Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, will be the thirteenth anniversary of my brother Dennis' death, one week short of his 59th birthday. Three years ago, I recorded this piece in his memory for RTE's Sunday Miscellany. www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

'The Blizzard.' (1910) This is an archetypal work by Joseph Farquharson whose depictions of the Deeside landscape in various weathers are central to the tradition of Scottish Art. He painted snow-scapes, forests, stretches of water, sometimes with a figure or two, sometimes more.

2025 reading 🧵 This is why I don’t do end of year lists early. What a book. Ishiguro’s anxiety dream of a novel. Funny, confounding, Fluid and inconsistent but with characters I still cared about. Poor Boris! Such a good book. Surrender yourself to it and it delivers.

I have about 200 books that I haven't read (a conservative estimate), but always looking for recommendations. What are your favourite novels of 2025? I don't mean pub. 2025, but anything you've read. And fiction only. You can choose more than one!

For the interested, here's a list of My Favourite Films of 2025 - New Releases, in rough order of preference. (My fave older films will follow tomorrow.) #FilmSky #Films letterboxd.com/jacquiwine/l...

First watch: Sabrina (1954, directed by Billy Wilder). Love triangle between two rich brothers – playboy David (William Holden) and workaholic Linus (Humphrey Bogart) – and their chauffeur’s daughter, the titular Sabrina (an enchanting Audrey Hepburn). 1/4

Today on the blog, a festive mystery: “A desire to move furniture is a desire for life. “(Celia Fremlin, The Long Shadow) madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2025/12/23/a...

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

From the archive for Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, #BornOnThisDay in 1896, thoughts on THE LEOPARD (tr Archibald Colquhoun). A beautiful, elegiac novel, shot through with a yearning for times past. The writing is sublime. #BookSky 💙📚 #BOTD jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/t...

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...

Christmas Still LIfe, 1908 by German Expressionist painter Gabrielle Münter #womensart

Nighthawks - 1942 https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/3103259

BOTD Peggy Ashcroft!! Legendary Stage career, but very special supporting turns in The 39 Steps (Hitch) and Sunday Blood Sunday (Schlesinger) More: Michael Billington: www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/j... NYT: www.nytimes.com/1991/06/15/o... Judy Dench: www.standard.co.uk/culture/thea...

On the blog today, I explore a recently released anthology of the Lake Poets from @nottinghilleds.bsky.social - it's a stunner! kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/t...

Part 1 of my Books of the Year, focusing on titles originally written in English: 1streading.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/b...

10 favourite Christmas films - The Little Match Seller (James Williamson, 1902) www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J-3... - The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) - Christmas Under Fire (Harry Watt, 1941) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg7n... - Meet Me in St Louis (Vincent Minnelli, 1944)

A huge thank you to @jacquiwine.bsky.social who recommended Lady L a while ago (and on her best of 2025 list) after the review I knew I’d have to read it and it is wonderful. It’s going places I never dreamed of from the opening and I resent having to put it down while I cook! 📚💙 #BookSky

Nostalgia has rarely been more beautiful: a wonderful thread.

Highland Light, North Truro - 1930 https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/1039492

Marie Riviere in Eric Rohmer's masterpiece THE GREEN RAY (1986) She was BOTD in 1956

Claudia Cardinale during the filming of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In the West" (1968).

It was only in the 1960s Lawrence Toynbee began to get noted as an exhibitor with a run of shows at the Leicester Galleries in London. He was a fine painter and educator. This work shows 'Ice Skating, Oxford,' from around 1962.

The films of the year: 26 discoveries, 10 old favourites, 7 bad movies, 6 re-appraisals and 5 obsessions. Feat. all your faves: Linda Fiorentino, Joan Micklin Silver, Sinners, Wallis Island, Argentinean child noir, and really quite a lot of John Ford. advicetothelovelorn.blogspot.com/2025/12/revi...

This is very good news indeed!

