A few weeks ago I met up with my housemates from last year in London for a little reunion, as we hadn't seen each other since leaving Durham just after graduation in June. Since we now live fairly spread out across the country and are doing very different things, it's difficult to find a time and place to see each other so it was lovely to catch up. It was also really nice to explore a little bit of London, as even though I now only live an hour away the only place I can say I'm truly familiar with is the inside of King's Cross and St Pancras stations! I wanted to capture the memory of this little day out so voila, a blog post. Enjoy the unusually high quality photos, courtesy of Ashleigh and her fancy camera!

After a quick initial catch-up (and coffee) at the train station our first stop was Camden market, where we stopped for (yet more) coffee at a cafe which I've forgotten the name of but it was very cute and rustic, if slightly overpriced.

Then we spent a couple of hours wandering around all the stalls and shops and taking in the sights, including this really cool huge sticker wall. I think everyone bought something except me as surprisingly I just didn't see anything that captured my attention (and that was also in my budget). After some deliberation over where to go for lunch we settled on Rudy's Dirty Vegan Diner which does a range of burgers, hot dogs, mac n cheese etc - basically vegan junk food and it was incredible! I got the dirty burger and then felt extremely full for the 6 or so hours (which is an achievement for me as I tend to get hungry really quickly).

As we digested we headed back to the tube - via Urban Outfitters because why not. We then battled the crowds of Saturday afternoon shoppers as we made our way along Oxford Street, stopping in a few shops including Zara and the Lush flagship store. Next was a quick stop at a bubble tea place - where I made the terrible choice of kiwi and tapioca, a combination I do not advise - before we ended up on Carnaby Street for more shopping.

At this point the tiredness was beginning to hit and the sun was starting to set, so we decided to give our feet a rest and catch the last rays of daylight during golden hour in Regent's Park. With the warmth of the day gone the evening turned chilly, and we headed back to the train station with the intention of having some dinner before we left. After a few false starts (it can be a legitimate struggle to find any viable vegetarian/vegan food options without doing your research beforehand) we eventually located a Wagamama's and actually sat outside under some heaters as the night fell properly. In a departure from tradition I didn't get my usual but instead went for something ever so slightly different which to be honest will probably become my usual now.

With some time left before we needed to part, we regrouped in Spoons for warmth and drinks and said our goodbyes and caught our respective trains and coaches. Although I was exhausted from all the walking we did it was a lovely day out and so great to catch up with some of my best pals - here's to future reunions, wherever they might be!

It's Saturday evening and for some reason I'm in the mood to write a long reflective blog post about my first few weeks at university. Well, that's kind of a lie because I wrote quite a few half-posts at various points over the last month that were more or less a stream of consciousness - so in this post I'm going to gather them all together and kind of rewrite them into something coherent.

The first topic on my mental checklist is Freshers' Week. Not living on campus it pretty much passed me by, although I did attend some academic induction events and spent some time leeching off the uni WiFi while holed up in the library. I suppose it's an age thing, but the whole freshers experience has absolutely no appeal to me anymore (if it ever did). I really wish there was less pressure to have an absolutely amazing time during your first few days at university. Despite living in college for my own 'proper' freshers experience with ready-made socialising opportunities and the ease of making friends that that provides, I remember feeling extremely overwhelmed by the whole change, and frankly the last thing I wanted to do was go out clubbing with a brand new group of people I had just met. Of course I realise that freshers is such a huge part of the UK uni experience, but in general I think more needs to be done to cater to those who - for whatever reason - don't want to go out every night for a week.

Another point I wanted to touch on is homesickness. Homesickness is something which bothered me less and less as my undergraduate degree wore on, I suppose just thanks to having made friends and eventually feeling totally at home in Durham. It's the kind of place which is so friendly and small that it really didn't take long. Having said that, I soon realised that I needed a couple of days to adjust to coming back to uni at the beginning of every term, just to get over the stress and anxiety provoked by the long journey and the jarring shift in circumstances. For some reason I didn't expect to feel homesick when I got to Sussex. It just never crossed my mind that, as a Masters student in my fourth consecutive year of university, I might miss home to a greater extent just after going to a brand new university. I told myself that I wasn't a fresher anymore, and not even an undergraduate, that I knew how this university thing worked, I had it down. But I didn't factor in that I would miss Durham quite so much. It's weird that this time my homesickness is directed almost entirely at Durham, rather than my actual home and family.

