Thanks Matt. I will give it a watch.
#ceasefire #nevervotetory Outsider | not in the Meursault way | Cymro #AntiTory since 62 | republican ‘…let’s exalt the importance of ideas and information.’ Loves reading & enjoys a pint or two! 🏴 🇵🇸
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Thanks Matt. I will give it a watch.
I loved this episode, an exploration of what sounds like a beautiful book about storytelling & interconnection The comment “the same water we might have shed as tears yesterday may be the same drop that fell on the head of a mighty king in Ancient Assyria” may have led to a few tears itself.
Lovely listen. Thank you. Elif’s writing is superb. I need to read Gwyneth’s work. Beautiful - pun intended - explanation of her bardic name. The plight of the Wye is a tragedy. Thank you again James, Elif & Gwyneth.
Listen to us chat to Elif Shafak behind the scenes at @hayfestival.bsky.social on R4 #TakeFourBooks: talking 'There Are Rivers in the Sky' & 3 influences including the earliest recorded poem The Epic of Gilgamesh - along with first national poet of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
This Sunday at 4.00pm on BBC Radio 4, Take Four Books focuses on The Benefactors. I’m joined by my brill pal Emma Warren and I talk about, among other books This is the Place to Be by @larapawson.bsky.social, published by @cbeditions.bsky.social. I love this programme so was made up to be on it.
Three Irish films have been selected to screen at this year’s Dinard British & Irish Film Festival, which revealed its programme earlier this week. 💚 Christy, directed by Brendan Canty 🔍 Spilt Milk, directed by Brian Durnin ❄️ The Damned, directed by Thordur Palsson #IrishFilm
Flags flags flags. I love flags I shag flags I eat flags Mindless fucking country.
I really, really hope not! Tom Sutcliffe would be excellent.
This is sad news as he has been absolutely superb & In Our Time along with Thinking Allowed & Start the Week [especially with @tds153.bsky.social in the chair] are worth paying the licence for IMHO. I’d have to add Bookclub, A Good Read & Take Four Books to the list & the very much missed Open Book.
Absolutely. Both typically & unsurprisingly I have got Emma’s book on dancing & not read it. I heard her discussing it on a Radio 4 programme. I’m going to have to get on to it!
It was great to have Emma Warren there too. She’s brilliant.
I’m going to have to get Mr Bridge too. Here is a synopsis at the back of Mrs Bridge. #BookSky 💙 📚
![Synopsis of MR BRIDGE by Evan S. Connell [From the back of Mrs Bridge] Walter Bridge, husband to India and father to three, is a successful lawyer in a Kansas suburb. The daily dramas of his life only serve to illuminate his prejudice, self doubts and narrow outlook - his Christmas gifts to the family are stock certificates, which he immediately takes back to manage on their behalf - yet he is also kind and charitable, loving his wife while never able to tell her so. In Mr Bridge, Evan. S. Connell gives us a moving, satirical and poetic portrayal of a man who cannot escape his limitations, and a couple growing old together but unable, ultimately, to connect.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b3a5t3hq7ibv7f7bdepckt4c/bafkreiarbikt3ar5jha4okhw3vuweak67xb6av5htddzdckfac54tlwreu@jpeg "Click to view full size")
though for a different reason. His name was Peters and he was a bully. One evening it was long after dark when Douglas finally came home. He was exhausted and covered with dirt, although this in itself was not remarkable.’ #BookSky 💙 📚 #MrsBridge
Evan S Connell’s Mrs Bridge is such a funny - tongue in cheek - novel that he hardly lets anything go by without making it so! ‘There was another expressionist in the neighborhood, a boy several years older than Tarquin Leacock, whom Douglas avoided with equal assiduity, #BookSky 💙 📚 #MrsBridge
#RFK #ExcessDeaths
I have a new Radio 4 short story about an exorcism in a Nursing Home airing this month and I’ve just listened to the recording of Seamus O’Hara reading it and it’s only brilliant. Can’t wait for you all to hear it.
Not at all. I was utterly absorbed & I’ve listened to the Take Four Books again.
