Allez les Belges!

Taken aback by this bit of intertextuality in Barbara Pym's No Fond Return of Love, in which she slips in her own debut novel, Some Tame Gazelle #NowReading

Enjoyed this unsettling, Festen-like family drama. Anne Hathaway is a revelation as the sister of the bride.

Nissen Hut (2018) by Rachel Whiteread, Dalby Forest

Adder Stone, Dalby Forest (with dachshund for scale)

“He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” #4thJuly

Enjoyed this piece by @eoghanwalshbxl.bsky.social capturing the atmosphere of the Matongé neighbourhood of Brussels during a DRC World Cup match

“Now I have taken a closer look at my desk and realized that nothing good can be done on it.”—Franz Kafka, born OTD in 1883 (from his Diaries, tr. Ross Benjamin)

Garden ornaments

Pity the poor debut novelist: Elizabeth Taylor, born OTD in 1912 (from her novel Angel)

Happy birthday, Larry David

Hello, it's me

Stefan Zweig fled Nazi Germany for England in 1934. Today he will be honoured with a blue plaque in London. This is what he witnessed in the city in 1939:

Prospect

This looks like David Lynch is graduating from something and Mel Brooks is super proud of him.

Wild in the country

Happy birthday, Mel Brooks, who as well as being a comic genius and a mensch, also gave us David Lynch

Belated happy birthday, Harriet Wheeler (for yesterday). What a voice. #NowPlaying

Dachshund in the stream

“Sometimes it’s like I’m chasing myself.” Peter Lorre, born OTD in 1904

After the deluge

First watch: Sirāt (2025, dir. Óliver Laxe). One of the wildest films I have seen for a while, and all the better for not knowing anything about it (a very last-minute choice on MUBI UK yesterday evening). 1/5

Relatable

“The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think worth describing in detail.”—George Orwell, born OTD in 1903

Hydration break #TeamDachshund

There’s more to life than books . . . but not much more. Thanks @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social for sending this handsome novella.

Back on the other site, years ago, there was a thread about the most pretentious thing people had ever overheard. Someone said they witnessed a guy at an ice cream van asking for 'two Magna'.

Before sunset

So hot #Gatsby

“A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.”—Billy Wilder, born OTD in 1906

“I had a great time today.” Had forgotten how much fun this is. (Thanks @danmud.bsky.social for prompting a rewatch.)

Possession

Clash of cultures. Malaga waterfront and the hull of an enormous super yacht moored at the marina

‘A delightful praise-song for both the Bard and the geniuses who labour to give his “local habitation and a name” a new postal address and a novel appellation.’— @fotoole.bsky.social #translation

Sail on, sailor: Brian Wilson, born OTD in 1942

Off the beaten path #biking

Brighter later #biking

Today is World Refugee Day. Here’s a poem called ‘Refugees’.

Just had half an hour to kill in Hampstead so I thought I’d track down a location I’ve wanted to visit for years…

Life is but a memory, happened long ago: Nick Drake, born OTD in 1948

Good day sunshine

Happy birthday, Paul McCartney

“Tension grew out of every scene, scenes in which nothing took place and people said very little, and yet the pressure grew and grew . . .” Finding it hard to put this down.

“I’ve had a very easy film-making journey. Hollywood is a deeply unattractive place; why go and swim in a sea with sharks if you can bathe somewhere else?” Happy birthday, Ken Loach

Some more pics from the Serpentine’s DAVID HOCKNEY exhibition, A YEAR IN NORMANDIE. #Art #ArtSky #Hockney #RIP

Didn't see this plot twist coming

It's 10 years since Jo Cox died. This is the piece I wrote in a tearful frenzy the following morning. She was a very good person www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Love #Bloomsday

View from the moat

Last night’s movie: Don’t Bother to Knock (1952). Fascinating to see another side to Marilyn Monroe in this unsettling noir.