So how's my course and general life actually going? Well, I only have six contact hours per week and five of them are on one day, so I have a really intense day of workshops once a week and then the rest of the week is basically just me at home reading to prepare for the next week's classes. This means that my week is quite unbalanced, because it feels like I’m always working towards one big day and counting down the time I have left to do the work before it comes round again.

I do like having whole free days because it lets me get a lot done, however because I tend to work from home rather than going to the library it can get quite isolating sometimes - on certain days the only conversation I’ll have is with my housemates if I happen to be making dinner at the same time as them. On one hand this does suit me: being an introverted person, my long day of workshops completely drains me so it’s something of a relief when I can just be comfortable and quiet in my house and work away. But I’ve been realising that ultimately it isn't a good balance - while I don’t deal well with a lot of socialising all day every day, I do need some human contact even if it’s just a casual chat or FaceTiming my mum. This is something I’ve had to deal with during my whole university experience, but before I’ve always felt slightly more connected to the people around me - I don’t know if it’s to do with living in a still unfamiliar city or just the whole move from one end of the country to the other. 

It’s not that I’m miserable, it’s about adjusting and I think that process is going to take me longer than I thought and is going to require an active effort on my part rather than simply waiting for things to fall into place. But I have been making an effort to chat to people I meet and establish friendships, and I think those will come to fruition over time.

And that's all I have to say for now - please forgive an utterly self-indulgent post, it's not often I write so much about myself!

I moved into my new university house nearly 3 weeks ago, term started last week and it's been a utter whirlwind so far. Unfortunately our WiFi was delayed in getting set up (thanks Virgin) so I spent two weeks without any internet, apart from a few hours sitting in the library on campus. Until I couldn't use it I really hadn't realised how much I rely on the internet for literally everything I do, from boring stuff like checking emails to planning how to get from A to B (as I'm still getting to know Brighton and the bus routes). But it was finally installed last week so I thought it was time for a room tour!

The house itself is a three-storey townhouse in a residential part of Brighton, and it's kind of an average between my two previous student houses - it's more modern than my house last year but definitely not as pristine as the place I lived in my second year. Unlike in previous years I didn't have any say in my choice of room as I joined this group after someone dropped out and they had already decided who was having which room. Nevertheless I'm really pleased with mine (I think it's actually the best of the lot!) and I think I've managed to make it my own quite easily. If you've read my previous room tour posts you might recognise some things because it's basically all the same stuff just in a different space!

This is what you see as you come in the door. I'm lucky that there's a great amount of storage, both in the form of two wardrobes and those shelves which are kind of the centrepiece of the room. Having said that I'm unlucky that one of the wardrobes has the boiler in it, but there's still room for a suitcase and my coats and jackets in that side - and I'm just about getting used to the noise it makes every time someone runs a tap!

None of the bedrooms have any kind of open storage like this, which is why I personally think it's the best room. I love displaying my knick-knacks and photos and things and it's also really practical for things like books and DVDs. The top two shelves are basically just for display, the next one down is my hair and makeup station, and below that is just general storage with shoes right at the bottom. Of course I stuck some fairy lights to the top shelf and I also have some fake tealights which look really atmospheric when the lights are dimmed.

I really love my bed area, which is where I decided to put my photo wall this time around. My room has picture rails running all around it which I took advantage of and got some picture hooks to put another set of fairy lights up, as they kept falling down with just bluetack. As this is the longest wall I thought it was the best place for my map print bunting and I think the overall effect is lovely.

My desk area is less fabulous, mostly due to all the cables which are inevitably in view underneath. However on the plus side I do have two desks for some reason (which none of the other rooms do) so I have my monitor on one with my printer under it, and my laptop and stuff I use every day on the other. Up on the wall I have my usual world map poster (once a geographer, always a geographer), my Durham tube map, some postcards and along the picture rail is another string of photos which are also fairy lights.

For some reason my room also has a tiny sink, which is kind of weird and unnecessary and I haven't used but I suppose it's there if I wanted to. Above it I have a celestial chart poster, which is a new addition to my university decor.