First watch: The Quiet Man (1952, dir. John Ford). John Wayne plays a tall stranger who comes to town only to fall foul of a local bigwig. No, it's not a western! It's a romantic drama set in Ireland & the 2nd (after Rio Grande, watched recently) of 5 with Wayne starring opposite Maureen O'Hara. 1/2

a few thoughts on Thomas Vinterberg's Festen (1998), which I watched a little while back letterboxd.com/jamesewand/f...

A shout out to all those indie businesses out there today - it’s the last UK Christmas posting date and if they’re anything like me it’s all hands to deck!

'Gurnards Head.' (1947) Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a small but vital component of the St Ives school, arriving in Cornwall in 1940 just as Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and Barbara Hepworth were transforming the small fishing town into an unlikely hot-bed of British modernism.

Some more good book recommendations in here…

I watched this film last night, and @mariephillips.bsky.social's review is spot on. It's much richer than I thought it would be! #FilmSky

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...

Coast Guard Cove - 1929 https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/3104379

Emma Haworth, contemporary UK painter known for her observations of parks, with a hint of otherworldliness #womensart

Bell Tower - 1923 https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/3103411

One of the best films released this year. #FilmSky

Happy 21st December evening everyone. May the Great Veiled Bear pass over you house tonight and not present you with one of his cursed Christmas cookies.

I should probably do this more often, but my books make excellent Christmas presents! (Book Lover’s Quiz Book 2 not pictured). @zenoagency.bsky.social @summersdalebooks.bsky.social

From the archive for Diana Athill, #BornOnThisDay in 1917, my thoughts on DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. An evocative, beautifully observed coming-of-age story set in the bohemian milieu of 1950s Oxford & London. #DianaAthill #BOTD #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2020/02/11/d...

John Nash's curious picture of two nudists facing fully clothed figures on Dunwich beach, Suffolk was painted in 1919. The tower of All Saints’ Church was the last building of the original village to collapse later that year.

In William Orpen's 'Homage to Manet,' (1909) the artists who pioneered Impressionism in Britain and Ireland sit around a table underneath Manet's portrait of Eva Gonzales. They include Wilson Steer, Sickert, the art dealer Hugh Lane and Dugald Sutherland MacColl.

New on the blog today, Part 2 of my BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2025 - favourites from a year of reading. Featuring books by Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Comyns, Anita Brookner, Leonora Carrington, John McGahern & more! #BookSky 💙📚 #BooksOfTheYear jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/m...

Carole Lombard © Otto Dyar 1934

Today on the blog, a post for #DeanStreetDecember2025 hosted by @lyzzybee.bsky.social “She had adored her husband, and was very fond of her French pepper-mill.” (Margery Sharp, The Foolish Gentlewoman) madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2025/12/21/s...

From the archive for Seichō Matsumoto, #BornOnThisDay in 1909, my thoughts on TOKYO EXPRESS (tr Jesse Kirkwood). A thoroughly involving mystery, taking in elements of duplicity, intrigue & corruption, partly played out across Japan’s rail network. #BookSky jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/10/22/t...

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 21 Artist: CF Tunnicliffe (What to Look for in Winter, 1959)

I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.

New on the blog today, Part 2 of my BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2025 - favourites from a year of reading. Featuring books by Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Comyns, Anita Brookner, Leonora Carrington, John McGahern & more! #BookSky 💙📚 #BooksOfTheYear jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/m...

For Conrad Veidt, a huge star in his home country until the Nazis came to power, THE SPY IN BLACK was his first UK film after becoming a British citizen, and arguably his finest English speaking role. My Letterboxd review... #FilmSky boxd.it/c7wM3b

2025 can mostly get in the bin. But here are some things that brought me joy, all of which you can do/see/read/visit/hear/eat too. 1. This podcast where people talk about songs and what they mean to them. So much great music. Fascinating, moving stories ❤️ www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

Courtyard: Maid & child fetching things from outdoor larder while housewife stands in the passage keeping an eye on the street. Love how the red shutter seems hinged to the edge of the painting, by Pieter de Hooch in 1658.