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Off it goes.

I wrote about David Milch's memoir Life's Work - an astonishing book in many ways; written with encroaching dementia on the author's shoulder, it shouldn't exist, but it does, and it provides remarkable insight into creativity & what it's for, why we need it. www.patreon.com/weirdandconf...

They’re going full Daily Mail though haven’t yet acquired the ability to squeeze the outrage in several directions at once

Rereading Middlemarch and made the mistake of checking out Saint Theresa of Avila. I now know more than I wanted to about the violence of relics.

Fair enough.

He was right about the short twentieth century!

Joan Fontaine was in so many great films during this period: Suspicion, Rebecca, and, few years later, Letter from an Unknown Woman! Have you seen The Constant Nymph from 1943?

Ian!

Wherever I go … (Dogs clearly smell the treats)

Since the early days of photography, people have wanted to capture their pets on camera. (Read on to find out why we want to see yours!) These postcards collected by the artist Tom Phillips (1937–2022) are now held in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries.

💙💙

Maeve Binchy, who died on this day in 2012: “I don’t have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.”

Just to add to the convo around social care: I remember being told by Pat’s hospice that our only alternative for care (hospices don’t have the resources to house residents for more than 2 weeks – & that’s another huge failing in this country) was a care home for the under-55s.

Jorie Graham, one of the most celebrated American poets of the post-war generation, will be presenting her most recent collection KILLING SPREE. She will be reading from her work with LRB senior editor Daniel Soar. Tickets available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jorie-grah...

"May this story be forgiven for digressing but dear Sages please do not be forest-firing too much this cuddly planet whilst engaged in an anti-demon combat: who would rather not be harbouring a floorboard of evil than be losing their home sweet home?"

New on the blog today, WOMEN WRITERS IN TRANSLATION - some book recommendations for #WITMonth. Featuring books by Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Irmgard Keun (tr. Michael Hofmann), Claudia Piñeiro (tr. Frances Riddle) and more! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/w...

FFS

This happened to me in an Uber. Driver literally had large font text of biblical verses on his phone. Nope.

I don't either, but given that the only large-scale businesses opening anywhere in the UK are Amaz*n warehouses and data centres, the unspoken point here seems extremely obvious, which is that they are donating to (bribing) the govt to produce company town workers.

Isn’t it. I’ve just started rereading it and am struck again by how brilliant it is.