"Twelfth Night Till Candlemas" The story of a forty-year book-quest and of its remarkable ending My popular seasonal post from last year: emptycity.substack.com/p/twelfth-ni... Now with a couple of footnotes one year on: emptycity.substack.com/p/twelfth-ni...

New on the blog this week, Part 2 of my BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2025 - favourites from a year of reading. Featuring books by Rosamond Lehmann, Eileen Chang, Leonora Carrington, Barbara Trapido, Romain Gary & more! #BookSky #Books 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/m...

The snow penis wishes you a good Christmas week.

Half Ma’am Half Brisket

I said it and I meant it.

Trump Still Polling Well With Working-Class American Pedophiles  theonion.com/trump-still-...

Tomorrow I am writing a post on "Twelfth Night Till Candlemas" - one year on. My post last year was kindly received by many - and may well be my favourite post emptycity.substack.com/p/twelfth-ni... cc @vickymackenzie.bsky.social @tambourine.bsky.social

How should you live your life? www.themarginalian.org/2025/05/16/m...

If you haven't read @jonathancampion.com's book, I really recommend it. Even if you're not into cricket, it's such a heartwarming and at times tearjerking story of an incredible community facing war and devastation, and still finding hope through sport and togetherness. Astonishing tale!

Just found out I won’t have a job come January. As well as starting the regular job hunt, I thought I’d reach out here to see if anyone knew of any proofreading/editing/compliance opportunities. Or just opportunities! Apologies if this is gauche, but if you don’t shoot your shot, as the kids say 🎄

The Grinch who stole the last fuck I could give x

I have no idea where this is originally from or if my friend made it but they sent it to me once; and I love it

Stone-built Snake Bridge on the Macclesfield Canal, England

Suspect some female Tory MPs are quietly dying inside at this. When you’re so desperate to get in a bit of gratuitous foreigner-bashing that you find yourself arguing *against* preventative strategies that try to prevent sexual violence, ffs, what have you become?

My Book of the Year 🙃 I'm freakin obsessed. #BaxterDury

We don't need an elf on the shelf because we've got a

“Saki’s mother was killed by a cow when he was a child. If that doesn’t turn you into a writer with a morbid fascination with, and deep-seated fear of, the natural world, nothing will” — @naomialderman.bsky.social on Saki’s razor-sharp & merciless stories 💙📚 3/8 www.theguardian.com/books/2012/s...

My Book of the Year 🙃 I'm freakin obsessed. #BaxterDury

From the archive for Penelope Fitzgerald, #BornOnThisDay in 1916, thoughts on her marvellous novel AT FREDDIE’S. Oh, the drama of life at a London stage school! Fitzgerald is on brilliant form in this darkly comic novel, tinged with touches of tragedy. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/a...

Making It is a great memoir. We reissued it in 2017 with an intro by Terry Teachout. From our description— "It is a Balzacian story of raw talent and relentless and ruthless ambition."

A festive morning to you all. Remember at this gift-giving time, some readers love cats, cryptids, the nineties, weird girls, beastly brooding gothic tensions, The Moor *and* supporting an indie book without the marketing budget of a big four. The Cat Bride was described by The Guardian as “A

Documentary ‘The Librarians’ is a must watch, it’s currently on iPlayer - likely to be Oscar nominated & rightly so. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Post like this are one of many reasons to follow Richard Smyth. His books are another. Woodcock for one - an almost impossible to classify yet wonderful historical novel about disapproved of love, American hucksters and rock-pools. Tone unexpected, pitch perfect.

Wow, Tesco have really upped their customer service for the festive period.

New on the blog today, Part One of my BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2025 - favourites from a year of reading. Featuring books by Edith Wharton, Barbara Pym, Caroline Blackwood, Vivian Gornick and more! #BookSky 💙📚 #BooksOfTheYear #Books #BOTY jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/16/m...

