A well-spent €4 at a charity shop, I think and a surprising previous owner of the John Gower book.

"The company’s annual results, to 31st March 2025, showed it had £39.4m of debt (in its retained earnings) to its parent company, identified as the Wilmington, Delaware-based Rimbaud Holdings. The retained earnings in the previous filing were £35.1m in the red." www.thebookseller.com/news/mary-ka...

Mary-Kay Wilmers steps down as London Review of Books director

Mary-Kay Wilmers, who helped to found the London Review of Books in 1979, has stepped back from her role as director. She was editor of the LRB from 1992 to 2021.

thebookseller.com

Novelist Dinaw Mengestu, the outgoing president of PEN America, on why he resigned and the hypocrisy haunting the US's most prominent free-speech group — @equatormag.bsky.social www.equator.org/articles/ins...

The Palestinian Exception • EQUATOR

The outgoing president of PEN America on why he resigned, and on the hypocrisy haunting the US's most prominent free-speech group

equator.org

@aodhbc.bsky.social Might you know the location?

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝@jacqbetula.bsky.social · 2d ago

In The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald mentions staying with the Ashbury family, in a semi-ruined Anglo-Irish Big House near the Slieve Bloom mountains. Does anybody know where that house is? I'm going to lament being another year older tomorrow by taking a long walk in that area.

In The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald mentions staying with the Ashbury family, in a semi-ruined Anglo-Irish Big House near the Slieve Bloom mountains. Does anybody know where that house is? I'm going to lament being another year older tomorrow by taking a long walk in that area.

#BookWormSat The Catastrophically Creative Edward Gorey (1925-2000) in perfect accord with his feline companions. He spoke of them often, reflecting 'A house without a cat is a house without a soul, a place where the books remain dusty & the shadows lack a reason to dance.'

Grateful beyond words to @roughghosts.bsky.social for this attentive reading 💙

Joseph Schreiber@roughghosts.bsky.social · 4d ago

A poet whispers: How complete+ final the feeling as I lift its curve in the net by Ellen Dillon @drnollid.bsky.social @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social roughghosts.com/2026/08/08/a...

I was a very hopeful youngster. I once sent a poorly recorded cassette tape of the band I was in, Flux Density, to Geoff Travis at Rough Trade. This was probably around 1979 or 1980. Amazingly, I received a helpful reply (not from G.T.) with advice on how we could improve.

Perhaps we are the transitory race of coherent organisms that emerges as love loses its grip, a momentary accident, destined soon to decay. Catherine Osborne

May hundreds of badgers descend on the golf courses of this country and dig with all their hungry might.

Billy Linehan 🇪🇺🇮🇪@billylinehan.bsky.social · 3d ago

Golf club battles hungry badgers digging up watered greens - similar in my vegetable patch with birds, especially blackbirds www.bbc.com/news/article...

I've just seen the message: "Due to laws in your region, certain features on Bluesky are currently restricted until you're able to verify you're an adult." My profile picture might help.

The "new generation of poets" appear to pitch themselves somewhere between greeting cards and Patience Strong. Thank goodness there is another "new generation"! www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

It’s not just Homer: the new generation of poets enjoying epic success

Christopher Nolan’s film has made the Odyssey a bestselling book again, but a slew of new poets are breaking sales records, and have more in common with the ancient Greek than you might expect

theguardian.com

This concert was as good as I had hoped. A superb group of singers and musicians. If you ever get the chance to hear them live, don't hesitate.

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝@jacqbetula.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm very much looking forward to hearing Idrîsî Ensemble, Layale Chaker & Francesco Turrisi in concert later this week, " for a new project that weaves together Arabic, Syriac, Greek, Occitan, Andalusian and Corsican traditions."

And demonstrating that social media can still be good, I now have a copy. Thank you so much, @ellijandro.bsky.social I look forward very much to reading and reviewing the novel.

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝@jacqbetula.bsky.social · last wk.

An intriguing review from @bdralyuk.bsky.social of 'The City' by Valerian Pidmohylnyi, translated by Maxim Tarnawsky (Harvard). I remember requesting a copy when it was first announced two years ago. Long forgotten, I'm sure. www.the-tls.com/literature-b...

