Richard Castlemaine

People always want to know how come I am such a good skier when I’ve never actually taken any skiing lessons!?!? Well, my success is all down to this vinyl record my grandad gave me.

If you’re looking for books that play with your perception of reality while leaving you in stitches, then these two books by Rob Gotobed are an absolute must-read. The collections of short stories are as funny as they are intellectually engaging, with humour that’s both surreal and cerebral.

Chthonic Forces | Mark Lilla, Daniel Drake “I sense a lot of disgust with the contemporary world among young people today, and I keep meeting those who are returning to religion or converting for the first time.”

“In my experience, academics and administrators have just not reckoned with how deeply unpopular they are with the public—and in a democratic society, that matters.” —an interview with Mark Lilla

Ralph M Larmann, The Saturated Solution, 2017. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist. #art #painting #artsky #flooding #sealevelrise #JacksonSquare #NOLA #catfish #Ralph #Larmann #Saturated #Solution #FrenchQuarter #hurricaneskies #toxicwaste #Evansville #Indiana #muddy #climate

Samuel Hanafin | On Ward 15 The regional psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Odesa serves a population of around 2.5 million. It’s surrounded...

‘There’s no TV, no radio, no books, no personal belongings. Patients simply wait out their treatment.’

Samuel Hanafin on the stretched state of in-patient psychiatric services in Ukraine.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...

Looking Behind the Veil | Nitin K. Ahuja Can the tools of science be used to investigate the mysteries of death?

Nitin K. Ahuja on life after near-death

A Right to Commit Malpractice? | David Cole Does a state-licensed psychotherapist have a First Amendment right to provide “conversion therapy” counseling even though her profession defines it as a

David Cole @davidcole-gtown.bsky.social on why banning “conversion therapy” does not violate the First Amendment

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Friendly reminder: Authors don't choose which stores their book will be sold in. Publishers and stores may do so. Authors are ordinary people with talents.

Harvard Bookstore:
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Walmart:
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Target:
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It happened. Bookshop.org has acquired the NEW EDITION of THE HIDDEN FACE. Get the paperback format here:

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

To AT Class of 2025
I send you my most heartfelt congrats for every step you’ve taken. Each footfall is a triumph, and you know that. Whether 1 night, 1 state, 547 miles, GA-ME, I hope your communion among trees and dirt settled your soul.
Revel in the peace of the AT! #hiking #AT2025 #thruhiking

As the #Ukraine #war grinds on (with no #ceasefire in sight), step back to 1990s #Moscow, to #arms reductions and more freedoms — yet also an era that paved the way for #Putin

#Soviet collapse, jungle #capitalism, covert #gay love — all in 'Last Dance' in the #Russia section @dauntbooks.bsky.social

Love’s Anguish and Force and Terror | Darryl Pinckney Nicolas Boggs structures his moving new biography of James Baldwin around the writer’s most important relationships with men.

“James Baldwin’s voice never aged, the cat on the café terrace staring down the moon when all the squares have gone to bed.” —Darryl Pinckney

We see the posts:
"Bipolar doesn't define me."
But what about the days when it does?
When that's all our doctors, friends, or family can see?
Let's talk about that uncomfortable truth.

#MentalHealthHonesty #BipolarLife
bit.ly/4hgEF1s

David Trotter · Unconditional Looking: Mrs Dalloway’s Demons Virginia Woolf admired Jane Austen above all for her ability to grasp the exceptional moment – ‘in which all the...

‘We should never underestimate the “awful fear” which accompanied each of Woolf’s breakdowns and the “possibility of their recurrence”. Septimus Smith on Tottenham Court Road could be said to articulate that awful fear on her behalf.’

David Trotter on ‘Mrs Dalloway’: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Died (alas!) on this day in 1553, Lucas Cranach the Elder, painter & printmaker of the Reformation in Germany. Here by his son Lucas the Younger, at age 77.

YouTube video by Hexo Hex Orson Wells Meets HG Wells

Listening to the IN OUR TIME episode about THE TIME MACHINE, I learned that H. G. Wells lived till 1946! What did he think of Orson Welles’ radio play of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, I wondered? Turns out the two were interviewed together on a San Antonio radio station in 1940! youtu.be/nUdghSMTXsU?...

I'm so sorry to share that Friedemann Pulvermüller, brilliant neuroscientist, has passed. He gave Embodiment ideas legs and worked tirelessly on treatments for stroke victims during his storied career. His kindness and wry humor made him sparkle.

UNA O'CONNOR WONDERS IF THERE IS ANYTHING IN THAT COAT 💙📽️ #invisibleman

An acorn and taproot

An acorn taproot

The irresistible force that is Noble Shadow the oak seedling

The taproot, now noticeably darkening as the first bark forms, continues to seek depth whilst throwing out secondary roots

Note the taproot literally splits open to expand girth

BUILDING THE SET FOR REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE IN 1934 💙📽️ #jamesdean

A view from the top of a hillfort. A road can be seen leading into the distance, as well as clusters of trees and hills on the horizon.

This is the view from the top of Woden Law, an Iron Age hillfort in the Scottish Borders. Below it is a Roman road known as Dere Street and in the distance are the Eildon Hills. This was the start point for my journey that inspired my recent book 'The Road to Mons Graupius'. #HillfortsWednesday

A newspaper saying “Crime is up in Beanotown”

Quite happy with this panel.

YouTube video by Steve Winwood Steve Winwood - Can't Find My Way Home #stevewinwood #ericclapton #music #livemusic

A quick YouTube short.
🎶 Steve Winwood.🎶

Oliver Cussen · Fish in the Wrong Place: Aquatic Colonialism The environmental history of European empire doesn’t end with decolonisation. The quasi-colonial schemes of the Green...

‘The environmental history of European empire doesn’t end with decolonisation. The quasi-colonial schemes of the Green Revolution were as consequential ecologically as the infrastructure projects that had been established under colonial rule.’

Oliver Cussen on water: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

In Defence of Her Honour: Clean historical fiction. convicted for defending his lady's honour (The Convict Birthstain Collection (Stand alone stories)) Amazon.com: In Defence of Her Honour: Clean historical fiction. convicted for defending his lady's honour (The Convict Birthstain Collection (Stand alone stories)) eBook : Powter, Sara: Kindle Store

FREE to celebrate my birthday. "In Defence of Her Honour"
Australia Historical Fiction.
mybook.to/InDefenceofH...

Picture of a white raven

It's #IndigenousPeoplesDay

In a mythology from the indigenous peoples of the americas, ravens were once only white. They helped humans master fire, and were turned black by the flames

Patrick Cockburn · Diary: Interviewing Hitler In August 1937, three German journalists were expelled from Britain for suspected espionage. Retaliation was a...

‘Ebbutt’s guarded optimism was never naive. He believed he had sure instincts about what made Germany tick. But the benefits of his long years in Germany were more concrete than that.’

Patrick Cockburn on a journalist expelled from Germany for exposing the Nazi threat:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

James Meek · Computers that want things For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...

‘The most devastating shortcoming of LLMs is that however many things they appear to know about the world, and however smoothly they express these things, they don’t actually know that there is a world.’

@jamesmeek.bsky.social on Artificial General Intelligence: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Anna Aslanyan | The Censor’s Scissors John Heartfield was forced to leave Germany in 1933. Even before the Nazis put him on their hit list, his art had caused...

‘An investigation by Index on Censorship showed that it’s mainly LGBT-themed books that get challenged; another study indicated that American pro-censorship groups are beginning to influence the situation in the UK.’

Anna Aslanyan on book bans, from the blog
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...