The Gibb machine in overdrive mode.

Whatever happened to Leveson 2? Chris Mason, Kuntsberg et al now completely out of control & Reform continue to be given a disproportionate amount of air time. This will continue until the BBC board is dismantled

The absolute state of the BBC news just now - which seems determined to drag the government down over the budget. Where was all this attention to minute detail and concern for absolute accuracy when the Tories were lying their way through their chaotic reign for 14 years? It's frankly absurd.

The ghost is often a manifestation of things we ought to know, but cannot interpret correctly. A failure of translation across time, across place. For few truly speak the language of mystery, the tongues of the dead. - Rev. Æthelstan Morley, Church of England ghost-layer

Day 1 of the #HooklandChristmasTree. We retrieve the Bloody Boy ornament from the box of china Mummers. Some say it's not blood that makes his skin red, but crabapple bark dye. I say best not spoil the seasonal magic. Besides, we all know where the skin of his drum comes from.

🎄ADVENT-DAY 1 💍 Silver Charms stirred into the Christmas Pudding could tell those on finding them, of their marriage prospects. A silver thimble for a young woman meant spinsterhood and a silver button (k/as bachelor button) for a young man told him that he would remain a bachelor.

Nothing will change in the UK until the press is dealt with Nothing will change in the UK until the press is dealt with Nothing will change in the UK until the press is dealt with Nothing will change in the UK until the press is dealt with Nothing will change in the UK until the press is dealt with

My wife got me a Russian Advent calendar. You open a window and an oligarch falls out. 😁

Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.

These space suits from Star Trek ToS effin rule!

👏🏽"We must all now confront the reality that the Brexit deal significantly hurt our economy. We have to keep reducing frictions. We have to keep moving towards a closer relationship with the EU. And we have to be grown up about it. To accept that it will require trade-offs."👏🏽 Music to my ears. ~AA

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 180: Conversation isn't the only way in which your characters express themselves. Movements, avoidance, deflection, jokes, silence, variations in speed, changing the subject, refusal to engage - all of these can sometimes express more than mere words communicate.

Much of my life and certainly Hookland has been based on the David Bowie lyric: ‘Turn and face the strange’. I am a Fully-grown Changeling. There is no other way.

Nouveau poster du film The Mandalorian & Grogu (en VF : Le Mandalorian et Grogu), avec Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver & Jeremy Allen White. Sortie en salles en France le 20 mai 2026 Intéressé de voir si ce passage grand écran va ramener le souffle Star Wars d’antan 👀

really went dark for the sequel

New net migration figures at 930am. Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023 56% of people think it went up last year 17% think stayed the same 14% think it went down 2025 figure to be lower again 16% expect that 38% think it will be up 31% about the same

My Brain: "Psst, here's a great idea for your book." Me: "I'm busy. I'll write it down later. I'll remember it." Morgan Freeman: "But he did not remember it, for his brain soon moved on to wonder how cottage cheese gets made." #WritingCommunity #BookSky #WriteSky

A sex cardigan

The story of GARBO, the Spanish double agent who invented 27 fictional spies, all being paid by the Nazis. He was a vital part of Operation Fortitude, convincing Hitler that D-Day was happening elsewhere. He was also a vital part of cracking Enigma and won top honors from both sides!

On this day 49 years ago, #SexPistols released their debut single, "Anarchy in the U.K." Released as 7″ only, and originally in a plain black sleeve, before being reissued in a standard #EMI sleeve after initial copies mis-credited production of the b-side to Chris Thomas instead of Dave Goodman.

Thanksgiving week continues with the beauteous Pecan-Plus Pie as #RecipeOfTheDay. The pastry is an easy, mix-up-in-a-bowl, press-in affair: no rolling or stress involved! www.nigella.com/recipes/peca...

The biggest problem in the world isn’t climate change, future pandemics, or democratic collapse. It’s that far too many of our most brilliant minds are working on *everything but* those problems. 🧵

Happy with this blurb: "A rabid anti-Trump individual" 😎

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

The BBC's has responded in The Guardian that this was a routine editorial decision, but also that it was made on legal advice. Those two explanations don’t fit together. /1

‘The chill wind from the White House is already rippling through New Broadcasting House.’ @lewisgoodall.com reacts after the BBC edited out an anti-Trump line from a historian’s lecture.

#Noirvember is a global month-long holiday celebrated in November by cinephiles focusing on the film noir genre –created in 2010 by film writer Marya E. Gates as a month-long challenge. Day 17. Tonight, I'll be enjoying 'Sweet Smell Of Success', 1957 Dir. Alexander Mackendrick

NEW: The BBC’s enemies now know “leak & launch” tactics work, warns BBC board member who quit over the Prescott/bias row. Pressure on Samir Shah, as Shumeet Banjeri accuses Shah of failing to manage the crisis. Banjeri gave BBC News his resignation note. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81

"One of the terrible ironies is that Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage, is now capitalising on the unpopularity of a government whose laudable aims have been frustrated by the economic damage caused by a Brexit behind which he was the prime mover." ~AA observer.co.uk/news/busines...

'“These three o'clock awakenings when one starts up, imagining that one has a mortal sickness; and indeed this is true. Life is that sickness, and at that cold hour one can realize it'

Eyman's bio finds gold everywhere, but one standout for the Hollywood studio system fanatics will be the on-set details. Having written about Warners at length, spent a good amount of time on the lot, I now feel like I’ve sat as a fly on the wall during the filming of Mildred Pierce.

I wrote a little story about the dangers of letting wasps live rent-free inside your head. Buy me a cup of tea if the spirit moves you, or just read it here for free... ko-fi.com/post/The-Was...

Alycone,Greek Goddess,threw herself into waves when her lover washed up on shore to join him in death.Reborn as a Kingfisher(some say so was her lover).During 2 weeks in winter,she nests,hatches her young.The 2 weeks where seas remain calm during colder months #FolkloreSunday

Whenever Johnson(never Boris) is mentioned, commentators should include, “…whose negligent inaction as Prime Minister led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths”. The perpetrators of these crimes, yes crimes, knew the news cycle would allow them get away with it. So angry 😡

"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all." My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away. Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Talking of Christmas pudding haters, this is what I make for them! www.nigella.com/recipes/choc...

The Polish prime minister reacts

Morning.

It's that time of year

Have uncovered the presence of what appears to be a chunky penguin shaking its fist (wing?) at a horse during the baptism celebrations for a new prince in Paris in 1782 Glad to report that research for this book continues to be groundbreaking

94 years ago today, Frankenstein is released. #svengoolie

Moin. Wünsche ein schönes Wochenende ☕️🍀

Dr Gilbert recalls a story a tube driver told her about the haunted Kennington Loop ... #TheHauntedLandscape @forteanlondon.bsky.social at Conway Hall, London

Well, this is pretty terrifying. The Daily Mail is buying the Telegraph. One massive consolidated right-wing media empire controlled by off-shore interests at a critical moment in global politics. What could go wrong? www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

First saplings planted from felled Sycamore Gap tree

Can we play the next couple of Tests over the remaining three days and that’ll be that #AshesSatires

The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford

Looking forward to seeing my play "Accidental Manoeuvres in the Dark" brought to life in this showcase at @breadrosestheatre.bsky.social on Saturday, along with work by the brilliant Richard Fitchett, @merylwww.bsky.social, Liam O'Grady and Maria Cole. www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/whats-on.html

Writing Tip: A haiku's structure, Is counted: Five, Seven, Five, Now, give it a try, #writing #writingtips #Booksky