The utter nonsense of borders & passports.
“The dense interconnectedness of the human family… means that in terms of our biology, there are no different races. We can all claim ancestry from across the world. Nevertheless, our politics is obsessed with distinctions based on national identity…” Gaia’s article more relevant than ever:
Thanks
On this day 44 BCE Cleopatra announced her son Caesarion co-ruler of Egypt. Since Caesar's propaganda equated Cleopatra with Isis-Venus, this Pompeii image of Venus & Cupid may be Cleo & son. However silly, it's not as bad as the choice of an uber-Aryan sprog = Caesarion in "that" movie.
A LibDem-Green coalition could work
Great power politics, climate breakdown, and rising nationalism are all feeding the military-industrial complex. And the military-industrial complex feeds all these trends right back. open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...
I’m not sure if you will be able to access the Radio 4 broadcasts but here is a link: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/serie...
I don’t think that I have seen the film but I will look it up. BBC Radio 4 is running some broadcasts from 2022. That is where I heard of Mrs Bridge. There is a novel about Mr Bridge too. There is a chronology to Mrs Bridge but also a series of vignettes; it’s skilful writing.
I loved the movie "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge", and have been tempted to read the novels it was based on. I'm glad to have your recommendation.
This book is proving to be very funny - there’s a slight poignancy as well. Mrs Bridge by Evan S Connell. It feels like an indictment of American bourgeoisie & conspicuous capitalist consumption. The cover is from a collage by Anthony Gerace entitled There Must be More to Life Than This. #BookSky
#BookSky 💙 📚 Which app or site do people use to create book wishlists? I like @blackwells.bsky.social to be fair but it looks like I have run out of space. Might there be any infinite place?
Posting a little late as I was otherwise occupied last night but here’s my rundown of my favourite books I read for the first time in August. A good looking bunch of books, I think you’ll agree.
Coffee & Snoop Dog then? Sounds like an interesting read. I’m not able to read the entire review as I am not a subscriber! Maybe I should subscribe to the online version - $1 a week seems reasonable. It is £1 a week for UK readers?
A short story collection perchance? We went to Paris last December & had the very interesting experience of travelling on a Flix bus from London Victoria & back; the return leg was rich with story potential!
Something I wrote a year ago that’s infuriatingly relevant
Glad to you’re back safe though.
It took me 25 hours to get to Belfast from Namur, Belgium. I could have been in Australia quicker. What a palaver.
Might you have collected some more material for your writing though? Every cloud & all that.
The Prime Minister effectively saying "I too would be concerned if my daughter walked past a foreigner" really caps off a truly next level dogshit summer of British political discourse.
Interesting. I live near a hotel that is used to house asylum seekers and I have a daughter and I have absolutely no fucking clue what these coked up terminally online divorced morons are concerned about.
Without doubt, Id circumnavigate one of these 'hotels' if there were goons 'protesting' (ie being intimidating, loud, aggressive) outside. It wouldn't occur to me to do so if there was no presence, it just wouldn't. Handling & messaging on this a huge gift to Reform & will buy the govt NO benefit.
I mean gosh, I wonder if this might be a greater threat to our “daughters” than the proximity of a small hotel with refugees in it? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Monday version of me here to re-up this post for all of your Monday selves!
Signed & sent.
🚨 Over 18,000 people have already emailed the Home Office demanding they shut down this Nazi gig. Let’s turn up the pressure. If you haven’t added your name yet, now’s the time – and don’t forget to share the link with friends and family. secure.hopenothate.org.uk/page/176528/...
Hold on a minute. Last weekend, Victorious festival cut the sound and video of The Mary Wallopers gig, because of a shout out for a free Palestine. But an entire neo-nazi music festival is fine? I thought these people wanted musicians to stay out of politics?
Stop this neonazi festival 👇
So Come on Ramsey. Lets set the world alight.