2016 by Sarah Hesketh was named in the Guardian as a Poetry Book of the Year. Booksellers ordering in from Gardners are told “Publisher out of Stock”. The book's in stock both at the distributor and here, within arm’s reach – order from the CB editions website and I’ll post within 24 hours.

Rob Reiner: I'm going to make a coming of age drama, a fantasy adventure story, a romantic comedy, a psychological horror and then a courtroom drama. Us: Across your entire career? Reiner: In a 6 year period. Us: That sounds- Reiner: -Each one will be arguably the best movie in that genre.

Still places on my #shortstory course which some* writers have found fun and interesting previously. Read 8 contemporary short stories with me in the new year and work on your own fiction too. Expect irreverence, enthusiasm and some debunking of the usual creative writing nonsense. *Allegedly.

🎙️ NEW PODCAST Our podcast host @samueltongue.bsky.social reads & discusses 'thrums' by Thomas A. Clarke - an experimental book-length sequence of minimalist verse. These are meditations on rurality, landscapes, walking in nature, life encountered. www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/podcast/noth...

Given the *the state of everything* - not least the publishing industry - it feels like a miracle that really good books still manage to sometimes make it into the world, so I’m flagging this again and demanding that you read it

Ahmed al Ahmed, a Lebanese Muslim who owns a Sydney fruit shop, risked his life to disarm one of the Bondi Beach shooters. His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound. A true hero.

My heart goes out to the Australian Jewish community this morning. Hanukkah should be a time of celebration, of bringing light into the world. In the face of this atrocity we offer our love, solidarity and prayers to our Jewish friends in Australia, Scotland and across the world.

I try not to know the sales numbers of my own books or others, but it appears that my book on writing has this week outsold Olivia Nuzzi's book on activities that she enjoys (including, I presume, writing). Not vastly outsold, so I have included a link. www.harpercollins.com/products/a-l...

Was not writing poetry a secret transaction, a voice answering a voice? Virginia Woolf, Orlando

There goes the lucrative industry of international tourism, already fairly wrecked. The US was "the world’s most powerful Travel & Tourism market, contributing a record-breaking $2.36 TN to the nation’s economy last year" said the World Travel & Tourism Council in 2024.

It's fascinating and disgraceful at the same time, how there's a near blackout in the British media over the hungerstrike of a group of Palestine Action remand prisoners. It's over a month in now and they are being hospitalised, but crickets on the TV or the papers.

I so adore #RecipeOfTheDay, it’s hard not to sound unattractively boastful when I talk about it. But truly, this Luscious Vegan Gingerbread does have something miraculous about it. It’s dark, sumptuous, squidgy and simply divine – I named it luscious for a reason! www.nigella.com/recipes/lusc...

20+ influential figures, including Nish Kumar & Stephen Fry send a message to the UK government this Human Rights Day: “To send anyone back into the hands of their torturers would not be reform, but a profound betrayal of who we are and the values we proudly claim as British”. bit.ly/4pU6UWS

How many times do we need to point this out? By appeasing the far right, you do not weaken it. You strengthen it. While weakening your own position. There's a vast amount of academic research showing this. But Labour will not listen. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by @vickymackenzie.bsky.social is a unique & fascinating book. In 1413, 2 brave, religious women meet with a secret entrusted that changes history. Exploring faith & female subjugation, it takes no time to read but stays with you long afterwards.

The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)

Wow, some good news in which capitalism doesn't just destroy us and everything we care about 📚😍🥳

"Dancing on a world of graves." Only twenty pages and this is already wonderful.

Warn your old folks about these scamming bastards. It would be so easy to get caught out by one of these texts.

Me when I cite myself:

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

New on the blog today, I've written about THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS by Sarah Orne Jewett Through evocative vignettes, Jewett conveys a rich picture of everyday life in small-town Maine. Highly recommended for fans of Elizabeth Strout & Willa Cather! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/07/t...