'Amaryllis' Piet Mondrian, 1910, watercolour

'Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel' open.substack.com/pub/gabriell... @manchesterup.bsky.social

Malachi Whitaker's And So Did I goes stateside! In the window (bottom left) of Phinney Books, Seattle. On the occasion of Boiler House Editor Brad Bigelow's presentation of his new biography of Virginia Faulkner (with a display of beautiful books from @bhousepress.bsky.social) @neglectedbooks.com

W.H. Smith bookshop, Victoria station, Manchester, 1925.

Excellent choices, if we may say so! ❤️

Malachi Whitaker's list of influential authors include her favourite Brontë sister, Emily. "Wuthering Heights for inward physical passion. I mean Emily Brontë, some poems, force behind marrow channel." The brief notes in a 1948 letter describe Brontë's powerful impact on her inner life and work.

Other work of the Ladybird artists. ‘Missel Thrush’, 1937 Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

Exciting news for Anita Brookner fans! #BookSky 💙📚 Hermione Lee’s biography, ANITA BROOKNER: ART & LIFE, is due to be published on 10th September 2026. Details here: www.penguin.co.uk/books/445930...

"When Cathy says: “I’m sure I should be myself were I once among the heather on those hills,” she articulates a truth that resonates with me deeply." Spot on article by Anjelika May in The Guardian www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Last night I started reading a rather lovely little book. And So Did I by Malachi Whitaker, a kind of mix of memoir and journal. First published in 1939, and reissued by Boiler House Press. @malachiwhitaker.bsky.social 📚💙

Spotted in Bradford Waterstones 🤍 Bottom left: Malachi Whitaker's The Journey Home (Persephone, 2017) & And So Did I (Boiler House Press, 2025). In the company of: Emily Brontë, JB Priestley, Sairish Hussain, AA Dhand & more. Bradford writing rocks! 🪨 ❤️ 🪨

The documentary (How to Build a Library) about reinventing the Nairobi MacMillan Memorial Library was one of the best things on the programme @bradfordlitfest.bsky.social in 2025. The documentary deserves wider distribution. Great to see this project getting some love. ❤️

On this week's Little Atoms podcast, Francesca Wade on her brilliant new biography Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife. Out now from @faberbooks.bsky.social. Listen to it wherever you find your podcasts or via this link: shows.acast.com/b5fe8d16-751...

❤️ Intelligent stories for Valentine's day (& not only) by the likes of Virginia Woolf & Malachi Whitaker! ❤️ British Library Women Writers series @blpublishing.bsky.social

Malachi Whitaker's 1st book, Frost in April, was sold at WH Smith stall, Bradford Forster Sq Station, in 1929. JB Priestley's Good Companions came out the same year. The stallholder, a friend, repositioned JBP's 'By a local author' labels to advertise Malachi's book. Did the stall look like this?

My review of The Boundless Deep, Richard Holmes' biography of the young Tennyson, a man struggling with familial demons and both excited and terrified by the implications of geological and astronomical science. Thanks as always to @engelsbergideas.bsky.social. engelsbergideas.com/reviews/tenn...

Fabulous biography of the great man

'Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark' is live! open.substack.com/pub/gabriell... @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

'Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife' open.substack.com/pub/gabriell... @faberbooks.bsky.social

"Biography can be a glib genre." What a glib remark! But Judith Mackrell's biography of Gwen and Augustus John has been long listed for the 2026 Women's Prize. And it sounds magnificent! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Oh now, this is wonderful www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Speaking about Malachi Whitaker to the highly-engaged attendees @litcamb.bsky.social was one of the highlights of my quest to bring Whitaker's brilliant writing to public attention. Thank you for the opportunity. (Valerie) ❤️

Mitchell Alcrim writes about Clare Harman’s book about Katherine Mansfield on our Blog page. www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/alcrim-km And join us for our new course on Katherine Mansfield: Love Stories, live online, 19 March-20 April 2026. www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/km-course-26

Speaking about Malachi Whitaker to the highly-engaged attendees @litcamb.bsky.social was one of the highlights of my quest to bring Whitaker's brilliant writing to public attention. Thank you for the opportunity. (Valerie) ❤️

Two amazing nights this week with engaged readers of Book Club members at Grove Bookshop, Ilkley, reading Malachi Whitaker's And So Did I (@bhousepress.bsky.social). One of the groups gave it their highest ever aggregate score!

1/2 Pssst. "Someone" rearranged the dedicated stand at Waterstones, Bradford to show off 3 recent books featuring Malachi Whitaker. All are now back on their rightful shelves 😎 1. And So Did I, Malachi's 1939 memoir, reissued Sept 2025 by @bhousepress.bsky.social 2. Book of ...