And that's my room for this year! I think it's really cosy and it's a great space for working in too - what more could you need from a university bedroom?

I recently discovered gracewithabookinherface on YouTube and I was inspired by one of her videos which was a historical fiction tag. It's been a while since I did a tag so I thought why not make it a book-themed one? Even though I have been reading less of it lately, historical fiction is definitely the genre I own the most of (though not necessarily the genre I have read the most of because frankly I have a lot of unread books). They're arranged chronologically on my shelves from Eleanor of Aquitaine to the post-WWII period covering pretty much everything in between so I figured I might have some interesting answers.

Why do you like to read historical fiction?

The main reason I like to read historical fiction is the educational aspect, as you can learn a huge amount about historical events and how people lived in the past just through the context. I also find that details and broader attitudes tend to stick in my mind more when I absorb them through a story with engaging characters and places rather than just reading the facts for example in a more traditional education setting. I especially love historical fiction that's written from the perspective of more disadvantaged groups including women and more specifically working class women, as I think it's only by reading about the (albeit fictionalised) experiences of those worse off that you come to build up a picture of the broader social system of the time.

What was the first historical fiction book you read?

The first book I remember reading was Bloody Tower: The Diary of Tilly Middleton, London 1553-1559. I distinctly remember getting this out of the library in primary school, so I must have been about 8 or 9 at the time, although I reckon I've read it at least three times since then. It's part of the 'My Story' series, and I can absolutely credit my love for historical fiction later in life to reading this series at a young age. I remember I had a box set of ten or so of these books including Bloody Tower, but some of my favourites were the ones set on the Titanic, in Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, and during the Irish famine. I have several of the old editions which were made to look like real diaries which just added to the authentic character of the stories. As they were written from the point of view of girls my age (or slightly older), they held my attention and utterly drew me into the stories and have really stuck with me years later. When I think of the Great Plague for instance, most of my knowledge comes not from learning about it in school or through the internet but from reading the story of 'Alice Paynton'.

Where do you draw the line for “historical fiction” and contemporary?

I tend to think of anything written recently but set pre-1900s as by definition historical fiction. Anything from 1900-1950 - which obviously covers World War Two - is kind of a grey area for me, but I also take into account the subject matter of the book when classifying something as historical fiction. For instance, if the book just happens to be set in the past, that doesn't automatically make it historical fiction - which is the case for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind, which is set in 18th century France, for example. Also, if the main plot actually relates to key historical events of the time or features fictionalised versions of real historical figures then I'm more likely to classify it as historical fiction.

Have you read a book set in each of these eras? Stack your favorites!

1600’s or before

The earliest historical fiction novel I've read is set in 1137 and I have nearly a metre and a half's worth of shelf between then and 1600 so I have plenty to choose from! Some of my favourites from that era are by Philippa Gregory, so I'm going to say the first of her Plantagenet and Tudor series I ever read, The Other Boleyn Girl, which actually comes ninth in the chronological order of the books.

1700’s

I have relatively little set in the 1700s so I'm going to go with a trusty 'My Story': Transported: The Diary of Elizabeth Harvey, Australia, 1790.

1800’s

The 1800s are a strange time for historical fiction in my opinion because there are also so many contemporary novels from this period (think Dickens and the Brontes, for instance) which compete with our interest so it can seem oddly inauthentic to read historical fiction from this time - after all, why wouldn't we read the real thing? I'm not saying I necessarily agree with that, though. Anyway, my pick for this century is The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon, set in the Crimean War.

1920s-30s

(For some reason this tag skips out a couple of decades but OK.) The 1920s are one of my favourite eras for fashion and all round glamour, so I'm going with a full-on flapper trilogy: Bright Young Things, Beautiful Days and The Lucky Ones by Anna Godbersen. This series is kind of a cross between 'chick flick' and historical fiction as it's highly glamourised and I would say aimed at a younger female audience, but I remember enjoying it immensely. An honourable mention goes to The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, which is set in 1922 and is about a middle class but relatively impoverished family who are obliged to take in a lodger. It's also the first overtly LGBT fiction I ever read.

1940’s-50’s

There are so many good historical fiction novels from this period, some of which I've spoken about before. My top three would have to be Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wien (which Grace also mentioned I believe) and The Amber Shadows by Lucy Ribchester. The latter I would classify as predominantly mystery but it's set in the 1940s in Bletchley Park so the story is hugely relevant to the intelligence activities which were carried out there during WWII.

