Marjane Satrapi, creator of Persepolis and acclaimed French-Iranian artist, dies aged 56 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Hare monoprint study

Belle & Sebastian have released a Scottish World Cup song, called ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ You can watch a video for the song, which was produced by and co-written with Scottish musician Pete Ferguson, here: buff.ly/YKbDqK1

The latest issue of ÉTUDES ÉCOSSAISES is now online. Entitled “Scottish Territories & Memories”, it explores the connections between these two concepts, as they manifest themselves in literary, cultural, & historical forms journals.openedition.org/etudesecossa...

Not often you need one of these in Scotland.

Old squirrel photos from Edinburgh communal garden.

“I don’t know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn’t make sense.” — David Lynch

pink flower with card by @essencepress.bsky.social

Fairywren of the Day: Red-backed Fairywren 📷 Ian Davies

'Dandelions,' was painted by the Danish artist Bertha Wegmann around 1910. It wasn't an arbitrary choice of a plant to paint: the dandelion was used to promote the women’s liberation movement in Scandinavia because of its capacity for uncontrolled, strong-willed growth.

What kind of justice is this? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

cat shadow

Well said! This “disease” that things only have value if they make profit has become embedded at every level in the UK. This has a negative impact on creative industries but poses a genuine threat to disabled, homeless, poor etc people who UK govt view as “unprofitable”. End-stage capitalism.

tulips

Stone owl (with broken eye) and self-heal.

‘I called my cousin, a heating engineer. He said he could come in an hour. When he arrived, I asked why he wasn’t at work. “They didn’t renew my contract,” he said. “After 44 days of war, the company cut the staff in half.”’ Raha Nik-Andish in Tehran, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Foyles book shop in the evening rain, Charing Cross Road, London, c. 1935, by the great Wolfgang Suschitzky.

tfw you finally have a good draft and need to kill everyone who read the previous one

Mist over Forth last week. From window.

Tulips

bluebells

❛ Writing is a kind of revenge against circumstance too: bad luck, loss, pain. If you make something out of it, then you've no longer been bested by these events. The brilliant Louise Gluck, born #OTD in 1943.

sun-lit tulips and selfheal

‘After all the horrible things we’ve been through,’ he said to me, ‘if I die of cancer, it will make a bad story’: Siri Hustvedt on losing Paul Auster www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Orange tulips

Manchester, 1976, photo by John Bulmer. The shoes!

I profiled @mollycrabapple.bsky.social for @us.theguardian.com. We discuss her timely new book, "Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

NEW: The Giller Prize boycott has ended. The embattled literary prize confirmed that it is no longer sponsored by groups with ties to Israeli occupation and genocide. I spoke to previous Giller winners and nominees about the news for @thegrindto.bsky.social. www.thegrindmag.ca/organizers-e...

What to watch at the UK Asian Film Festival 2026. @leilalatif.bsky.social shares her top picks. hyphenonline.com/2026/04/10/u...

The beauty of dying tulips

Took a 2025 Booker-shortlisted novel back to library, couldn't finish... Got this by Mohammed Hanif instead. #books #libraries

spring

Wherever I've been asked in interviews about AI taking over literature I ask what the person's favourite AI novels are. There never are any. The Shy Girl extracts released are clearly garbage, so the question is not so much why the AI wasn't spotted, but why the poor quality wasn't spotted.

Like two different skies

ice on door-mat #easter

Maruska the cat, at the window, very interested in something down there, and drawn by Leonid Pasternak whose day is today.

Azalea

Two elephants

Light through daffodils.

Beach Cat thinking about things

Enjoyed catching up with conversation with Imtiaz Dharker via @societyofauthors.bsky.social on Vimeo. #writing

Interesting essay from Leila Aboulela in @societyofauthors.bsky.social magazine.

I can’t stop thinking about this beautiful piece of writing by @audreygillan.bsky.social in which she evokes the past “glitter” of Glasgow’s Union Street. We have been reminiscing over on Instagram about all the long lost shops - Bus Stop, Virgo, The Warehouse. So lucky to have known that era.

One daffodil

Children at an Edinburgh hospital painted pebbles for the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo and will be able to watch them choose and present them to their mates via livestream. #SundayMorning

‘When a cat voluntarily disappears from home’, Muriel Spark once said, ‘it’s merely because the whim has seized it to look for something less boring elsewhere’. That was Spark, in her life and in her work: untethered, aloof, and forever seeking a life less ordinary. 🐈‍⬛ Out 9th April! (link in bio…)

‘My mother said she would cook kabsa. Kabsa was not just a meal. It was a declaration that this day was different. The tent slowly filled with the smell of spices – a scent we had not experienced in months.’ Hassan Ayman Herzallah collects gas in Gaza, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Just listened to ten minutes so far. Dr Stephen Holgate sympathetically says the medical disbelief around ME was harnessed around ignorance. I would add that the ignorance was utterly wilful. The arrogance of those who harmed #pwME - with impunity - will never not make me furious.