This is a 'no win' for progressive liberals because pursuing identity politics (or politicising identity, if you prefer) is to engage in the very essence of what drives hard-right-leaning argument ('freedom' of expression, cult of individualism etc). It stokes the fires either way :(

I've been writing about the books of John Moore this morning, in particular his excellent final novel 'The Waters Under The Earth' from 1965. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/23/i...

Of course there is a lot of reference to John and Christine Nash in the Ronald Blythe biography. Here's one of John Nash's paintings, which I cannot see without also seeing Jem Southam's photograph at Upton Pyne, just over the river from where we live. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...

I've always liked Maggi Hambling's paintings. Here she is with the obligatory cigarette. She also pops up in the Ronald Blythe biography, making a great observation on his self-invention. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...

Reading the Ronald Blythe biography, one of the most unexpected and unlikely connections unveiled was one between Blythe and Patricia Highsmith. Here they are looking young and beautiful. My piece about the biography is here: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...

Earlier this week I wittered on a bit about some #detectivefiction that I (mostly) enjoyed reading over the festive season. Niche interest, no doubt, but here we are: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/m...

Last night I finished reading this terrific biography of Ronald Blythe which was a lovely Christmas present from my mum. This morning I have been marshalling some thoughts about it into a new Unpopular blog post: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...

Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 7: GospelbeacH - ‘Wiggle Your Fingers’ This is the sound of a band taking musical templates created by/for youth and grappling with how to transfigure them for advancing adulthood. Evidence that one can both embrace and reject tradition in the same breath. bit.ly/49nZSCT

It's Bandcamp Friday, so if ever there was a day to buy something from the Unpopular mix for December, today is the day. Links to band and label Bandcamp pages are in the tracklisting on the Unpopular blog: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/12/01/u...

Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 6: Ducks Ltd. – ‘Harm’s Way’ This LP of chiming, charming guitar driven Pop clocks in at 28 minutes and delivers 9 songs that step up, do their thing and then bugger off, grinning a little sheepishly at their audacity and infectiousness. Ace. bit.ly/3ZEYd8v

Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 5: New Starts - ‘More Break-Up Songs’ There's an excitable movement to the sound here, a degree of the dervish offset by a lyrical tone that is mature, certainly, but still fuelled by glorious observational bemusement. Marvellous. New (Stop) Starts indeed. bit.ly/4ikzn5k

Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 4. Peter Perrett - ‘The Cleansing’ ...might be the most barren, beaten yet surprisingly uplifting record of the year... a wilful mess of contradictions, at once full of sneering barbs at Modern Life and profound declarations of Love In Spite Of It All. bit.ly/3VpOnVx

Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 3. Death And The Maiden: ‘Uneven Ground’. The sound of trauma unwinding; a mass of memory, dream, regret and confusion meshing in a heavenly nightmare of DoomDisco introspection. Songs of a lost world for those of us too perverse to listen to a Cure album. bit.ly/3CQZEb2

Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 2: Isobel Campbell – ‘Saturday’s Son’ (from ‘Bow to Love’ LP). With this record Campbell asks us to bow not only to love but to the tenderness and vulnerability that come with it. An assured and delicate delight. isobelcampbell.bandcamp.com/track/saturd...

Belated Unpopular Advent 2014 – Day 1: Alula Down – ‘DELPHI’ (from ‘The Leyline’ LP). The sound of simplicity, whilst being far from simple... the sound of inhaling earth energy and exhaling a contemplation of our own impermanence. aluladown.bandcamp.com/track/delphi

I've made a Bluesky Starter pack for some of the artists/labels who feature on the Unpopular mix for December 2024. Go follow them and buy their music of you like what you hear on the mix/playlist! go.bsky.app/3NURxUD

The Unpopular mix for December is available now to stream/download). It's the usual mix of new and old, with a short segment of Christmas numbers for seasonal cheer. As ever, please support the artists and labels by buying anything you like the sound of. bit.ly/unpop249

New additions to the Unpopular shop on ETSY: a wren in a winter garden; a Dansette record player; Netherexe church in the snow; Netherexe church Spring sunrise. unpopshop.uk

It's a rainy day in Devon so I've spent the morning updating my ETSY shop with prints from most of the Unpopular mixes in 2024. From Beer beach to Corrugated Iron barns, from Scottish castles to Cornish cliffs and from Sea Scouts huts to teasels, there is something for everyone. unpopshop.uk

It has been snowing a bit in Devon, which is as rare as a rare thing. Now turning a bit wetter, so the snow hat is sliding off the pizza oven chimney…

Big news. Our debut album is being released on 14 March on the fabulous Tapete Records label. ‘Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same’ has ten new songs, plus a bonus flexi-disc for vinyl buyers. Preorder it now from a range of great shops: orcd.co/the-loft

Lovely morning walk around Killerton

More recent reading: Gibbons' is a strange magical nature tale with a setting that puts me in mind of the cottage that John Nash and Ronald Blythe lived in. Streatfeild's is a rumination on the End Of The English Country House in the early days of WW2 and is pretty much perfectly pitched.