1960’s-1970’s or later

As I said above I personally wouldn't classify this period as historical fiction but I suppose I would have to say The Girls by Emma Cline which is about the Manson girls. It's not a topic I know a lot about but I enjoyed the book.

What was the last historical fiction book you read?

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. Again this is arguably also mystery/horror in addition to historical, but it's the closest thing to historical fiction that I've read recently. I wrote a bit about it in my Waterstones book haul post.

What’s your favorite historical fiction cover?

I really love most of Philippa Gregory's book covers, but to mix it up a bit I'll say Gilt by Katherine Longshore. This cover is so simple but really draws you in, I think it's beautiful. This copy is also signed by the author, and I came across it completely by chance in a bookshop in Toronto with my cousin and just had to buy it.

What’s your favorite historical fiction?

I'm not sure what this question is asking exactly but Grace interpreted it as her favourite historical fiction novel so I'm going to go with the book which had the biggest impact on me, which is probably Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, RMS Titanic, 1912. When I read this at about age 10 it was the first time I'd heard the story of Titanic, and it really stuck with me. Unless they have a personal family story, I think when other people think about the ship they probably associate it most with the characters in the 1997 film, but for me the biggest association has always been the character of Margaret and although she isn't real it was her I thought of when I visited the Titanic museum in Belfast a couple of years ago.

Phew, that was a long one! Well done if you read it right to the end.

It's mid September and summer is well and truly over now, so thought it was a good time to talk about some things I've been loving this summer. I'm very much a creature of habit: while I love finding new things I often stick to the same TV shows and books and find a lot of comfort in returning to them again and again. For some people summer is associated with holidays, adventures, going away and having new experiences, but since being at university for me summer has become a time for being at home for a few months at a time. That's especially true this year as last year I spent two months living alone doing an internship, so in a way this summer has been a time for familiarity and being at home.

The Harry Potter series

Every couple of years I get an overwhelming urge to revisit the Harry Potter universe and read all seven books from start to finish. Sometimes I watch the films over as well, but this time I stuck to the books. For me Harry Potter is peak cosiness and childhood nostalgia, and although I think seasonally they fit better with autumn in terms of maximising that cosy feeling. Even though it's been a few years since I was at school (and I'm just entering my last year of education), there's something about stories set in schools which is inherently comforting to me, I think it creates a familiar environment and helps me identify with the characters which of course I did more when I was of that age. There's not a lot else to say about my re-reading of Harry Potter to be honest, just that they were just as good as ever and much enjoyed.

Continuing with the book theme, a stand-out favourite of the summer was this book by Laura Bates. I've been aware of the Everyday Sexism Project for a while now (check out the website here) and we even covered it in one of my university modules last year, but I hadn't got round to reading the book. Having finished it, I have to say stop whatever you're doing and read it now. I thought I couldn't be surprised any more at the pervasiveness of sexism and sexist attitudes in society, but on every single page there was some terrible statistic or experience which felt like a punch in the gut, to the point where I read a lot of it in tears. Each chapter covers a different theme, from academia to the media, and I have never read anything which resonated with my own and friends' experiences so clearly. It was harrowing to say the least and I honestly think it should be required reading for everybody.

It's taken me over a year to finally watch all of the new season of Twin Peaks, mostly because I wasn't able to watch all of it when it was initially released and had to wait until I got it on DVD for Christmas, but then I also decided I wanted to re-watch the first two seasons before I started it which was actually a good idea. In many ways The Return blew me away. I'd only watched up until Episode 8 before and had been highly confused by everything going on, but when I got past about Episode 10 this time around things started to fall into place. My favourite bits were definitely the parts that focused on the FBI team and the Twin Peaks police department, although some of the new character storylines started to grow on me too. I think the stark difference between the old and new series for me is that the old series is now so familiar, and with the exception of a few disturbing scenes it's generally quite easy and predictable viewing in the sense that things happen in logical order and (again, generally) the weird is toned down. The Return, on the other hand, embraces the weird fully and deliberately tries to unsettle the watcher and create an uneasy viewing experience. Personally I really enjoy being make to think and second-guess my assumptions when watching TV because I feel more engaged with the material, but I can see why people might feel negatively towards The Return because of it. On the whole I think the new season is definitely on a par with the original, although to compare the two in style and content is unhelpful. 

