Should the Sierra Club apologise for John Muir?

In his recent July 22 essay with the ominous title Pulling Down Our Monuments  the Sierra Club’s Michael Brune says that the club has helped to perpetuate white supremacy and caused “significant and immeasurable harm”. As Executive Director, he blames John Muir, its founder, claiming that “Muir’s words continue to hurt and alienate Indigenous people … Continued

Reflections on lockdown in Scotland

The Coronavirus pandemic has created global trauma: terrible loss of life, devastation to economies and destruction of jobs. In many countries lockdown has imposed extreme restrictions on our freedom – whether we are potentially infectious, or vulnerable, or neither. It has been a very blunt instrument. I am not persuaded that our UK governments’ response … Continued

Photo of Jacquetta

The origin of Rucksack Readers

Twenty years ago I abandoned a successful career in information technology and stumbled into guidebook publishing, a field I knew nothing about. The catalyst for this change was my first long walk, the West Highland Way. With a group of friends and two dogs, we had a wonderful time but were disappointed by the official … Continued