Catching up with some beverage/book photographs. I thoroughly enjoyed these two John Trench novels towards the end of the summer. To my knowledge none of Trench's books have been reissued, which is a shame because they have an intriguing archaeologist/amateur detective slant to them. #penguincrime

And finally, for now, 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration for this month (November) is a lovely corrugated iron Dutch barn in the Mid-Devon countryside near Raddon and Thorverton. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

October 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of the Sea Scouts Hut in Aberteifi, Wales. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/10/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

September 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of a teasel, picked from beside the old railway station at Brampford Speke, Devon. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/09/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

August 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of one of the arches of The Hall leading to Pound Pool Beach at Beer, East Devon. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/08/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

July 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of a Devon barn, tucked away on Lower Comberoy Farm, near the Broadclyst Holy Well. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/07/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

June 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was Portencross castle looking across to the Cumbraes in Ayrshire, Scotland. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/06/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

May 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of Durdle Door in Dorset. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/05/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

April 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of the boats pulled up on the beach at Beer in East Devon. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/04/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

March 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of Church Cove in Cornwall. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

February 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration was of the sun breaking through clouds over Myndd Llangorse in Wales. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/02/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

Since we are more than half way through November, and the Unpopular mix for December is taking shape nicely, I thought I might recap 2024's mixes/playlists/prints. Here's January. Illustration is the Mennock Pass in Scotland. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/01/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

Another very cool and eclectic mix/playlist from @unpopularuk.bsky.social … including my song “Through My Hands”. Thanks Alistair Fitchett for finding a place for my music among such good company! Listen or download tracks: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/u... www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...

Today has been the birthday of D.E. Stevenson (1892-1973), whose books I have so enjoyed discovering these past few years. Which makes for a grand excuse to share a piece I wrote at the start of 2023 about a few of her marvellous novels: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2023/02/27/r...

whole Mountain Goats catalog is pay what you want (for the digital obv) today, we are raising money for PRISMS (Parents and Researchers Interested in Smith-Magenis Syndrome). go on get some music you know you wanna themountaingoats.bandcamp.com

Lovely morning for a swim at Beer

Earlier this week I finished reading five Anthony Maitland mysteries by Sara Woods. Originally published in the early 1960s, they are being reissued in December by Dean Street Press. I wrote about them for my Unpopular blog #detectivefiction #crimefiction unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/11/12/n...

Just realised it is a year since I joined up and posted on Bluesky… so here I am again having spent a morning printing up the design of the Unpopular mix for December. Sneak preview of details in pics. And yes, I wore my old art teaching apron :)

Just published a piece on my Unpopular blog about three of the recent detective fiction reissues from Galileo. Great novels by Clifford Witting, Joan Cockin and Max Murray. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2023/11/20/p... #books #detectivefiction #goldenagecrimefiction

New epic45 album You'll Only See Us When The Light Has Gone Available to pre-order from Bandcamp now Hear 'The Crush' to whet your appetite digital.waysideandwoodland.com/album/youll-...

New playlist is streaming on Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/... Please do buy things you like from the artists/labels wherever possible.

The latest Unpopular mix also has useful links on the blog post to allow you to buy the things you like. Support the artists and labels by buying their music, not just streaming it...

A new Unpopular mix/playlist went up on the Unpopular blog yesterday. Two 'parts/discs' and 40 tracks for your listening pleasure. Available to stream or download to your listening device of choice. Well, maybe not for a record player or a tape deck, but hey, join the 21st Century why dontcha?

Blustery morning in Cornwall

Starting to get stormy earlier today at Sennen in Cornwall. Don’t stop us ‘swimming’… for which read ‘jumping in and out of the surf’.

Very excited to see the new Royal Ottawa album is now on Bandcamp - royalottawa.bandcamp.com/album/carcosa

Or, uh, there is also now an Unpopular Mixes FB page which I will probably forget to update: bit.ly/unpopularmixes #mixtapes #music #indiepop #electronica #folktronica