• Echoes of the Past: Learning Conservation from Maxwell Knight

    Echoes of the Past: Learning Conservation from Maxwell Knight

    What can a spy teach us about nature? In the echoes of history, we often find timeless wisdom. This is particularly true when we revisit the legacy of Maxwell Knight OBE, the legendary ‘Nature Detective’ and MI5 spymaster. Knight, a figure who intriguingly straddled the worlds of espionage and natural history, left behind a legacy…

  • The Nar Valley in Norfolk – A foot safari during the Covid lockdown.

    The Nar Valley in Norfolk – A foot safari during the Covid lockdown.

    John and Margaret Cooper’s Pentney to King’s Lynn ‘safari’ 13 – 15 July 2020. A report on our walk – and the natural history that we saw – for the FFON Armchair Naturalist website: https://thefrightenedfaceofnature.com/ Part 1. Last month we decided, as a break from our fifteen-week Covid-19 “lockdown”, to explore the River Nar on…

  • Thanks for your encouragement and support for the Maxwell Knight Symposium

    Thanks for your encouragement and support for the Maxwell Knight Symposium

    A message from John E Cooper, Margaret E Cooper and Simon H King:  Thank you for your encouragement and support for the Maxwell Knight Symposium (MKS). The day went well and the audience participation and encouragement was fantastic and we hope you enjoyed it. If you couldn’t attend the event, you can get a good feel for the…

  • “Be a Nature Detective”

    “Be a Nature Detective”

    I  have  in  front  of   me  a  “withdrawn”  library  book  written  by  Maxwell  Knight entitled “Be a Nature Detective” (Frederick Warne & Co 1968). On 24 June 1968 – some five months after the author of the book died – the book was borrowed from Derbyshire County Library for the very first time. I…