Thank you to all National Trust members who voted to support the Trust. The hostile venture capitalist backed ‘Restore’ plc have been defeated for another year. But with a lower turnout this year, it’s not over yet. Expect the same next year.

A washed-up boxer desperately wants one last win, but the mob, and even his manager, have other ideas... JOIN US! tomorrow at 8pm GMT, as #Noirvember continues on #TheFilmCrowd, and Robert Wise directs #RobertRyan in THE SET-UP! Link in thread below!

Bloody hell! It’s been a long time since a book has brought me to tears. @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social Thank you so very much for writing Everything Will Swallow You. Book of the year. #BookSky #TheStorygraph

I always have a moment of thinking they're talking about Lana Del Rey.

My favourite WWI poem: “As the Team's Head Brass” by Edward Thomas. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57207/...

“In the last year of the Conservative Government alone, 115 prisoners were released in error, including a series of serious offenders. “At no point did this fact ever make the front pages of British newspapers, or lead news bulletins on the BBC.”

I know McSweeney isn't the whole problem. I know the king chooses his advisors. But I really do think letting a campaigns guy who thinks in polling not policy run all the bits the PM isn't interested in is a huge, huge contributor to their inability to climb out of this hole.

If you’re wondering what a “least weasel” is, they absolutely live up to the name. This is the least amount of animal you can have that can still meet the bar for “is weasel”

World: “This fellow is deathly pale!” Ireland: “Hey, check out the tan on yer man!”

We often speak of you.

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

Channel surfing with an episode of the British anthology series Mystery and Imagination, a version of Frankenstein where Ian Holm plays both the doctor and the monster. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBc9...

Thank you, everyone.

I feel like I could live with the brass neck - it is the seemingly successful way that he and others have brainwashed themselves into thinking “our crumbling justice system” has an explanation beyond “we didn’t spend enough money on it” that I can’t stand.

the antics of the online safety act feel like they crumble in the face of all this, right? like putting sandbags out on the sea front when a 3m tsunami is coming in.

This was sent to me and I don’t know what it’s from, but honestly I think my least favourite thing about del Toro’s rubbish Frankenstein film is that there’s more Percy Shelley and Byron in it than there is Mary Wollstonecraft.

Can’t capture it, but it’s all Long-tailed Tits and Chaffinches this morning.

Fantastic journalism.

Horrifically, the headline isn’t sensationalist clickbait. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins dies aged 85

Pronounced "doubt that".

I mean, it’s a lie, isn’t it?

My God this book hits hard.

This is such an exciting story! BUT I do want to quibble with one statement in the news release: "Documents and books from the Middle Ages are rare." In reality, however, dozens of thousands of medieval manuscripts survive--in fact, so many that we don't even have accurate counts.

The BBC have posted a 1970s Blue Peter clip on Facebook in which Lesley Judd measures Studio One in metres, and Reformy wankers *my age* are claiming it’s strange she isn’t using yards. We’re being held to ransom by these people’s collective false memory syndrome, aren’t we?

They could bury him where they're building the White House ballroom. Demand to rent it out would explode.

Totally agree. Also the actions of both he and the driver are testament to how essential ongoing training, a full communications network, proper support and on board train staff all are.

Two rare instances of actual wit on Threads.

I mean, this is George Cross worthy, surely. metro.co.uk/2025/11/04/h...

And finally... let’s also celebrate the 251st anniversary of the night James Boswell got proper shitted up on booze

I am so sorry you cut your finger.

I find someone casually mentioning their use of Chat GPT as offputting as them sliding into Terf chat, homophobia or racism. “Oh. That’s a shame. We can’t get on now.” It’s worse than not wearing socks, leaving motion smoothing on, or riding a bike no-handed. I have zero tolerance for this shit.

November is an awful month. Not as bad as January, but still awful. Worse since Remembrance Day morphed into War Christmas.

My first episode as a Patreon backer. I used the time since the last episode well and listened to the first hundred.

Ideology over sense and pragmatism

I use Claude (an AI) to scan my posts for spelling and grammar errors. On the most recent post (about the East Wing, link below), I got a really amazing addendum. www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...

I have been saying for some time that the smart play by any "media" (however you define it) figure/outlet is to very publicly denounce all AI. Trumpet that it's terrible, play up that you use skilled humans to do the right work because it's better for the audience. More trustworthy.

Here’s the cover for LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, out 16 April with @sceptrebooks.bsky.social Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove... Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛

Why the absolute fuck would Facebook think I’d be interested in posts by this evil piece of shit?

Simply one of the most haunting and beautiful songs I've ever heard.

See also “eccentric”.

The first (1955) Danish edition of Ray Bradbury’s FAHRENHEIT 451. Later editions did not convert the title, so this is the only SI-compatible edition! 🎢

And here's the direct link:

Great news - one of the best mini-series ever with a dazzling & eccentric screenplay by Troy Kennedy Martin & superb direction by Martin Campbell is back on iplayer. If you haven’t seen it then you’re in for a real treat. Come for Bob Peck, stay for Joe Don Baker. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Fucking heroes 🙏✊️ Protect your #Libraries, folks. UK libraries are dealing with this too; we need to be absolutely, uncompromisingly militant about safeguarding access to knowledge and making sure everyone can see themselves in our collections. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Galleria Scipione De Sandrinelli (2025) photograph by Anne Billson. Completely fascinated by this weird traffic tunnel in Trieste. I am about to climb the gazillion steps up to the monument/park at the top...

Been mostly reading adult books but now it's time to return to the kidlit TBR... #KidLitUK First stop will be The Golden Monkey Mystery by @piudg.bsky.social 🐒 Cover illo by Helen Crawford-White. I've been looking forward to this one as I loved Secrets of the Snakestone. @nosycrow.bsky.social

John Nettles came to a Shakespeare Institute Q&A when he was playing Brutus at the RSC. He was very jolly, but he mentioned how he’d earned a lot more playing King Rat in panto and was envious of Patrick Stewart for playing “Jean-Luc Goddard[sic]”. Also, Allam’s review of GoT here is spot on.