Heading to see Manic Street Preachers& Keith Cameron: In Conversation at the EartH Theatre Stoke Newington Road on Friday but I am not 100% certain that we get the book or is it extra? Apologies for my confusion here! @foreverdelayed.bsky.social @botagainsthesoul.bsky.social #Manics
I don’t usually read short stories, but Claire Keegan and Donal Ryan have written outstanding collections.
Prepping for a chat with the mighty Donal Ryan at The John Hewitt summer school in Armagh next week.
Donal Ryan: ‘I’m still learning about class in Ireland ... and the tribes that exist’ www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...
How was it?
Started The Spinning Heart this morning. I’ll be on the balcony in shorts until I finish… unless someone’s got a better distraction.
The programme for 2025 Write by the Sea Festival has just been announced and I'm really pleased to be heading back to Kilmore Quay in September! I'll be interviewing the brilliant @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social and Donal Ryan on Sun 28th Sep at 11.30am ✨️ writebythesea.ie
Where has this ludicrous ECHR "debate" even come from. I've never once met an ordinary member of the public who's said to me, "Do you know what? We REALLY need to leave the ECHR." It's just a new right wing talking point because every other shit idea they've foisted on us has run out of steam.
I have just finished this stunning debut novel The Benefactors by @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social 💙 📚 #BookSky #AmReading #MondayReads #TBR More here bsky.app/profile/wjpm...
It's Monday again and today I'm reading Roots of My Fear edited by Gemma Amor What book(s) are you reading this week? 💙📚 #BookSky #AmReading #MondayReads #TBR alt text in images please
Sad to see the beautiful Douglas Carswell should have become another arsonist, but I assume he's well shot of the flames in Tennessee:
Rudy Giuliani hospitalized after his "vehicle was struck from behind at high speed.” Thots and prayers.
A brilliant debut. Will there be a sequel? I’d like to think there will! 💙📚 #Bluesky
Take Four Books here 👇 💙📚 #Booksky www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I’d been derailed from reading fiction by the Spanish Civil War & Gernika & Picasso’s Guernica & the life of George Steer but then I listened to @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social discussing The Benefactors on Take Four Books on Radio 4! A brilliant listen. 💙📚 #Booksky
Met, saw & listened to @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social discussing the book at a Violetta event organised by the irrepressible @badwool9.bsky.social & ordered it from the local bookshop. 💙📚 #Booksky
Wow! What a read! The Benefactors by @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social Started on Friday & finished today. Unputdownable to be fair. Funny, poignant, realistic, honest. Seizes the times we live in. I strongly recommend it. #Booksky 💙📚 A beautiful acknowledgment of public libraries too!
The main issue facing any UK government isn't actually the number of people seeking asylum, in the grand scheme, proportionally, we aren't talking about huge figures, especially when compared per capita to countries such as France, but the constant images we see in the media. 1/
It is indeed. Thanks for sharing.
Good thread 👇
Thank you Zoe. You are a constant beam of inspiration in these dark times. Take care.
Israel bombed and murdered the Prime Minister of Yemen along with several cabinet members, and there is zero outrage in Western media… it’s barely even a story. The level of impunity is breathtaking.
“As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism, or hatred of the vulnerable – then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.” Noam Chomsky
Adolph Hitler, one of the most infamous fascists of the 20th century, was inspired by the American Eugenics Movement. Eugenics promotes this exact type of destruction of those viewed as inferior. Educate yourself on fascism and eugenics.
What’s worse than being stuck on the last easyJet flight out of Paris on a Sunday night with a bunch of Eurodisneyed up children? Being stuck on the same flight only it’s delayed.
Not sure if this is true but I often find there is a different taste to the same chocolate bars in Europe and the UK?
youtu.be/4pG-8XLLaE0 Really excellent listen to be fair. Great explanation of why we are where we are!
(Total is the national #oilandgas co. of France)
Nietzsche seems like a cool and sensible guy. Did he write anything else?
You could do it as a podcast!
In July, #ICE arrested 2,782 people in California. 67% had no criminal convictions and 54% had never been charged with a crime. Nationwide, 22,611 people were arrested in July. 65% had no criminal convictions and 37% had never been charged with a crime. enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art...
