"Inferior artists are continually trying to escape from the necessity of sound work, and either indulging themselves in their delights in subject, or pluming themselves on their noble motives for attempting what they cannot perform ... 1/2

The contents of Frederic Leighton’s Holland Park house were sold after the artist’s death. Now Annemarie Kloosterhof has remade the most elusive of these in paper – and Will Wiles finds her spectral creations well suited to the festive season

A huge thank you to @nicholasroyle.bsky.social & @saltpublishing.com, @thelincolnreview.bsky.social, @vikshirley.bsky.social & @sublunary.bsky.social for publishing (nominating) my work in 2025. To Rossi Contemporary & Claire Oberst, for exhibiting it & @lauradavispoems.bsky.social for carrying it!

I thought I was handling the festive responsibilities rather well but yesterday I found I was watching YouTube videos about being a lighthouse keeper

In the bumper Christmas issue of @litreview.bsky.social I review Dan Cruickshank's "The English House", which has affability and and erudition in abundance, and occasional longueurs: literaryreview.co.uk/door-to-door

The contents of Frederic Leighton’s Holland Park house were sold after the artist’s death. Now Annemarie Kloosterhof has remade the most elusive of these in paper – and @willwiles.bsky.social finds her spectral creations well suited to the festive season

Surgeons general, Tescos Express

Those COLOURS. There's an artist who knew how to force four-colour printing to get up early and do a full day's work.

The contents of Frederic Leighton’s Holland Park house were sold after the artist’s death. Now Annemarie Kloosterhof has remade the most elusive of these in paper – and @willwiles.bsky.social finds these spectral creations well suited to the festive season

What’s good about Walliams is we don’t have to separate the art from the man

A ghost story for Christmas (kind of) - the "Ghost Object" paper sculptures at the Leighton House Museum, marking lost treasures that the curators hope to find again

Here are some more photos. We really want to share this book with readers.

Christmas has come early for me, thanks to my friend, the brilliant @zaraslattery.bsky.social. One of the v few self-printed copies of volume one of our graphic novel, SWEENEY'S PROGRESS. A labour of love for both of us. One day a publisher may agree and publish it *prays to the comics gods*

It is once again that time of year when every Books Dad gets absolutely bodied by Molesworth.

he also kind of gets everyone's asses again in this follow up with the washington post

New Year's Resolution: Petition Blackburn borough council to erect somewhere a titanic metal pyramid that will mark the town as one of the birthplaces of cosmic horror.

William Hope Hodgson inventing cosmic horror in Blackburn is as pleasingly unlikely as Mervyn Peake writing the early chapters of Titus Groan on Blackpool's North Pier, which is a thing that also happened.

#TTRPG persons: you have until Christmas Day to get hold of our beloved and acclaimed TEETH zines of 18th century horror, lost pigs, and ballgowns, at a bold 50% off! It's the incredibly toothsome TEETHAZINE Bundle: itch.io/s/167336/tee...

I don't use Word (alternatives are available!) but I have noticed that opening and searching a pdf on a Windows computer has slowed waaaaay down since AI was wedged into things

(flirtatiously) and is there a lord gaga....?

Christmas night: "But Santa, you've hardly touched your Zardoz cookies."

I thought about saving "stolen squalor" to use in a novel featuring someone who grew up comfortably middle-class but claims hardscrabble working-class roots, but then I remembered I'd have to write the whole novel first, so I'm just posting it.

In an ominous ruined harbor, Saint Augustine of Hippo encounters a tiny child trying to empty the sea. Wonderfully chilling scene from 1623 by François de Nomé, whose day is today.

A persistently underrated writer - "The Ophiuchi Hotline" would be in the 20th-century SF top 10 for me.

I've been fortunate enough to gain some new followers recently. Welcome, and also, maybe you would like this, if you like listening to things. There are some great comedians in it. It's a long-running story. But it's only up to episode 3 (this weekend).

I am convinced that a lot of the meanness, anger and spite in the British public rests in the miserable uphill bureaucracy that has to be continually navigated - the phone queues and voicemails and online form-filling and do-not-reply-to-this notifications, at once all-powerful and powerless.

Thank you everyone who reposted and replied to that bit of festive marketing, I really appreciate it. That little book has been the outstanding high point of a lousy year.

This book of Weird Tales rules and I’d strongly recommend it

I really enjoyed these short stories and can confirm it is perfectly sized for a large sock (whilst reading, I carried my copy around in my jacket pocket)

This is (a) recommended and (b) in stock @bookhaus.bsky.social in Bristol.

J.R.R. Tolkien, literal Butlerian Jihadist

‘The Guggenheim Bilbao made Gehry, at 68, the most famous architect in the world – the personification of the Starchitect,’ writes Christopher Turner. Or, as a 2005 episode of ‘The Simpsons’ had it, ‘the bestest architect in the world’.

No one sends e-cards any more. Fifteen years ago it was one of the innocent delights of advent to wake up to a bulging inbox of broken javascript animations from lettings agents, hairdressers I won't be using again, and hotels I stayed in once. Now, nothing. O tempora, o mores.

‘The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret’ fantastic new acquisition at the National Gallery in London. Absolutely worth it. Just look at that fella.

If you are still looking for a "stocking filler" please bear in mind that "The Anechoic Chamber" is a slimline A-format paperback, so it fits snugly in a standard men's sock or the pocket of a winter coat. This also means savings on wrapping paper, postage, etc. and it's only £9.99.

My 2025 of the year

Mort de Martin Parr : God save the kitsch. C'est la une de Libération lundi. Connu dans le monde entier pour son regard ironique et coloré sur la société anglaise, le photographe est mort à 73 ans.

This is great. I love a “debunking the mythos” feature and this is exactly that. Also, if you’ve never seen that Pepsi “press release” before, wow!

"Late Star Trek" boldly renames itself where noblog has renamed before: "Critical Star Trek Studies", now a group blog with posts by Adam Kotsko, Sabrina Mittermeier and myself. Subscribe, why don't you? It's free. latestartrek.substack.com/p/a-true-ens...

"It is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create" said JMW Turner. Or did he? Where did he say it? Googling the quote turns up page after page of rubbishy quote sites and pinterests cannibalising each other. Nothing in reputable sources. I suspect apocryphal? Does anyone know?

It's amusing (to me, an ageing nerd) how much this resembles the "twined" way artists like Sal Buscema and Todd Macfarlane drew Spider-Man's webslinging back in the 1990s (and possibly other artists before and since but the early 1990s was when I was paying attention)

I can't get enough of this STUNNING image of spider silk (by Martin J. Ramirez, winner of the Royal Society Photography prize)

Does anyone here happen to have access to an image of "A Kind Star", a painting by Edwin Landseer, which was shown at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1859? It is regarded as one of his worst, which might explain why it's so hard to find a picture. Thank you! @royalacademyarts.bsky.social

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

LAST DAY!

Out soon. Does not contain artificial intelligence. Or much intelligence of any kind.

I wrote this! I do hope you Fallen Londoners enjoy it.

I do not have two wolves inside me, I have an unending struggle between Fraggles and Doozers

if your toddler asks for his scissors ALWAYS ASK WHY

'Colours', Brixton (2025) by Marie Lenclos marielenclos.com 👤: @marielenclos.bsky.social