OMG this stream of pick-me shite...... "She wore the island’s mixed bloodlines like a crown – African in the hips, Spanish in the cheekbone" That is one elastic motherfuckin' crown.......

Rather handsome, these. Courtesy of Easton Press, Leatherbound Signed First Editions

Gotta love the dour thicket of criticisms about the historical veracity of Nolan's take on The Odyssey - a story studded with gods and goddesses, sea monsters, nymphs and the talkative souls of the dead..... FFS, people!

PREACH, BROTHER, PREACH!!!!

Eurovision! Like someone *explained* late seventies pop to an English as a Foreign Language class, without ever actually playing them any, then told them all to go away and make some by themselves. Oh, and forgot to tell them that music has, y’know, moved on a bit since then….

Unfortunately, “making ridiculous lists” has been a big part of the Zeitgeist for several decades now. Like “reality TV” it’s a societal rot that has long set in. Personally, I blame Nick Hornby.

Is it weird that I don’t really get this concept? If a book is enjoyable, it’s good. You enjoyed it. It did its job. End of. Clearly YMMV. And yes, there’s canon, but that’s just the amalgamated enjoyment of a bunch of people who theoretically know what they’re talking about but often don’t.

11. But I DNF’d at least that many again. There‘s some real weak shite on this list. And where’s the Pynchon? Any Pynchon at all?

I, for one, am shocked, SHOCKED, I say, that men have unreasonable expectations of women. Exactly how long has this been going on???

He's escalating. It's got to be just a matter of time before he actually physically goes for someone in one of these Q&As. Wonder how they'll spin that?

All in the same single aircraft, you say............🤔

You know all those movies from the 70s and 80s where a plane gets hi-jacked by psycho terrorists jacked to the eyes with fervour & obvious chemicals and as the pressure mounts, they start increasingly to squabble & melt down...? America? Congratulations. You voted to let those guys hijack your jet.

Their faces! The trapped eyes, the frozen expressions, the forced smiles, the telegraphed general sentiment - Oh fuck this is televised, what am I going to say when it's all over, how the fuck will I ever face my grandchildren.....

Damn! Against expectation, #TheLongWalk turns out to be a remarkably powerful movie of the sort you don't tend to see so much of these days - loose, quiet, allegorical, built wholly around storming actor performances and very simple scene dynamics. Barely a special effect in sight! 1/x

Slightly increase a band Black Bank Holiday Weekend

Training just got serious

Share a song from the year you turned 18.

You know, if you rotate this 90 degrees clockwise....... you get a very pleasing image.

Still remember, with a mix of rancour and enduring disbelief, the stream of political commentators back in 2014 expostulating - from a long way south of the border, mostly - that there really wasn't much difference culturally or politically between the English and the Scots. Yeah, right.

Yeah,sex is great and all, but have you ever gone to buy bread and found a stack of stone baked Kalamata olive loaves fresh out of the oven and still warm…. Just add olive oil and a little salt. 🤌

There was quite the fashion 10 years ago for desperately trying to pretend that Brexit voters weren't xenophobes or fuckwits or both. "Contempt for the conmen, compassion for the conned" was the refrain, IIRC. I look at the voting today and I'm like -

Damn, Widow's Bay is good! Taking a leaf out of the Evil Dead II book - making people laugh doesn't mean you can't creep them out too.

Thread - Really important one.

Preach, brother, preach!!

Comes off oddly like some aggressive challenge that you're lying about your age...... "Born before 1970? With a neighbour getting guttering that cheap? Pull the other one, squire, it's got bells on!"

Well, that's certainly one way for the Green Party in one of the UK's largest cities to respond to a series of attacks against the Jewish community, of which Wednesday's stabbing attack was just the latest. Not even pretending it's about Israel now, are they?

For Star Wars day, give us your top 10 sci-fi films. In no partic. order: (disallowing multiples in any given IP) Bladerunner Mad Max Alien Predator The Thing The Matrix Moon Terminator 2 Strange Days Star Trek IV

Without stating your age post your favourite film released the year you turned 18.

Should have explored the incest sub-plot while they had the chance. Steven Berkoff to script.

Oh, yeah! 'tis that date again! Never gets old.

Just imagine what the next election will be like if this model of threatening voters takes off.

Oh wow, they’ve really ruined Man on Fire, haven’t they. Man on Fire - Wholesome Edition 🙄

It’s official - I am old. Features a new introduction in which I talk about some of the forces, both personal and political, that shaped the writing. And how it feels looking back after - eek! - almost twenty years. 😬

Quick heads-up for those it may concern. If you are - (a) in the US (b) quite keen to read No Man's Land, short of funds for a hardback edition and don't fancy waiting for the paperback to come out.... ....then you could do a lot worse than enter this Giveaway at Goodreads - Good luck!

Zack "hypnotits" Polanski openly said he wanted to be the Left's equivalent of Farage. An "eco-populist". And now he's got his very own Left-stench of racism to go with his populism. Well done, everyone!

Speaking of this movie, it's worth noting the massive influence it had on me. I first saw it at 5 years old (different times, etc) and fell asleep about halfway through. But not before I'd been scandalised by the fact of Tuco puffing on someone else's discarded cheroot butt. Anti-heroes, eh?

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli. (In my case, this is Astonishingly Easy Mode)

Would dearly love to know who lives here...... (didn't have the balls to knock)

Norfolk slowly getting its colour on......

Well, that last point is probably not wrong insofar as - In-group = all the people whose livelihood, IP and work has been/is being stolen by arrogant tech overlord wankers. Out-group = said arrogant tech overlord wankers. Signal = go fuck yourselves with something sharp and bleed out in a ditch.

Exact same thing happening for me - seems there's lot of it about. Bit scattershot in my case, tho' - they hit up a fellow author on the other side of the Atlantic, but also an East Anglian whole foods company. 🤪 Quite how this is supposed to pay off for the scammer remains a mystery to me........

Blue line of death.

Words to live by. Novelists even more the case - coz we generally stay home, and there you don’t have to get dressed *at all*.

It's official. I am -

Cannot recommend this collection highly enough. Breathtaking, thought-provoking, nightmare-inducing short stories from a true genre master. (Introduction's not bad either)

"You say government is always the problem. But you work in government, you are a part of the government. Are you the problem? - Uh, no, that not- "Then stop saying stupid shit." #Newsdoneright

What the fuck is it with the windmills??? Did he get stuck in one as a child?

Quite a few people dropping in to say how they burned through No Man’s Land in a couple of months-stop sittings. Which is nice, because that is very much how it felt to write too.

What he said. Ian was a great guy - we are all poorer for his passing. Will always remember his humour and energy and enthusiasm and kindness. A real gent.