Essays about beasts, monsters and nature
A few months ago I was on BBC Woman's Hour talking about the persistent and not-so-recent trend in all things unicorn. [Listen to the clip here] It was a last minute appearance, I had barely had time to prepare at all before I was being ushered into the studio to sit eyeball to eyeball with the... Continue Reading →
#ExtinctionRebellion's pink herring: my thoughts on the soundbite conservationism over the Bank Holiday weekend
New blog post (rather more tongue in cheek than usual): Unicorns used to be fabulous, elusive beasts from the distant corners of the globe depicted on tapestries and the pages of medieval bestiaries. But look around now, and unicorns are nothing if not prolific. You can barely take a step these days without encountering one, figuratively or literally...
It seems like spangled octopuses have a great deal in common with spangled humans: fondling pretty things meditatively, snuggling up to one another and frolicing about unashamedly.
There is rarely a clearer demonstration of the ways in which the depictions of animals are used to give them moral weighing than looking at how a creature has been portrayed before and after its extinction. Especially if the extinction was caused or largely caused by humans. Take the thylacine....
A creative piece, written for the New Networks for Nature magazine out in November
Recently, the government announced that they would be extending badger culls (which have not worked) not only to other 'high risk' areas for bovine TB but also granting licenses in new 'low risk' zones across the UK as well. This is a very complicated issue.
