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Caught by the River

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Looking Forwards: Ravens in Winter

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/15

Kirsteen Bell considers the movements of ravens across the seasons. After a consistently autumnal summer, the season leaves quietly, gifting the north-west Highlands with a small, still window of warmth. Slinging washing out over a rope, I step past bright purple scabious and heather, and browned ferns gilded by morning light. Thin metallic threadpulls of chaffinch […]

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Forest Bass: Dispatches from a cabin in the woods

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/06

Mark Mattock spends July and August lost in space. “The silhouettes of their bond visible still at the last glow of the sun they experience each other and the life of the night as it begins to stir standing there in silence holding hands no rush to go back inside there is so much beauty […]

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Technological Encounters

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/05

What happens when a novelist finds herself among programmers and technical engineers with only an idea to guide her? Melissa Harrison is finding out. Main image by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash I am coming to the end of my fourth day editing a vast spreadsheet with over 130 columns and nearly 5,000 rows. My MacBook […]

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Real Magic Weekend II

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/04

Our friends at the excellent Real Magic Books in Wendover, Buckinghamshire have unveiled a stupendous lineup for their second Real Magic Weekend mini-festival, taking place from 18-20 October. Find tickets and more information about all the acts here.

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Competition Results

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/03

Here are the results of our latest newsletter competition… Last week, we had 3 copies of Nature Tales for Winter Nights (ed Nancy Campbell) to give away courtesy of Elliott & Thompson. We asked: First published in 2022, Nancy Campbell’s Thunderstone documents the author’s making of a home in what kind of dwelling? And the […]

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Fall Is…

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/03

Just unearthed in the stockroom; a handful of copies of Adam Higton’s beautiful 2021 picture-book Fall Is… — an alphabet of autumnal activities printed on bright orange paper. From acorns to gourds, insects to fungal umbrellas, celebrate the joys of the new season in Adam’s inimitable style. Buy your copy here (£15).

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DAMSON TIME

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/02

The Great Lane from Bierton in The Vale of Aylesbury waiting to be walked From the desk of admin@penkilnburn.com Tuesday the 27th of August 2024 Kind Folk, As the Summer began to tip, but before the first leaf fell… Bill Drummond returned to the Great Lane in The Vale of Aylesbury to collect a bag […]

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Pretty Ugly

Caught by the River ·

2024/10/01

Dan Richards wades into the deep dark prickly woods of Kirsty Gunn’s latest short story collection: a compulsive compilation of delicious, delicate, dreadful dwams. Kirsty Gunn is a wonderful reader. Have you ever heard her read? The words on the page are marvellous – we can leave that there and move on; I’m not going […]

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Death Cleaning

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/29

A poem by Nicola Healey. ‘No, we couldn’t let that tree fall’ – Robert Selby, ‘Wild Cherry’ The year after my father died trees started disappearing from the garden. First, the ailing mock orange, reduced to a stump (with one shoot). Without warning, uprooted, tossed onto the bonfire. I tried to find it in the […]

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Fungi Forms

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/28

Anna Fleming explores a strange and miraculous fungal world at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Givers of life. Managers of death. Protectors and restorers of natural habitats. Fungi are strange and miraculous organisms: a new exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh puts these wonders centre-stage. In the first room, a wall of photographs like […]

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DEEP SHADOWS, DAPPLED LIGHT

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/27

Caught by the River spent 2023 sentencing writers and artists to time in a tower in a far corner of these islands. Amanda Thomson, the sixth person to have served time in the Curfew Tower, remembers how the outside crept in… IN The Curfew Tower is a place that’s hard to imagine until you are […]

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Competition Results

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/26

Here are the results of our latest newsletter competition… Last week, we had a copy of Kirsty Gunn’s Pretty Ugly to give away, courtesy of Rough Trade Books. We asked: Which of Kirsty Gunn’s previous stories was adapted into both a film and a ballet in 2001? And the answer is ‘Rain’. The winner is Ray Harris. […]

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Fox

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/26

Alexi Francis tempts a shy neighbour with a warm egg. It is the dark time of the year and there’s a fire aglow in the orchard; I hear fox. As evening slides into night, I put on my coat and head out into the street. The night is sepia and a sleepy half-moon rests its […]

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Be a Citizen Scientist: Wildlife Surveying in the...

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/24

There are a few days left to get involved with the Royal Parks’ Citizen Science projects in Richmond and Bushy Parks, which are calling for volunteers to help survey the parks’ moths, small mammals and reptiles. For the moth surveys, The Royal Parks are looking for volunteers to join their teams on moth trap surveys […]

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Who Lived Here Last?

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/22

A poem by Will Burns. Pulling weeds at my parents’ house, though they don’t live here anymore. When I’m done, perhaps nothing will. Hair clip dog toy archaeology of the previous occupants – specifically the sister (most-wronged of us all) and her small suburban family (common or garden variety) – abandoned bird box, tennis ball, […]

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Lichen, Moss & Bone: The Long View

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/21

As we tip over into autumn, Kirsteen McNish surveys the dill and the dancing light. The wasps feel angry now, busying themselves like pointed fingers on a drunken night out, bobbing over dusky fruit and a crumpled apple juice carton as soon as I open the kitchen windows. I try not to enrage them, choosing […]

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The Round Pool

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/20

Recently published by Rough Trade Books, the stories of Kirsty Gunn’s ‘Pretty Ugly’ encompass the strange and seemingly impossible dualities that make up real life. Read an extract from one such story, ‘The Round Pool’, below. He had gone back to the place where he used to fish but it had all changed there. As […]

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Competition Results

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/19

Here are the results of our latest newsletter competition… Last week, we had three new paperback editions of Katie Holten’s The Language of Trees to give away, courtesy of Elliott & Thompson. We asked: According to Katie’s website, what type of tree would she be if she could? And the answer is: an oak. The winners […]

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Throat

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/19

Grant McPhee takes a trip into the hauntological landscape of ‘Throat’, the new collaborative record from The Lost Brothers’ Mark McKowski and The Coral’s Nick Power. The Coral may be the closest we have to a 21st Century Big in Japan, the (genuinely) legendary post-punk outfit that spawned a plethora of mind-bogglingly talented off-shoots. While […]

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Now Playing

Caught by the River ·

2024/09/08

‘Earthly Music’ by Laura Cannell. Taken from Laura’s 10th solo album The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined, inspired by fragments and melodies from the 12th century nun, mystic, composer and herbalist Hildegard von Bingen. The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined is out now on Brawl Records.

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530 results