, I’m spending Saturday evening in bed having come down with some sort of bug. Can anyone recommend any good place/landscape/geography podcasts that can take me elsewhere as I feel sorry for myself? Thanks!

Exploring the explorers’ maps - RGS This talk will discuss explorers’ maps with an especial emphasis on the collaborative effort that goes into creating them, an effort that often included Indigenous peoples. It asks what stories we can...

Exploring the explorers’ maps: free hybrid RGS-IBG lecture by Katherine Parker on 28 October www.rgs.org/events/upcom...

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country, The Sound of the Fens Martha Kearney is on Fen Edge in Cambridgeshire listening to the sound of the countryside.

The Sound of the Fens: wonderful BBC Open Country in which Martha Kearney visits Helpston & Fen Edge to explore how the landscape has changed since the days of John Clare. Features Francesca Mackenney discussing Clare’s soundscapes www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

‘I want to make some kind of gesture. An offering. A mark of passing. And to leave it here. Tied to the land’: about to re-immerse myself - for the nth time - in the extraordinary deep map of Richard Skelton’s ‘Landings’.

Just spent much of the train commute home dreaming of walking into this painting (‘Washdaybreak’, 2003) by Martin Greenland martingreenland.co.uk

Although we lived in Cockermouth for a few years when my wife worked in the museum in Whitehaven, my PhD was on the poet, Norman Nicholson, so it will always be Millom for me!

Abstract image with text: Reflections on histories and philosophies of geography: biographies, philosophies, impacts.

Delighted to see the new special issue of the Journal of Historical Geography out: Reflections on histories and philosophies of geography. Edited by Heike Jöns, myself, Pauline Couper & Federico Ferretti: #geosky

www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...

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Mapping the Tube: 1863-2023 | 25 October - 30 November 2024 25 Oct - 30 Nov 2024. A new exhibition by The Map House exploring the evolution of the iconic London Underground map over its 160-year history. The exhibition will include unique a unique collection o...

Mapping the Tube: 1863-2023 - exhibition at The Map House - from 25 October to 30 November - exploring the evolution of London’s Tube system and the London Underground map. The exhibition will feature some of Harry Beck’s hand-drawn & annotated manuscripts www.themaphouse.com/exhibitions/...

‘The Outrun’: special preview screening of Nora Fingscheidt’s adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s remarkable memoir at HOME in Manchester on Thursday, 26 September homemcr.org/film/the-outru…

Fellowship opportunities We're committed to the development of early career researchers and support outstanding candidates to apply for externally funded research schemes.

ICYMI: The Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University is keen to support applications for 2025 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Please get in touch via email if you’re interested & want to find out more about the internal selection process www.mmu.ac.uk/research/fel...

Job Opportunity at York St John University: Lecturer in Geography

JOB: lecturer in Geography (f/t, perm). We're looking for a cultural geographer to join us at York St John Uni from January. Closing date 13 Oct. Details online at jobs.yorksj.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Apologies to those who already know this, but Hookland is a pre-enchanted landscape you already own. It's there for your use if needed or wanted. Fill your boots.

‘Making Geography Matter: Opening up the Doreen Massey Archive’ - a brilliant funded PhD at the Open University. Closing date: 7 January 2025 www.oocdtp.ac.uk/making-geogr...

Spent much of the day thinking about the past of the Portico Library thanks to the doctoral research of Michelle Ravenscroft; spent the evening in a trustees meeting & thinking about the Library’s exciting future in the centre of Manchester www.theportico.org.uk/reuniting-po...

‘What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us…’ (Georges Perec).

Spent a wonderful day yesterday at the Liverpool Travel Seminar at the Bluecoat reflecting on & celebrating the field-shaping work of @timyoungs.bsky.social Many thanks to all involved for making it happen.

Cover of Marshland, by Gareth E. Rees, showing a warped image of a pylon.

Publication day for the new, expanded version of 'Marshland' - out now via Influx Press www.influxpress.com/marshland

'Layered London, black, funny, marshy, full of horrible vigour & hidden channels.' – M. John Harrison.

Help secure Skiddaw Forest - an extraordinary opportunity for nature | Cumbria Wildlife Trust The purchase of Skiddaw Forest (including Skiddaw summit) presents an unparalleled opportunity for nature and Cumbrian Wildlife. With your help, this world renowned wilderness can be protected for nat...

The Cumbria Wildlife Trust fundraiser to secure and ecologically restore Skiddaw has just hit the half-way mark. Please donate if you can:
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social @wanderinggaia.bsky.social @irishrainforest.bsky.social @alexvont.bsky.social

Here’s the paperback edition of A Book of Noises from Granta Books. It will be on sale in October

Early morning commute to work: ‘This writing business is going really well as I’ve written over 500 words - all of them excellent - & it’s not even 8am.’ Early evening commute home after a day of meetings: ‘I don’t know what a sentence is.’

In and around Maiden Newton.

Today has been spent travelling from Lowestoft to Romney Marsh to Dorset to the Upper Thames in meetings with some of our brilliant postgraduate researchers in the Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Today has been a good day.

Here’s an updated link www.mmu.ac.uk/research/fel...

Fellowship opportunities We're committed to the development of early career researchers and support outstanding candidates to apply for externally funded research schemes.

Thanks for alerting me to this. Does this work? www.mmu.ac.uk/research/fel...

The Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University is keen to support applications for 2025 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Please get in touch via email if you’re interested & want to find out more about the internal selection process mmu.ac.uk/research/fello…

‘All my life I have restlessly been looking for a home, for a room. And it was here all along’: I’ve just been left breathless by the beautifully traumatic final chapter in Wild Twin by @wildtwin.bsky.social Published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social on 18 Sept littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/lit…

The end of summer . . .

Starve Acre review: an unnerving Yorkshire folk horror A grieving family turn to folk remedies and rituals to cope with their loss in Daniel Kokotajlo’s supremely creepy adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurley’s novel.

Delighted to see my colleague Andrew Michael Hurley's novel STARVE ACRE getting the in-cinemas-now film treatment. A nice, gnarly bit of folk horror as the evenings draw in.