Ian Tattum
@iantattum.bsky.social
Writer and independent scholar.
Used to be a vicar.
Writing in Spelt, Black Bough Poetry, BB journal, Frost Magazine, The Clearing,The Pilgrim, Landlines for Nature ,The Church Times.
Fellow of the Linnaean Society and the Zoological Society of London,
Used to be a vicar.
Writing in Spelt, Black Bough Poetry, BB journal, Frost Magazine, The Clearing,The Pilgrim, Landlines for Nature ,The Church Times.
Fellow of the Linnaean Society and the Zoological Society of London,
Pinned
Ian Tattum
@iantattum.bsky.social
· Jun 29
A piece I wrote about having a nature deprived childhood.
There don’t seem to be enough articles about working class childhoods which were just a bit dull because you didn’t get out much , and family members were not very enthusiastic.
But you did have picture books of stuffed birds.😊
There don’t seem to be enough articles about working class childhoods which were just a bit dull because you didn’t get out much , and family members were not very enthusiastic.
But you did have picture books of stuffed birds.😊
A fly past of sea pies
November 28, 2025 at 9:56 PM
A fly past of sea pies
Reposted by Ian Tattum
Abraham Lincoln, 1855.
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
![I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor or degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:egd33s7iuqsmwlwab6mbtrqi/bafkreiaaicjid4jg3oongeah73ukqvwsqv4vwbp75q4f755nldtcfermhi@jpeg)
November 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Abraham Lincoln, 1855.
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
Magnificent Ivy Tree
November 28, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Magnificent Ivy Tree
And this is a lovely book.
Read all about her (lovely!) life in Footnotes.
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/foot...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/foot...
Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers
A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers
uk.bookshop.org
November 28, 2025 at 11:35 AM
And this is a lovely book.
Well, I think it is the most satisfying biography that I have read in recent years @lancerichardson.bsky.social
For anyone interested in travel writing, nature writing, or the history of American letters.
For anyone interested in travel writing, nature writing, or the history of American letters.
A late afternoon photo.
And I dare someone to read my short review of the recent Peter Mattheissen biography .
It features snow leopard and Bigfoot 😊
And I dare someone to read my short review of the recent Peter Mattheissen biography .
It features snow leopard and Bigfoot 😊
November 27, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Well, I think it is the most satisfying biography that I have read in recent years @lancerichardson.bsky.social
For anyone interested in travel writing, nature writing, or the history of American letters.
For anyone interested in travel writing, nature writing, or the history of American letters.
Reposted by Ian Tattum
"Matthiessen’s many masks are on display in True Nature, a deeply researched and artfully executed biography. ... Mr. Richardson has drawn from an enormous range of sources ... to better understand a gifted, difficult man who, for all his adventures and good fortune, seemed resolutely dissatisfied."
‘True Nature’ Review: The Restless Peter Matthiessen
The writer of “The Snow Leopard” and “At Play in the Fields of the Lord” wrote of nature’s austere simplicity. The man himself was anything but simple.
www.wsj.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
"Matthiessen’s many masks are on display in True Nature, a deeply researched and artfully executed biography. ... Mr. Richardson has drawn from an enormous range of sources ... to better understand a gifted, difficult man who, for all his adventures and good fortune, seemed resolutely dissatisfied."
For @sealibrary.bsky.social and any other sea lovers.
From Durlston this morning
From Durlston this morning
November 27, 2025 at 1:41 PM
For @sealibrary.bsky.social and any other sea lovers.
From Durlston this morning
From Durlston this morning
‘ History Defamed’ are at it again.
Just to confirm I’ve re-watched this. An interviewee: Mike Mountain Horse “signed on the dotted line to protect his country”. Olusoga: “…and they were not alone. Volunteers from the Caribbean …”. You cannot trust what History Reclaimed say in their media campaigns. Often it simply isn’t true.
November 27, 2025 at 10:25 AM
‘ History Defamed’ are at it again.
Reposted by Ian Tattum
I have written a possibly unreadable - in both ways due to my technical limitations- review of a marvellous book about everyone’s favourite snow leopard botherer.🦋
November 26, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I have written a possibly unreadable - in both ways due to my technical limitations- review of a marvellous book about everyone’s favourite snow leopard botherer.🦋
Reposted by Ian Tattum
Intersecting lives.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
November 25, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Intersecting lives.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
A late afternoon photo.
And I dare someone to read my short review of the recent Peter Mattheissen biography .
It features snow leopard and Bigfoot 😊
And I dare someone to read my short review of the recent Peter Mattheissen biography .
