Bernie Hughes

A cartoon of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in handcuffs with Donald Trump as a pumpkin appearing behind him flipping a middle finger.

I'm delighted to announce that the paperback of Upon A White Horse: Journeys In Ancient Britain and Ireland will be published on April 23 by @headlinebooks.bsky.social. Just in time, I hope, for better weather that will allow people to visit some of the beautiful old places I write about.

Fantastic to see Clune Park, home to Port Glasgow Ath (thanks @footballheritage.bsky.social) Jags played here 32 times, 1884 to 1909. In March 1909, it was actually our designated home ground for one of those fixtures during our horrible nomadic season! 👀

👉 thethistlearchive.net/match-1909-0...

'I suddenly arose in my ghostly attire and in a moment was upon him.' From the book Criminal Reminiscences and Detective Sketches (1878), by unnamed illustrator. Might be J. B. Beale, who apparently did some illustrations for Pinkerton. Pinkerton sounds like a bit of a dick, in at least two senses of the word.

Allan Pinkerton, the legendary private eye, was also the author of popular detective stories. In 'The Ghost in the Cemetery' he disguises himself as a ghost to play a practical joke on one of his detectives who was a bit jittery on a lookout for grave robbers.

#phantomsfriday #detectivefiction

Stage backdrop reading 'Midsomer County: Badger's Drift' & and old-fashionedroad sign; opening stage set for the show.

To the Theatre Royal, for 'The Killings at Badger's Drift', a new play based on the endlessly bloodthirsty TV show Midsomer Murders. Great fun, which was badly needed yesterday.

@kingsandroyal.bsky.social

It's Time to Abolish the Monarchy It's Time to Abolish the Monarchy -

👇

All this 'nobody is above the law' schtick would be a lot more believable if we weren't all absolutely fucking astonished at the fact that they've finally arrested the cunt.

On the afternoon of 19th February 1876, Partick Thistle defeated local side Valencia 1-0 in the club's first official match.

150 years later, the Jags are still going strong ❤️💛

1️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ Oh Valencia - forever ensconced in Partick Thistle folklore! It was 150 years ago today...

👉 thethistlearchive.net/match-1876-0...

Photographer
Alen MacWeeney.
‘Nightwalkers’
Dublin, Ireland, 1965–1966.

🚨ℹ️ Following a pitch inspection, this afternoon's game against Dunfermline Athletic at KDM Group East End Park has been postponed.

A new date and time for the fixture will be announced in due course.

Book cover of 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier.

Things newly read:

'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier.

#Books
#BookSky
💙📚

Time to cash in on Wuthering Heights by releasing my erotic cotton mill story, Blathering Tights. A steamy tale of forbidden love between a cross-eyed seamstress and a one-legged hosiery magnate. Crammed full of how's your father and oddly shaped garden vegetables.

Soundtrack: Public Enemy.

As day draws to a close, landscape at sunset, 1522, by the extraordinary Albrecht Altdorfer of Regensburg. It’s been his day today.

This is really good. And it applies not just to writing, but to other things, like teaching.

A moderately forlorn black labrador sits on a patio. It is wearing a red LOVE ORIENT HATE RACISM scarf around its neck.

OUT NOW: Love Orient Hate Racism scarf, as modelled by Theo. #bandcampfriday #LOFC
stevewhiteandtheprotestfamily.bandcamp.com/merch/love-o...

The Work of Belonging The first stone is always the hardest.

This piece is about drystone walling, and about belonging. About building something solid before building something beautiful. About making a life, and a place in it, with your own hands.

kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/the-work-o...

#Scotland #UK #Books #Writing #WritingCommunity #Reading #Women

THREAD

1/2

This is what I meant this morning when I said knowing has a terminal limit. One of the things that happens when we pass that limit is normalisation.

What the fuck is going on?

#News #UK #Scotland

☹️

Calls to remove the cone from the statue of the Duke of Wellington in Glasgow have restarted (it happens interminably every few years)

It’s clearly a stupid idea. Like making New York taxis grey instead of yellow

If anything needs to go it’s the aristocratic twat on a horse. Bin him. Keep the cone

In 'I wonder why so many Labour MPs are absolute cunts?' news.

Two Terrible Children on a Windy Hill: A Rereading of Wuthering Heights In 2026, Wuthering Heights has become synonymous with Jacob Elordi’s finger appraising Margot Robbie’s gag reflex.

Emerald Fennell has said Wuthering Heights left its greatest impression on her at 14. Here’s my interpretation after reading at 41.

Turns out it isn’t really about love at all, but about inheritance, race & power.

kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/wuthering-...

#Books #Writing #Scotland #UK #Film

Estrangement Is the End of a Long Process A Personal Reflection On Parental Estrangement

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a Substack note on parental estrangement. After many requests to share it more fully, I’ve published it here.

It isn’t prescriptive or up for debate. It’s simply an attempt to describe my own experience.

kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/parental-e...

#Writing

Six years ago today England ripped Scotland out of the EU against our clearly expressed wishes in referendum and election results. The UK then used brexit to disembowel devolution removing much of what little agency we had. While continuing to deny us the right to choose our own path.

Fuck the UK.

Few ppl can derive lyric poetry from a slag-heap but Marc has. There’s something ironic in that the planted conifers are causing damage to Welsh soil, just as the coal did. In the foreground weeds dominate - many alien to local ecology. The image & the landscape are both facets of a living loss.

Is there, for honest poverty,
That hings his head, an' a' that?
The coward slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure, an' a' that;
Yhe rank is but the guinea's stamp;
The man's the gowd for a' that

YouTube video by Kirsteen Harvey Kirsteen Harvey - Lifeguard (Official Visualiser)

To Òran Mór to see Kirsten Harvey once more, this time as part of #CelticConnections .

Voice of an angel, but I always miss her playing this one.

❤️💛 This Saturday, we will be hosting Thistle Welcomes Day in partnership with Jags For Good!

As part of the day, there will be a pre-match collection supporting Refuweegee taking place outside the ground.

Read all the details: buff.ly/VaRJFEz

They paywalled this shite?