Will Wiles

Has there been a "harrumph!"ing? Love a bit of that

Hahaha! I have to listen to the voice now the storage situation is beyond crisis

A second-hand bookshop I used to frequent - in Lyme Regis, of course - had a load of these editions (plus many others) and I was often tempted to get a set but I thought it was doubtful I'd read them any time soon. (I've only read The Collector and FLW)

The best cover.

If we liked wasps more, we could learn from them Wasps have a terrible image problem but, after seeing an exhibition that highlights their design abilities, Will Wiles thinks we could learn from them

Love the thoughtful, erudite reflections by @willwiles.bsky.social on #WorldOfWasps exhibition @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social.

Thank you Will, for such a fabulous piece.

#WoW is free to the public, open until 26 Jan - the world’s first immersive wasp experience!

apollo-magazine.com/wasps-nests-...

Thank you!

If we liked wasps more, we could learn from them Wasps have a terrible image problem but, after seeing an exhibition that highlights their design abilities, Will Wiles thinks we could learn from them

Nice article by @willwiles.bsky.social in @apollo-magazine.com on the #WorldOfWasps! Be sure to visit @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social!
apollo-magazine.com/wasps-nests-...

Book extract: “One must not wait until the struggle for freedom is called treason. You have to crush the snowball as it rolls: nobody can stop the avalanche.”

The Nazi bar story, and “do not comply in advance”, combined in two sentences by Erich ‘Emil and the Detectives’ Kästner

It vexes me so much because there's so much that's good about it - great cast, it looks great, it has some great ideas and moments - but it's all held together with terrible nonsense. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. Tragic really, although I find it very rewatchable.

Yeah, it's pretty daft. "Medical pod not configured for female user" or whatever it was? Give me a break

I think that's probably often the case for The Exorcist as the grand guignol stuff is so famous and so often riffed on that it creates a misleading impression of the overall tone and seriousness of the film

Yeah, that one's a masterclass. The first time I saw it I expected all the puking and levitating stuff from the film's reputation and was completely unprepared for the slow gripping horror of the buildup to that - truly terrifying

Watching (IIRC) "Insidious" (or one of that recent generation of horrors), at a jump scare a man said very clearly in a well heeled accent (and clearly without meaning to) "FUCK ME", which got a merry little laugh from the rest of the cinema

I mean, we didn't *know* all that was in the movie, but we were very familiar with the four "Alien" films, so we could have *guessed* 😬

My wife felt our first child kick in the womb for the first time during "Prometheus". In retrospect it was a poor choice of movie to see while expecting...

Ah! Well it's still a fun game

(I love this game. (Throws himself into giant pile of well thumbed Paper Tiger editions.))

"Now Wait For Last Year" is Chris Foss. "Clans of the Alphane Moon" might be Jim Burns?

If we liked wasps more, we could learn from them Wasps have a terrible image problem but, after seeing an exhibition that highlights their design abilities, Will Wiles thinks we could learn from them

An exhibition at the Grant Museum of Zoology swats away some of our negative perceptions of wasps. Will Wiles considers the success of its attempt to ‘reposition the beer-garden menace as an evolutionary marvel’.

I hope so!

The system works! Thank you very much x

Boglaboll!

I just meant that it wouldn't necessarily help differentiate the ideas rather than commenting on the quality! But I know what you mean... As I say, broad strokes (enslaved magic users) matter less than details (e.g collars etc)

I shouldn't worry about it too much. Certainly don't read the WOT books to find out how similar, you're better off with an air gap. Details are always what matters.

Boglaboll! It's such a delight. We still say "that's a nice ____, I'll have that" around the house

As all parents will know, it's a rare writer who doesn't start to grate when the same story is read for the sixth night in a row... But Ahlberg never staled.

Terribly sad to hear of the death of Allan Ahlberg, one of the greatest writers for children of our age; I grew up with Burglar Bill, Funnybones, Cops and Robbers, Happy Families and so many more; as a parent I have discovered what a joy they are to read, even when requested night after night.

A photo of the 1927 Bohn's Popular Library three volume edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton.

"Whatsoever is under the Moon is subject to corruption, alteration; and, so long as thou livest upon the earth, look not for other. Thou shalt not here find peaceable and cheerful days, quiet times, but rather clouds, storms, calumnies; such is our fate."

Radioactive wasp nest found at site where US once made nuclear bombs Workers at a South Carolina site that once made nuclear bomb parts have found a radioactive wasp nest

"No wasps were found, officials said"

abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory...

Not a wasp but a species of sawfly, apparently?