My hero: Peter Scott
'He survived the curious legacy of his father thanks to his love of nature'His mother was an artist, his father Scott of the Antarctic. "Make the boy interested in natural history," Scott senior said in his valedictory letter to his wife, though Peter ...
Green Philosophy by Roger Scruton – review
Can Roger Scruton save the environment?There are two kinds of people in the world, as an old joke has it: those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who realise there aren't. The philosopher Roger Scruton belongs to the first...
Betjeman’s beloved Kennet runs dry and raises fears for England’s rivers
Glory was in me, the poet wrote of one of the finest chalk streams in England. Now its flow has been reduced to a trickleWhen Sir John Betjeman went to Marlborough College in the early 1920s, it was, by and large, a miserable experience. The future poe...
Country diary: Bagber, Dorset
The river Lydden rises in the chalk near Buckland Newton and flows for 12 miles, mainly through green north Dorset fields, to where it joins the Stour near the hamlet of Bagber, a mile or two outside Sturminster Newton. A straight road takes you across...
Digested read: Frozen Planet by Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz
BBC Books, £25No part of the planet is more hostile to life than the snow- and ice-covered regions around its poles. Except, perhaps, the Lut desert in Iran, but you won't find any penguins there. These ice regions were once considered inaccessible to...
Is homemade food always better?
From baked beans and bread to peanut butter and chicken, what is – and isn't – worth doing yourself?The most irksome decisions I faced as an adult and working mother seemed to be made at the supermarket. Fundamentally trivial, they were nonetheless...
How the world works – in pictures
How the World Works has just won Royal Society Young People's Book Prize. Let this beautiful hands-on guide take you around our planet. And enter our giveaway to get your own free copy
Birdbooker Report 197 | @GrrlScientist
Books, books, beautiful books! This is a list of field guides, natural history monographs and history books that are available to occupy your thoughts.Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky,My pile of books is a mile high.How I love them! How I need th...
The Rough Guide to the Future by Jon Turney – review | Royal Society science book prize
A meticulously researched book analysing not only distant future scenarios but also the grim environmental outlook in short termEnter our competition to win all six books shortlisted for this year's Royal Society Winton Prize for Science BooksIt's hard...
Solyndra battle intensifies as Congress demands internal White House memos
Republican demands for communications about the solar company could reach as far as the president's BlackBerryRepublicans in Congress have escalated their war with the White House over Solyndra, voting to subpoena officials to turn over all internal me...
Small is beautiful – an economic idea that has sadly been forgotten | Madeleine Bunting