Brycchan Carey

I just found the folder with my first-year undergraduate essays. I’m still working on this one…

Congratulations to Andrew Lipman on being awarded the 2025 EAL Book Prize! We also would like to congratulate the Book Prize's honorable mention Phillip Round and the short list of finalists: Anna Brickhouse, Brycchan Carey @brycchancarey.bsky.social and Russ Castronovo.
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In a corner of Bristol Cathedral I found two literary monuments: a bust of Bristol-born poet laureate Robert Southey (1774-1843) and a plaque remembering the Elizabethan editor of travellers’ tales Richard Hakluyt (1553-1616) who was a prebendary of the cathedral. @literarybritain.bsky.social

I spent several hours in Bristol Cathedral this afternoon where they are making much effort to face up to and contextualise their many monuments to slave traders such as Edward Colston and Thomas Daniel. Great to see so many people engaging with the slavery exhibition.

I’ve been out in Bristol this evening. Was taken to a lovely Italian restaurant that turned out also to be the birthplace of Thomas Chatterton, the poet who wrote fake medieval poetry as well as antislavery poems and tragically took his life in London at age 17. @literarybritain.bsky.social

The weather has been dreadful for weeks: sodden garden, fields underwater, and rivers breaking their banks. Plenty of curlew flying near Dunstanburgh Castle though, and I also saw my first ever Bean Goose, looking suspiciously orange-footed among a flock of Pink-footed Geese.

The Unnatural Trade. By Brycchan Carey. Reviewed For some years now, Brycchan Carey has been combining the study of the transatlantic slave trade with a discussion of environmental awareness and environmental degradation during the (very) long ei…

"No university library should be without this book. No municipal library should be without one either." My thanks to Conrad Brunstrom for this lovely review of my book The Unnatural Trade. Review: conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/01/06/t.... Buy the book at www.brycchancarey.com/bookshop/unn...

I’ve been at the University of Glasgow this evening, where they appear to cover the full spectrum of Scottish Enlightenment.

Last call! ASLE-UKI online seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature & Environment. Thur 29 Jan, 15:00-19:00 GMT. With me, Eric Gidal, James Metcalf, Nicolle Jordan, Alessio Mattana, Annette Hulbert, Jodie Matthews, & Tobias Menely. Register FREE at asle.org.uk/events/semin...

Polling suggests we passed peak Reform last autumn and the Tories are making a modest recovery. So Zahawi, Jenrick, Braverman et al are rats fleeing TO a sinking ship which, under the weight of all those failed and unpopular Tories, is only going to sink faster.

Sorry about that! There are just too many time zones in the world to get a comfortable time zone for everyone!

"An outstanding addition to a burgeoning field in slavery scholarship". My thanks to Ryan Hanley for this lovely review of my book The Unnatural Trade in The American Historical Review. Read the review at: doi.org/10.1093/ahr/.... More about the book at: www.brycchancarey.com/bookshop/unn...

Please join the @asleuki.bsky.social online seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature & Environment. Thur 29 Jan, 15:00-19:00 GMT. With me, Eric Gidal, James Metcalf, Nicolle Jordan, Alessio Mattana, Annette Hulbert, Jodie Matthews, & @tobiasmenely.bsky.social. Register at asle.org.uk/events/semin...

Fog on the Tyne? Actually, the Tyne, foreground, is clear. Those low clouds are following the course of the River Derwent, a tributary of the Tyne. As seen from the B&Q car park in Scotswood!

It's just a couple of weeks now until the ASLE-UKI Online Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature and Environment, on Thursday 29 Jan 2026, 3-7 pm GMT. All welcome! Further details and FREE registration information at: asle.org.uk/events/semin...
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I’m in Oxford for #BSECS2026 at Pembroke College, having braved blizzards to get here. No snow in Oxford, but there is plenty of light and shade.

Snowy afternoon in Alnwick Market Place.

We took our traditional new-year birding walk around Boulmer, Northumberland, this year and stayed until sunset. We saw 32 species including hundreds of lapwing and golden plover, smaller numbers of grey plover, plus widgeon, eider, curlew, and even a song thrush and grey wagtail on the beach.

The Unnatural Trade: Slavery, Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1660–1807 Published in Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies (Vol. 46, No. 3, 2025)

"A forcefully argued, carefully constructed account of naturalism lending fuel to abolitionism." My thanks to Chris Townend for this very generous review of my book The Unnatural Trade in Slavery and Abolition, 46:3 (September 2025) 772–73. Read the review at doi.org/10.1080/0144...

Spare a thought for St. Nicholas tonight. He was a brilliant bishop who took part in the Council of Nicaea, but he grew old and fat. When the theological work dried up, he moved to the North Pole, began to hang around with elves, and was forced to take work as a night-shift delivery driver.

For the shortest, murkiest day of the year, Rosie and I walked around Gibside near Gateshead where there were woods and lakes, a ruined mansion, a Palladian chapel, and a colossal Whiggish statue of Liberty with her cap and staff at the end of a half-mile-long oak avenue. A modest estate.

Regent Street is looking angelic tonight while Oxford Street is having some light rain.

It’s a pleasingly grey morning in Seahouses, with atmospheric views to Bamburgh and the Farne Islands.

It's great to see so many signing up for the @asleuki.bsky.social Online Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature and Environment, on 29 Jan 2026, 3-7 pm GMT, but there's still room for more! Further details and registration information at: asle.org.uk/events/semin...

Newcastle Airport is planning to expand and they want your feedback. You can see their expansion masterplan and leave comments on their website - but hurry, the consultation closes on 30 November 2026. www.newcastleairport.com/corporate/co...

#COP30 is about to agree a climate deal that doesn’t mention fossil fuels, which is a bit like an alcoholic agreeing a plan to tackle his addiction without mentioning the vodka.

A snowy morning in my garden. A proper Northumberland November!

I’m teaching Oliver Goldsmith’s 1770 Deserted Village tomorrow. He says princes can be made and unmade and that the country is in trouble when the super rich accumulate wealth and farmers are put out of business. How on earth do I make any of that relevant to today’s students?

Shocking to see Panorama’s dodgy editing of Donald Trump. Is this the kind of honest, responsible journalism that we’ve come to expect from the show that exposed the failure of the Swiss spaghetti harvest as far back as 1957?

Images of the covers for the following studies: Brycchan Carey’s The Unnatural Trade: Slavery Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1650-1807; Alison O’Byrne’s The Art of Walking in London: Representing the Eighteenth-Century City, 1700-1830; Thomas Gray among the Disciplines, edited by Ruth Abbott and Ephraim Levinson; and a special issue of Eighteenth-Century Life, entitled ‘The Manuscript Book in the Long Eighteenth Century’, edited by Alexis Chema and Betty Schellenberg.

A huge range of studies covered by @charlottegoodge.bsky.social & Thomas Leonard-Roy, from @brycchancarey.bsky.social’s The Unnatural Trade to @rhyskamjones.bsky.social's ‘Queering Thomas Gray’s Celticism’. Itching to get reading & #editing!

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