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

While I was in my Harry Potter phase this summer I came across a Harry Potter game called Hogwarts Mystery which launched earlier this year. It's an app which is available for Apple and Android (I think?) and I downloaded it onto my iPad and quickly became obsessed. As a general rule I'm no gamer, but the storyline and style of it brought back a lot of memories of playing similar Nintendo DS or GBA games as a kid when I had a few Harry Potter games. It's set in the period between Harry's escape from Voldemort as a baby and him arriving at Hogwarts and follows a story about your character's brother who was expelled from Hogwarts for trying to find and opening the 'cursed vaults'. There are various tasks you have to complete to progress, including attending classes and developing friendships as well as side tasks which can help earn you points and rewards. The only really annoying thing is that it takes so long to complete anything because the main currency of the game is 'energy', where a unit of energy replaces itself every 4 minutes. Different tasks take up different amounts of energy and are time-limited to make it even more difficult, as I've been in a position a few times of not having enough energy to complete a task but running out of time. Of course you can pay real money to replenish your energy, but I'm not that obsessed and I frankly draw the line. I've been playing it for about a month and I'm progressed to Year 3, but I've also been at home mostly and able to go on the game every couple of hours. It's nothing ground-breaking as a game but I've really been enjoying it, especially as I was reading the books as well.

And those are my favourites from this summer!

It creeps in slowly, this time of year. You have to have a sharp eye and a nose for the weather to notice it in the first few days of the month. I suppose it's like a rollercoaster, inching slowly along as we cling to the last warm evenings and the heat retained by the pavements after months of sun, before suddenly the seasons go into freefall - the mornings getting darker day by day, the temperature dropping half a degree at a time, muted then vivid shades of orange, red, yellow and brown flooding into the leaves. I think the leaves are the first thing I notice starting to change where I live, because there are so many trees. 

But then every so often a day like today comes along - it's currently 24 degrees outside with a cornflower blue cloudless sky, and I am wearing a summer dress and no socks. To me September always seems like a dance between summer and autumn, where sometimes one is a step ahead and other days we have both in tandem or taking it in turns as the day wears on, but ultimately you know that autumn is going to finish on top.

I associate this time of year so strongly with going back to school and university. After 18 years of education my mind and body clock are hardwired into the academic calendar, and I see the beginning of a new school year as far more of a chance to start over than in the New Year, in spite of the narratives around resolutions that inevitably crop up around that time.

It's also very bizarre to think that although I'm going back to uni, I'm not going back to *my* uni. I keep catching myself thinking that I'm heading to Durham for another year, which I could easily have done, playing it safe and familiar and living with other friends who have decided to do Masters courses there or have found jobs in the area. But I decided last year that I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and go somewhere completely different for my Masters so I need to remind myself that I chose Brighton for a reason, and I need to stop mentally comparing it to Durham. I'm also not trying to tell myself that I will love it straight away without question - because you can never tell how these things are going to go - but I hope it will become another second home in the same way that my little city up north has.

This has been more of an introspective post but I like to do them once in a while, especially when big changes are coming up. Wish me luck with the move and the new start - more blog posts will be coming (including a room tour) when the internet is finally installed in the new house later in the month.

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Today I wanted to talk about a website that I really really love and would like more people to know about. It's called Future Learn and it's a digital education platform owned by the Open University which aims to transform education by offering a huge range of MOOCs (massive open online courses) completely free.

The categories of course they offer are: Business & Management; Creative Arts & Media; Nature & Environment; Politics & the Modern World; Literature; Health & Psychology; Science, Engineering & Maths; Law; History; Tech & Coding; Teaching; Languages & Cultures; and Study Skills. As you can see there is a huge range of areas to choose from, with courses on anything from songwriting to a social history of English football, and from robotics to global food safety. The topics are often super specialist and niche, but there are also more broad introductions to different fields. There are also a range of levels, from those aimed at school leavers to those which recommend having completed some higher education.

