The saddest thing about going cashless is you never find a random fiver on the floor or in a jeans pocket any more. The death of free money 🥲

A Russian proverb: 'He throws the fur coat onto the fire because he's angry at the fleas.'

now for the traditional eating of the christmas tree

“FFS it’s 4 COLLY birds, not ‘calling’ birds! Colly bird means Blackbird. It’s a specific type of bird, like turtle dove, or partridge - you see?! What even is a ‘calling bird’? Nothing! NOTHING!” [slipping free from wife and running back into kids carol concert] “And it’s GOLD rings, not golden!”

I really hope Serkis reels in the public with the funny jokes then hits them with a harrowing 15 minute one-shot of Boxer being turned into glue

😭

Where else but @thefence.bsky.social could you read the collected life advice of Robin Lane Fox? (Though I'd swap 'fox hunting' for 'exploring')

Just got out of "Who Do We Think We Are?", a series of talks at Theatro Technis (+ excuse to gather with food) about being a Cypriot working in the arts in Britain. Cypriotness is complex, and with every passing year I realise how much of me is tied to it. An enriching, invigorating event.

This is how you blurb

On my way to Frankfurt Book Fair - this in the @financialtimes.com made me chuckle

I'm so pleased to be shortlisted for the London Hellenic Book Prize alongside some wonderful other books on the Hellenic world!

Alex Christofi's Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of Cyprus, published by Bloomsbury. @christofi.bsky.social @bloomscontinuum.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

This is the only proper way to watch Beckett. This person understands Beckett on a level you and I cannot even hope to.

My money's on character actress Margo Martindale share.google/RlPSJCACjowN...

So grateful to @mmagency.bsky.social, esp. @agentbal.bsky.social who helped me figure out this book (and how to not write like an academic!), and to @christofi.bsky.social at @torvabooks.bsky.social and @sarahhaugen.bsky.social at @harperbooks.bsky.social who are excellent editors. I got so lucky. 🥰

I find it so funny that royals give themselves so many badges and buttons to show they are good at kinging, it's like a 5 year old found the teacher's sticker drawer. Bless

This has shaken me to my core

'what is your citation house style?' 'plagiarism'

I did it.

The new Terry Deary book has my favourite endpapers I have ever produced. It's like something by Francesco Bassano but way more surreal

And you thought all the news in the UK was doom and gloom www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

i'm the guy who invented the spike traps that pop out of temple walls. i hate my job. every day my boss says "why haven't we killed any archeologists" and i say "they haven't invented that yet." they pay me in tomb juice. i hate tomb juice. honestly i might just start working on my big boulder idea

In the bookshop this morning: PARENTS: “Okay, we’re leaving now.” CHILD: *pulls another book from the shelf and sits down * CHILD: “Then I guess this is goodbye.”

The mathematician John Venn was born on this day in 1834. To commemorate the occasion, here’s a poem in the form of a Venn diagram.

This 2,500 year old Siberian tattoo goes hard. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Love old papers. Fancy having such a list today!

- Plato

The Amazon AI summary of reviews for NUCLEAR WAR is so uncanny it's actually funny. 'While some find it has a nice pace, others describe it as sobering and disturbing. The terror level is also mixed, with some customers finding it the most frightening book they've read.'

I have finally discovered why my Spanish teacher was so worried about me

@christofi.bsky.social I’ve just finished Cypria, and wanted to say it was exceptional. I’m half Cypriot but grew up in the UK and haven’t much Greek, so i’ve always felt Cyprus is a story i can only half understand. Your book has given me my own Cyprus and i’m so grateful to you for writing it.

Happy birthday Penguin!

Congratulations to @sashadugdale.bsky.social for winning the Anglo-Hellenic League #RuncimanAward2025 with her astonishingly wonderful poetry collection “The Strongbox” (#Carcanet). A great choice by @sofkazinovieff.bsky.social and all the judges.

'While we regret that the present is not like the past and despair of its ever becoming the future, its innumerable inscrutable habits lie in wait for their meaning. I want to gather them, like somebody's grandmother putting up preserves, because they will have been so beautiful.' Diane Arbus

I love Robert Macfarlane but dammit I also love Craig Brown

It’s so revealing to describe audiobooks as “lazy” – do you think reading is supposed to be a chore? Of course, it may require hard work if you’re attempting to grind through Das Kapital, but I also read for pleasure. I love audiobooks. They enrich my time on commutes, during domestic tasks, etc

Just finished reading this book which is part history part travel part memoir part contemporary politics. -It’s really a page turner - read it during my 7th visit to Cyprus and as much as I thought I knew about the island - I learned so much and given it is so well written, in a very enjoyable way.

Important news: the Weston Library in Oxford (part of the Bodleian) has added a small baby play space. And they've called it the Toddleian.

This is the good shit #bookreview

The Penguin vending machine is so cool, we should have one on every train platform!

wasn't expecting this bird book to be so harsh on the birds

2.5 million people work in the UK creative sector. So what you are saying is, we need to destroy 2.5 million good jobs in order to potentially have a few thousand very high paid jobs. Now, I'm no mathematician but www.thetimes.com/article/9481...

I wonder if JG Ballard would be spending 4 hours a day on Tiktok. Possibly.

Defending copyright is very important at a time when the impetus to alter it skews toward corporate power, away from the individual. It's a powerful protection for creators and philosophical or abstract arguments against it are often distasteful in how they weirdly align in action w those in power.

Fantastic ending to Baroness Kidron's speech in the House of Lords yesterday, which led to the government's defeat on AI & copyright. Speaking the UK's creators: "Their property, their labour, is worthy of your protection - because apart from anything else, it is not ours to give away."

Just spotted Cypria paperback piled high at the front of Foyles - exciting to see it out!

'A remarkable book about a beautiful island.' Happy publication day to the gorgeous paperback edition of Cypria by @christofi.bsky.social! This evocative, lyrical book tells the history of Cyprus from the era of gods and goddesses to the present day.

*Issues the battle cry of a Cheruski warrior attacking the undefended Roman flank in the Teutoburg Forest*

The paperback of CYPRIA is out this week! You can buy it here: linktr.ee/christofi