Honoured and excited to be a judge, with such fantastic fellow judges. Currently making some shelf-space...

🇧🇪 Ouf Oef phew

Inspiring story... www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Heatwave advice Belgian style: plenty of salt on those chips.

The Oxford Union, always been a wankers' nursery. Now the rest of the city pays its nappy fees. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Cardiff was once a great university, and U of Wales once a visionary university system. This is grim, the senior management and bosses at Cardiff are (rich) vandals, and the Cardiff uni in Kazakhstan stuff is like a David Lodge novel @nation.cymru nation.cymru/news/what-it...

A pair of empty boots, rain and a rail replacement bus. Sunday, distilled

Of course I signed. Didn't you (yet)?

Sea-sculpted tree that looks like an animal skeleton, and proof that, however remote you are, however far from towns and houses and cars, the universal upturned shopping trolley will find you.

⏰ 5 days remaining to apply for this year's summer school. Only a few places left for select languages remaining!

Because it's going so well.

'Stuck in the hole it was meant to fix'. The Starmer metaphor lorry: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

To treat this and other cases as mere faulty vetting is disingenuous and lets Reform off the hook of being challenged for who and what they are. metro.co.uk/2026/05/09/r...

Pob lwc Cymru heddiw. It's time.

A fine and thoughtful poet who lovedpoetry and shared that love widely in all her writings, and wrote and read with huge range. Very sorry to hear.

I wrote about what it's like to read the poetry of J.H. Prynne

Very sorry to hear of JH Prynne's death.I was sent to him for my u/g dissertation on Wm Cowper, 1990. He was brilliant, warm and kind, & talked about poetry as if he was there, somewhere along the chain of its making, speaking from inside as well as outside it. www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6...

Very sorry to hear that the poet J.H. Prynne has died, at the age of 89. Here, from 10 years ago, is my attempt to describe the man and the work

A propos Trump's use of My Way... the original song is French: Comme d'habitude. Sung by Claude François, written by him, Jacques Revaux & Gilles Thibaut, it's a charming self-deprecating and witty song, far from the puffy boomer anthem My Way, now a dictator dotage-dirge. www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-...

Very taken with Bristol Temple Meads Lost Property office. All these characters angry getting ready to go find their owners.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MAGYAR.

Jacques Brel, born today in 1929. Here in my home town of Bouillon, quite the young bruxellois on a day out to the provinces. My mother and aunt saw him in concert.

Staff in the Oxford branch of Lush have had to deal with some harassment from the so-called Oxfordshire Patriots recently. So I dropped by today to offer some moral and financial support, and picked up the excellent @migrantsrights.bsky.social leaflet.

Thames Valley Police have now confirmed that they have arrested a 44-year-old man from Bromsgrove on suspicion of causing racially and religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress, in connection with reports of incidents on Abingdon Road. He has been released on police bail.

Far right thugs getting called out and shown up, and for several of them it's far from their first arrest.

So he did come in the end:

From Didcot and Reading to Paris, where the Coolest Man ou No competition has been won by Gilles Ortlieb. André Chénier a close second.

Faint Mondrian vibe on the approach to Reading station

Long route from work via Osney and the gas works, lots of time to enjoy the springtime growth of pointless aggressive and passive-aggressive signage.

a few pictures from my ... ahem... 'run' yesterday: chilled heron, orders from Christ, and two skeletal leaves through which spring can finally be glimpsed.

I.M.

Hello Bluesky! I am looking for anyone who cares about/writes about/thinks about Rebecca West. I've been on a 10 year mission to get her a blue plaque in London and am finally allowed to re-apply after it was last turned down. I'd welcome help building a strong application. Thank you 💙🙏

Cormorant, geese and road cone. Osney tableau in hesitant sun. 5/3/26. I date spring from now.

We had a fantastic evening talking about Lynette Roberts and her amazing poetry. Woth thanks to the society and the ambassador. The Fererro Rocher are just out of sight.

Anither afternoon gone

Fantastic evening in Palas Print Caernarfon with Niall Griffiths and @benwildsmith.bsky.social for Ben's new book with @calonbooks.bsky.social

Dal yma heddiw, Morrisons dre. Still here today Morrisons Caernarfon.

Meanwhile, in Germany, the public weighs in on what they think of the Epstein Administration. #BrutalButAccurate

Been following this in the French press but this is a really fine and searching article for the UK reader. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

Pride of place in Morrisons Caernarfon charity book table: top trolling dre, da iawn.

Rosa road, Sheffield, Snake Pass. White peaks.

Osney island , Constable light on the old electricity station.

Small mercies: the first rainless day in what feels like months, followed by a sunset that involves a visible sun, visibly setting.

Congratulations to the winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for translations into English of full-length French works of literary merit and general interest: ruthdiver.bsky.social for a translation of The Convoy by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse (openborderspress.bsky.social )

London 3 times in a week. Lights on, nobody much home at Centre Point. The future as imagined by the past.

There's always something to see.

The penmanship and control are extraordinary www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...

Delighted and extremely grateful for this kind review of Ghost Stations @cbeditions.bsky.social by Jonathan Keates in this month's @litreview.bsky.social . I'd like to stay on this train, thank you.