Author Archives: mel58cam

Today’s quick post is about Alfred Alan Curthoys (A. A. Curthoys), one of several broadcasters who delivered talks about Zoo animals in the first decade of the BBC’s existence. Elsewhere in my book I write about David Seth-Smith, who as the ‘Zoo Man’ of Children’s Hour became a household name, but there were also regionalContinue reading “Alfred Curthoys and Clifton Zoo”

Today’s post is an image of Carr Lynn, ‘King of Animal Mimics’. He was a famous animal mimic who took Edwardian music halls by storm, before making several appearances on the BBC in the late 1920s and 1930s. Animal mimics like Lynn appeared in variety entertainment shows on the radio, but they also proved usefulContinue reading “Carr Lynn”

Today’s post is about an illustrated book by the naturalist, photographer, and filmmaker Oliver Pike, Nature Photography, which was published by Chapman & Hall in 1931. The book contains chapters by A. Radclyffe Dugmore on big-game photography, F. Martin Duncan on marine photography, and E. J. Bedford on plant photography. Some of the images ofContinue reading “Oliver Pike’s ‘Nature Photography’ (1931)”

I’m currently writing a chapter about the RSPCA’s use of natural history writing, photography and films, through a close reading of the society’s journal The Animal World. Beginning in the 1920s, the RSPCA operated two mobile cinemas – one attached to a car, which focussed mostly on reaching rural locations, and another which formed partContinue reading “The RSCPA’s mobile cinema”

It’s been a while since I posted on here, or updated the site. As I review the manuscript for my forthcoming book, I have decided to start a series of brief posts, mostly of interesting snippets I find along the way, many of which perhaps won’t make it into the book. Today’s is this pictureContinue reading “We’re back!”

Over the course of the past academic year, I have been working with two wonderful secondary school teachers to prepare a series of teaching resources based on the Secrets of Nature series. These are now available to download from the Teaching Resources section of the site.

In 1923, when the Secrets of Nature series was in its second season, British Instructional Films released a film with the intriguing title of Strange Friendships. Behind this film is a fascinating story about animal intimacy and gender in interwar Britain. I briefly wrote about this in an article that I published last year, butContinue reading “Gladys Callow: a woman’s daring animal friendships at London Zoo”

I’m delighted to finally be able to share with you the final film produced by our students as part of my and Dr. Amy Cutler‘s project, The Cinema As Time Capsule: using films to capture vanishing worlds.

The Strangler (1930) is by far one of the more memorable Secrets films. It showcases perfectly the time-lapse technique and its ability to ‘capture the vitality of a living plant’, and it is one of the only films of its kind to include a clock in the picture to help viewers understand that the imageContinue reading “The Strangler (1930)”

It’s been a while since I posted here – I am coming towards the end of my PhD, and have been busy writing up my dissertation on natural history films and BBC broadcasts. But it’s good to be back again and I have plenty of things to share on here over the next couple ofContinue reading “The Cinema as Time Capsule”