David Matless

Biographic Data

ID5226497
NAMEDavid Matless
GIVEN NAMESDavid
FAMILY NAMEMatless
SIGNATUREMATLESS D
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Nottingham
ORCID0000-0002-7978-6346
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS57
TOTAL CITATIONS785
AUTHOR COUNT57
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1989
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX17

  • The geography slides: Seeing through the analogue and the digital

    Open AccessDavid MatlessARTICLECultural Geographies2026

    This paper considers the digital scanning of geography slides held in a departmental collection, and how such work might re-animate aspects of geography’s visual culture, while also prompting reflection on the relationship of the analogue and the digital. The paper examines the connections between geography and photography, the particular role of the slide as a photographic format and cultural object, and the possibilities of description of scann…

  • Somewhere downstairs: Re-animating a departmental geography collection

    Open AccessDavid MatlessARTICLEJournal of Historical Geography2024Cited by: 3

    This paper discusses the re-animation of a geography departmental collection through a study of the archives and map collection of the School of Geography, University of Nottingham. The discussion is situated within parallel examples of work on geographical archives and map collections, and wider debates on engagement with archival sources. The paper considers how a previously dormant collection has been re-animated in recent years, conveys the r…

  • About England

    David Matle, David MatlessBOOKAbout England2023

  • Checking the sea: Geographies of authority on the East Norfolk Coast (1790–1932)

    Open AccessDavid MatlessARTICLERural History2019Cited by: 1References: 8

    This article examines coastal defence in East Norfolk between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. From 1802 until 1932 sea defence between Happisburgh and Winterton was the responsibility of the Commissioners of Sewers for the Eastern Hundreds of Norfolk, more commonly known as the Sea Breach Commission (SBC). This article explores the geographies of authority shaping sea defence, with the SBC a body whose relationship to the local…

  • Five objects, geographical subjects

    David MatlessCHAPTERCultural Turns/Geographical Turns2018

    This chapter shows what might proceed from understanding items in terms of the enfolding of subject and object, rather than through more established cultural geographic concerns for &s;text&s; and &s;representation&s;. Circus nomadism becomes appropriately British in part through a conservatism of social organization and cultural value. British Circus Life appeared at a time when the vernacular, in both culture and architecture, was emerging as c…

  • Next the Sea: Eccles and the Anthroposcenic

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David MatlessARTICLEJournal of Historical Geography2018Cited by: 4

  • The Anthroposcenic

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David MatlessARTICLETransactions of the Institute of…2017Cited by: 19References: 18

    This paper presents the ‘Anthroposcenic’ as a geographical contribution to debates around the Anthropocene, deploying the insights of cultural and historical geography to ask how thinking through landscape and time might shape understanding. The paper begins by elaborating on the term ‘Anthroposcenic’, foregrounding the ways in which landscape becomes emblematic of environmental transformation, and reflects further on geological wordplay in scien…

  • Landscape and Englishness: Second Expanded Edition

    David MatlessBOOKLandscape and Englishness2016Cited by: 123

  • An incredibly vile sport’: Campaigns against Otter Hunting in Britain, 1900–39

    Open AccessDaniel Allen, Charles Watkins et al.ARTICLERural History2016References: 6

    Otter hunting was a minor field sport in Britain but in the early years of the twentieth century a lively campaign to ban it was orchestrated by several individuals and anti-hunting societies. The sport became increasingly popular in the late nineteenth century and the Edwardian period. This paper examines the arguments and methods used in different anti-otter hunting campaigns 1900–1939 by organisations such as the Humanitarian League, the Leagu…

  • Stifle a chuckle: The fields of Kibbo Kift

    Open AccessDavid MatlessARTICLEJournal of Historical Geography2016References: 1

  • Goodbye it's 1987’: Generation of the new

    Open AccessDavid MatlessARTICLEArea2016

    This paper reflects on Cosgrove and Jackson's ( ) Area paper ‘New directions in cultural geography’ (Area, 19, 95–101), discussing its place within British geography in the 1980s, the associated conferences organised through the Institute of British Geographers, the continuing resonance of its themes and the nature of a ‘classic’ paper. Historical analysis is combined with personal memory to consider the paper's role in generating a ‘new’ cultura…

  • In the Nature of Landscape: Cultural Geography on the Norfolk Broads

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David MatlessBOOKIn the Nature of Landscape2014Cited by: 20