Typically the courses are between 4-6 weeks long although some may be as short as 2 weeks or as long as 8. If you join at the start of the course the weeks will become available in real time, but if you come in later there is no obligation to do it week by week and you can go at your own pace. Most courses estimate between 2-4 hours of learning per week, but obviously it comes down to how interested you are and how much extra work or background reading you're willing to do.

Although the Open University offer a wide range of courses themselves, there are also many courses curated by their 139 partners, which are top universities and specialist organisations around the world. For example, my university (Durham) offers two business courses: 'Leading and Managing People-Centred Change' and 'Open Innovation'.

There is no cost to join the majority of courses, but often there is the possibility to upgrade (which typically costs about €50 - €70) to have unlimited access to the material and receive a certificate of achievement to prove participation. Like most people who follow the courses, I personally do it out of interest and enjoyment rather than because I have to or because I want to prove I've done it, but there are also some credit-bearing courses which can contribute to your professional development or even online postgraduate degrees.

I joined my first Future Learn course the summer after my first year of uni when I was back home for a couple of months with relatively little planned. I can't actually remember how I came across the site but I started two courses and completed them over a few weeks. Having an extra educational resource has been a help at various points in my career so far: when I applied for an internship in urban planning the following academic year I talked about how I had followed two related Future Learn courses in my own time, which of course showed a demonstrated interest and was a factor in getting me the internship. Earlier this year I took a course about remote warfare, which I mentioned in my Masters personal statement, and just this summer I joined one on international security as general prep for my MA. 

So far I've only followed courses in the 'Politics & the Modern World' category as they tend to interest me most and relate to my field of study. The courses I've joined and completed are:

On the whole my Future Learn experience has been incredibly positive. I love being able to really follow my interests and delve deeper into topics which I might have touched on in uni courses or back at school, and really get to grips with the nuances of the material. Also, the interface is really stunning and easy to use, as each week consists of a number of steps you have to complete. The feeling of clicking 'Mark as Complete' at the end of a task or long article is incredibly satisfying, and you can track your progress really easily. 

If you're someone who enjoys learning and feeling like you're achieving something at the same time, I would definitely recommend checking out Future Learn and browsing the range of courses on offer. I guarantee there really is something for everyone and it's such an amazing opportunity to add to your CV or academic record by just spending a few hours per week learning new things or expanding on existing knowledge. 

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Recently when I was in the UK I went into Waterstones and bought a few books that I thought I'd share with you. Usually I can't bring myself to spend upwards of £7 per book (instead I buy them used on Amazon or at secondhand sales) but this time was different as I had a book token that I received from my Dad as a graduation present. I'm generally perfectly happy to buy books that are slightly damaged or worn, but I have to admit it was extremely satisfying to pick out some brand new pristine titles complete with that amazing 'new book' smell. And I've still got over half of my book token value left! Here's what I got...

The Almighty Dollar by Dharshini David

I included this book in my 'Top Pop Geography Books' post recently so you can read a sort of mini review there. Honestly I was initially drawn to this book by the beautiful cover (just look at it!) but on reading it I've discovered it's actually incredibly interesting and well-pitched. I've still got a chapter to go in it but it's already been featured in two blog posts which must be some kind of record...

Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates

I've been following the Everyday Sexism handle on Twitter for years and the project actually cropped up in one of my modules this past year so I thought it was finally time to read Laura Bates' book. From what I've heard this is going to be a tough read as well as an eye-opener that manages to put into words a lot of the things I'm already aware of about how sexism operates in society - I just hope it doesn't fall into the trap of white feminism.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

I've been seeing this book everywhere lately in some unlikely places so I decided to get it. I don't know a whole lot about it but I did a lot of academic reading around critical race theory in uni so I'm interested to take it further under my own steam and engage with some more popular writing on the topic.

The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray

Having read a couple of reviews I think I'm going to disagree with a lot (read: potentially all) of this book but that's mostly why I bought it, because I think often it's only when we read things which are strongly contrary to our opinions that we actually articulate and realise those opinions. Also, it's important to be challenged intellectually and basically know how the rest think.

