@litandphil.bsky.social
Newcastle's independent library, the Lit & Phil, is home to more than 200,000 books and music items, and has a rolling programme of events and activities. www.litandphil.org.uk
A photograph of our new Christmas card for 2025, featuring an old woodcut illustration of a Reindeer with the addition of a shiny red nose.
Our new Christmas cards are back in stock!
Please enjoy ‘The Rein-Deer’ by Thomas Bewick with a festive twist.
6 cards for £8
www.litandphil.org.uk/shop/christm...
All three Nunkie/ThomThomFilms documentaries are now viewable for free on YouTube:
Wits in Felixstowe youtu.be/iYq-MS1790Y
Dim Presences youtu.be/Ne2kYzwvHOI
The Shrew Ash youtu.be/-T4qTLeaaxg
You can subscribe to the Nunkie Youtube channel and let us know what you think...
This postcard I wrote to a young reader, Sasha Stephenson, was returned to me, as she no longer lives at the address she gave me. Please help me to get it to her if you can!
03.11.2025 15:28 — 👍 98 🔁 68 💬 2 📌 2
Tickets are still available for tonight's NU Ideas Talk: "Growing a House" & "Specialisation is for Insects"!
www.litandphil.org.uk/event/nu-ide...
A LIVE Event at the Lit & Phil, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Tickets are FREE for Monday 3rd November | 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Brand new book design for @amstirling.bsky.social’s collection of stories launching at Newcastle’s @litandphil.bsky.social on Wednesday 8 October.
Thirteen’s cover design is loosely based on Charles Demuth’s 1928 painting, I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold.
#bookdesign #graphicdesign #freelance
A scan of the black and white illustration of 'THE NEVER-NEVER LAND', showing Peter Pan playing his pipes surrounded by wild beasts, with the pirate crew marching and singing in the background along the coast to their ship.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems
No.29 "Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up"
J.M. Barrie First edition 1911. Illustrated by F.D. Bedford
Don't miss
@jakecampbell88.bsky.social on a mini book tour in the North-East this autumn, with events at Durham Book Festival,
@crossingthetees.bsky.social, Blyth Celebrates and #Newcastle @litandphil.bsky.social.
A scan of an uncoloured print showing a sea otter at rest on the Canadian coast.
The title page of the multi volume set: "Reizen Rondom de Waereld: James Cook, Vertaald Door J.D. Pasteur Met Kaarten en Plaaten Elfde Deel." Depicting two cherubs uncovering the Earth.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems
No. 47 "Cook – title page and Zee-Otter"
Images from 'Reizen Rondom de Waereld: James Cook’s Voyages', published in Dutch in 13 vols. between 1795-1803.
#books #libraries #illustration
Tickets are LIVE for "The Wylam Song Cycle : A Railway200 Celebration"
www.litandphil.org.uk/event/the-wy...
A LIVE concert at the Lit & Phil, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Tickets are £10 or £8 for concessions, for 1pm on Friday 26th September
#concert #live #music
A colour plate depicting the lifecycle of the Lobster Moth. It is shown as an egg, a caterpillar on a leaf, a cocoon and an adult moth.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems.
No.71 'The Lobster Moth'
From Edward Donovan’s ‘Natural History of British Insects’ Volume V, published in (1796)
#antique #books #illustration #libraries
A scanned, uncoloured etching of the Scotswood Bridge surrounded by a bucolic rural idyll.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems.
No.66 "Scotswood Bridge over the Tyne"
From ‘Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, Illustrated from original drawings by Thomas Allom, & c.' (1833)
#old #books #illustration
Another excellent visit to the @litandphil.bsky.social Took a while but got another 5 books for my #readtheworld challenge
28.08.2025 12:28 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Thursday 30th October | 6pm. Free Lecture in association with Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling. Department of Geography and Environment, Northumbria University. Sustainable Polar Science For A Changing Climate, with Professor Andrew Shepherd and Dr Sammie Buzzard. At the Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE.
🗓️Save the date: Thursday 30th October | 6pm
Join us at the @litandphil.bsky.social for...
🐧'Sustainable Polar Science for a Changing Climate' a free lecture with @andyshepherd.bsky.social and @treacherousbuzz.bsky.social.
www.litandphil.org.uk/event/sustai...
Tickets are LIVE for the talk: "War Horse: Service Animals in the Military"
www.litandphil.org.uk/event/war-ho...
A LIVE Event at the Lit & Phil, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Tickets are FREE for Monday 1st September | 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
A zoomed in shot of the Phoenix plate with, annotated by hand, the comment 'A Phoenix as vulgarly painted'
'A Phoenix as vulgarly painted' Well, everyone's a critic!
21.08.2025 15:29 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Tickets are LIVE for "Gerald Dickens presents: Sikes and Nancy & The Tale of Captain Murderer"
www.litandphil.org.uk/event/gerald...
A LIVE Event £15 / £12 (concessions) at the Lit & Phil, Newcastle upon Tyne
Thursday 4th September | 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Spend a short while in the company of Mrs Affleck, the woman who worked as a cleaner for the Lit & Phil for over 20 years.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aVD...
