Enjoying the last of summer

This is Alex Bowler. Not a man to mess with as (a) he’s very tall and (b) I’ve seen him unclip a Brompton in 25 seconds flat.

High-rise #Edinburgh

Tricky coves, writers (from Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym) #CurrentlyReading

“There’s no set list tonight; I’ve got a flowchart.” The inimitable Gruff Rhys, in fine form last night at York’s excellent Crescent community venue

High road/low road #Edinburgh

Rainy day on Leith Walk #Edinburgh

Lazy Sunday afternoon #Bxl

Where I'm calling from #Bxl

Brussels-bound, with this excellent black comedy for company

Swan, swan...

Ceci n’est pas un revolver #NowReading

They live by night #HedgehogNoir

“Julian’s vague distrust of publishers rapidly crystallised into a conviction that they exploited and misunderstood writers.” #NowReading

High summer

Viva Vini

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” #NowReading

Deep end

For the writer Elizabeth Taylor, #BornOnThisDay in 1912, my thoughts on ANGEL. A magnificent novel that charts Angel's rapid ascendancy as a writer of wildly popular but ludicrous romance novels & her gradual decline into obscurity. Simply superb! #BookSky jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/10/06/a...

Garden visitor

Looking up #Fitzrovia

Fitzrovia street view

On the up escalator, National Portrait Gallery

On the Broad Walk, Regent's Park

Rear window #Fitzrovia

In deepest Fitzrovia

At the Wallace #TheSouvenir

“Making movies is little like walking into a dark room. Some people stumble across furniture, others break their legs, but some of us see better in the dark than others.”—Billy Wilder, born OTD in 1906

So good to see this again – possibly my favourite Hitchcock movie about a tennis player who gets mixed up in murder

After rain #midsummer

Oh Lord: from the West Indies to the West End in The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon #NowReading

This is a beautiful version of Frank Ocean’s song youtu.be/TXjf9euk4I8?...

A cork on the ocean: Brian Wilson, born OTD in 1942

“So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts . . . the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act.”—Tobias Wolff, born OTD in 1945

Tyger

Enjoying the literary cut and thrust of Muriel Spark’s Loitering with Intent #NowReading

A shout in the street #Bloomsday

“I had no idea London belonged to you.” Wonderfully quirky film about a young man on the make in Swinging London that plays like an Ealing version of Ripley

“A holiday wouldn’t do any good, or make any difference. I should have to take myself with me.” Not quite sure how this book is so much better the second time around. Sadder, funnier, more layered. Books, eh.

“I had to pull over to the side of the road – it just totally devastated me.”—Brian Wilson on first hearing “Be My Baby” on the car radio in this engaging chat with @matteveritt.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

So as well as giving the world “God Only Knows”, Brian Wilson appears to have been the inspiration for Lebowski 🙏

On a beckside stroll

Essential reading & listening #BrianWilson

Wonderful #BrianWilson

Pop auteur #BrianWilson @liberation.fr

Sail on, sailor: Brian Wilson, RIP

One of the great Hollywood novels

RIP Sly - thanks for everything www.youtube.com/watch?v=7czr...

A giant: Sly Stone, RIP