Heidi Thomson

Jane Austen’s terrible parents 'Would you want General Tilney to be your daddy?'

I loved writing this for The Spinoff about Jane Austen’s terrible parents thespinoff.co.nz/books/25-10-...

Some more outrage, The Post of 23 October

Courses (To view upcoming seminars, scroll down and view by month)

Coming up on Saturday 6 September and Saturday 13 September at Kapiti WEA, Waikanae: 'George Eliot: Life and Context' and 'Why you should read Middlemarch' - www.kapitiwea.org.nz/courses

Latest epistolary outrage

This is heartbreaking news. Amelia is a wonderful scholar and it's so cruel to force colleagues into competition with each other. Solidarity with our friends at the ANU

Budget day

Beautiful!

The film El Pepe: A Supreme Life is a beautiful tribute

I wrote, briefly, about consolatory reading. Would love to know about other writers/books which inspire comfort without mawkishness.

George Eliot and Daniel Kalderimis and me: on the healing power of Middlemarch Sometimes a book finds you at just the right time.

thespinoff.co.nz/books/26-04-...

US sales of New Zealand poetry will be decimated by all this. We'll just have to hold firm and seek new markets.

And an excellent take on alcoholism

can't wait to read

Tax the rich instead of detonating school lunches, undermining the living wage, encouraging smoking, and sabotaging DEI. Pic is of letter to The Post, 13 March 2025.

President Trump as the Emperor with No Clothes carrying an orb with MAGA on the top and a sceptre. A crowd is cheering him on and clapping. JD Vance is saying to the woman beside him, “Our Emperor sure knows how to wear a suit”

Donald Trump and his court of sycophants.
My Stuff #cartoon today #Trump #Zelenskyy #suits #Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar #USA #Chaos

President Trump, Vice President Vance and their wives sit in the front row at a church service. Headline reads: "Bishop Asks Trump to ‘Have Mercy’ on Immigrants and Gay Children." Photo credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde was nearing the end of her sermon for the inaugural prayer service on Tuesday when she took a breath and looked directly at President Trump.

“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” said Bishop Budde. nyti.ms/4jtuyHA

Cartoon. Title: Positioning Statement. Image of PM Christopher Luxon on tiptoes uncomfortably straddling a spiky fence with TREATY worked into it. He’s saying, “What I’m saying to you…ow…I’m comfortable with my position”

PM Luxon’s position on the Treaty.
My Stuff #cartoon today #nzpol #ToitūTeTiriti #Māori #TheTreaty

Hello, we're new here. It's nice to meet you all.

The Poetry Archive has over 2000 free poems, 500 poets’ work and 5 million visitors a year, if that's you're vibe then head over to our website and start exploring the brilliant poets and collections we hold: poetryarchive.org

Keats's 'On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again' is so much on mind after reading George Eliot's Mill on the Floss after a forty year gap - consumed in the fire by this fierce dispute, betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay. A devastating read.

Great suggestions, thank you!

The Gods of the earth and sea
Sought thro’ Nature to find this tree;
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human brain.

And the caterpillar and fly
Feed on the Mystery.
And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.
He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears;
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.
Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;

On my mind, all the time, Blake's Human Abstract (1794)

Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody poor;
And Mercy no more could be
If all were as happy as we.
And mutual fear brings peace,
Till the selfish loves increase;

The Wren, the Wren
Anne Enright

Bird Life
Anna Smaill

Stone Yard Devotional
Charlotte Woods

The Bee Sting
Paul Murray

Still Is
Vincent O'Sullivan

The Wren, the Wren
Anne Enright

Bird Life
Anna Smaill

Stone Yard Devotional
Charlotte Woods

The Bee Sting
Paul Murray

Still Is
Vincent O'Sullivan

Dopplelganger
Naomi Klein

Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver

Ash
Louise Wallace

James
Percival Everett

The Bookbinder of Jericho
Pip Williams

Sounds better than an annual blitzem day