All the books I read in 2025! Started with a simple goal of one book a week and reading some of what was already on the shelves before buying new, which I achieved, so yay me 🎉 Are you setting any reading goals for the new year? 📚

Just caught Barefoot in the Park showing on some channel. Absolutely howling all through it. Fonda and Redford together, dream supporting cast. What a film! ❤️

🎍 あけましておめでとう、日本！🎍

Calls to strip pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah of his British citizenship pile torment on top of torture. New piece by me on a dangerous and manufactured storm: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A BBC4 celebration of John le Carre tonight includes the doc, John le Carre: The Secret Centre, followed by the first couple of episodes of Tinker, Tailor... introduced by Michael Jayston (Peter Guillam) share.google/8AfspDqWxPXi...

Being a retrospective of Abel Ferrara’s cult gangster film King Of New York, and what it really says about the gap between rich and poor. filmstories.co.uk/features/kin...

Saw some very confuzzled daffs today

Agents, editors and publishers, see this thread. This book is one of my favourites ever and absolutely should be back in print.

We hope you're enjoying the festive season and all the sales going on at present! A reminder about our own sale and the last chance you'll have to grab some of these amazing titles! Just add NORTHODOXMAS at checkout! share.google/QcRDUJKAunV3...

New on the blog today, I've written about MEMORIES: FROM MOSCOW TO THE BLACK SEA by Teffi. A deeply moving account of a tumultuous journey across Russia, in which Teffi brings her trademark wit, humour & humanity to the turmoil of Civil War. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/28/m...

Well we're winning at least but by god, is it ugly. #LFC

Beating the Boxing Day queues!

This is the good stuff, baby.

2020 #52 Another dip in the @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social pool. A young man returns to Russia, the land of his birth, to care for his aging grandmother, and learns to live in Putin's Moscow. There's more in the alt text but in summary, a fascinating and wonderfully written novel. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🖋️📚 #booksky

Been to see a Christmas showing of ELF on the big screen, had a breezy walk on the beach and awaiting lunch. Christmas spirit nicely topped up🎄

Read this on Jacqui's recommendation and loved it so don't miss this review!

The Rover Glasslyn and Snowdon, north Wales, painting by Liverpool-born Warren Williams (1863-1941).

On the sofa watching Dr Zhivago and eating my own body weight in chocolate, as nature intended

2026 is the year I finally ditch the kindle

Very much enjoying G Neville not enjoying this game of football at all

Really gonna miss having a yuzu bath tonight (unsure if can get yuzu here and we haven't got a bath) 😭

’A little tap' according to Neville He's got a gobfull of blood ya tool

Evergreen post

Can't even celebrate a goal without someone getting injured 😭 #LFC

Had a little look back and I've used Am*zon six times this year, spending around £100 with them. Aiming to make it zero and £0 next year. Each time it's been poor planning meaning we needed something quick that I could have got elsewhere if I'd thought ahead. It should be doable!

Bitter Cold, Chapel Street, 1959, painting by Peter Brook, 1927-2009 (Kirklees Museums and Galleries). Sowerby Bridge, west Yorkshire.

News is strategically broken on a Friday afternoon so people forget about it over the w/e, so I think it’s very important that we return to this on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday etc etc

I ran out of time earlier this week, but these recordings might be of interest to #JaneAusten fans with access to BBC Sounds. #BookSky 💙📚 First up, an unabridged reading of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, which has been keeping me company for the past few days: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

@tsvoboda.bsky.social on mixing personal memories with public histories (and what her mother-in-law has to do with Hitler).

Our Winter Reading sale — with 30 per cent off all our books and tote bags — ends tomorrow, 19 December. Use the code ‘WINTER30’ at checkout ❄️ fitzcarraldoeditions.com/shop/?utm_so...

Think the reaction to the Sycamore Gap had something in it about the way that England sees and presents itself (green and pleasant land) to the way it actually is (dark satanic mills etc). They showed that up in front of the world, so needed to be punished in front of the world.

Here are my favourite books of 2025. It was another wonderful year or reading! readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/m...

Water Street, Liverpool 🌆 📸 Alexander Zaharinov

I finished a piece of work recently and said to myself: “I bloody love copy-editing.” And then I thought: with all my experience, I'm bloody good at it. I suppose that loving something and being good at it go together. Here’s why. pennykiley.com/2025/12/15/w...

Thought ITV choosing to interview Pe*ez Hilton about the shocking news from Hollywood and then labelling him as a 'celebrity journalist' was quite the stretch. I guess words just mean anything you want them to these days.

If you're looking for gift ideas (or gifts for yourself, the best kind!) take a look at my 'bookshop' here. If you buy one of the books via my link, I receive a small commission - which will probably be spent on more books!! It's win-win 📚 📚 📚 uk.bookshop.org/shop/10mh

Hendo doing the Jota gamer celebration ❤️ #LFC #BRELEE

Well, that was a nice fun drama-free afternoon of football, three points, clean sheet, decent ref, no talking points, job done, UTFR #LFC

On the blog today - my thoughts on the astounding final novel by #victorserge "Unforgiving Years" - just stunning. @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/12/11/t...

New on my blog I've written about Eve Babitz's I USED TO BE CHARMING - a collection of essays on LA, music, art, fashion, films, celebrities, travel and more, and brimming with her trademark wit and glamorous style. Read this for #NYRBWomen25. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/i...

While I haven't read this book, a main character being "a British yakuza enforcer" is an alarm bell. www.amazon.com/My-Father-Ya...

The Rainbow Collection; @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social’s essays make great gifts!

Mike Leigh's film Hard Truths is on Netflix now. Such a powerful portrait by Marianne Jean-Baptiste of a woman clinging on to the last little bit of her tether. Supporting cast are incredible as well, trying to balance helping with being caught in the crossfire.

#BookSky Finished this excellent novel around 2am. Reminded me of Never Let Me Go which is good company to be in. Maybe even The Road. More and more with fiction I’m desperate for a sense of humanity and at least a sliver of hope. (Also, what a brilliant title.)

There’s a Christmas deadline looming for the following products ⬇️ Don’t say I didn’t warn you. www.gailmyerscough.co.uk/christmas-or...

I really need to get back to posting about books. Football is doing my head in 😅

"At a football club, there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques." Never been particularly FSG out, but they could do with having that Shankly quote up on the wall of their offices.

Photography of #Liverpool...prints available from @photo4me #Photo4me ideas for a different Christmas Gift, framed and canvas prints various sizes www.photo4me.com/collections/...

Whatever 2026 brings please let it be different.

Ghost Town & Wild Twin, for the wanderers in your life... Wild Twin: ‘This exceptional memoir…’ Adelle Stripe, Tribune ‘A surging heart-song.’ Iain Sinclair Ghost Town: ‘A book of beauty and longing.’ Anthony Quinn, Observer @littletollerbooks.bsky.social www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/books/l...