“The twentieth century began with utopia and ended with nostalgia.” Svetlana Boym One of the Moving Image Archive’s treasure troves is a collection of films produced for Films of Scotland, an agency set up by John Grierson for the Empire Exhibition of 1938 to make films promoting Scotland’s social, cultural and industrial heritage to the […]
Tag: nature
The Nature Fix : Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative
As Spring has finally sprung in the northern hemisphere, now is the time to go outdoors and benefit from a “nature fix”. Most of us enjoy going for a walk in the park or further afield in the countryside at this time of year. It seems, however, that it is only recently that scientists have begun to […]
Nan Shepherd on the new five pound note
Good news this week for Scottish literature. Nan Shepherd, one of our best and most interesting 20th century writers will feature on a new £5 note from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Who exactly was the commanding figure on the new note? Nan Shepherd (1893-1981) lived in Aberdeenshire all her life, and published only […]
Winner of Costa award: Biography of Alexander von Humboldt
The invention of nature : the adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the lost hero of science / by Andrea Wulf. Winner of Costa Biography award 2015. Why is this man not better known? That is the first thought which came to mind as I began to read this gripping and thoroughly researched biography, which is also a […]
Never look a polar bear in the eye
Welcome to Churchill, Manitoba. Year-round population: 943. Despite the isolation and the freezing cold at the arctic’s edge, visitors from around the globe flock to the town every autumn, driven by a single purpose: to see polar bears in the wild. For six weeks in October and November, this little town of nine hundred people […]
Otter country: in search of the wild otter
(Photo credit: Granta Books) (Image above displays the title of the book ‘Otter country: in search of the wild otters’ and the authors name ‘Miriam Darlington’ with a picture of an otter in a river with the reflection of trees showing in the water) Over the course of a year and a half, Miriam Darlington […]
Isolation in Thought
Upon the commencement of John George Bartholomew’s tenure as director of John Bartholomew & Co. in 1888, there is a marked tendency towards the cartographic. The riotous miscellany which characterised earlier times was replaced by better and better mapping. However, there are always exceptions to this rule, with the subject of this entry being just […]