The Observant Walker: Wild Food, Nature and Hidden Treasures on the Pathways of Britain

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It will be a family meeting for David Dimbleby, who will talk about his new book Keep Talking: A Broadcaster’s Life, because his son, Henry, himself a writer on food and the environment, will be here with co-author Jemima Lewis to talk about their new book Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape . When we go for a walk, whether in the countryside or city, we pass through landscapes full of natural beauty and curiosities both visible and invisible – but though we might admire the view, or wonder idly about the name of a flower, we rarely have the knowledge to fully engage with what we see. When we do, our sense of place is expanded, our understanding deepened and we can discover richness in even the most everyday stroll. When we go for a walk, whether in the countryside or city, we pass through landscapes full of natural beauty and curiosities both visible and invisible – but though we might admire the view, or wonder idly about the name of a flower, we rarely have the knowledge to fully engage with what we see. When we do, our sense of place is expanded, our understanding deepened and we can discover richness in even the most everyday stroll.John Wright has been leading forays around Britain for decades. As an expert forager, he shows people how to identify the edible species that abound – but he also reveals the natural history, stories and science behind our surroundings. Here, he takes us with him on eight walks: from verdant forests to wild coastlines, via city pavements, fields and rolling hills, he illuminates what can be found on a walk across any British terrain, and how you might observe and truly understand them, for yourself.Warm, wise and endlessly informative, with helpful illustrations and suggested routes, this book will help you to see the world around you with new eyes: no walk will be the same again. The Observant Walker: Wild Food, Nature and Hidden Treasures on the Pathways of Britain by John Wright – eBook Details The bestselling author of 'The Forager's Calendar' and 'A Spotter's Guide to the Countryside', John Wright, is coming to Gloucester Road to talk about his new book, 'The Observant Walker'; a guide to the food, nature and history to be found all around us when we walk.

Perfect for a trivia night or a long trip, #TrainTeasers will both test your knowledge of this country`s rail system and enlighten you on the most colourful aspects of its long history. Meet trunk murderers, trainspotters, haters of railways, railway writers, Ministers for Transport good and bad, railway cats, dogs and a railway penguin. This is NOT a book for number-crunching nerds. Many of the answers are guessable by the intelligent reader. It is a quiz, yes, but also a cavalcade of historical incident and colour relating to a system that was the making of modern Britain.

John Wright is a naturalist and one of Great Britain's leading experts on fungi. His most recent books include A Spotter's Guide to the Countryside and The Forager's Calendar. He lives in Dorset, where he regularly leads forays into nature and goes on long walks across all terrains. The Forager's Calendar won the 2020 Guild of Food Writers Award and the 2020 Woodland Book of the Year. This can extend to other senses as well, such as an audit or map of tastes and smells, a scent walk, imagining spirits in what you see, or putting together random objects in interesting ways. One Flew Over the Puffin’s Nest is Paul Sherman’s second collection of stories set in Herm and his event will feature a walkabout from Herm Harbour. The airline’s pilots had been taught the American needle-ball-airspeed method of low-visibility flight control by Kingsford Smith personally. The observant walker

Walking with a neighbourhood expert or a companion can bring out new objects, significances and connections along the way, Rob advises. Walking or drifting through unfamiliar parts of town, randomising your movements, and seeing how tourists view your own town are other revealing activities. Meeting faraway friends at geographic midpoints can open up new places to explore. Other suggested exercises are eating in off-beat places, keeping a nature log or field guide about everyday objects, testing your memory of observation, making one-minute videos about and from different locations, and adding annotations to historical places or plaques on public objects that memorialise incidents. From business, politics and economics, Jamie Susskind will talk about his book The Digital Republic – On Freedom and Democracy in the 21 st Century and asks how can freedom and democracy survive in a world of powerful digital technologies. Jamie will talk at the Festival’s Business Breakfast.This year’s Festival, which runs from 2-14 May, will have more than 65 events, including 15 in schools, featuring international writers and speakers covering a wide range of fascinating subjects. The first week features local writers and this year’s Festival’s has its biggest ever community programme, taking writers into the prison and care homes. Events will be held in a number of local venues, including St James, Les Cotils, the Guille Alles Library, the OGH and St Pierre Park Hotel. In 1971, 40 years after the crash, Job editorialised in Aviation Safety Digest about how pilots were still having CFIT crashes. ‘All too many general aviation pilots are apparently willing to “give it a go” even when indications are all against safe completion of a flight,’ Job thundered. The Guernsey Literary Festival is a not-for-profit organisation planned, organised and run by a team of volunteers.