Yay! And So Did I (Boiler House Press, 2025) is now on the dedicated Malachi Whitaker stand at Waterstones, Bradford. Alongside The Journey Home & Other Stories (Persephone, 2017) and Benighted by JB Priestley (who went to the same Bradford school).

Join me, Will Fellows, and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Debby Applegate for the virtual launch of Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts. January 15, 7-9PM GMT/2-3PM EST Register on Eventbrite and receive a code for a 40% discount on the book.

Grove Book Club event, Ilkley, on Malachi Whitaker's 'And So Did I' is now full on 19 & 20 Jan, 2026. There is a waitlist. With wonderful Grove Bookshop host, Nikki. Special Guest: Malachi Whitaker's Literary Executor, Valerie Waterhouse www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-grove-...

The area of Bradford known as little Germany comprises commercial buildings from around the 1850s onwards. They were built in the main by merchants from mainland Europe, especially Germany who constructed large warehouses and offices. The newcomers tended not to manufacture the

Gems in The Book of Bradford include Malachi Whitaker's Smoke of the Tide on a man returning to his Bradford roots. His wife "could not see the astonishing beauty of the industrial north..The blue-grey landscapes with their design of mill chimneys..the rolling hills, the mingling of smoke & cloud"

"Let 2026 be Bradford's biggest and boldest year yet" by Si Cunningham Will City Library move to Britannia House this year? Will Bradford Archives find the perfect new home? Could former Central Library really be turned into a fancy boutique hotel? www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/2573155...

Illustrator and artist Gerald Spencer Pryse (1882 - 1956) studied in London and Paris, and won a prize at the Venice International Exhibition in 1907. A staunch socialist and an active member of the Fabian Society, his work was often politically charged 1/3

A New Year’s greeting from the collection! Wishing you all a thoughtful and hopeful start to the year ahead. 🖼 Gift Cards for the New Year by W.Place Dickes, 1874 #BritishLibrary #Library #Collection #HappyNewYear

“This year has made people look and think about living here differently. There’s a whole generation of young people coming up who won’t believe what I did about Bradford.”

Benighted by J.B. Priestley is my last read of 2025. Priestley uses the Gothic Horror genre to explore the insecurities of life in Britain following the First World War. Look out for an event featuring this book and selected Malachi stories @leedsartgallery.bsky.social in Jan 2026 (Valerie)

The Doubler Stones are a pair of mushroom-shaped natural rock formations located on Addingham High Moor. The stones are protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument due to the presence of late Neolithic and Bronze Age (c. 2800–500 BC) cup-and-ring carvings.

Bradford considers the legacy of its city of culture year. Can the energy that was generated during 2025 be sustained? Will the talent who built the programme stay?..Will the city experience an economic boost?..What will its legacy look like? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Blitzing short books to complete this year's Good Reads target. How to spot a Fascist, three essays by Umberto Eco, is prescient and wise. (Valerie)

Its white flowers are, or should be, already on our tables. #gardening

In 1914/15 Malachi Whitaker wrote 'a set of windy martial verses' [now lost] & 'sold them to an Xmas card firm' for 7s 6d. 'Printed for some reason in mauve ink, these verses had the look of weak cocoa.' At the time Yorkshire was a hub of the Xmas card industry. Pic: Card by Bamforth, Holmfirth.

Richard Arkwright, born on this day 1732 in Preston, invented the water frame for cotton spinning and played a huge part in creating and spreading the factory system. Gave Manchester its first cotton spinning mill in 1781, at Miller Street near Shudehill.

'A mysterious organisation has been brought into existence which baffles every ordinary effort to resist it.' The Leeds Mercury 21 December 1811. The Luddite movement began in Nottinghamshire resulting in a region-wide rebellion that lasted until 1816.

Gems in The Book of Bradford include Malachi Whitaker's Smoke of the Tide on a man returning to his Bradford roots. His wife "could not see the astonishing beauty of the industrial north..The blue-grey landscapes with their design of mill chimneys..the rolling hills, the mingling of smoke & cloud"

“Time spent with a cat is never wasted.” ~ Colette 'Siesta' Orazio Orazi, Italy, 1912 #Caturday #Booksky

The Book of Bradford, created for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture with Comma Press, invites readers into the city through a collection of short stories edited by Saima Mir. Writers such as Malachai Whittaker, Ross Raisin, Sairish Hussain, M.Y. Alam, Abda Khan and Nick Ahad

Can't wait to see a copy of "Stories for Lovers" with pieces by two northern writers: Malachi Whitaker, b. Bradford, Yorks & Richmal Compton, b. Bury, Lancs. Also on the roster: Virginia Woolf, EM Delafield, Dorothy Parker. Sounds like the perfect Valentine treat! ❤️ ❤️ @blpublishing.bsky.social