Gareth

Is this where cockwomble comes from? I've always hated the word, but of course if it's culturally appropriate...

I may have said it back in the other place, but I thought Small Pieces was a profoundly beautiful and moving book.

William H. Hays, Island Universe, 2013.

Just lovely.

Today I am reading this and it is not disappointing me.

Well, she has been insufferable recently

In Toad's imagination, Frog is stuck in the bottom of a deep dark hole. From "Christmas Eve" In *Frog and Toad All Year*

“What if something terrible has happened?” said Toad. “What if Frog has fallen into a deep hole and cannot get out. I will never see him again!”

I read his second autobiography BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE recently, and there is a hint of Pooter here and there, partly because he's just so unstarry. Showbiz memoir it ain't. (Thank goodness.)

Yes to both of these, and of course the Arthur Lowe DIARY OF A NOBODY too!

darling shall we go to sleep?

oh yes absolutely, just give me a minute, have to-

My favourite Doctor and Companion

Hey! Bookish checkpoint.

🔸 last book you read: Simon Russell Beale – A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories
🔸 your current read: Patricia Highsmith – The Boy Who Followed Ripley
🔸 last book added to your tbr: Georges Simenon – Maigret's Holiday
🔸 next read: Plato – Symposium

#Booksky

Vincent Van Gogh
Banks of the Seine in the spring - 1887

Presented by Lesley Judd, apparently... Control yourself.

Presumably before your time, but you can imagine the headrush it gives someone of my age. And we hardly ever watched Channel 4 Schools at St John's, the only thing I can remember is one series of How We Used to Live. The best bit was before the programme started. Hard to calm down after that.

If you see this, post a TV ident.
(I think this one probably requires the video.)

JK Rowling will not rest until she has eliminated trans people from the public sphere. I get furious when I remember pseudo-liberals insisting to me that she wasn’t a bigot and had been terribly defamed. Presumably they’ve got the message by now

Just remembered another of mum's greatest hits:

'I was looking down the aisle and there was a woman with amazing 1940s hair, standing totally still, and when we all sat down after the hymn she stayed standing up, and I watched her for ages wondering why she wasn't moving... turns out she was a mop'

Still from the 1941 film "Love on the Dole", with the unfortunate subtitle "She's a strange lassie's arsehole".

Catastrophic subtitling on the 1941 movie "Love on the Dole".

(It should read "She's a strange lass, is our Sal"...)

YouTube video by Maximilian Björklund Auf der Bruck | Fischer-Dieskau | Sawallisch | Schubert

Doing recital research with TMS in the background. The thing about Schubert is, there are always unfamiliar songs to knock your socks off. I guess I've heard this before once or twice, but just listen to it! What a thrill. Possibly beyond my pianistic capabilities though.

A black fuzzy felt board with three ballerina figures in pink tutus and dancing poses the middle with a star stuck to her head

A blue fuzzy felt backing board with the felt pieces of clowns and animals from the fuzzy felt circus set stuck to it

Been buying vintage Fuzzy Felt for the art I’m making & it’s so deeply tender & touching finding some still carry ghost traces of the last owner’s play & since the sets are so old, I wonder if these little scenes were made by a child who’s my age now, with fond middle-aged memories of creating them

YouTube video by Jean Fournier - Topic Ma mère l'Oye in D Major, M. 60: Le petit poucet

Oh, isn't this gorgeous. Violin and piano transcription of 'Petit Poucet' from Ma mère l'Oye. Jean Fournier is the violinist. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZK...

The fight for trans safety is a fight for everyone’s safety – MPs must have the chance to debate it | Freddy McConnell The supreme court has made a mockery of gender recognition. Our politicians must not allow the EHRC to further shatter trans lives, says journalist Freddy McConnell

‘The fight for trans safety is a fight for everyone’s safety. The campaign against trans people is not about anyone’s safety. It is exactly what it looks like: an organised effort to drive a tiny minority from public life, back into the closet.’
- Freddy McConnell

(from Richard Eyre, National Service)

[Heather Brigstocke] told me about sorting out St Paul's Girls' School. She had to expel a nymphomaniac, who went on to Cheltenham. 'The headmistress rang me to say that she was worried about the girl's mathematics. I said: "It's not her mathematics you need to worry about, it's the caretaker."'

I haven't started any yet, but I've got a longlist including a couple of *very* weird-looking ones that might make the cut.

That's very promising, had spotted it was a 1925 book...

Judith Leyster!

A collector's edition front page. The Metro team clearly had to start printing just as the game went to penalties but before they knew the result. A masterpiece of hedging.