Ladybird endpapers. ‘Fairy tale’ (Artist: Brian Price Thomas, 1979)

Create Your Own Comics by me and Alex Lopez comes out at the end of Jan! It’s a great guide to writing and drawing your own comics - it’s not just about making comics but also about thinking about comics. Also it has fart jokes.

This week: a ruler invents adversaries in order to feel powerful as AI wreaks havoc on the planet! It's a sci-fi fairy tale from 1977 by Polish author Stanislaw Lem: Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon! Join us as we discuss (link in comments).

Other work of the Ladybird artists. ‘Kentish Farm’ Artist: Ronald Lampitt

“They can be a great people, Igg-Don - they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you...” Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (probably), 1854

In honour of the late Marcus Gilbert, here’s @flightthroughentirety.com‘s Battlefield ep. Thanks Marcus (and Nick and Jean). This theme arrangement by @cameronlam.bsky.social also remains my favourite, mainly for his sensational rendition of the middle eight. flightthroughentirety.com/125/

Excellent stealth pun. #TootingCommon

We were very sorry to learn of the death of actor Marcus Gilbert, with whom we worked recently. Our thoughts are with his friends and family at this sad time. RIP.

Part of Disney's classic 'Dark Phase', DRAGONSLAYER (1981) was a PG-rated fantasy movie which featured violence, gore, brief nudity, a grimy, bleak tone, and the greatest dragon ever commited to celluloid.

Today is Plough Monday - by tradition the start of the agricultural year Artist: John Berry (The Farmer, 1963)

Christmas prezzie to self.

If you enjoyed my radio play 'The Goblin King and Me' yesterday, could you please post about it or share the link to BBC Sounds with your family and friends..? It's so easy to miss these things and it's available to listen to for the next week. Thank you! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Pictures that explain things Contour lines Artist: Ronald Lampitt (Understanding Map, 1967)

It’s in radio 4 right now! And bbc sounds!

Everyone's a chuffing critic.

Oh My GAZE 😮😍 @danherb10.bsky.social @theduncanmackay.bsky.social @durotrigesdig.bsky.social @drtobydriver.bsky.social www.bbc.com/news/article...

To anyone with a passion for minerals and/or crystals, the mineral museum (MIME) should be sufficient reason to fly to Beirut. Between this and Jeita grotto, you’re basically a pig in mud. I’m going to post some pics below…

That vague sense of unease at being required to do anything before Spring.

Other work by the Ladybird artists ‘January’ Shell Guide Artist: SR Badmin

I need milk but if I go out I’m worried my tauntaun will freeze before I reach the first marker.

That back-to-work feeling Artist: Eric Winter Jack and the Beanstalk, 1965

Starting the first Monday in January writing an adventure in time and space. Leaving the stuff that feels like work til later. ☕️

Good morning, you lot. ☀️ ❄️

Other work of the Ladybird artists. Winter scene Artist: SR Badmin

As 2026 marks 30 years since the TV Movie was first broadcast, we're celebrating all things Eighth Doctor this month... which we're calling #McGannuary!

2026 might be the year I finally start wearing two-tone brogues.

I am removing all unhealthy food and drink from my home by eating and drinking it.

I utterly adore this gorgeous production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. You can’t hunker down on a dark Betwixtmas night with anything better. 🍷 🐺

Listening to @tobyhadoke.bsky.social's Absent Friends on Radio 4 Extra's The Seventh Dimension is an important end of year ritual; a celebration of those genre people we've lost, and a memento mori as the new year beckons. Memo to self: complain less and carpe diem! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Just read that David Pinner, author of RITUAL, died on Christmas Eve. RITUAL famously inspired THE WICKER MAN.

Please listen to Absent Friends on BBC Radio 4 Extra today. Part One is 4.45pm (repeated at 0045) and Part Two is the same time tomorrow. It’s my acknowledgment of various folk from UK sci-fi, horror and fantasy who died this year. 4 Extra doesn’t do many home made productions, so do tune in!

Drinking beer and eating stollen and watching Jim Henson’s The Storyteller. Life’s not all bad.

Pure cinematic terror, @scarredforlife.bsky.social.

Free for all. A Christmas Wishlist. @ Psychic Paper. buttondown.com/cooray_smith...

Wrapping presents, watching Legend. Will it be more than the feature length version of the Clarke’s Magic Steps shoe commercial I remember it being? We shall see!

Nunkie time…

Merry Christmas Eve, you lot. 🍷 👻 🎄

Wallace and Gromit rescuing Wendolene and all the sheep from Preston in their motorbike and side car is almost as good as the truck chase in Raiders.

More seasonal than an overpriced German sausage: the Nunkie Ghost Story for Christmas Eve. M R James's "An Episode of Cathedral History" broadcast live at 7pm(UK) on 24 Dec & available for catch up anytime after. Simply register in advance & PWYC here christmascathedralghosts.eventbrite.co.uk

Geddy Lee, son of Holocaust survivors: "I once asked my mother her first thoughts upon being liberated. She didn't believe [liberation] was possible. She didn't believe that if there was a society outside the camp how they could allow this to exist, so she believed society was done in."

The Ghost Story, Alfred Bestall, 1930 #Christmasghoststories

Cancel Christmas, I’ve done my back in.

I’m up against a writing deadline in the same way the shark in Jaws starts chasing the boat. It’s now behind me and all evidence indicates it’s ready to bite me in the arse.

Good morning, you lot. ☕️ ✨

For those who haven't been able to make it to a live M R James show this year, there is a Live To Your Living Room online performance of "Lost Hearts" and "A Warning to the Curious" on Sunday 21 December. Book here events.livetoyourlivingroom.com/events/livet...

Oh shit, it’s nearly Christmas.

Is it still Whamageddon if it’s being played on a violin?

Hey! Put down that rose, motherf#$%er! Strange Studies is covering Beauty and the Beast!

The train guard just announced that we left Staines. 😏