Live from the Bookaholics Anonymous meeting: "My name is Declan and I am a bookaholic" [pause for applause] "Most days I'd have my first book at about 7 am. I'd already have read a review or two while I was having my breakfast. Then, in the car, I'd listen to an audiobook. Next, at lunchtime..."

Coming soon... ecmrecords.com/product/samu...

If you like Antonioni and have a million hours to spare, why not read all 52 parts of my 284,000-word analysis of Red Desert? There are references to 115 other films and 190 non-film sources, so it's only about half as monotonous as it sounds...

Everything That Happens in Red Desert

Contents and bibliography

slowmovingpictures.org

First, it became impossible to get post from the USA. Now this seems to be the case with post from the UK. Even subscriptions are failing to arrive. Is it the new EU tariff on the less well-off (otherwise known as the new customs charge on small packages) that is the cause?

This reheated nonsense is 'borrowed' entirely from yesterday's Bookseller newsletter, which was also misleading. One of the translations of The Odyssey to which the figures refer is the Rieu version, a prose translation. Also, Donna Ashworth does not write poetry. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey gives UK poetry sales an epic boost

Poetry sales surpassed £8m in the first 30 weeks of 2026 and are expected to reach a record high this year thanks to blockbuster adaptation of Homer’s 2,700-year-old poem

theguardian.com

A very nice review of John Tilbury: At Home by @clivepaget.bsky.social The 4-CD box set is released by the consistently excellent label Another Timbre. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

John Tilbury: At Home album review – an eclectic and extraordinary treasure trove

The great interpreter of Morton Feldman and a towering figure of experimental music signs off with four discs of intimate, revelatory recordings

theguardian.com

A very nice review of John Tilbury: At Home, released on the superb Another Timbre label. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

John Tilbury: At Home album review – an eclectic and extraordinary treasure trove

The great interpreter of Morton Feldman and a towering figure of experimental music signs off with four discs of intimate, revelatory recordings

theguardian.com

I hope my funeral is a long way off, but when the time comes, it will be some consolation to know that Bono will not be there reading his crap lyrics in a vainglorious voice.

New review: 𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑙 𝐶𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛: 𝐴 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒, by Anna Arno www.complete-review.com/reviews/divb...

Back in my Waterstones head office days, there was some statistic or survey that defined a 'heavy reader' as someone who read six books a year. Which I think acts as a helpful reminder that people who read more than that are in the minority, as are people who frequent bookshops on a regular basis.

Owler Nook@owlernook.bsky.social · last wk.

If you're feeling intimidated by the number of books that certain FT staff are devouring while on holiday, rest assured that the median UK adult has read three books in the past year.

Every aspect of this recording is glorious, especially Claire Lefilliâtre's singing. When Lalande wrote these Tenebrae, they were first sung by his daughters, "à l'adimation de tout Paris". Some years later, in 1711, Jeanne and Marie-Anne de Lalande died in the smallpox epidemic.

Some time ago I entered a portfolio of images of mist-filled woodlands to the 'Photographing the British Isles' comp. I made it to the final 3 but didn't win. Here are the images anyway, as they represent one of things I like doing most - picking out fleeting moments amongst the trees. #PhotoRippin

I'm very much looking forward to hearing Idrîsî Ensemble, Layale Chaker & Francesco Turrisi in concert later this week, " for a new project that weaves together Arabic, Syriac, Greek, Occitan, Andalusian and Corsican traditions."

A short but characterful obituary of my much-loved uncle Brian Case by Richard Williams in the Guardian www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

Brian Case obituary

Other lives: Much admired writer on music and the arts for the NME, Melody Maker and Time Out

theguardian.com

An intriguing review from @bdralyuk.bsky.social of 'The City' by Valerian Pidmohylnyi, translated by Maxim Tarnawsky (Harvard). I remember requesting a copy when it was first announced two years ago. Long forgotten, I'm sure. www.the-tls.com/literature-b...

A novel of Kyiv in the tumultuous 1920s

In the four years since the launch of the full-scale invasion, Russian bullets, bombs, missiles and drones have taken tens of thousands of Ukrainian

the-tls.com

“But Vitti offered a new kind of beauty: ravishing but distraught, and caught up in feelings of solitude from which nothing could rescue her.” For Monica Vitti fans, courtesy of @jacqbetula.bsky.social! #FilmSky

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝@jacqbetula.bsky.social · last wk.

www.ft.com/content/9706...