  • Accents of Landscape in GPO Country: The Horsey Mail, 1938

    David MatlessARTICLETwentieth Century British History2012Cited by: 1

    This article considers the 1938 General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit documentary, The Horsey Mail, directed by Pat Jackson, and covering the aftermath of the sea floods at Horsey, Norfolk, in February 1938. The film tells of the continuing delivery of the mail despite the floods by postmen Claude Simmonds and Bob O'Brian. The article examines the presentation of rural and regional landscape by the GPO Film Unit, the geographical imagination of doc…

  • A regional conversation

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David Matless et al.ARTICLECultural Geographies2012Cited by: 2

  • Refiguring Geography: Parish Maps of Common Ground

    Open AccessDavid Crouch, David MatlessOTHERThe Map Reader2011

  • The making of a sub‐discipline: State initiatives and the production of British geographical studies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1945–71

    Open AccessJonathan D Oldfield, Jonathan Oldfield et al.ARTICLETransactions of the Institute of…2011Cited by: 2References: 55

    This paper explores the origins of British geographical studies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, in particular the ways in which this sub‐discipline was shaped by state‐led initiatives after the Second World War, emerging as a small yet distinct area of geographical practice within UK universities. The historical focus of the paper incorporates the publication of the government‐initiated Scarbrough Commission Report in 1947 and the formali…

  • Nature Trails: The Production of Instructive Landscapes in Britain, 1960–72

    Open AccessDavid Matless, Charles Watkins et al.ARTICLERural History2010Cited by: 2References: 15

    This paper examines the introduction of a novel and modern form of natural history education in Britain in the 1960s, the nature trail. The rise in the number of nature reserves owned by county conservation trusts and the Nature Conservancy after the Second World War raised the issue of how they might best be used by members of the public. Reserves were initially seen by many as places from which the public should be excluded. The American concep…

  • Describing Landscape: Regional sites

    David Matle, David MatlessARTICLEPerformance Research2010Cited by: 7References: 7

  • Nature voices

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David MatlessARTICLEJournal of Historical Geography2009Cited by: 6

  • Geographically touring the eastern bloc: British geography, travel cultures and the Cold War

    Open AccessDavid Matless, Jonathan D Oldfield et al.ARTICLETransactions of the Institute of…2008Cited by: 10References: 48

    This paper considers the role of travel in the generation of geographical knowledge of the eastern bloc by British geographers. Based on oral history and surveys of published work, the paper examines the roles of three kinds of travel experience: individual private travels, tours via state tourist agencies, and tours by academic delegations. Examples are drawn from across the eastern bloc, including the USSR, Poland, Romania, East Germany and Alb…

  • Landscape, mobility, practice

    Peter Merriman, George Revill et al.ARTICLESocial & Cultural Geography2008Cited by: 62References: 28

    This paper is an edited transcript of a panel discussion on 'Landscape, Mobility and Practice' which was held at the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Annual Conference in September 2006. In the paper the panel engage with the work of geographers and others who have been drawing upon theories of practice to explore issues of mobility and how we encounter, apprehend, inhabit and move through landscapes. The con…

  • A geography of ghosts: The spectral landscapes of Mary Butts

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David MatlessARTICLECultural Geographies2008Cited by: 25References: 4

    The paper considers the writings of Mary Butts (1890-1937) to explore a geography of ghosts. After examining earlier geographical engagements with the spectral and magical, and outlining the terms of recent scholarly debate concerning spectrality, the paper introduces Butts' life and work, focussing on her ghostly writings in stories, novels, journals, autobiography and an essay on the supernatural in fiction. Butts' discussion of magic and place…

  • Encountering soviet geography: Oral histories of British geographical studies of the USSR and Eastern Europe 1945–1991

    David Matle, David Matless et al.ARTICLESocial & Cultural Geography2007Cited by: 8References: 6

    This paper considers the history of British geographical studies of the USSR and Eastern Europe 1945-1991, presenting material from a research project which has included thirty-two oral history interviews. Oral history is an especially fruitful research methodology in this context due to the distinct issues of formality and informality involved in researching the Soviet bloc. After discussing the nature of the subdiscipline and the Cold War conte…

  • Properties of ancient landscape: The present prehistoric in twentieth-century Breckland

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David MatlessARTICLEJournal of Historical Geography2007Cited by: 7

  • Geographies of Local Life: Marietta Pallis and Friends, Long Gores, Hickling, Norfolk

    Open AccessDavid Matle, David Matless et al.ARTICLEEnvironment and Planning D…2007Cited by: 7References: 18

    This paper concerns a group of educated women of independent means and their relationship to a Norfolk village and its people in the early 20th and mid-20th century. The focal figure is Marietta Pallis (1882-1963), ecologist and artist, who rented and then owned the marshland property of Long Gores, Hickling. In this paper we consider Pallis and friends' engagement with land and its management, their relationship to the locality as residents and …