Jan, I would love to chat to you about this book!! I totally loathe it. I find it a really disturbing read.
Flying through this absorbing & brilliant book The Benefactors by @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social.
Have you read @bcmerchant.bsky.social’s excellent book - Blood in the Machine. Links the Luddites to the modern day. Brilliant read to be fair. Was a book featured on BBC Radio 4.
So one thing I just learned about the Luddites is they actually pretty clearly understood who the enemy was. They weren't against the machines, just against how their bosses were using the machines to justify treating workers. And to me that seems right. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite...
![Malcolm L. Thomas argued in his 1970 history The Luddites that machine-breaking was one of the very few tactics that workers could use to increase pressure on employers, undermine lower-paid competing workers, and create solidarity among workers. [begin added highlight]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ujutgvmcjrwh2tmgp44g5blb/bafkreidtd4wiyblxd23txfcyzhdalip6a5vvtxlzpv5w5e2hoxavydpbx4@jpeg "Click to view full size")
33. When I started uni at history, I was told that all first years should read Eric Hobsbawm’s The Age of Extremes. This advice is still prescient. If someone you know is starting a history degree, buy them the Hobsbawm ‘Age of’ series as a gift!
Our politicians are not serious people.
This is a massive, unworkable political, economic and technical intervention with enormous and reprehensible ecological implications. Like so much of British politics, though, it is pitched entirely at the level of discourse for a fleeting moment to a distracted and uncritical media eco-system.
Why has it taken me this long to read Stoner? (Probably because I thought it was about a stoner). What a truly excellent novel. Perfect company for a travel day.
No policies just division n lies
Got lean and toned hoping to get the attention of all the mums on the school run but all its done is attract all the gay men at work, but at least the flirting is fun.
On #InternationalCosplayDay, recall that Herodotus says when c. 566 BCE Peisistratus returned to Athens he hired a tall woman, Phye, to impersonate the goddess Athena as his escort to legitimise his claim to sovereignty. Worth a try if you crave absolute power: it worked for him
Whilst making tea the other day I stuck on Take Four Books on BBC Sounds & had the joy of hearing @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social discussing her debut novel - The Benefactors - so I started reading it. Very well worth it - I strongly recommend it! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I think after his Glastonbury set Rod Stewart should steer clear of talking about atrocities that have gone on too long
The sun is warm and the skies are big in Edinburgh this evening.
Bought Babs her first ever baby Guinness but she insisted on having a fruit tea aswell to ‘be sensible’
At last, some proper British vandalism. (source - www.facebook.com/share/p/1MeV...)
#salmon
These two Ancient Greek plays on in London mid-September are brilliantly acted and directed. Thiasos really know what they’re doing with comedy. I’m speaking on 17th. thecockpit.org.uk/show/euripides…
Thanks to the Next Big Idea Club team for selecting 'Food Fight' as a September must-read! Here are five insights..... nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/foo... @pegasus-books.bsky.social
David Renton is an expert on the far right so this is interesting, with a gloomy premise: "The strategy of labelling our enemies fascist depends on a context where the mainstream is willing to isolate and shame Nazis. Those are not the times we are living in." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Leaving the ECHR is the latest iteration of the "one weird trick" politics that has served us so well in recent years. It appeals because it's simple and it won't work because it's simple.
Dear @BBC Get Farage off our screens for a while please. A long while. We wld like to see some decent,informed politicians e.g. those from the Green Party. We know you have an agenda regarding the snake oil salesman but enough is enough. Yours sincerely, The UK (decent majority)
‼️ CATÁLOGO DE NOVEDADES OTOÑO 2025 🆕 Celebramos nuestros 1️⃣5️⃣ otoños reivindicando la cultura como barricada contra la reacción. ✅ La moda y el montañismo como artefactos políticos. ✅ El error como algo inherente al ser humano. ✅ Intervenir el futuro. ✅ Superar ciertos pasados. +
It’s a splendid book & that is a splendid cover. Maybe I’ll have to get the Spanish edition for that reason only!