Last night, the moon was bright over Mount’s Bay in Penzance. This morning, St Michael’s Mount is concealed by murky but welcome drizzle.

I spent the day tracking down the elusive Cornish chough along the coast between Cape Cornwall and Land’s End. There were none until suddenly there were many, bouncing around the coastguard lookout at Sennen Cove.

It's a @bsecs.bsky.social take over at the York Georgian Festival this year, with events featuring @historymatt.bsky.social & @brycchancarey.bsky.social 🎉 Book your tickets: www.mansionhouseyork.com/york-georgia... #18C #18thC #18thCentury #YorkGeorgianFest

I’ve had a lazy day at Portscatho in Cornwall, wandering around cliffs and art galleries, enjoying the palm trees, and lingering over a stupendous Sunday roast.

I’m spending a few days in Cornwall, my childhood home. This is St. Mawes Castle in the foreground with Pendennis Castle behind, both constructed by Henry VIII to guard over the Carrick Roads and Falmouth Harbour.

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

For the first time in 40 years, I walked out to Lihou Island, a tidal island on the west coast of Guernsey connected by a narrow causeway from L’Erée and its brutalist Nazi tower. Lihou used to be famous for its seaweed-eating sheep, now gone, but the ruined priory remains.

Some memorials in Guernsey for those who fled the Nazis in 1940 and for those who were deported and murdered by them. My grandmother and her children escaped by crossing the Channel on a small boat; neither the first nor the last to escape oppression by that route.

I’m in Guernsey seeing my dad and catching up with cousins. It’s lovely to be back.

Today I’ve been in Blandford Forum in Dorset. This “charming Georgian town” is so because it was entirely burnt to the ground in 1731 and rebuilt. This “dire disaster” is remembered in a monument raised in 1760 by John Bastard, “a considerable Sharer in the general Calamity”.

Day two of the road trip. The halfway point between Notts and Dorset turned out to be Stowe. The place inspired Pope, Swift, Gay, and Thompson, but I found it excessive and rather sterile, although superficially scenic.

First day of our summer holiday road trip and we’ve got as far south as Nottinghamshire. We had a fascinating guided tour of the private state rooms at Welbeck Abbey, but no photos were allowed so we ended the day over the road at photogenic Cresswell Crags. Cragtastic!

Very excited to see this new biography of William Sancho, son of Ignatius Sancho, which reveals the 'multifaceted career' of a bookseller and well-connected man about town who contributed to the early vaccination movement and the campaign against slavery. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

William Sancho and the Possibilities of Black British Lives in Late Georgian Britain

Cambridge Core - English Literature: General Interest - William Sancho and the Possibilities of Black British Lives in Late Georgian Britain

cambridge.org

Rolling moorlands, woodlands and wide-open starry skies. The 3,800 hectare Rothbury Estate in Northumberland is a place of rare beauty, steeped in human history. The Wildlife Trusts still need to raise £12 million to save it for the nation. Please donate today! www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals/roth...

Donate to Secure The Rothbury Estate | The Wildlife Trusts

Stretching over 3,800 hectares, the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland is abundant with opportunity. It’s the largest continuous area of land to appear on the market in 50 years. Its sale creates a uni...

wildlifetrusts.org

It's great to see that the call for papers for the 2027 ISECS International Congress on the Enlightenment is now open! It's hosted by Zaragoza in Spain on 12-16 July and I'll definitely be there! www.isecs-zaragoza2027.net/en/en-home/

'Ten years on from the vote: Brexit has turned the UK grey not green. A new report commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts has uncovered the decade-long decline of the UK’s environment since the EU Referendum.' www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/ten-yea...

Ten years on from the vote: Brexit has turned the UK grey not green | The Wildlife Trusts

A new report commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts has uncovered the decade-long decline of the UK’s environment since the EU Referendum.

wildlifetrusts.org

This lovely corner of Hauxley nature reserve, Northumberland, was a birders paradise today. I saw my 100th species of the year - a Cetti’s warbler - along with knot, green sandpiper, little gull, black-tailed godwit, barnacle geese, a Canada/greylag hybrid, and many, many more…

Thank you to all of you who have sent me birthday greetings today. I’ve had a lovely day on a boat trip round the Farne Islands. I’m always so grateful to live in such a lovely part of the world!

It's that time of year again! The Alnwick 'What a a Wonderful World' festival is on at the Alnwick Playhouse - and beyond - on 25-28 June. There's a fantastic line up of music, poetry, workshops, talks and visits, with something for everyone. Come and join in! whataww.org/festival-eve...

There’s a haar, or sea fret, coming up the Aln to Alnwick Castle this evening.

The fruits of idleness! Or rather the flowers of idleness. By simply not mowing parts of my lawn I now have orchids, which arrived of their own accord and love growing where the yellow rattle naturally suppresses the grass.

Apply here: asle.org.uk/awards/grants/

Applications are open for the 2026/27 BSECS-Northumbria Fellowship, offering expenses up to the value of £4000 to support a visiting scholar undertaking research into the long eighteenth century. More information and apply at bsecs.org.uk/prizes-and-a... @bsecs.bsky.social

I was at Siccar Point in Berwickshire earlier today for the launch of the ‘Deep Time Trail’ marking the site of James Hutton’s unconformity - the geological feature that transformed our understanding of the history of the Earth. james-hutton.org/deep-time-tr...

I’m giving a talk at St Olave’s Church in London this evening about Tudor botanist William Turner, who is buried there. So is Samuel Pepys, who lived next door, saved the church from the Great Fire, and buried his parmesan cheese in the garden. @literarybritain.bsky.social

Some news in my local paper, The Northumberland Gazette. “one of UK’s last tea leaf readers fears ancient art could die out”. But why “fears”? Surely she knows?

Out Now! The Cambridge Companion to Ignatius Sancho, edited by Nicole Aljoe and Kristina Huang with 14 original essays. My chapter revisits Joseph Jekyll's 'Life of Ignatius Sancho' and offers a new theory on how Sancho got from Cartagena to Blackheath. www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

The Cambridge Companion to Ignatius Sancho | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

cambridge.org

Applications are now open for the 2026/27 BSECS-Northumbria Fellowship, offering expenses up to the value of £4000 to support a visiting scholar undertaking research into the long eighteenth century. More information and apply at www.bsecs.org.uk/prizes-and-a...

Tristan da Cunha has some wonderful place names like “Down Where the Minister Land His Things” and “Ridge Where the Goat Jump Off”. They’ll now need to add “Where The Paratroopers Rescue The Hantavirus Victims”.

The final figures are yet to come in but so far, in England, the three main progressive parties combined have done slightly better than the two conservative parties combined. More evidence, if more evidence was needed, of the need for a Progressive Alliance.