Patrick McGuinness

Inviting

BBC Radio 4 - The Verb, Train Poetry with Don Paterson, Bella Hardy, Carmen Marcus, Patrick McGuinness Ian McMillan with Don Paterson, Carmen Marcus, Patrick McGuinness & Bella Hardy on trains

Late to listen in, as I've been travelling, but it was a pleasure to be on The Verb to speak about the poetry of trains and stations with Carmen, Don and Bella. Ian's Beeching joke was our terminus.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Thank you! He seems to have got quite far in too...

See you there?

Took a couple of trams while there but missed a few of the gems!

Lôn las, Caernarfon

Trouble is, the buck doesn’t stop any more.

Refugees to face 20-year wait to settle permanently under asylum reforms Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to announce major reforms to the asylum system on Monday.

Shit and inhumane ideas that drive away your natural voters without attracting your less natural voters, part 150.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

and finally some details that speak of history but have been left behind: view from centre; famous house in decline; painting by Paulus (c. 1920s) of Charleroi as industrial Venice, and this poster expressing the links between art nouveau, heavy industry and colonialism.

The Palais des Beaux Arts; its Magritte Fresque; a sunset behind the bus station (another hill that isn't); the roads and trams weaving between and around the industry that's woven into the city

A few pictures from Charleroi, Belgium's industrial capital, home of coal, steel and glass (and literature). Sunset Triptych; maison des 8 heures (ref to the 8/8/8 work/leisure/sleep law); a bucolic hill that's a coal mound; a cathedral rebuilt.

Yes, an unexpected slapstick bonus!

Enjoyable but poignantly Kleistian moment in our culture here:

Such a great shortlist - was at the ceremony last year when the winner was the brilliant Nelly Sachs translated by Andrew Shanks @carcanet.bsky.social . Great to see another poet, Krisztina Tóth @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social, in the running this year.

Katie Razzall: A seismic moment that shows rift at top of BBC There may be more to this than meets the eye, says the BBC's culture and media editor.

Just in case we didn't have enough examples of how appeasement never works...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham In a statement the institution also says it is

Nottingham has one of the most vibrant and forward-looking departments of modern languages around. Music too. To cut them like this, leaving no chance for future rebuilding, is educational vandalism.

tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx

The eternal return wrapped around the eternal departure wrapped around the eternal return, etc. Station fractals as I bring the book back, by way of its places, to the people who are in it. Embarquement terminé? I wouldn't be so sure.

Chimneyscapes of Brussels

True - I dont remember seeing many if any in the past...

@lieven.bsky.social just missed by a few minutes...

Foxes of Brussels , 1 of an occasional series.

And some other autumn sights and colours

Couple of Oxford-related images, all from Headington. William Kimber's grave, a couple of pubs and a slow-at-first then all-at-once sunset.

Terrific

Bangor station buffet. Something for everyone

Yes nice touch I thought

Damning verdict by people on day one of Oxford's congestion charge Confusion, surprise and anger - this is the damming verdict from people coming to Oxford on day one of the city’s new congestion charge.

This is really good example of a headline that is completely at odds with the article's content. Good local journalism is really important but this isn't it.

www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/2558076...

Thinking of opening a hardware store myself and retiring early.

Where to start with: Paul Bailey The novelist and poet, who died a year ago, left a huge body of work distinguished by its melancholy wit and warmth. These are some of the highlights

Great to see this and also to see his later flowering of poetry given its due.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Rosemary Hill · Saturdays at the Sewage Works: Martin Parr’s People It is on the border between the ordinary and the peculiar that Parr likes to work. He points out, more than once, that...

‘It is on the border between the ordinary and the peculiar that Parr likes to work. He points out, more than once, that what is commonplace now will one day be remarkable.’

Rosemary Hill on Martin Parr’s people:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...