Dr Amy-Jane Beer
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amyjanebeer.bsky.social
Dr Amy-Jane Beer
@amyjanebeer.bsky.social
Biologist, naturalist, writer, campaigner at Right to Roam; Country Diarist at The Guardian; Wainwright Prize winning author of The Flow
WIP: Old Nows

Agent: Jane Turnbull jane.turnbull@btinternet.com
Popping back for something important…

This is for those of you who knew & loved that golden human, Jamie Normington @movingslowly.bsky.social – and those who never met him but were amused, enlightened, touched by his gift for communication and compassion here and on Twitter.
November 18, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Swimmers and river lovers of Yorkshire! Rave On for the Avon is coming to York THIS THURSDAY 🏊🏻‍♀️💦💙

Please share…

www.picturehouses.com/movie-detail...

@righttoroam.bsky.social @yorkswildlife.bsky.social
September 1, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Your annual reminder to reconsider ‘weeds’. The teasel, knapweed, ragwort, yarrow, vipers bugloss, wild marjoram burdock and valerian in my garden are all self-introduced and self-seeded and they are indisputably what make it hum.
July 17, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Dear Derwent. Getting in here most days at the moment and it’s a balm. The heat, the horror, the hype, the helterskelter hassle of 2025 recede for just a few precious, slow minutes when it’s just me and the reflections, the martins and the water lilies.
July 12, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Just finished The Possibility of Tenderness by @jallenpaisant.bsky.social and now cannot wait to interview him at @deershed.bsky.social next month. Enriching, enlightening, enraging, beauty on every page, absolutely magnificent. 🌺
June 24, 2025 at 7:50 PM
This BNG bullshit is where the Planning & Infrastructure Bill pt3 will take us. Irreplaceable habitats lost, access to green spaces lost, while corners of faraway fields get rammed with plastic-wrapped money trees of which 1% survive, while developers & offset schemes cash in. Sickening.
June 10, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reading this (out in Sept) leaves me with two convictions:
1) god we need more women in farming.
2) there is no better writer of English rural life than @nicolawriting.bsky.social. Her sensitivity, integrity, and artistry are quite simply unmatched.

#GhostsOfTheFarm
June 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Today we hear the decision of the Supreme Court on the long spiteful crusade waged by Alexander Darwall to rob the rest us of a simple, cherished right.

I can’t be online much today, but I woke up here, knowing that where I sleep is where I really live.

Win or lose, we need a Right to Roam Act.
May 21, 2025 at 7:23 AM
A beloved and brilliant man with a genuine gift of light.

Everywhere now.

Bless you Jamie xxx
April 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
But it’s the warmth and generosity of his friendships that he’ll be most lovingly remembered for. A walk with Jamie was an utter joy, rich in conversation and insight, thick with laughs, often with escapades and wildlife-led side-quests and always with edible and imbibe-able treats.
April 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Since then we also worked together with New Networks for Nature, and he became a regular interviewer, host and speaker at nature and literary events, especially at @kendalmountainfest.bsky.social where his gentle manner and idiosyncratic humour will be so sorely missed.
April 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Jamie’s day job was with @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social but I met him when were both crowdfunding to buy copies of #TheLostWords for schools in our counties. His campaign, characteristically went many extra miles, as he walked across England, visiting schools along the way to enlighten & delight.
April 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
This is hard to do, because I know how hard it will hit.

At the request of his wonderful wife Bea, I write this thread to let followers & admirers of Jamie Normington @movingslowly.bsky.social (formerly @TLWforCumbria on Twitter) who may not have heard the news know that he died last week.
April 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Since then we also worked together with New Networks for Nature, and he became a regular interviewer, host and speaker at nature and literary events, especially at @kendalmounrainfest.bay.social where his gentle manner and idiosyncratic humour will be sorely missed.
April 28, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Jamie’s day job was with @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social but I met him when we were both crowdfunding to buy copies of #TheLostWords for schools in our counties. His campaign, characteristically, went many extra miles, as he walked across England, visiting schools along the way to enlighten & delight.
April 28, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Today some 400 merry roamers & dippers took to a part of the High Peak we’re barred from accessing for entirely spurious reasons… the water.

#righttoroam #righttoswim #kindertrespass @righttoroam.bsky.social
April 27, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Of all places to receive a text asking if I can be on Radio 4 first thing in the morning, this is the least convenient. This is home until tomorrow afternoon’s low tide lets me out. Just me and the choughs. Bliss.
March 30, 2025 at 4:16 PM
And in same pile of post, this ebay purchase… I ordered the book, but the seller added the Lion Man bag as a gift and I’m made up!
March 27, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Symptomatic of full-blown Ice Age obsession I ordered these seeds. Dryas octopetala, signature of the last freezing episode of the last glacial. Reckon I should stick them in the freezer for a day or two before sowing… other advice also welcome!

Next year maybe I’ll adopt a cave bear.

#OldNow
March 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
In The Flow I wrote about the spring that rises a few metres from my house. So close, yet somehow it’s always an adventure to go there. today’s Country Diary www.theguardian.com/environment/...
March 26, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Next month the redoubtable @johnnycampbell.bsky.social is walking and gigging the entire #PennineWay. I’m joining him and Jack Roscoe on stage in Horton in Ribblesdale for a words & music special. Tix here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/johnny-cam...
February 20, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Next month the redoubtable @johnnycampbell.bsky.social is walking and gigging the entire #PennineWay. I’m joining him and Jack Roscoe on stage in Horton in Ribblesdale for a words & music special. Tix here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/johnny-cam...
February 20, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Or, you know, just pay your taxes and be content?
January 22, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I’m AM doing my tax return. I am. But there were also the important businesses of walking on ice and greeting the river and squinting at the Sun and exploring the wood to be attended to and someone’s gotta do those things right?
#naturewriting
January 16, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Today’s the day…
Who else feels it?
🌱
January 15, 2025 at 11:30 AM