The latest issue of Jon Appleton's wonderful journal the gab. Lots of interest here, and even a long interview with me. For subscriptions, contact [email protected] - you won't regret it.

Excellent new book by Jane Harrington on the pioneering women salon writers of fairy tales whose work was eclipsed by that of Charles Perrault. Informative essays on each one, followed by a couple of sample stories.

Our radiotelescopes will reach out beyond the big bang, and what it will sound like is one question, and another what the silence before it will sound like the silence after. Martin Johnston, last lines of "The Brazen Head". A great poet from a family doomed to disaster. A poète maudit.

Friends, sorry not to have posted much this year. In Dec I was told I was dying, with a best case scenario of living 3 months. So I have been scurrying around making a will, planning a funeral, and putting my affairs in order. 6 months has passed, and now I am told I am ill but OK. Head spinning.

The glorious gold-bright sun was after rising on the crests of the great hills, and it was changing colour - green, purple, red, blood-red. white, intense-white, and gold-white, like the glory of the God of the elements to the children of men.

Herz, mein Herz, sei nicht beklommen Heart, my heart, be not cast down, bear up and accept your fate. Spring will come, and recreate all this winter has undone. Think how much remains to love still, in this most lovely world. All its beauty will unfurl, my heart, unfurl for you to love.

Still alive, friends, and able, with a friend by my side, to enjoy my spring garden. I sat down for a rest, and Kiki turned up ready for her close-up.

Friends, you may have noticed I have been very quiet on here. The reason is I have been extremely ill. What energy I can summon, I am putting into writing, trying to get as much work done as I can. One book finished, one 90% done, in 2 months of a gloomy prognosis. Still enjoying your posts.

Me looking like me, after a lovely lunch with my brother and sister-in-law. Love, wine, and devoted cat. A rare happy moment in what has been a trying week.

Rather thrilled by this.

My late wife Emma Bradford's quick sketch of a seagull in Jutland.

Oh, honestly - managed to fall backwards downstairs onto a hard tiled floor last night, trying to carry too much. Nothing broken. Dr today said "There's nothing wrong with his brain." Majority opinion thinks the jury is still out on that one.

This is sad news.

This is a wonderful book by one of the leading scholars in the field - in relaxed accessible way it tells you both the stories and the stories behind the stories. Perfect for a spooky Christmas.

The Werewolf has landed! Thrilled to see my book starting to appear in the hands of the many patrons who backed it and made it happen via @unbounders.bsky.social. The book itself appears in bookshops on the 19th of December - why not order a copy for Christmas?

Wonderful. Arrived today and already been sat on by a wet cat, with the clear message, "I ain't afraid of no werewolf."

Lashing rain, howling winds. The storm is coming in. Stay safe everyone.

I don't remember much about the stuff I had to learn at school. But I will NEVER EVER FORGET Mr Evans, the teacher who just read us stories – pure reading for pleasure, no assessment whatsoever. That's the stuff that changes lives! I'm so grateful to him & all the life-changing teachers out there!

READING ALOUD CHANGES CHILDREN'S LIVES FOREVER! Just 10 minutes a day can be enough to help them find the love of books, and become lifelong readers. So whatever else you do, always find the time to read aloud – and the more you do, the better! #literacy #reading #books

Luppitt, Devon. Late Saxon or early Norman font. Extraordinary carving, on this face showing a scene representing martyrdom. For me, this is one of the most astonishing and fascinating of all the church fonts I’ve seen. #fontsonfriday #churchcrawling

Kiki loves her catnip banana.

Well, this is a first. Fell out of bed in the night, hit my head on the bedside cabinet, and then discovered I couldn't get up. Rang neighbours who were here in 5 minutes, also 999 and ambulance arrived in 20 (incredibly quick for a remote village). Refused to be hospitalised. OK, but all shook up.

Amazing what's under your feet in Edinburgh! www.bbc.com/news/article...

For anyone who's read VARJAK PAW and wants to know how it was written - or anyone interested in the #writing process - here's a free resource I made for the British Library, sharing pages from 7 different drafts. You can have a lot of fun showing this to a class! www.sfsaid.com/2024/06/the-...

