Richard Hines, hawk-keeping brother of Barry, directly inspired 'A Kestrel for a Knave', adapted for film by Ken Loach as 'Kes'. 'The Place That Knows Me' is a touching memoir of the family's South Yorkshire roots – roots that seem set to be pulled up www.scratchingshedpublishing.com/products-pag...

This is really quite something - a magnificently odd watch. You don’t have to have haunted second hand bookshops in the 1970s, but it helps

New Alan Bennett diaries in-coming early next year - praise be to heaven, Booths’ supermarkets (where he does his shopping), mam, dad etc www.waterstones.com/book/enough-...

I’m past the point of caring if older films and music “hold up” or not. I love it when art is a perfect product of its time.

Three favourite Banksys

I deplore your taste in 19th century French artists, but I do so more in Seurat than in Ingres.

‘Tolkien and Lewis moved their pint glasses from the Eagle and Child to the Lamb and Flag when the landlady installed a dartboard – you can imagine their reaction to today’s modernising horrors…’ www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/opening...

Listening to Michael Smiley on BBC Ulster via BBC Sounds and delighted to hear how, in the 1970s, he was a driver for Fox’s Biscuits in Batley

It's August 1 – Happy Yorkshire Day! Out now, the collected writings of the late great Jake Thackray. Paul Thompson has done it again. To buy direct from Scratching Shed, please visit: www.scratchingshedpublishing.com/products-pag... #JakeThackray #Genius

1968. Ena Sharples, on a fire escape above Moss Side, Manchester. 📸 John C Madden

Trigger warning

If you’ve never seen this enjoyable jazz oddity from 1961, you’ve got about three hours to do so before it leaves Amazon Prime…

Only now discovering the Ralph McLean Show on BBC Ulster. Old school, themed radio. Don’t know how I missed it. Anyway, there’s a really nice Brian Wilson two hours still up on BBC Sounds, among other such treats, should anyone need joy in their working day

The Isle of Wight festival’s gone downhill

"The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade." 🖊️Anthony Trollope

Bradford City, eh? Never a dull moment. The Corn Dolly will be rocking tonight

This is a very good film. Completely charming and quietly radical. Highly recommended for morality police everywhere

All right Leo, calm down, I only asked.

Why aren't you wearing a suit?

Who knew there was a John Peel Bill Oddy 'beef'?! 30mins in. 😂 www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkRR...

Starring Sydney Tafler, who Ian Dury’s other half isn’t in ‘Common as Muck’. You have not been charged for this information

I’ll tell you something no one is fussed about importing from the USA - their chocolate. Tastes like that bit of sick that comes up sometimes when you gip

Think I’ll have one finger of tariff-free Jack Daniels tonight. It’s been in the cupboard at least five years

Wrong Dennis the Menace, but a great cover anyway

Complicated Life amid scenes of NOLA youtu.be/ME4NX4qDG6w?...

I am here for the fun stuff. I ran away from the other place for that reason. But I cannot believe what we have just seen in the White House. The petty, snide smallness of these monstrous cretins. Slava Ukraini.

Madame Arcarti would have loved it on here

Zelenskyy should have just accidentally on purpose sneezed on cheesy Wotsit powder and blown his wig off

Donovan and Byl’s masterclass in tomfoolery youtu.be/ydjvOp1r460?...

Ernest Arnley and Gloria Day. This is what they want youtu.be/Mf_zUd4xRCg

Working-class creatives don’t stand a chance in UK today, leading artists warn

“For the time being, Ukraine and the rest of Europe will be consulted in the way the residents of a village are consulted before it gets demolished to make way for a new airport.” James Meek spot on in Trump’s approach for the latest @londonreview.bsky.social blog www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/fe...

The Jam meant the world to me when I was a teenager. Still love em now. RIP Rick.

Life tip: Whenever you’re feeling low, watch Chico Marx play piano

I wrote a piece about Father Ted (and at no point did I use the phrase 'How I Made Father Ted' which makes me sound like God - thank you, headline writer....😫😫😫) archive.ph/yQySr

Richard Hawley’s ‘Coles Corner’ lyrics are massively relatable, ...especially that bit about having 'no smile, no flower, no hair...’

Thank goodness for Google AI. Where else could you learn that Airbnb stands for ‘Airbed and breakfast’

I like sticky toffee pudding, but don’t like the name sticky toffee pudding. Makes me cringe. What other sort of toffee is there?

If you like rugby league - a new season for which starts tonight in Wigan - you might want to follow our monthly mag on Blue Sky. Fun, games and several months of wittering guaranteed: @forty20magazine.bsky.social

This is very much not how it works

Need chocolate

Bernie Clifton’s grandad. St. Helens 1897

This is what they want youtu.be/zuhOevTwThA

So the universe is actually just part of a tiny digestive biscuit crumb inside some unimaginably large giant’s Hoover. I KNEW IT www.independent.co.uk/tech/univers...

In honour of Brian Murphy… when Hammer films did sitcom movie spin-offs. By coincidence I watched Nearest and Dearest last night. It really was another world.

I think we have reached the detailed instructions on a toothpick level of insanity in this world. This is a stick. For a dog. You can buy a carefully curated and sanded stick for a dog to play with, in the supermarket.

If you don't know Mik Artistik's work – or even if you do – here's link to Riley & Coe on the BBC iPlayer, January 22 edition. Top notch stuff! 'Bingley', in particular, is a treat. I've sat in that pub, knees aching after a walk around St Ives... www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I see they’ve gone full Kubrick.

This brilliant photo of David Lynch was taken by Sheffield Photographer Chris Saunders. he was given just 15mins to do the shoot. David was on the hotel balcony having a smoke he turned around and Chris snapped this pic. Magic happens when talent, skill, luck, necessity and inspiration collide