David Cooper
@drdavidcooper.bsky.social
Literary geographer writing about writing about place. Co-Director of the Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
‘Each time I’ve been to Fingal’s Cave, the sense of natural magnitude dwarfing human endeavour has been inescapable. Turner’s painting amplified the feeling: a luminescent, natural arch opening into the unfathomable past’: Fiona Stafford on Staffa.
October 1, 2024 at 8:40 PM
‘Each time I’ve been to Fingal’s Cave, the sense of natural magnitude dwarfing human endeavour has been inescapable. Turner’s painting amplified the feeling: a luminescent, natural arch opening into the unfathomable past’: Fiona Stafford on Staffa.
‘I want to make some kind of gesture. An offering. A mark of passing. And to leave it here. Tied to the land’: about to re-immerse myself - for the nth time - in the extraordinary deep map of Richard Skelton’s ‘Landings’.
September 26, 2024 at 7:44 PM
‘I want to make some kind of gesture. An offering. A mark of passing. And to leave it here. Tied to the land’: about to re-immerse myself - for the nth time - in the extraordinary deep map of Richard Skelton’s ‘Landings’.
Just spent much of the train commute home dreaming of walking into this painting (‘Washdaybreak’, 2003) by Martin Greenland martingreenland.co.uk
September 24, 2024 at 7:32 PM
Just spent much of the train commute home dreaming of walking into this painting (‘Washdaybreak’, 2003) by Martin Greenland martingreenland.co.uk
‘The Outrun’: special preview screening of Nora Fingscheidt’s adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s remarkable memoir at HOME in Manchester on Thursday, 26 September homemcr.org/film/the-outru…
September 22, 2024 at 11:51 AM
‘The Outrun’: special preview screening of Nora Fingscheidt’s adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s remarkable memoir at HOME in Manchester on Thursday, 26 September homemcr.org/film/the-outru…
‘Making Geography Matter: Opening up the Doreen Massey Archive’ - a brilliant funded PhD at the Open University. Closing date: 7 January 2025 www.oocdtp.ac.uk/making-geogr...
September 19, 2024 at 6:11 AM
‘Making Geography Matter: Opening up the Doreen Massey Archive’ - a brilliant funded PhD at the Open University. Closing date: 7 January 2025 www.oocdtp.ac.uk/making-geogr...
Spent much of the day thinking about the past of the Portico Library thanks to the doctoral research of Michelle Ravenscroft; spent the evening in a trustees meeting & thinking about the Library’s exciting future in the centre of Manchester www.theportico.org.uk/reuniting-po...
September 17, 2024 at 9:43 PM
Spent much of the day thinking about the past of the Portico Library thanks to the doctoral research of Michelle Ravenscroft; spent the evening in a trustees meeting & thinking about the Library’s exciting future in the centre of Manchester www.theportico.org.uk/reuniting-po...
‘What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us…’ (Georges Perec).
September 15, 2024 at 5:58 PM
‘What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us…’ (Georges Perec).
Spent a wonderful day yesterday at the Liverpool Travel Seminar at the Bluecoat reflecting on & celebrating the field-shaping work of @timyoungs.bsky.social Many thanks to all involved for making it happen.
September 15, 2024 at 6:58 AM
Spent a wonderful day yesterday at the Liverpool Travel Seminar at the Bluecoat reflecting on & celebrating the field-shaping work of @timyoungs.bsky.social Many thanks to all involved for making it happen.
The Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University is keen to support applications for 2025 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Please get in touch via email if you’re interested & want to find out more about the internal selection process mmu.ac.uk/research/fello…
September 9, 2024 at 6:05 AM
The Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University is keen to support applications for 2025 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Please get in touch via email if you’re interested & want to find out more about the internal selection process mmu.ac.uk/research/fello…
‘All my life I have restlessly been looking for a home, for a room. And it was here all along’: I’ve just been left breathless by the beautifully traumatic final chapter in Wild Twin by @wildtwin.bsky.social Published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social on 18 Sept littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/lit…
September 7, 2024 at 8:17 AM
‘All my life I have restlessly been looking for a home, for a room. And it was here all along’: I’ve just been left breathless by the beautifully traumatic final chapter in Wild Twin by @wildtwin.bsky.social Published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social on 18 Sept littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/lit…
The end of summer . . .
September 6, 2024 at 7:50 PM
The end of summer . . .
Stunned that, in the brilliant Wild Twin, @wildtwin.bsky.social
refers to ‘Cherry Blossom (AKA Boot Polish Head), the man [in Liverpool] who paints pretend hair on his skull with shoe polish’ as, for years, I’ve assumed that he was a product of my childhood imagination or family myth-making . . .
refers to ‘Cherry Blossom (AKA Boot Polish Head), the man [in Liverpool] who paints pretend hair on his skull with shoe polish’ as, for years, I’ve assumed that he was a product of my childhood imagination or family myth-making . . .