Strangely this is the only fiction book I bought but I just really loved the cover which is so pretty but also very dark and gothic. I've already read this and it was fairly good, kind of like a cross between The Woman in Black and The Woman in White (haha). It's set in the Victorian era and it's the story of a woman who is recently widowed and goes to live at her husband's crumbling family estate in the country. There she finds a group of painted wooden figures which seem to have a life of their own, while the local villagers have a history of active hostility towards the family. There are a couple of timelines going on at once, including the opening setting of a hospital where a kind doctor wants to help a mysteriously voiceless patient and a flashback to the Tudor period which is achieved through the discovery of a diary in the attic of the house in the primary timeline. As these various stories develop, the pieces of the story begin to be revealed and the plot draws together. Ultimately this is a well-told Victorian mystery novel but for some reason I wasn't completely convinced by the story - it was still an enjoyable read, though.

Since the beginning of university I've kept a scrapbook that's now essentially a tangible, physical record of my three years spent in Durham getting my undergraduate degree. I finally finished the last of the third year pages the other day so I thought I would share some photos of it here (but not every single page or else this post would be ridiculously long) in a more visual and less text-heavy kind of post.

But first, some background. The scrapbook itself is from Paperchase, unfortunately the exact one I have is no longer stocked but it's fairly big (perhaps A3? I'm not sure) and ties at one end with ribbon. I received it for my 19th birthday from some friends - along with some nice white and silver gel pens for writing on the black pages - and I knew immediately that I wanted to use it for something special and really put a lot of effort into creating something that I would treasure for a long time. Eventually I decided I wanted to use it to document my university experience, which was fitting as it was a present from people at uni.

The process of putting it together was fairly simple. At the end of each year I sat down and looked through the photos, ticket stubs, wristbands and other flat paper-ish items I'd accumulated that year and mentally organised them into groups by theme, after which I ordered the necessary photos from Photobox in 6"x4" prints. In a couple of cases I also used my handheld HP Sprocket mini printer which prints 2"x3" photos on sticky-backed paper) Then came the fun part: I spent ages arranging the various items on the pages before sticking them down and using the gel pens to write in a title for each page and often some other key names and dates.

Three years later I have a lovely memento of my years at Durham which I'm sure will be super nostalgic to look at in years to come. As there are plenty of pages left I'm planning to document my Masters too so it's a complete record of my whole uni experience. Quite apart from its main function, I also use my scrapbook to balance my laptop on when I'm watching stuff on it in bed to stop it overheating, although it's now on the heavy side since it's stuffed with photos!

As a student of both geography and (come September) international relations, there is nothing that thrills me more than adding to my understanding of how the world works on political, geographical and economic levels. There is so much to learn, whether fact or reasoned opinion, and while a lot can be gleaned from watching the news and keeping up with current affairs those fora only present a small snapshot of the events playing out in the world in the present day. I've found that an easy and enjoyable way to supplement my growing knowledge of geopolitical realities is to delve into a range of what I think of as 'pop geography' (or, arguably, 'pop IR' or 'pop economics') books. These are basically books about geopolitics or international relations which, although usually written by academics or experts, are not in a typical academic style with many-layered theoretical arguments drawing on other academic sources.

I've heard this genre of book denigrated by quite a few academics (some of my own lecturers included), and I do agree to a point that these topics are immensely complicated and benefit from being treated critically by experts. However, there's a simple reason these 'non-academic' takes are so popular: they make (geo)politics accessible, and everyone has to start somewhere. To be clear, these aren't the kind of books I would ever reference in an essay or bring up in conversation in an academic context - but they're something I enjoy reading recreationally to enhance my own knowledge. They also provide an opportunity to engage in some critical reading, especially if you have prior knowledge of the topics.

So today I wanted to share some of the best 'pop geography' books I have come across and own, in no particular order.

The World in Conflict by John Andrews

In this book the author presents a region-by-region analysis of contemporary conflicts and considers the causes, contexts, participants, impacts and likely outcomes. The book is really well-structured: each section begins with a general short chapter contextualising the politics and history of the region as a whole (e.g. Africa, or the Americas) which is followed by a selection of the most pertinent conflicts divided up by country. The exception is the USA, which has its own section and the subsections are more thematic. 

As is to be expected when discussing conflict in the present day, there is a fair amount of historical background and lots of names and dates which are essential to following the arguments and threads. As a result it's relatively dense but definitely readable, though I would still recommend reading this in short bursts and not trying to power through the whole thing in a couple of sittings. 