Calling all post-graduate students in folklore-related subjects at UK HE institutions: the deadline for applications for The Estella Canziani Bursary for Post-Graduate Research 2025 is Friday 6 December 2024. More info here: folklore-society.com/awards/the-e...

How did they make it? New insights into the production of the Nebra Sky Disc apple.news/ACFTAwN0eTWC...

Treated myself to an Advent Calendar that plays a different bird song behind each door.

Well, you have to squint your eyes to see this kestrel leaving its perch from a tree in my garden. I had a better shot lined up, but the iPhone went haywire.

Excited to have this withdrawn library copy of John Reeve's, A Divine Looking-Glass. I do have a modern pb, but this C19th reprint comes from when Muggletonianism was still a viable religious movement (at one point, rivalling the Quakers). Reeve wrote this whole book, no input from Muggleton.

Life, that I have loved so much - too much - has torn me like a tiger. From memory, that's a quote from a letter by Oscar Wilde. Can't guarantee the exact words, but I think that's about right.

What is Hookland? #Hookland

Neil Philip @neilphilipmyth A friend asked me if I knew an Inuit folktale about a mother being eaten by her baby. I sent her two. Not sure what this says about me. I told the woman (dear friend) who looks after me about this request, and she said, "Of course you do."

'A History of Folklore': a new 10-week online course run by The Folklore Society in partnership with Oxford Continuing Education begins Thu 23 Jan 2025. Enrolments close 14 days prior to the course start date. Fee: £285 + optional extra £30 to gain CATS points www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/a-hi...

A jewel-coloured Roman glass cup for a bright start to the week! Made of ‘ribbon’ mosaic glass, this lovely vessel is a wonderful example of the creativity and skill of ancient glassmakers some 2,000 years ago. From Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli 📷 by me #Archaeology

My wife's oldest friend (she saw her on the day she was born) always through Emma's long illness planted her granny's bowl with cyclamen for Christmas, and now she is continuing the tradition for me. I am so touched. The bowl has been broken many times and is full of metal rivets.

This is the 4th issue of a wonderful (and beautifully produced) magazine edited by Jon Appleton ([email protected]). So fascinating for anyone interested in the children's literature of the 60s/70s/80s. Trying to add Alt text, but can't work out how to do it.

Yeah, this is very decent.

Suddenly gathering followers at quite a rate - thank you all. May take me a while to process individually. I don't follow back people with no profile pic and no posts.

As I recall, the key advice we were given at Primary School in the case of nuclear war was to hide under desks. Not sure how effective that would have been.

I've had occasion over on Twitter (Bob Dylan is now on it, folks, just as everyone is leaving - always the contrarian) to remember these books of mine about a family of red squirrels in the series Tales of Heartsease Wood. Tracey Williamson did such beautiful illustrations.

The Box of Delights is being repeated on BBC4 from Saturday 7th December, kicking off at 7pm with a Renny Rye Remembers... intro.

Every branch big with it, Bent every twig with it; Thomas Hardy, "Snow in the Suburbs"

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the death of my beloved wife Emma - together for 49 years and never a cross word. Unlikely to be posting then, so here is my favourite photo of us together, behind a fountain in the gardens at Rousham.

My darling Kiki will not let anything bad to happen to me. She was so close to my face I could barely take a photo.

We passed a house festooned with Christmas decorations today. I sighed and said, "Christmas gets earlier every year." My friend said, "That's a cliché, Neil. I don't expect that of you."

For only the second time in my life I have refused to pay a service charge in a restaurant. It took 20 minutes - and three prompts - to bring a scoop of ice cream, and then they started arguing that it hadn't been 20 minutes. Service veering from poor to zero to aggressive. I am naturally generous.

What a weird day. Sleeping and waking at all the wrong times. Hope tomorrow will be a bit more normal, whatever normal is. No work done, and I was getting on well.

Searching for a missing kitchen item, I found a box with two George III silver teaspoons given to us for our Silver Wedding. They were made by Godbehere - is there a better name anywhere in the world?