Andrew Holgate

Child poverty: how bad is it in the UK? Four and a half million children are growing up without basic necessities in the UK.

It's bad - really bad: "At the end of 2024, 4.5m children – 31% of all UK children – were in relative poverty, living in households earning less than 60% of the UK’s median income. And 18% of all children were growing up in food-insecure households, without consistent access to nutritious food."

Thank you for this lovely obituary, Andrew. John supervised my DPhil. However witty and acerbic as a reviewer, he was gentleness itself with his students. He had the gift of appearing interested in whatever you had to say. I’m very grateful for his support and cherish the memory of his wry smile.

Met him in 2009 when I was a daft undergraduate, and had no idea what a big name he was. He was generous with his time, entirely egoless, and great fun to talk to.

Farewell, John Carey, and sorry a fellow critic poured wine on your head Our fiercely moral chief literary critic avoided the literary world. The fortnightly review was everything, even if it upset friends

A tribute in today’s Sunday Times to John Carey, who taught me more than I can say about books and the proper way to live…

www.thetimes.com/article/34bd...

A peacock showing off its art.

RULE 1. THE ROAD RUNNER CANNOT HARM THE COYOTE EXCEPT BY GOING "ВЕЕР-BEEP!" RULE 2. NO OUTSIDE FORCE CAN HARM THE COYOTE - ONLY HIS OWN INEPTITUDE OR THE FAILURE OF THE ACME PRODUCTS. RILEろ。 THE COYOTE COULD STOP ANYTIME - IF HE WERE NOT A FANATIC. (REPEAT: "A FANATIC IS ONE WHO REDOUBLES HIS EFFORT WHEN HE HAS FORGOTTEN HIS AIM.' -GEORGE SANTAYANA) RULE I. NO DIALOGUE EVER, EXCEPT "ВЕЕР-BEEP!" RULES. THE ROAD RUNNER MUST STAY ON THE ROAD - OTHERWISE, LOGICALLY, HE WOULD NOT BE CALLED ROAD RUNNER. ALL ACTION MUST BE CONFINED TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE TWO CHARACTERS - THE SOUTHWEST AMERICAN DESERT. RULE 7. ALL MATERIALS, TOOLS, WEAPONS, OR MECHANICAL CONVENIENCES MUST BE OBTAINED FROM THE ACME CORPORATION. RULE 8. WHENEVER POSSIBLE, MAKE GRAVITY THE COYOTE'S GREATEST ENEMY RULE 9. THE COYOTE IS ALWAYS MORE HUMILIATED THAN HARMED BY HIS FAILURES.

Because there’s never a bad time to share Chuck Jones’s rules for the Road Runner, here are Chuck Jones’s rules for the Road Runner

My dog Nina (left) and her brother Gus the other morning, looking like two old friends just happy in each other’s company. That after spending half an hour trying to tear each other’s ears off…

Picture of an owl, looking at the camera, wings pinned back and gliding above a picture of the same owl looking at the camera and raising one wing.

"Morning, Jim!"
"Hey, Tom."

They have the Pope selection looking like the NFL Draft. #NFL #nfl #nflmemes #PopeXIV #Cardinals

A brown bunny sits with its eyes closed while four hands form a star shape with their fingers, touching the bunny's paws.

This photograph captures Sir David Attenborough seated outdoors on the rugged terrain of Skomer Island. Behind him, the ocean and coastal cliffs form a scenic backdrop under a clear sky. Sir David, dressed in a khaki jacket and light trousers, looks towards the camera with a gentle expression, exuding a sense of warmth, calm, and wisdom. Around him, puffins can be seen flying and perched on the rocky ground, illuminated in rays of golden sunlight as the sun sets behind the cliffs.

Happy 99th birthday to the man who gave voice to the wild. 🎉

Sir David Attenborough, thank you for a lifetime dedicated to the natural world, and for sharing its story with wisdom, wonder, and grace.

You've inspired generations to fall in love with nature.

What do these corporations have in common?

Netflix
Ford
Tesla
T-Mobile
Duke Energy
DISH Network
Metlife
Dominion Energy
United States Steel

In recent years, they all paid their execs more than they paid in taxes.

This is what a corporate-rigged system looks like.

Oooft! What a treat. How could you resist? Now in stock.

Winner of The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, Sue Prideaux, holds her winning book Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin

Congratulations to Sue Prideaux winner of The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025 for Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin, published by @faberbooks.bsky.social. 🍾

To celebrate The Pol Roger Duff Cooper 2025, each Friday we’re profiling a shortlisted book. This week we dive into Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux (@faberbooks.bsky.social). 🧵
@newcollegeoxf.bsky.social

Book on a table with caption: The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 2025 Shortlist. The book is THE SCAPEGOAT: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham

To celebrate The Pol Roger Duff Cooper 2025, each Friday we’re profiling a different shortlisted book. This week we’re raising a glass to THE SCAPEGOAT: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (@4thestatebooks.bsky.social) 🧵
@newcollegeoxf.bsky.social

Beautiful advance copy of #TheProsecutor from @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social & looking forward to hosting a Q&A at Piccadilly @waterstones.bsky.social
with @jackfairweather.bsky.social on 4 March. Tickets still available. @wehaveways.bsky.social

This guy stared at me the entire way from DC to LA and I was convinced he was going to follow me and kill me before I realized his sunglasses were just on the back of his head.

To celebrate The Pol Roger Duff Cooper 2025, each Friday we’re profiling a different shortlisted book. We’re kicking off with, Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy by Mark Gilbert published (Allen Lane).

A really good shortlist for a really excellent prize

Dept. of completely unexpected phone calls: one telling me I was being given a Robert Silvers Prize for literary journalism (along with Louis Menand!). All the more exciting because I always thought of Robert Silvers as dwelling on the peak of the Mount Olympus of editing.

Bristol Short Story Prize now open for stories of up to 4000 words, judged by prize-winning novelists and a literary agent. Also winning stories published.

Link below

Please share.

bssp.blogs.bristol.ac.uk

NEW! Never Too Late 60+ award - Bridport Prize

Never Too Late Award for a writer over 60 from The Bridport Prize.

Please share.

Early promise… a primrose already.

Kit de Waal: The Best of Everything | Southbank Centre

I'll be at The Southbank Centre in April taking about my new novel. For the very, very organised amongst you, tickets are now on sale :)

Hi Kit!!

This Victorian family grave in Nunhead Cemetery, where I walk every day, is a heartbreaker. A memorial to six children in one family who died successively at 5 months and 14 days, 5 weeks, 14 days… on and on

Thank you Marika , very good to hear from you. I had got rid of all my social media recently after retiring from the Sunday Times. I’m sort of ho-humming about how healthy it is to re-engage

That’s very kind. Weirdly, I’ve just been writing about her. A very Trump-like moment - he turned his head just as she fired and she only grazed his nose. Thank you very much for that