Brought to life in a monologue by Anita Holbrow, portrayed by Jacqueline Phillips, with soundscape by Kit Haigh. Directed by Cinzia Hardy.
'Fable of the Elephant and the Bookseller' An illustration of a man in an 18th century bookshop implores an elephant to share his wisdom. The elephant declines.
'Fable of the Court of Death' An illustration of a macabre court with Death sat on his throne with skeletal guards.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems.
No.150 "Fables" by Gay, John, 1685-1732.
Imprint: London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1793.
#books #fables #libraries #legends #illustration
A detailed and animated woodcut by Blasius Weffring, showing equipment and procedures explained in the text for mining.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems.
No.77 'De Re Metallica Libri XII' by Georgius Agricola. (Basel, 1621)
#mining #metallurgy #oldbooks #libraries
A promotional image for ClassicsFest at the Lit & Phil Society, Newcastle. Prof. Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Prof. Vittorio Bufacchi sitting by a 'WHY CICERO MATTERS' banner on a stage in the centre of the Main Library. Photo Credit: Sound Ideas Media
Two ladies dressed as barristers listen to evidence in front of a wall covered in old photographs in the Common Room, Newcastle. From the Corruption in the Spotlight event. Photo Credit: Sound Ideas Media
ClassicsFest lives on!
In case you missed our opening event, 'Why Cicero Matters', you can now watch it on our YouTube channel, as well as the fantastic Corruption in the Spotlight: Cicero versus Verres (in two parts)!
Watch here 👇
www.youtube.com/channel/UCBi...
#classics #cicero #newcastle
A scan of a coloured print showing the Gemini constellation beautifully illustrated with the text: 'Published February 1.1822 by G& W.B.Whittaker T. Cadell & N. Hailes, London
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems
No.18 'Gemini' for 'Global sleep under the stars night'
From 'A Celestial Atlas: comprising a systematic display of the heavens in a series of thirty maps : illus. by scientific description' by Alexander Jamieson. 1822
A CD / Vinyl single cover for Scottish band IDLEWILD's track 'i understand it' showing a stylised picture of a lighthouse against a grey background.
The first thing that came to mind...
#album #covers
Two scanned illustrations put together. The smaller inset is a map of Scotland and the coast of Northern Ireland with red and white marks denoting the range and location of Lighthouses and Lightships. The larger is a cross section of the lighthouses at Bell Rock & Skerryvore.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems
No.367 for #nationallighthouseday
From 'Our seamarks : A plain account of the lighthouses, lightships, beacons, buoys, and fog-signals maintained on our coasts for the guidance of mariners' by Edwards, E. Price (1884)
This feels very much like the germ of an unwritten M.R. James story... The bones in the foreground add to the atmosphere as well!
05.08.2025 13:49 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
An uncoloured lino cut of 4 species of owls at varying degrees of accurate description.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems.
Since it is apparently #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay...
No.547 | ORNITHOLOGY 'The Owl'
From ‘The Ornithology of Francis Willoughby of Middleton in the County of Warwick’. 1678.
#books #libraries #illustration
An uncoloured illustration, somewhat naïve, of a tiger lying down by a rockface flanked by trees with 'ORIENTAL FIELD SPORTS' seemingly painted or carved into the stone. The tiger has magnificent whiskers.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems.
No.436 for #internationaltigerday
From Volume I of ‘Oriental Field Sports’, by Captain Thomas Williamson, drawings by Samuel Howett. 1808.
#books #libraries #illustration
A coloured illustration of several varieties of dianthus flower stem. Titled, 'DIANTHUS' showing yellow, pink and white types.
A coloured title page print which reads: 'THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL or Botanical, Medical and Agricultural Dictionary by Thomas Green'. It is surrounded by a grapevine motif on the top with nymphs and cherubs playing and at the bottom with a rural idyll of workers relaxing amidst overflowing amphorae.
The Lit & Phil’s collection of books is full of surprises, oddities and gems
No. 105 'Herbal'
From the 2nd ed. (1824) of Thomas Green’s ‘The Universal Herbal, or, Botanical, Medical and Agricultural Dictionary’.
#books #libraries #herbs #flowers #medicine
A future rooted in books: why the Lit & Phil still matters
On a quiet stretch of Westgate Road in Newcastle, just a stone’s throw from Central Station stands a building that has quietly shaped the North East -and arguably the world- for more than two centuries
northeastbylines.co.uk/region/tynes...
A coloured print showing the 'New Library' of the Lit & Phil as it would have appeared after shortly after being built.
Music was by Top Banana, and the evening saw the premiere of 'Mrs Affleck's Affliction', by Anita Holbrow, our competition winner, performed by Jacqueline Phillips, recorded and produced by Kit Haigh, and directed by Cinzia Hardy.
W/ thanks to Lycetts, The Henfrey Charitable Trust and an anon. donor
