Really blown away by the visitor feedback to my book tie-in exhibition which has been running at The Armitt Library & Museum in Ambleside since Feb. Many describe it as beautifully curated & inspiring, & one reviewer (nicely getting into the spirit of things) writes: ‘A is for Amazing exhibition’!📚🍄

Called into The Armitt Library & Museum today to sign copies of my book, ‘An A-Z of Beatrix Potter’. Overjoyed to read so very many wonderful handwritten reviews of my book tie-in exhibition in the visitor feedback book. Both book & exhibition were a labour of love 📚🍃🍄 armitt.com/an-a-z-of-beat…

Many 160th birthday celebrations taking place today for Beatrix Potter 🎂 & I was very pleased to be invited onto BBC Radio Cumbria this morning to discuss the ongoing importance of Potter's work. The clip is available (2 hrs 12 mins into the show) for 7 days via BBC Sounds: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

The joy of summer - a family lunch with flowers providing colour and beauty in vases as well as in our salad 🌺🌼🌻

I am giving a talk at Kendal Museum on Sat 29 Aug on Beatrix Potter's 'myriads of fairy fungi’. I’ll explore Potter's fascination with fungi, what attracted her to this field of study, and how imaginative & scientific approaches are intertwined in her thinking. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lunchtime-...

Exciting new job opportunity at one of our partner organisations. The Armitt Museum and Library, which is based at the foot of our Ambleside campus, are looking to appoint a new manager and curator (closing date for applications 7 August). www.museumdevelopmentnorth.org.uk/the-armitt-m...

University of Cumbria’s Alumnus of the Year and MA graduate, Jade Cookson (author of ‘The Wordsworth Way’), with me and Vice Chancellor, Professor Julie Mennell 📚🍃🎓

So very proud of my MA graduate, Jade Cookson, who was today awarded Alumnus of the Year by the University in recognition of her career achievements and extraordinary community involvement work in producing the official literary walking guidebook for The Wordsworth Way 📚🍃

A joyous long weekend spent visiting my eldest son and his fiancée at their home on the edge of Sherwood Forest. Given the weather, lots of meals were al fresco - under the shade of a beautiful Persian silk tree in his garden and by the lake at the National Trust Clumber Park estate.

Join me in Ambleside on Friday 17 July at 2pm for a bespoke tour of my book tie-in exhibition, ‘An A-Z of Beatrix Potter’, at The Armitt Museum and Library. See here for details and to book: www.armitt.com/event-direct...

Very grateful for these long summer days which offer warmth and hazy light post 8pm. Tonight’s late evening walk, after a very long day at the desk, was additionally special as it marks the beginning of a lovely (and much anticipated) little four day mini holiday 🍃☀️📚

The absolute joy of a late evening wander along the lanes in the last of the sun on such a golden day as this, with the heady scent of freshly mown fields and the hazy golden light shafting through trees and hedgerows #JulyPleasures

Such a lovely evening at the Lakeland Book of the Year awards. I am overjoyed that ‘An A-Z of Beatrix Potter’ has not only won the Wordsworth Prize for Literature & Poetry but was also runner up for the overall Lakeland Book of the Year 2026 (the very worthy winner of which was Sarah Hall’s ‘Helm’)📚

A wonderful 3 day residential at Beau Site in the mountains at Chemin, as part of a project I’m involved in with the University of Geneva. It was the perfect counterpart to last year’s Lake District residential & filled with walking, talking, reading & reflection amidst these beautiful landscapes 📚🍃

I have rather fallen in love with Beau Site, where I’ve been staying for the last 3 days. Built in 1912, it’s full of a quiet charm from another era, & surrounded by mountains, pine forests and flower meadows. The perfect place in which to read, walk and reflect 📚🍃🌸🏔️: youtu.be/gIjdWEADHGQ?...

A quiet but very hot day of sightseeing in Geneva in advance of the first day of our project residential tomorrow. Visited the cathedral & climbed its towers, then a walk back beside the Rhone where a statue of Rousseau presides. Now looking forward to some mountain breezes🗻📚🍃

This postcard is bringing back Radcliffe re-enactment memories…

An early start for my journey to Geneva to meet up with colleagues and do some project filming at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, followed by a lovely (if hot!) late lunch in the old town, and finally an evening wander to see the very impressive Jet d’Eau at the lakeside 📚🍃

A really lovely final day spent by and in Lake Geneva at Evian-Les-Bains, with swallows skimming the water. It’s a lovely spot and Evian retains some glorious traces of its 19thC-heyday as a spa town. Off to Geneva early in the morning to meet colleagues and do some filming 📚🍃

A glorious day of keeping cool by or in the delightfully clear green waters of Lake Geneva flanked, as it is, by the outline of the distant Alps. Plus the additional treat of filling my water bottle with ice cold Evian water from the town’s source tap on the way back to my hotel.

A very long hot day of travel but there are beautiful skies over the clear green waters of ‘Lac Leman’ this evening and two lazy days of relaxation here in Evian-les-bains lie before me.

Took my father to a car boot sale for Father’s Day (always his outing of choice) and, as if to mark his 90th year, I picked up a lovely hand-painted bowl by Edward Radford from Burslem Pottery. It dates to the 1930s, so is of a similar age to my dad. Two fine nonagenarians together!

A village event followed by the most beautiful pink-skied walk home on this the eve of the solstice. Every step revealed a new and quite mesmerising piece of silhouetted nature art.

I was delighted to be at Lancaster Museum today signing copies of my ‘Literary Lancaster’ tour guide, which is now back in stock. Signed copies are available to purchase from the museum shop! As Dickens wrote, when he visited the city, ‘The stones of Lancaster do sometimes whisper….’ 📚🍃🏰

A fantastic final day at the inaugural Lake District Book Festival, featuring many wonderful writers including Sarah Hall and Sebastian Faulks. I arrived at the venue to the joyous sound of Sunday morning bells and had a wonderful conversation about Beatrix Potter with biographer, Frances Wilson 📚🍃🍄

Another wonderful day at the Lake District Book Festival was rounded off with a reception at Holker Hall with writers in attendance including novelist, Sebastian Faulks, and a trio of brilliant Cumbrian writers whose work is studied on our MA: Katie Hale, Sarah Hall & Lee Schofield 📚🍃

Good to see ‘An A-Z of Beatrix Potter’ in such good company in the Lake District Book Festival book tent in advance of my event on Sunday 📚🍃🍄 events.lakedistrictbookfestival.co.uk/events/thela...

A lovely first day at the new Lake District Book Festival. Many excellent speakers & an evening reception at Cartmel Priory with input from festival director, Christopher de Bellaigue, plus readings from ‘The Prelude’ by poet, Paul Farley, which flagged Wordsworth’s presiding presence📚🍃

A lovely visit to Lowther Castle today. The building, in its semi-ruined state, appears to have fallen from the pages of a fairy tale and the gardens continue this motif, with the rose garden taking inspiration from Sleeping Beauty as represented in poetry by Morris and paintings by Burne-Jones 📚🥀🌹

Damp and overcast but lovely little walk along the shores of Ullswater yesterday in advance of a stop-over in Penrith - where I was giving an after dinner talk to the Association of Open University Graduates 📚🍃