It features snow leopard and Bigfoot 😊
November 26, 2025 at 4:47 PM
A late afternoon photo.
And I dare someone to read my short review of the recent Peter Mattheissen biography .
It features snow leopard and Bigfoot 😊
And I dare someone to read my short review of the recent Peter Mattheissen biography .
It features snow leopard and Bigfoot 😊
I have written a possibly unreadable - in both ways due to my technical limitations- review of a marvellous book about everyone’s favourite snow leopard botherer.🦋
November 26, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I have written a possibly unreadable - in both ways due to my technical limitations- review of a marvellous book about everyone’s favourite snow leopard botherer.🦋
Reposted by Ian Tattum
Heartily recommend this anthology for the nature lover in your life. (Okay -- I have an essay in it -- but you can always skip that one if you don't want to read about insects, parenting, and existential angst.)
Our friends at @saraband-books.bsky.social have included the Nature Chronicles Prize 2 anthology in their Christmas shop!
Treat a loved one, a friend (or even yourself) to this beautiful book of winning essays from the 2024 Prize 🍃
saraband.net/2025/11/12/s...
#Booksky
📚💙
Treat a loved one, a friend (or even yourself) to this beautiful book of winning essays from the 2024 Prize 🍃
saraband.net/2025/11/12/s...
#Booksky
📚💙
November 21, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Heartily recommend this anthology for the nature lover in your life. (Okay -- I have an essay in it -- but you can always skip that one if you don't want to read about insects, parenting, and existential angst.)
Intersecting lives.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
November 25, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Intersecting lives.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
The editor who got Peter Mattheissen ‘s The Snow Leopard into print, Elizabeth Sifton, was the daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr- the theologian who helped W H Auden find his way back into the Church.
MakeAmericaDeadAgain.
MADA.
MADA.
Trump just ended a rule limiting a type of pollution that causes heart and lung disease.
The rule was expected to save thousands of American lives every year.
The rule was expected to save thousands of American lives every year.
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 PM
MakeAmericaDeadAgain.
MADA.
MADA.
Sadly it is about 5 years since we have been able to take mum and Richard out for a pub lunch🥲
November 25, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Sadly it is about 5 years since we have been able to take mum and Richard out for a pub lunch🥲
Reposted by Ian Tattum
My essay posted yesterday on how Kennedy appears to be making progress in a stealth campaign to end vaccination in the US is looking more and more likely to be right.
My history-based polemic on the evolution and poverty of the anti-vax argument is due out in May. It feels necessary sooner.
My history-based polemic on the evolution and poverty of the anti-vax argument is due out in May. It feels necessary sooner.
November 25, 2025 at 7:54 PM
My essay posted yesterday on how Kennedy appears to be making progress in a stealth campaign to end vaccination in the US is looking more and more likely to be right.
My history-based polemic on the evolution and poverty of the anti-vax argument is due out in May. It feels necessary sooner.
My history-based polemic on the evolution and poverty of the anti-vax argument is due out in May. It feels necessary sooner.
In honour of Peter Mattheissen I had my own local and very safe expedition in Abbotsbury gardens😊
November 25, 2025 at 6:03 PM
In honour of Peter Mattheissen I had my own local and very safe expedition in Abbotsbury gardens😊
In Abbotsbury Gardens this morning
November 25, 2025 at 3:29 PM
In Abbotsbury Gardens this morning
Reposted by Ian Tattum
Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, has died at 111 years old. https://cnn.it/4psWqNX
November 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, has died at 111 years old. https://cnn.it/4psWqNX
Deep in Dorset I have spent the day with Peter Mattheissen.
Thinking about zen, Snow Leopards, the cost of privilege, experimental writing, Native American rights, Bigfoot, an unfaithful and restless heart, tribalism in Papua New Guinea, and how he inspired Jaws, and the debt owed to Rachel Carson
Thinking about zen, Snow Leopards, the cost of privilege, experimental writing, Native American rights, Bigfoot, an unfaithful and restless heart, tribalism in Papua New Guinea, and how he inspired Jaws, and the debt owed to Rachel Carson
November 24, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Deep in Dorset I have spent the day with Peter Mattheissen.
Thinking about zen, Snow Leopards, the cost of privilege, experimental writing, Native American rights, Bigfoot, an unfaithful and restless heart, tribalism in Papua New Guinea, and how he inspired Jaws, and the debt owed to Rachel Carson
Thinking about zen, Snow Leopards, the cost of privilege, experimental writing, Native American rights, Bigfoot, an unfaithful and restless heart, tribalism in Papua New Guinea, and how he inspired Jaws, and the debt owed to Rachel Carson
