Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) US photographer who produced an extraordinary body of work #womensart

It's coming home! 🎬🎸🎶🎥📚 Or as Ringo might have shouted at me: Southerner! Screening of A Hard Day's Night on Sat 17th October 530pm and Beatle-y In Conversation and book signing at Liverpool University's magnificent Victoria Building..

Hello, I’ve an event for my Muriel Spark biography next Weds (15th) at Waterstones Liverpool. We’ve sold barely any tickets, however, and it might be cancelled as a result. Please get a ticket if you’re nearby - it’ll be a lot of fun, and I’ll bring badges! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/waterstone...

Likely to be confrontational.

Following England’s unexpected victory over Mexico, the statue of Brian Epstein in Liverpool city centre makes its way to work.

"Serious drama is a dangerous travesty of life." Came upon this extract from a BBC doc about Ken Campbell's 1979 ICA production of The Warp - Neil Oram's 22-hour post-beat Pilgrim's Progress - and was not disappointed. youtu.be/ZyZL46LeMaw?...

Delighted to make my debut in @theobserveruk.bsky.social with a piece on the Bosch Parade. observer.co.uk/culture/in-r...

The good people @thequietus.com have published my piece about Melinda Gebbie: thequietus.com/interviews/s...

News! In this recent interview, Alan Moore unveils all the titles of the Long London quintet. The Great When (late '40s) * I Hear a New World (late '50s) * Blow Away, Dandelion (late '60s) In England's Dreaming (late '70s) And No River of Fire (1999) * out now retrofuturista.com/alan-moore-i...

Heat Diary: For the 28th edition of Science & Magic I wrote about parakeets, invisible horses, medication, claustrophobia and hallucinations. Read it here: www.violetterecords.com/science-and-...

Mathew Street and the ‘Pool of Life’ by Bryan Biggs "It’s a little known fact that Mathew Street’s almost mythic status in postwar popular music rests on a much richer narrative than that of the Fab Four alone" liverpoolpeopleshistory.org/2026/04/29/mathew-street-and-the-pool-of-life

this one at the Guardian, both reflections on the sins and possibilities of our complicated country. I will not be releasing any essays today, in case you were wondering.

I have a story in Radio 4's new Once Upon a Time series - a week of reimagined fairytales in the Book at Bedtime slot Lineup includes Katherine Rundell, Ben Okri, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and David Almond (I KNOW!!!) My story "Kakapos" is on 30 June and then on catchup www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Heat Diary: For the 28th edition of Science & Magic I wrote about parakeets, invisible horses, medication, claustrophobia and hallucinations. Read it here: www.violetterecords.com/science-and-...

More performative reading of @wildtwin.bsky.social with the sea in view. No Enigma though.

Magnetic North HQ

Tuesday

Magnetic North HQ

🐙 Say hello to Inopinoteuthis magna — the big-eyed jellyhead. 🐙 And yes, that common name does makes us suspect someone’s kiddo was in the lab that day! (Special thanks to @jeffday.bsky.social for sharing this species ID when we posted a different view of the animal.) #Doldrums 2,923 m

This is a deep-sea isopod. Dr. Johanna Weston, a deep-ocean biologist and guest investigator at @whoi.edu, is confident this is Bathyopsurus nybelini, one of her favorite animals. Learn why via the YouTube caption: youtube.com/shorts/DenUj...

Duane Michals. Joseph Cornell holding an untitled bottle object. 1969.

“The older I get, the more I distrust discourse”: An Interview with M. John Harrison — @monalisavitti.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2026/06/18/t...

Working link!: www.violetterecords.com/science-and-...

A history of Resonance FM with Stewart Lee, tomorrow at 8pm BBC Radio 4! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

made me think of this bit of lunacy, the Faxa Bay nest of Icelandic filmmaker Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, which I stumbled upon a few years ago.

Thanks Jeff, and wonderful piece from you (as always). Can totally see those scavenger revenants building their churches in the night.

I have some words and photographs in the latest edition of Science & Magic. Always good stuff here, including the regular feral epiphanies of @wildtwin.bsky.social www.violetterecords.com/science-and-...

Working link!: www.violetterecords.com/science-and-...

For the 27th edition of Science & Magic I wrote about the feral outsider artists on the banks of the River Mersey. You can read it here: www.violetterecords.com/science-and-... Lots of other wonderful things in this one including the debut of the brilliant Donna Enticknap @auuop.bsky.social

Very beautiful documentary on Leonora Carrington made by the BBC in 2017 - Leonora Carrington - The Lost Surrealist (BBC) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikH3...

I love Jeff's writing, for him, the nymphs have not departed, which is to say, the genii loci are everywhere, to those who have ears for those who have eyes -- do sing

Memory, counterculture, bookshops, nostalgia, sacred places, deep listening, squatting, close observation, sadness… all kinds of stuff in this conversation for the Turning World podcast with Jon Egan and Keith Hitchman which I enjoyed very much! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qktl...

Totally misremembered David Hockney as being part of this episode of Monitor, but it is so well worth watching anyway. Not least for the wonder of Pauline Boty and her work www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

AI data centres are coming to Britain - from the US and beyond. This one's in the village where I write my books. It'll use the same amount of power equivalent to 1 million homes and will wreck the natural environment. Please sign if you value nature. www.change.org/p/save-the-l...

The Lammermuirs are one of Scotland’s most treasured rural landscapes. This morning, @benjaminmyers76.bsky.social wrote to us with news of plans to build an industrial data centre on them. Help 66 locals defeat a $2 billion project by signing the petition: www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/06/save...

I was delighted to join this wide ranging and free flowing conversation about landscape, XTC, the ancient and modern. Link below!

This women's group wanted to raise £1,000 to help the victims of last night's attacks in Belfast. It's already at £56,000. chuffed.org/project/1854...

Mensi ✊

Tribute to Rufus Collins (1935-1996) @wildtwin.bsky.social @richardjamesfoster.bsky.social

Memory, counterculture, bookshops, nostalgia, sacred places, deep listening, squatting, close observation, sadness… all kinds of stuff in this conversation for the Turning World podcast with Jon Egan and Keith Hitchman which I enjoyed very much! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qktl...

Mathew Street, Liverpool, 6th June 2026.

Order of Events for 50 Years Jung celebrations today. Sad to say I can’t be there but I hope you can!

Day three in the world: new book HOLME FELL: robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2026/06/trev.... And pages from it: robertsheppard.blogspot.com/2026/05/trev....

#nowplaying FLIPPING HECK. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp5F...

Surrealism AND The Stranglers: a perfect piece. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU9j...

Once stumbled across him holding court in Ray's Jazz many moons ago, wearing a purple fedora and matching suit -- he was talking about his lifelong obsession with Bessie Smith and playing his 78 collection. There must only have been a handful of us in the shop that day. Pure magical moment.

For the 26th edition of Science & Magic I wrote about George Melly. You can read it here: www.violetterecords.com/science-and-... And you can hear more about George in this fab episode of Backlisted with Andy, John, Lizzie Nunnery and me: www.backlisted.fm/episodes/205... @backlisted.bsky.social

‘died of sadness…’

“One of the things pop music can do is to magicalize the mundane - cups of tea and bus stops”. @wildtwin.bsky.social My Favourite Beatles Song pod. Yeah!