Feels like I have been reading Peter Brown’s ‘Journeys of the Mind’ – the history of an intellectual life devoted to Early Christianity and Late Antiquity – in real time but finally nearing the end. Another book that has changed things for me in numerous subtle ways.

Sun like the tiny bright pupil in the fog’s eye

Shoah (A Forest), 2003, by Polish painter, photographer,poster artist, illustrator and filmmaker, Wilhelm Sasnal.Born 1972 Oil on canvas 46 x 46 cm Wilhelm Sasnal is considered one of the most prominent and internationally successful Polish contemporary artists #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

The Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social in UK and New Directions in US (and translated by me) is a book recommendation for 2026 @financialtimes.com

Georgia O'Keeffe, American (1887-1986), Eagle Claw and Bean Necklace, 1934, charcoal on paper, 48.5 x 63.9 cm, MoMA, New York City, New York, USA

Wolstonbury Hill at the end of the afternoon today. Bitterly cold but that magic solstice light.

Ah the old Christmas morning tradition of suturing the orange

Keep walking, and if there’s a hill climb it. Someone sent me ‘Christmas Garland’ @candlestickpress.bsky.social and I was entertained to find I had a poem in it…

0840 sunrise – follow the link to see it at Newgrange!

Ukraine Unbroken @arcolatheatre.bsky.social includes a short play by Natalia Vorozhbit (in my translation) about men facing conscription. She’s a brilliant writer & this is unmissable: www.arcolatheatre.com/event/ukrain...

Ukraine Unbroken @arcolatheatre.bsky.social includes a short play by Natalia Vorozhbit (in my translation) about men facing conscription. She’s a brilliant writer & this is unmissable: www.arcolatheatre.com/event/ukrain...

Paul Klee, Swiss-German (1879-1940), Figurine Of The Colorful Devil, 1927, tempera, paper mounted on card, 47.7 x 30.5 cm, Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See, Germany 18 December 1879 - 29 June 1940

Sarah Hesketh’s 2016 is a fine work of docu-poetry and it’s also an everlastingly relevant text as it returns individual human experience and expression to recent history and politics. It would be on my list of best books of 2025 as well.

This is one of next year’s poetry highlights:

‘…art is the frustration of the desire not to make art, you know?’ Philip Guston, from a conversation with Clark Coolidge in ‘I Paint What I Want to See’

Unsettling, poignant, varied and often very beautiful writing about the post-war Soviet experience of the holocaust tr. by Sasha Senderovich & Harriet Murav.

“I’m coming back. I’m coming home. Sometimes that happens. You think, oh, it’s happening again. You feel an interior quickening. . .” Marie Howe – a guide for this morning and every morning.

“I’m thinking about an institution as some kind of archaeological truth”, says Ibrahim Mahama, No.1 on this year’s ArtReview Power 100 list artreview.com/the-intervie...

Brilliant to get @mptmagazine.bsky.social’s latest issue focusing on the poetry of Greece and Cyprus. Since its foundation in the mid-1960s by Ted Hughes & Daniel Weissbort, MPT has been hugely important in bringing Greek poetic voices to an English-speaking readership. Great that this continues.

For Russian-speakers: NLO has published a focus on Maria Stepanova's Священная зима ('Holy Winter' is published in English @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social) including my piece on translating Maria's Russian text: www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/no...

‘The passing of time has made me more aware of the vertiginous nature of subjectivity, of poetry’s potential to hold us, demand that we pay attention, as we try to go about our daily lives.’ Beautiful blog by @notjustdancing.bsky.social on the composition of her new book ’Hôtel Amour’

‘Thetis‘ from Phoebe Giannisi ‘Goatsong’ tr. Brian Sneeden @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

Desperately upsetting. We are going backwards.

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

Together with @irishpen.bsky.social and the Estate of Seamus Heaney, we’re delighted to announce Tom Paulin’s Namanlagh @faberbooks.bsky.social as the winner of the #PENHeaneyPrize 2025, awarded tonight at the @nlireland.bsky.social. Find out more ⤵️ www.englishpen.org/posts/news/t...

We are deeply saddened by the death of Tom Stoppard and extend our heartfelt condolences to his loved ones. A longtime supporter of English PEN and the recipient of the 2013 PEN Pinter Prize, Tom's contributions to literature and the arts leave an immense and enduring legacy.

