Was very happy to make the cut for the Leicester Writes anthology. Many thanks to @farhanashaikh.bsky.social and congratulations to all.

A happy October wish for us all. 🖼️ Grasset

'The Concerto', Queen's Hall, Langham Place (c.1935) by Cyril Power

It has arrived! The nation’s favourite short story anthology in a new shiny livery — grab yours now!

Laurie Colwin is a new author to me, and I’ll be seeking out more by her - the blurb describing her as “the Barbara Pym of 1970s New York” seems about right. Recommended by @ds228.bsky.social, I think?

Claude Cahun Portrait of Jacqueline Lamba and André Breton 1936

Today is Louis MacNeice’s birthday. He was a poet & playwright. From ‘Perdita’: “Somewhere or other a green Flag is waving under an iron vault And a brass bell is the herald of green country And the wind is in the wires and the broom is gold.”

Oh, hello - knew this was on the way, but hadn't seen the synopsis... www.panmacmillan.com/authors/gwen...

Really looking forward to reading @damianbarr.bsky.social’s novel about the Two Roberts

More Annie Ernaux from the archive, #BornOnThisDay in 1940. My thoughts on SIMPLE PASSION (tr. Tanya Leslie), her candid account of an all-consuming affair. An exquisitely written book by one of my favourite writers in translation. #BookSky 💙📚 #AnnieErnaux jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2022/09/29/s...

This was very readable

Autumn is a sad & melancholic yet beautiful season & does strange things to me.

'We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever - the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass.'

Lots of fascinating things in the Ithell Colquhoun exhibition at Tate Britain. www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tat...

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RIP Terence Stamp

I always said universities were a bit like zoos.

Aug 11th 1958 - A George Kaplan checked into the Statler Hotel. Days later advertising executive Roger Thornhill is kidnapped by people who believe he is George Kaplan. 📽️📅 North by Northwest (1959)

Very much with @jacquiwine.bsky.social on this one 👇

By the way, I noticed Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves is on BBC iPlayer for the next few months. Lovely little film. Deadpan humour, understated and poignant. I recommend, if you haven’t seen it.

Really looking forward to this

Winter Sea https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-nash/winter-sea-1937

Some Denton Welch books in Penguin 1980s paperback editions.

The Owl, Voysey, 1897.

All welcome to join the July Bowen Reading Group - link in bio! 30th July - 7pm BST - online. Free! We're reading & discussing *The Cat Jumps*. 🐈‍⬛️ In the Collected ed., the stories run from 'The Tommy Crans' to 'The Apple Tree'. www.tickettailor.com/events/eliza...

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Cover reveal! UK publication date is 1 February 2026; North American publication date TBA. If you live in the UK, you can pre-order here: reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/stories...

What these pics don’t convey is how deliciously creepy it can be to glimpse one of these statues in the distance as darkness falls on a winter afternoon www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Eric Ambler, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Screenwriter, #BornOnThisDay in 1909, in London 📸 Elliott Erwitt (1952)

Andrew Power 1933 Wimbledon poster. Thence is such a lovely word.

Well, at least the nights are now drawing in 🎉

“…the same sort of panicky boredom….with the extra burden of memory…”

Where Am I Now ? A work by Maria Loizidou in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. It’s part of Liverpool Biennial.

I was lucky enough to be able to be at this concert, and it was a fab double bill www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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Brainstorming names for a novel about a hard-bitten but wryly funny detective, and their loyal terrier of an assistant.

Visit @victoriagallery.bsky.social for Turner & his contemporaries, and you'll find an additional painting by one of Britain's greatest painters, in Play of Light: a display of darkness and illumination. 📷 The Eruption of the Soufrière Mountains in the Island of St Vincent, 30 April 1812 (1815)

The Pool with Duckweed, Henri Le Sidaner.

👇 Can highly recommend @simonokotie.bsky.social’s The Future of the Novel

If you've ever marvelled at the vaulted Victorian subterranea of Liverpool's Williamson tunnels you have The Heritage Centre to thank. Unfortunately, it will be closing for good on June 1st if they can't raise £12k. Here's how you can help www.gofundme.com/f/adcnrn-sav...

Rebecca, The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, Sabotage, Vertigo

Always something interesting to see at the @victoriagallery.bsky.social

Well overdue a biography

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👀 One for the Bowen-ites @bowensociety.bsky.social @nualaoconnor.bsky.social

A surreal #FossilFriday: Liverpudlian artist Albert Richards's The Process of Time (1939), held by Williamson Art Gallery & Museum. The articulated skeleton of a flightless moa encounters the flimsier looking skeletal frames of two biplanes, one of which is just able to soar above the bluish trees.

Ringo reading Robert Traver’s ‘Anatomy of A Murder’. Dunno if it was just a prop or if he was genuinely reading it. Maybe both?!

In 1881, electric lighting was introduced in the circular reading room at Liverpool public library. Some readers complained of headaches, brought on by the excessive brightness - but staff appreciated the removal of gas lights, which had made the room stuffy & almost unbearably warm. #PubLibs 💙📚