“I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight.” (Mary Shelley) 🎨 David Blackwood #wintersky

“Despite its premise of the distillation of evil through shapeshifting, the anchoring concerns of this gothic tale are profoundly & universally human” Robert Louis Stevenson’s STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE was first published #OTD, 5 Jan, 1886 💙📚 #C19 🧵 1/8 theconversation.com/jekyll-and-h...

Reading On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle and I think that's it, I'm in for all 8 books

First book of 2026: Àgota Kristóf's I Don't Care. Bleak spare book, likely more suited to a deep February sort of mood

Upon some reflection and listening to joyful screams from around my house, it strikes me that Marty Supreme is plotted the same way as children's play. Lots of sudden explosive moments, drama and grandeur all the time

I once nearly hit Gordon Lish with a bit of fold up furniture, in a lift.

Just saw Marty Supreme. Everything happens All at Once and that everything is table tennis (and lying)

I've watched the BBC ghost story for Christmas and it's a good time to remember Dead of Night (the only Ealing horror film) exists

I know I’ve posted a fair amount about Moby-Dick, but I keep coming across astonishing passages, such as the one below when Ishmael visits the site of a an adult sperm whale skeleton given to his “late royal friend.” It’s as if Melville downshifts into eternal-classic mode.

Merry Christmas to all, and to those of you feeling like everything is getting a little too close, consider (perhaps wistfully) applying for this share.google/notQKnKsbQ2R...

We're just out here seeking meaning in a material world

Not now, haunted Victorian shoes

It has the odd feel of Trump making a memorial before he is dead. Perhaps he knows something we don't about his own health?

Early Christmas present to myself, in very Christmassy colour. How I have never read Kristóf before now escapes me

open.substack.com/pub/laughter... on Hardy, stars, hedges and having ones heart broken by picture books.

Maybe there is a bit more of Hardy in my planned writing than I say here. Maybe some of Boldwood's whipped up obsessions, now I think of it...

open.substack.com/pub/laughter... on Hardy, stars, hedges and having ones heart broken by picture books.

Farage arrives in Scotland today, and it should make our collective stomach heave that this repulsive, dangerous extremist has crossed the border. Amid scapegoating schoolkids and allegations of antisemitism anyone who supports this man is morally in the gutter My @heraldscotland.bsky.social column

"The Blackness" feels correct.

1 December is the day we must mark the sad passing 504 years ago of Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici – or Pope Leo X, as he was also known. Leo was not one of those popes memorable for a sordid life, but is known for two things. Firstly, this:

this is quite the detail

Happy birthday Gloria! In A Lonely Place is one of my all time favourite films, starts off as a standard noir but moves into something far more truthful and disturbing. Celebrate her birthday by watching it today!

the nominees were -a campaign to get lifechanging medication for extremely sick children -a campaign to improve access to justice for victims of rape and sexual assault -a transphobic hate campaign that managed to convince some judges to make the worst ruling in Supreme Court history* (*winner)

We need your help. @waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith. Please read on for more information www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908... (1/2)

Argonaut Books needs your help 📣 Waterstones are set to open a store less than 100m from the indie bookshop's front door. Full info on @argonautbooks.bsky.social's Insta: www.instagram.com/p/DRMULI1jCI...

Thing that rattles around in my head: Fifteen or so years go I attended a book event for two ghost hunters. One of them just casually said, "As we all know, ghosts can't move anything heavier than a five-pound bag of flour." I think about this ALL. THE. TIME.

See the full hearing at www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/... with @sundersays.bsky.social

The dream!

Fine, I will write the next James Bond. INT: SEX CASINO, NIGHT BOND: Hello I am Bond James Bond my car goes NYOOM CUT TO: ten minutes of a chase in a sports car BOND: Also my watch is a special watch that makes ladies blouses see through EXPLOSION BOND: This film is for grown ups

Just as I am thinking of writers who play and change things, here:

Attempting to rally myself and my agent into resending out an (edited, expanded) story collection. I would like my work to persist, even as the heat death of the planet nears. Like making a memento mori and throwing it in the smelter

One of my favourite underappreciated views in Edinburgh. Looking down on St Ninian's row. Dusk, grey stone, a few golden lights in the windows

Currently reading Turbine 34 by Katherine Clements. Carrying a current of its own across the dusty moors. Part of @wildhuntbooks.bsky.social Northern Weird Project, perfectly sized novels for reading, as I am, in lowering light

I've been reading an otherwise good non fiction book that referred to ivy as "strangling" some trees. A slander! Ivy is a great habitat for birds in its native range!

Thank you so much Matt! I still remember that night- heard some of the best poetry, in a packed venue. So great!!

I recall around 1990 an elderly supply teacher explaining to my class what war is actually like, macho mythology aside. The sound bullets make. Men crying for their mummys as they die on the battlefield. It's haunted me ever since, and certainly played a role in politicising me.

Frankenstein was campy and the most Catholic it was possible to be, including making St Giles cathedral in Edinburgh into a Catholic church, to my glee. And yet, it was only okay.

Where to send a v short story that's just one long shriek of despair about everything?

I’ve gotten like 20 or so of these scam emails about book promotion but I really like “And if you ignore this, just know a small, dramatic bookworm inside me will cry 🥺and probably quote Baldwin while doing it.”

A Personal Anthology is probably the substance I've most consistently read, and if you're not subscribed you should. You will find much to be inspired by (or argue against)

An unhinged literary opinion needs to be like Muriel Spark believing T.S. Eliot was sending her coded messages through his plays, not 'hear me out, I don't like Dickens'. That is simply a literary opinion. The hinges are very much intact.

Be Brave! Order Helen McClory's collection! Part of our discussion this week @electricsheepsf.bsky.social @helenmcclory.bsky.social

The future of UK Independent presses hang by a thread. Supporting the sector is vital: this is where ALL the bravery lies. The big houses are risk averse, but copycat small press successes to revitalise their lists. Small presses are the motor! www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...

Nigel Farage accuses teachers of "poisoning our kids" on race issues. Here's a reminder of what teachers and fellow pupils at Farage's own school remember of his own views on that subject. www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/nigel-fara...

This week's guest is Helen McClory! First up is "The Companion" in Wigleaf! "At this time of day, the risk of attack was minimal, and all she had was that noise, that taste, the treachery beneath, and the cold air around." @helenmcclory.bsky.social @wigleaf.bsky.social

"The sound was high and wrenching. There was a strong, wild smell now. She and I stood watching the second wave of the storm as it broke, droplets spattering, dense as white oil." Love the relationship amid the storm! @helenmcclory.bsky.social @wigleaf.bsky.social

"None of the snakes were awake, but the music made you think something violent was going to happen. I suppose the violence was in the man, not the snakes." I love this story! All of Helen's stories are full of quirky happenings & gorgeous language. @helenmcclory.bsky.social

My dad has turned up this photo from a visit "many years ago" to the Forth Bridge. I think it's taken from what he calls the howff, just below track level, used by the maintenance workers. I guess when you're engaged in a proverbially endless task, you need a wee cup of tea once in a while.

Book Cover of the Day: