Thoughts inspired from meeting someone who thinks the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare's plays and from watching Ira Sachs' Peter Hujar's Day. crop.photography/p/the-biogra...

It's a Camilla Grudova week 1. Camilla Grudova interview in @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social thelondonmagazine.org/interview-ca... 2. Camilla Grudova short story on BBC Radio 4 today (Friday) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Save the Date: Gray Day 2026 – Reimagined Glasgow. Join us 25 Feb at Òran Mór, Glasgow (7–10pm) as we mark 45 years of Lanark with talks, art & celebration with partners @canongate.co.uk Tickets on sale now (link in bio).

Scotland, Caracas and the Trump Corollary open.substack.com/pub/fiftysix...

reading thread, 2026 edition

John Knox approves this message.

My whimsical list of 2025 cultural highlights. neilscott.substack.com/p/cultural-h...

Be part of the #PowerShift at Celtic Connections. Come & imagine better stories of a clean energy future for Scots communities. The crew’s gathering… & now with Scotland’s Makar, Peter Mackay. 3pm, Sunday 18th Jan, Green Room, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow spring.site/blog/power-s...

2026 is around the corner. I, ever impulsive, started a Medium. medium.com/@polariskoi/... #adhd #planning #productivity

What's it like to work over Christmas? The @glasgowbell.bsky.social sent me to find out. www.glasgowbell.co.uk/workers-glas...

Good post about unexpected things that are legally people: bengoldhaber.substack.com/p/unexpected...

Want to use the phrase "flipped through my mental rolodex" but realise that no one under forty will have a clue what that means.

Turns out that if your Spotify Wrapped is too embarrassing you can just put together a list of thing you like and post them on your blog: neilscott.substack.com/p/what-i-lis...

Amazing how Stanley Kubrick anticipated the Reels/TikTok era.

Glad to see Glaswegians have chosen the @limmy.com version of Nelson Mandela

In which I have a Sartrean experience in Ayrshire: neilscott.substack.com/p/missed-con...

I assume @peteralanross.bsky.social and Anthony Seldon have the same graphic designer, otherwise someone is in trouble.

The artist Sophie Calle shows that in our rush to surveil and be surveilled we have overlooked the fundamental fact that the most important parts of human experience remain invisible. open.substack.com/pub/tiffanyj...

Saw THIS dog in front of a shop with THIS ornament.

Gorbals from the air in the 50s, 70s and 90s from Joshua al-Najar’s presentation at the Studies in Photography conference.

The severity of the men in the launch brochure of the M* motorway, which destroyed large parts of Glasgow city centre.

Our Custodian, @sorchadallas.bsky.social has written an obituary for Elspeth King in The Guardian. King transformed how Scotland’s museums told the stories of everyday people—https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/16/elspeth-king-obituary

Glasgow's most reclusive novelist, Chris Kohler, finally has a event in his home city at the Aye Write festival. Check out the review in the post below. www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/wate...

Did some anthropology this morning and looked up the cover stars of GQ in Taiwan, UK, and US.

Martin Amis is very good on why Nabokov's Ada is so bad.

Inside beautiful, brutalist church, The Pyramid, to see some extraordinarily, self-consciously ugly posters.

The Map and the Territory

neilscott.substack.com/p/the-vampir... 📣🧛‍♂️

Why are we still waiting for Better Buses? 🚌 In Sept, SPT finally approved plans to 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 👏 But the Scottish Government are now holding things up! 😠 Watch & share our new animation and 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗦𝗣𝘀 to demand action👇 📨 betterbuses.uk/strathclyde/#email

I like Matter, the offline reader that allows you to save web pages without the clutter, but it is funny to me that they are now encouraging you to get all your newsletters sent there directly via a custom email address. RSS readers are back, just in a really circuitous way.

A story in three parts

Take these photos into the barbers and asking for a Nobel cut.

Led astray by r/VintageLadyBoners in believing this was a photo of Ezra Pound when it's actually Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

My photo essay - published this morning… ‘Compassion is stronger than division’: Glasgow’s battle over the saltire www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Checking in on the Guardian's next generation of football talent page mainly to see what names (and haircuts) are fashionable: Reggie, Kallum, and Elvis are all heading to a pitch near you.

My Spanish wife tells me that I have vicarious lived experience of being Spanish.

Hopefully László Krasznahorkai will now be able to afford to buy a keyboard with an operational full stop key.

One of the few good things to come out of covid is the regular Drink with the Idler, featuring @askwilliamblake.bsky.social's thought for the week. Last night was @irvinewelsh.bsky.social but I am particularly looking forward to hearing from Tim Richardson. www.idler.co.uk/events/

I was going to post something about Jim from the Office for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature but stopped myself for fear of the Bluesky police. But nowadays my feed is full of people mocking sanctimony so I don't know what to think.

This tour is pretty well organised but I don't envy the three days going between the Isle of Man, Middlesbrough, and Buxton.