September 3, 2024 at 8:04 PM
Stunned that, in the brilliant Wild Twin, @wildtwin.bsky.social
refers to ‘Cherry Blossom (AKA Boot Polish Head), the man [in Liverpool] who paints pretend hair on his skull with shoe polish’ as, for years, I’ve assumed that he was a product of my childhood imagination or family myth-making . . .
refers to ‘Cherry Blossom (AKA Boot Polish Head), the man [in Liverpool] who paints pretend hair on his skull with shoe polish’ as, for years, I’ve assumed that he was a product of my childhood imagination or family myth-making . . .
‘Nostalgia is an illness, perhaps. And yet, it’s beautiful. I live in memory. I live in the present moment but the past is here too, sometimes shimmering, sometimes dimming in the same space as the now’: #amreading Wild Twin by @wildtwin.bsky.social from @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
August 30, 2024 at 6:37 AM
‘Nostalgia is an illness, perhaps. And yet, it’s beautiful. I live in memory. I live in the present moment but the past is here too, sometimes shimmering, sometimes dimming in the same space as the now’: #amreading Wild Twin by @wildtwin.bsky.social from @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
Albert Vincent Reade, ‘Morecambe Bay June 1932’.
August 27, 2024 at 7:32 PM
Albert Vincent Reade, ‘Morecambe Bay June 1932’.
‘I’m in car park world, a space with its own politics, culture & memory. Not an unplace, but a place apart’ (Gareth E Rees): Bank Holiday Monday landscape.
August 26, 2024 at 5:24 PM
‘I’m in car park world, a space with its own politics, culture & memory. Not an unplace, but a place apart’ (Gareth E Rees): Bank Holiday Monday landscape.
Landscape studies by the Kendal-based artist, Lela Harris, who has received great critical acclaim for her brilliant ‘Black Lancastrians’ exhibition at Judges’ Lodgings, Lancaster lelaharris.co.uk
August 25, 2024 at 6:23 AM
Landscape studies by the Kendal-based artist, Lela Harris, who has received great critical acclaim for her brilliant ‘Black Lancastrians’ exhibition at Judges’ Lodgings, Lancaster lelaharris.co.uk
‘We pass and fade on the face of the/ earth, sun-nets drifting over distant hillsides, the cloud/ shadows. We become the half-sensed ghosts’ (‘Moor’): #amreading - slowly, sadly - the unsurprisingly wonderful ‘Cairn’ by Kathleen Jamie.
August 24, 2024 at 6:08 PM
‘We pass and fade on the face of the/ earth, sun-nets drifting over distant hillsides, the cloud/ shadows. We become the half-sensed ghosts’ (‘Moor’): #amreading - slowly, sadly - the unsurprisingly wonderful ‘Cairn’ by Kathleen Jamie.
Skylines: Liverpool & Marseille; this week & last.
August 21, 2024 at 7:11 PM
Skylines: Liverpool & Marseille; this week & last.
It’s arrived! It’s great to be able to hold a copy of ‘The Routledge Handbook of Literary Geographies’ I’ve edited with Neal Alexander. An enormous thank you to the 41 contributors & the editorial team at Routledge for making it happen.
August 20, 2024 at 3:24 PM
It’s arrived! It’s great to be able to hold a copy of ‘The Routledge Handbook of Literary Geographies’ I’ve edited with Neal Alexander. An enormous thank you to the 41 contributors & the editorial team at Routledge for making it happen.
‘The prettiest city in France doesn’t hide its wounds. It is sincere. That’s all’ (Philippe Pujol): spent a few days in Marseille last week & completely fell in love with the place.
August 19, 2024 at 5:45 PM
‘The prettiest city in France doesn’t hide its wounds. It is sincere. That’s all’ (Philippe Pujol): spent a few days in Marseille last week & completely fell in love with the place.
Early notice that the Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University will be keen to support applications for the next round of Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Please get in touch via email if you’re interested & want to find out more about the internal selection process.
August 19, 2024 at 8:14 AM
Early notice that the Centre for Place Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University will be keen to support applications for the next round of Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Please get in touch via email if you’re interested & want to find out more about the internal selection process.
The River Sorgue in Provence which features in Petrarch’s poetry & in which I lost my wedding ring a few days ago. I’d like to say that the literary association brings some comfort but, right now, I’d do absolutely anything to have that ring again.
August 18, 2024 at 8:32 AM
The River Sorgue in Provence which features in Petrarch’s poetry & in which I lost my wedding ring a few days ago. I’d like to say that the literary association brings some comfort but, right now, I’d do absolutely anything to have that ring again.
I thought that I was tired of Turner’s ‘Rain, Steam & Speed’, as I’ve used it in teaching so much, but then I stood in front of it in the National Gallery again for the first time in years.
January 8, 2024 at 6:03 PM
I thought that I was tired of Turner’s ‘Rain, Steam & Speed’, as I’ve used it in teaching so much, but then I stood in front of it in the National Gallery again for the first time in years.
‘Now in contiguous drops the flood comes down,/ Threatening with deluge this devoted town’ (Swift, A Description of a City Shower): early evening arrival in London.
January 4, 2024 at 6:39 PM
‘Now in contiguous drops the flood comes down,/ Threatening with deluge this devoted town’ (Swift, A Description of a City Shower): early evening arrival in London.
The afternoon after the solstice: Quernmore, north Lancashire.
December 22, 2023 at 5:42 PM
The afternoon after the solstice: Quernmore, north Lancashire.