On Grasmere as a centre for poetry This year it will be twenty years since I left London and moved north to start a phd at Lancaster University in collaboration with the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere. A large part of my doctoral research was concerned not only with the poetry of the past – howContinue reading “Second Selves and Natural Hearts”
Author Archives: pollyrowena
Companions of Nature: from sickbed consolations to mimic hootings
Talk given at University of Cumbria, Ambleside as part of the Cultural Landscapes talk series run by Penny Bradshaw, in October 2025.
On books in the landscape
Some time in the mid twenty-teens, when twitter was still twitter, and still a place to make connections and jokes, my partner Will stepped out of the bookshop where he had been working part-time for years, carried a book across the road, and positioned it on a gate. For a couple of years he hadContinue reading “On books in the landscape”
Plague Year Season 4 Review
2023 eh? That was the year that was. I’m not going to share my thoughts or reflections on it because they’re all too heavily fogged up by the lens of the present moment and as I write this, huddled up with a hotwater bottle, watching the rain fall for the 6th day in a row,Continue reading “Plague Year Season 4 Review”
Open Letter About Access and Exclusion at Kendal Mountain Festival
Last Friday afternoon, November 10th, Kendal Mountain Festival sent round an email newsletter that included the following announcement: *For those who’ve accessed the Kendal Mountain Player before, you’ll notice we’re doing things a little differently this year. We’ve chosen to adapt our approach by not recording live Festival events, a move that enriches our focusContinue reading “Open Letter About Access and Exclusion at Kendal Mountain Festival”
Shadow Dispatches 