"But oh how my heart leaps up to think that never again shall I be harnessed to a long book." Virginia Woolf's Diary, June 1937

To the @BFISouthbank yesterday to see beautifully restored (?) print of Terence Davies' "The House of Mirth", based on the Edith Wharton novel, with terrific performance by Gillian Anderson. Front row, big screen - wonderful colour palette, so many telling close-ups!

Slowly making my way through the Jimmy Schuyler biography - at last (p. 135) getting past the details of early relationships/affairs and onto the work. Surprised - and, for some reason, pleased - to learn that one of his first inspirations/models was D H Lawrence.

Admirer of Kelly Reichardt's work as I am, I was disappointed to be, well, disappointed by her latest film, 'The Mastermind'. Quite the best thing about it, for me, was the jazz-based score by trumpeter Rob Mazurek, featuring wonderful - beautifully recorded - drumming by Chad Taylor.

10/27/60: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning D: Karel Reisz P: Tony Richardson w/Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts Evening Standard: “Here is a chance for our own New Wave” More Crowther, impressed: www.nytimes.com/1961/04/04/a... @leftlion.bsky.social: leftlion.co.uk/features/201...

This week's painting ... 'The Viaduct' John Nash, Oil on canvas, 1916.

Happy birthday, Denise Levertov! bigother.com/2025/10/24/d...

✨WORKSHOP TOMORROW✨ Writing the Uncanny with Pam Thompson Mon 27 Oct, 7pm Sign up here: buytickets.at/thepoetrybus... In this workshop we will aim to look at ways we might ‘unsettle’ our poems looking at examples of ‘the uncanny’ from writing and art.

This week's painting - "Piccadilly" Albert Irvin, Acrylic on canvas, 2002

Oh, and did I omit to say funny, sometimes outrageously so. And the packed audience responded appropriately. Great stuff! @parktheatrelondon.bsky.social @nptheatre.bsky.social

Rare (for me) theatre visit last night - Nottingham's New Perspectives Theatre Co.'s brilliant production of Jane Upton's "(The) Woman", directed by Angharad Jones at the Park Theatre, north London. Meaningful, funny - so well written and played. Just one week to go!

Thanks to my New Mexico correspondent for this, a fair haul of my work on the shelf in the Taos Public Library - far more that to be found in my local Camden/Kentish Town equivalent.

One hefty, much anticipated volume purchased on Monday's visit to @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk

Followed a course of lectures by Matthew Holman at the Courtauld recently - if they're anything to go by, this should be some good book!

POEM FOR BRIAN internationaltimes.it/poem-for-bri... Malcolm Paul

Chuffed to find 'Fedora' (CWA Best Short Story Dagger 2014) in this collection, edited @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social, of the best stories by members of the CWA. Also present, Ann Cleeves, Simon Brett, Liza Cody, Peter Lovesey et cetera ...

While in Whitby, many a flat white enjoyed at the estimable Mr. Cooper's ...

Here's a taster ...

Just back from a week in Whitby, North Yorks. Some tumultuous seas, amazing skies ... Pics now on my Blog ...https://straight75nochaser.wordpress.com/2025/10/12/a-week-in-whitby/

Clapping good wishes!

Haven't read the Sarah Hall yet, but if it's up to her usual standards it should be a string contender.

New post just up on my Blog ... straight75nochaser.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/b...

The first issue - of thirty - of Slow Dancer poetry magazine and gently leaning on friends ...

We’re sorry to learn of the death of poet Brian Patten aged 79. Brian was the youngest of the trio of best-selling Mersey Poets who shot to fame in the early 1960s. (Photo: Brian Patten by Chris Gleave).

Yes, Kate. Brian's work in that book, alongside that of Roger & Adrian, opened a sense of what was possible in poetry to many young people - that and how it might relate to their lives.

Lovely tributes to poet Brian Patten throughout the news and press, as there should be. His wife Linda Cookson reminded me yesterday that he had been afforded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool, which made him so proud. www.itv.com/news/granada...

I'm so sad to have lost my brilliant, mercurial friend, poet Brian Patten, with whom I worked for 39 years. This is how he signed off his last email to me: "It's dragonfly time here. The lake down the lane is alight with them..." Brian, you left the world alight with your words. Obit in comments. 💙📚

“He moved, spoke, gestured and breathed as if he knew for certain that behind the drab winter clouds a different kind of sky was waiting, and that beneath the exhausted and frost-bitten ground lurked every imaginable flower.” apple.news/AFXfwny7ZTti...

Very sad to learn of the death of the poet Brian Patten at the age of 79. I first heard Brian reading, alongside Roger McGough & Adrian Henri, in Nottingham in '67 or '68, after which our paths crossed, happily, many times. A fine poet and a lovely man.

Art work of the week - William Scott, 'The Harbour', Oil on canvas, 1952

New review of my most recent pamphlet collection of poems ... londongrip.co.uk/2025/09/lond...

Just taken a slow wander down into Kentish Town - a piece of Skegness Blue (yes, really) from Earth and a couple of beauties from @owlbookshop.bsky.social

Art Work of the week : Edward Burra - 'Road near Whitby'

As celebrated by the late, great Guy Clark in song - Home-grown tomatoes!

Artwork of the week - Roger Hilton 'Woman in a Red Dress', Gouache, 1974

Much appreciated!

Found today amidst the treasure trove that is the Amnesty Bookshop in Kentish Town - first edition of this collection by Julia Casterton, whom I first met when she was an editor at Ambit magazine. Nottingham born, she was a fine poet and a caring & positive teacher of creative writing.

Art work of the week - Caroline Walker, 'Maternity 7', ink on paper, 2021

Mention of Brinsley Schwarz by my friend Tim brought back memories of Stevenage Saturdays in the early 70s. when listening to Charlie Gillett's excellent programme on BBC Radio London was often a highlight of the day. Surrendering to the Rhythm indeed!

Interior, August 2025. For more of my pics jbhphotos.tumblr.com

There are many things I love about C. Burnett's To Sleep With Anger: my old SF State comrade Danny Glover, Mary Alice, Ethel Ayler. The way CB depicts families and kids. If you haven't seen To Sleep... or his other early films, you don't know what you're missing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMk7...

Relevant to all of which, I've just begun re-reading 'Roseanna', the first of the Sjowall/Wahloo Martin Beck novels that were an inspiration for so many - Henning Mankel and myself included.

Painting of the Week : Mirdidingkingathi Jurwunda Sally Gabori "Dibirdibi Country" 2008 (detail) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Brilliant Brooklyn-based tap dancer Liberty Styles with @rhcohen and her trio in a great couple of sets of jazz & tap last night @vortexjazzclub.

A really strong issue - good poems by Rob Etty, Julie Lumsden & Pam Thompson, amongst many others.

Keeping it light and very engaging today with this set of short stories. Something very satisfying about the short mystery. Guess quickly because it’s over in a flash. Excellent intro by @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social that prompted me to make a list of mysteries new to me to look out for.

Art Work of the week : Sam Francis, Untitled, Lithograph 1986

One good thing about rewatching films you already know quite well, is it encourages you to concentrate on aspects other than the narrative - in this case, Haskell Wexler's cinematography. [and to enjoy, always, the scenes between Steiger & Poitier].

Thank you, @petroc.bsky.social for playing a track from Sheila Jordan's 'Portrait' album to mark her recent death at the age of 96. Inspired by the improvisations of Charlie Parker, she was a jazz singer first, foremost and forever.