This is a wonderful, useful thread, not least because it begins with Orson Welles’s greatest performance i.e. as himself, interviewed by Alan Yentob for Arena. The ultimate comfort watch IMIO.

£100 feels like a steal. Great opportunity to own some really evocative art.

When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did they not lick his blood?

I am performing in LEICESTER on Tuesday - tickets here events.comedy-festival.co.uk/events/robin... #comedy #poetry

After years of failure #warwickshirewildlifetrust staff finally abandon their purpose built #Nature #Conservation #Centre and close it to the public ☹️ #wildlifetrusts @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social

Eric Ravilious designs for his garden themed crockery service. In the Aberdeen art gallery.

Jourdan is terrific and is supported by a smart adaptation by Gerald Savory. In it, Dracula is not a monster because he is a vampire who happens to be an aristocrat, he is a monster because he is an aristocrat who happens to be a vampire. The supernatural is secondary and that is brilliant.

This thread is absolutely correct. The Louis Jordan COUNT DRACULA is peerless.

The French Dispatch, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited and The Royal Tenenbaums, all went up on Netflix yesterday.

No more feeling anxious about whether the originals of my Woman in Black illustrations are too expensive, I’ve been in such a worrisome mood recently. I think they’re pretty good value. This is an unpublished illustration I made. £100 plus P&P Email: [email protected] to purchase.

The best one page ghost story ever put to paper.

Our full bursary - worth over 5k +add itional years' (yep) worth of benefits & resources - closes tomorrow, midnight GMT. It's for under-rep writers & we ask that you don't apply if you could ordinarily afford it. For NOVEL writers and you should be 10k underway, jerichowriters.com/jericho-writ...

roses are red violets are blue why are you buying flowers when a book will do? #books

Compendium 250 - Song 10 Sarah McQuaid - The Plum Tree and the Rose (bonus track) Album: Walking into White (Live in Rapid City) Date: 2025 Web: sarahmcquaid.com/tour Blue Sky: @sarahmcquaidmusic.bsky.social

Hearing a commentator say “4/100ths of a second to play with”as I sit drinking tea, I know there is another world that some people believe is in this one.

Thank you to Sue Craigs Erwin on Facebook for today's #FoxOfTheDay !

Starts on Thursday - you don’t have to be able to watch live, I can send you the recordings!

Anyway, @josienneclarke.com was brilliant at @treehousebookshop.bsky.social gig at URC in Kenilworth. And in answer to the question — no, definitely nowhere better to be on a Saturday night. Definitely not Kenilworth’s famous discotheque.

How an artist is like a tree – Paul Klee on creativity www.themarginalian.org/2020/09/24/p...

A childhood favourite! There was a very good @backlisted.bsky.social episode on it a few months ago.

BBC Two Wales screened a new documentary about Gwen John last night, now on iPlayer. It features contributions from curator of our new exhibition Lucy Wood, as well as from my amazing paintings conservation colleague Rachel Beard and also a tiny bit from me! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

If you want to know what’s going on in the oceans, check out their seashell media.

Love this photo of Letterman with Liberace and Dylan I watched this episode when it first aired and it was super rare to see Bob on television RS

I'll say more before too long, but for now: Thanks to anyone who has ever read and supported the Post's books coverage.

Bezos has killed the Washington Post's books pages. John Williams is a mensch, and a good and loyal friend, to me, to @backlisted.bsky.social and to anyone who loves literature and reading. Now more than ever, you know where not to buy your books, or anything else for that matter.

Don’t know how many more examples it’s going to take for people to realize that billionaires are an existential threat to democracy and its institutions.

I have another #buyastrangerabook day offer to tell you about. @ginger-kid.bsky.social has bought TWO copies of Mortification by Mark Watson for me to give out. So, if you'd like one, just get in touch! UK only

I have another #buyastrangerabook day offer for you. @mrslscarles.bsky.social is offering to buy someone a book by the brilliant Olaf Falafel. Here's what I can get right now. If there's one that you'd like, get in touch.

Here's a groovy #buyastrangerabook day offer for you, unclaimed from last week! @ivebeenhigh.bsky.social is offering to buy one lucky person a copy of either Disappoint Me or Bellies by Nicola Dinan. Check them out, and if there's one that you'd like, get in touch! UK only

I made myself an AI FREE stamp for any creative workshops I'm running so that people can use it on their work if they like, and as a general reminder.

Apply for our PhD placement scheme to get involved in extraordinary research at the Library. There are eight available placements exploring a variety of themes including war poetry, 21st-century digital tools, illustrated newspapers and decarbonisation. Find out more: link.bl.uk/PhDPlacements

Morning everyone! My tour with Spiers & Boden starts today … what could be a better way to begin to blow away the February blues than an evening of high-energy folk? Ticket links from spiersandboden.com/live-dates - check to see if there are tickets left for your local show.

I'll be kicking off #buyastrangerabook day in about an hour. I have already got some lovely offers to tell you about. Let's hope it's a good one eh?

'It won’t, of course, do: as an account, I mean, of what took place. I tried, I tried for so long to reconcile, to find a style that would express it, to find a system that would excuse me, to construct a new meaning, having kicked the old one out..' #BookSky jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/02/03/t...

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 111: Criticism comes with having readers. If you can't handle criticism - be it fair or unfair - then you should keep your work strictly private.

This fluid and sensuous album recorded around Lake Manyara in northern Tanzania by David Fanshawe in the early 1970s, is available for Flac and MP3 download on my blog: music-republic-world-traditional.blogspot.com/2026/02/tanz... #Tanzania #music #Lake Manyara

Richard Yates was born 100 years ago today. Memories of @booksellercrow.bsky.social saying, probably in the 1990s: "Read this!" and handing me Revolutionary Road. Memories also of being really shocked, in The Easter Parade, by... well, try it and you'll see what was shocking. Also good short stories

Finally made it to the Lee Miller exhibition at Tate Britain. A very early start & a 600 mile round trip. Was it worth it? Absolutely!!

fascinating article here, and one that brings to mind debates i've seen lurking fan edit communities, where the use of AI is hotly debated

Sick of all the saccharine sweetness of Valentine's Day? Then come and join us for something on the dark side of love with WRITING THE OCCULT this 14th February... www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-th... #valentine #valentines #romance #darkromance #horror #fiction #writing #writers

I LOVED this book. Which is a meaningless thing to say, but the description reposted below is indeed good! #BookSky

Carole had her usual travel sickness so we will have to wash the car out tomorrow.

Love listening to scientists on #desertislanddiscs Professor Michelle Dougherty this morning 🪐 🌒 🌎

£500 given out to a working class writer every month. Details in link. Please share :)

#GetKeshed. 12th Feb.

5 AM

The ARCs have arrived! 📚✨ Nicholas Royle’s Finders, Keepers is a brilliant, droll look at the "secret life" of second-hand books – from maps-as-bookmarks to charity shop treasures. Out 14 April from @saltpublishing.com. A must-read for #Booksky! #NicholasRoyle #Bibliophile #NewBooks

We are now at 51 tickets for this, would love to get it up to 60 this weekend - who else is coming, Kenilworth and Warwickshire? It's going to be gorgeous. @josienneclarke.com at Abbey Hill URC, Kenilworth, Sat 7 Feb. www.ticketsource.co.uk/tree-house-b...

I am an art historian as well as a second-hand bookseller, and I am starting a 5-week course on Zoom on Northern art in the Renaissance, which is my specialist area. Details in the link - would be lovely to see you there! www.ticketsource.co.uk/tree-house-b...