A genius playwright and a total gentleman.

Everyone is posting about the EUP sale but another hot tip is that it also applies to paperback pre-orders, for example Sara Crangle's two-volume study of Mina Loy edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-nethere... edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-elevate...

"We are a country of migrants... The vast majority of refugees who come here want to work hard, give back, and become proud Britons." Watch our CEO Enver Solomon speaking about Britain's asylum system on Channel 4 News last night. @channel4news.bsky.social www.channel4.com/news/debate-...

Going to Athens tomorrow for a reading & discussion of ‘The Strongbox’ @carcanet.bsky.social for the Anglo-Hellenic League & looking forward to a glimpse of the city.

they're auctioning Blake's Tyger next week seems impossible, like selling a comet or a shooting star www.christies.com/en/stories/t...

A new blog @voltaire.ox.ac.uk by Professor Andrew Kahn on revisiting Shmuel Feiner’s 'Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity' @yalepress.bsky.social and Mark Mazower's book-length essay 'On Antisemitism': voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...

An excellent essay on the close reading of poems and what it can achieve.

On Wednesday 26 November, join us at 6.30pm at Manchester Poetry Library, where @francescabrooks.bsky.social and Martin Kratz will be introducing the life and work of Lynette Roberts, after Carcanet's recent publication of her Collected Poems. Find out more: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poets-who-...

Natalya Vorozhbit’s short play for this is a really great piece of writing. I hope it reaches people: www.arcolatheatre.com/event/ukrain...

Stability is what allows people to heal, learn English, find work and become part of their communities. The government must provide people with the security to get on with their lives. Read more here 👉 thetimes.com/article/6f83...

Our new analysis shows once the system is fully operational, 1.66-1.9m reviews of refugee status would need to be done over the first decade, resulting in a total cost of between £1.1 - 1.27bn, depending on how many people lose their protection at review.

The government’s plan to review refugee status every 30 months is unworkable and extremely costly - and applying it retrospectively to people already granted protection will make an unmanageable system even worse.

The “deal” deprives Ukraine of everything it has won by withstanding Russian aggression and defending the borders of Europe. It rewards Russian lawlessness—and makes America complicit in the lawlessness. It’s the end of post WWII American power. www.greatpower.us/p/28-points-...

'Far from a literary gimmick, the novel comes across as an urgent call to resist complacency and recover one’s vitality in the face of injustice. It’s a stunner.' @publisherswkly.bsky.social gives THE DISAPPEARING ACT by Maria Stepanova, tr. Sasha Dugdale: www.publishersweekly.com/9780811239400

This poem (from Brecht to Margarete Steffin) was featured in @mptmagazine.bsky.social 'The Constellation' in 2014 (translated by David Constantine) as part of a feature about the literary collaboration & relationship between Steffin & Brecht.

Titian’s dog was apparently painted out by later generations who thought that it was undignified to have a dog lifting its leg in the presence of the adoring Magi and the tenderest of Holy Family scenes. But Titian knew…

Mikhaïl Durnenkov’s play UTOPIA is having its English-language premiere this month at Yale University School of Drama. I translated this play, about the painful hold of history, a while ago – but it’s never felt so actual. Mikhaïl lives with his family in exile. yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/11...

This festival of displaced musicians and composers takes place in January: anothermusicfestival.com

A beautiful reading by @notjustdancing.bsky.social tonight for the launch of Hotel Amour. As @serenbooks.bsky.social editor @zoebrigley.bsky.social said, it's a beautiful brilliant book, full of nearly unbearable grief and nearly unbearable joy. www.serenbooks.com/book/hotel-a...

For our forest’s night… ‘Shrub & Willow’ by @notjustdancing.bsky.social

Cover reveal! ✨ MPT ‘The Antidote to Agony: Focus on the Poetry of Greece and Cyprus’, guest edited by Jessica Sequeira, posts to subscribers and all pre-orders on 28 November. Cover image: from the Aigis (goatskin, pen), 2015 by Phoebe Giannisi

The first issue of the Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star, appeared #OnThisDay 18 November 1837. Without it, Chartism would have been a far weaker thing. www.chartistancestors.co.uk/northern-sta...