There's stuff leaking out on social media about breakthrough research in the Apostolic Library of the Vatican that has apparently yielded a mention of Lithuania datable to 451AD, 558 years earlier than the previously accepted earliest mention 😱 #LithuaniaMentioned

I went to a great presentation the other day about designing for people with brain injuries. Fascinating insights, such as someone who'd had a stroke using paper to hide text on a web page. Because they found more than a couple of lines of text overwhelming. Break up your text. Use white space.

National Poetry Day, is it?

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

Light and Shadow I managed to get quite a few shots of the new B23 Docklands Light Railway trains the other day. Here's a photo of the train arriving at Beckton Park DLR station. I love the shadow fall on a sunny day.

You're going to "keep your eyes peeled"? Alright, calm down, Hellraiser.

Fun fact: I recently left a copy of 'Robinson' in a local free book exchange. I hope someone grabbed it and enjoyed it. (More than I did, anyway...)

Roses are red Oats go in porridge

I choose to believe that these images depict the moment after the character has spawned. One emerges from the castle, bewildered, every three hours or so, with a strong instinct to run.

“Emanuel Swedenborg... died while visiting the UK so his body was put in Hawksmoor's St George in the East church. Eventually it was sent back to Sweden... but unfortunately they'd lost his head. It later turned up in an antique shop in Cardiff.” evansiapoe.blogspot.com/2025/10/deat...

“I like a mystery solved, I hesitate around a mystery not solved unless it is also a mystery that operates on the world around it (i.e. Picnic at Hanging Rock, of course.)” (by @tanaudel.bsky.social) tanaudel.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/a...

Y'know what, I don't think there's a band or singer left who'd make me go through the arseache of pre-sales and online queuing. There's plenty of great live music around that doesn't require that. If Jellyfish or actual XTC reformed, then I'd be willing to do ANYTHING to get tickets, but that's it.

October's arrival means Commando comic gets into the Hallowe'en spirit yet again, and this year's offerings to the dark season include 'Raven's Hollow', an anthology of grim folk tales written by yours truly, and drawn by Mike Donaldson... on sale next week.

This arrived today w no invoice or return address & I can find no evidence of an order so I’m sure that’s nooooothing to be concerned about

slightly ominous mailer from the Red Cross

Now watching: ‘The Brothers Rico’, dir. Phil Karlson, 1957. Based on a novella by Georges Simenon. 🎬🎥

In honor of of the first day of Spooky Season, here's Dracutwig, a novel about Dracula’s daughter who becomes a Twiggy-inspired model in late 1960s Swingin’ London. This could have been a great Hammer, or maybe an Amicus, movie. But I think Twigula is a better name for the character.

A lad of about 10 just went past me on one of those e-unicycle things and a cockatoo on his shoulder.

Why are all bikes suddenly long?

Don't get mad: I'm going to port something work-related from LinkedIn over here. 1. Would you design your website, app or documentation differently if you knew the person using it would be feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by life? Or do you think those users are 'edge cases'?

I avoid chuckles.

“October Country... that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay." ~ Ray Bradbury #October

From ‘Memories of Cheddar’, ed. Chris Howell, 1984.

The Lego Gameboy is absolutely delightful. A product of insane genius. The buttons, the holographic inserts, the karts... In awe.

It's October! Hurrah! I've specially curated 5 of our spookier titles, and discounted the eBooks to just $2. Grab a couple, or all 5 for $10. It's your choice. @seanbirnie.bsky.social @acwise.bsky.social @stevetoase.bsky.social undertowpublications.com/ebooks

A book I just ordered came print-on-demand from a major publisher. The type's nice and clear but it's chunky, heavy, and the cover's badly printed. Every other technology pushes steadily onward but it's like 10 years ago POD went, "That'll do," and gave up

Happy October—here’s a list of 100 avant-garde horror films I recommend, and links to watch the large majority of them.

Follow me, follow. 📷

This got me thinking about the related phenomenon all YouTube channels eventually converging on "Overrated!?", "I just don't know how to go on" or "Was this video a huge mistake?" Because, yes, negative, cryptic statements *will* generate views. (But also irritation and resentment.)

Exciting news! HELLEBORE’s first short story anthology is here! 9 new tales of the supernatural and the strange by Ramsey Campbell, Ally Wilkes, Reggie Oliver, Helen Grant and more, set in some of the most beguiling locations of Occult Britain. 👉🏼 Pre-order now to secure your copy: helleborezine.com

Where I’m calling from

Honestly, the 'I used to write balanced things and no one paid any attention' to 'I did a thing once and it got me loads of eyeballs so I think I'll do it much, much more' pipeline is exactly the same for kids licking ice cream in shops as for 'public intellectuals'. Acting the goat for clout

It's fascinating to watch 'people who have important ideas' type folks becoming cranky and odd in real time. Social media and the attention economy mean that where, in the past, we would only hear from folks in forms that passed through the hands of others, now we just get to mainline grumpy old men

At the surgery to have my flu jab. Any allergies? No And you’re ok with eggs…? I’ve never been asked this before, and my mind immediately goes to the boxes of eggs my neighbour leaves me (from her sister’s hens) and for a split second I think the nurse is going to give me a box of eggs as a reward.

Found the gate that leads to winter.

‘Penny Lane’ is a ghost story. “Very strange...”

Remembering how, in the eighties, the most annoying thing imaginable for a British person was an American saying, 'Have a nice day'.

I'm feeling the need to level up in my writing. I know I'm good, but I could be better. But what does that mean? And how do I get there? First, I guess, I need to understand what's 'wrong' with what I'm writing now. Withdraw, reflect, revise – instead of relentlessly generating new material.

Featuring the reanimated corpse of Martin Amis.

In the 1980s left wing acts like Billy Bragg and the Redskins believed in nationalising industry but Hall and Oates sang about doing the opposite.

When it became clear Inspire Living wouldn't be open for the start of the university term, they abandoned the site. Plastic sheets flapped where windows should be. Autumn fog rose from the tamed marshland and filled the courtyard. With it came a rage-filled shadow, mourning a lost landscape.

I like the format of @mattsimon.bsky.social’s weekly blog post: “In Don’t Look Now, we don’t just get visions of the past or the future, we see the past, and the future, and the present all at the same time...” www.deadofnightletter.com/glamour-gore...

John Fowles writes an eBay listing

“An example of the town of the future is Coventry.... Traffic and pedestrians are kept apart and the roads are planned to let traffic flow smoothly” (Our Land in the Making, 1966) Artist: Ronald Lampitt

Municipal guide cover of the day: Halesowen (1969) with a perfect 60’s sketch of the shopping centre. The guide was published by Burrows.

Now watching: ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’, dir. Walter Lang, 1950. Clifton Webb plays a man with 11 children: “Somebody in this family has to show a little spunk!” 🎥🎬

Goodness. I have such complex feelings about these people, their lives and their work.

Biopic cliches are my favourite cliches. I especially like it when they establish the time period. “Stop listening to the contemporary popular radio comedy The Goons and come and eat your dinner which is spam”