The contents lists every country discussed, so for instance if you specifically wanted to read about conflict in Uganda or the Philippines you would know to turn to pages 135 or 262 respectively. There are also mini maps before each country section which help to orient yourself in the world before you plunge in. It also has a useful index at the back, so while it's possible to sit down and read this cover to cover it also works well as a reference book. I plan to take this to university with me this year in case I need a quick concise geopolitical primers on a particular country or region as part of my coursework.

Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags by Tim Marshall

By tracing their emergence and contestation through history to the present day, the author attempts to explain why flags are such potent political symbols and how the meaning attached to them can render them 'worth dying for'. He situates the impetus for the discussion within the recent resurgence of nationalism and national symbols and aims to answer the question of what it means to encapsulate a national identity within a flag. 

A couple of flags have chapters to themselves ('The Stars and the Stripes' and 'The Union and the Jack', for instance) but mostly they are grouped into themes such as 'Flags of Fear', 'Flags of Freedom' and 'Flags of Revolution'. These are also semi-geographical, as the latter two cover Africa and South America respectively. There is also a section at the end on non-nation-state flags including the NATO flag, the LGBTQ+ flag, the Red Cross flag and even the Jolly Rodger.

Nationalism is only of my particular academic interests so I enjoyed this book immensely because it addresses a dimension which we so often take for granted or don't see as explicitly political, essentially re-politicising the flag. It was also refreshing visual in places, with a guide to the flags mentioned in the middle of the book and also discusses the significance of the colours and even dimensions of individual flags. Flags are something we're all aware of and may even have flown or waved ourselves, so this book is inherently interesting and accessible. It's also highly readable and well-written.

Tim Marshall is also the author of Prisoners of Geography which I have also read and thoroughly enjoyed, but I think Worth Dying For is even better and more original. 

This book maps out what the authors see as the new security framework facing state and non-state actors today. Their central thesis is that the proliferation of technology (in the form of the internet, cybertechnology, biotechnology, robotics etc.) is enabling what they call the 'distribution of offensive capability', or essentially the ability for ordinary people to represent considerable threats to states and their populations with minimal expert knowledge and specialised technology. Basically, it's become easier for the average person to engage in activity which might have serious security consequences for a wide range of people (or, the 'distribution of vulnerability'). They then go on to explore the implications of this for privacy, liberty, legal jurisdiction and sovereignty, delving in political philosophy debates in some detail. Finally, they outline some options for domestic and international governance in light of the preceding discussions.

I'm not going to lie, this book was hard going. Although extremely well-written, the writing is dense (not to mention tiny) and definitely more academic in nature, and there are some extremely long sentences which I often had to read twice to grasp. But if you're genuinely interested in the content I advise you to stick at it, because it is worth the slog. The arguments are compelling and the hypothetical scenarios the authors present the reader with are especially helpful in demonstrating their points, and in general there is a good balance between theory and practical examples.

The Almighty Dollar: Follow the incredible journey of a single dollar to see how the global economy really works by Dharshini David

This book traces the journey of a single American dollar through the world's financial and economic circuits, from the US to China to Nigeria to India to Iraq to Russia to Germany to the UK and finally back to the USA. Each chapter is thematic and is centred around a single subsection of the journey ('Spicing up the recipe for success - Nigeria to India', for example) but also covers other related topics and draws comparisons with other countries. Although it has an economic focus, in explaining why certain countries' economies function in particular ways - and especially the relations between states - the book also covers a lot of history and (geo)political context and often touches on the concept of globalisation. It also uses some localised fictional examples, for instance giving names to typical figures who participate in the economy like 'Lauren Miller', a Texan woman who spends the initial dollar in a Walmart store, or 'Arjun Kumar', an Indian rice farmer. This does something to put the people back into the abstract web of transactions that is the global economy and makes the whole thing more tangible.

I found this book especially well-pitched in terms of the language and level. It's super accessible and easy to read with an almost colloquial register and the writing flows beautifully. In some places it really brings it back to basics with simple explanations of fundamental economic concepts like supply and demand or exchange rates, which makes it easy to understand even if you have only a rudimentary knowledge of the global economy (like I do). To top it off it was only published in 2018 so it's very up to date - and it has one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen!

That's all for now - I have plenty of other 'pop geography' books that I've yet to read so I might do a second part of this post when I get round to those.