Simon Spanton

Not sure Brian Blessed deserved this.

Marty Supreme.

I have been doing this for 35 years now but if seeing an author you love getting excited about a book you love EVER gets old that will be the time to stop.

A photo of blocks of flats reflected in a canal.

Good evening. Not pictured: coots being splendidly gobby gits as per usual.

Published April 2nd.

That @willwiles.bsky.social with his fancy fantasy hat on.

Definitely been putting out a fire with gasoline.

A photo of a copy of the 2000 Penguin Classics edition of Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The cover shows a black and white photographic portrait of Baba Beaton taken by her brother, Cecil.

"Far ahead he saw her yellow dress twisting through the crowd, an ochre stitch along the edge of reality and unreality, and started after her. Secretly she ran and secretly he followed. As the hot afternoon went shrill and terrible with her flight he had forgotten the children..."

Entirely unrepentant repost of cat photo.

Ollie in the snow in Scotland.

As Graham Joyce had it when the New Weird was first new - "Looks a lot like the Old Peculier (sic - Theakstons had a beer called this) to me."

Loved this. Bravo.

The Good Stuff

Impunity

Implacable punner

Thirteen curlews on the school rugby pitch.

Adam.

It's the only thing that's real, Tom.

A weekend of contrasting film experiences.

The boy(14) wanted to watch Pacific Rim. Ridiculousness with cool mechs, wasted actors and the worst script ever.

The girl(16) wanted to watch Battle Royale. Insane, brutal, sharp as.

We went to see Marty Supreme. Pell-mell, brilliant, unexpected.

As a sloooooowwwww reader I hold this close to my heart.

Same. Extraordinary film.

A photo of two dark grey socks on a cream coloured bedspread.

Odd Socks Reunited, my new internet venture.

That anyone would willingly climb into that thing and the fly it is beyond me.

A photo of a copy of the 1981 Picador edition of The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.

It's a cracker.

A photo of a copy of the 2016 Voyager edition of The City of Woven Streets by Emmi Itäranta. The cover art is by Istvan.

"I walk in a narrow corridor where the floors are stone and walls are web, gauzes woven from silver-grey yarn which a draft sways like water does dead plants."
@emmielina.bsky.social

"And the angel broke the seventh sachet..."

A photo of the CD jewel case for Oh Yeah by Charles Mingus.

Cooking butternut squash curry music.

All uppercase never more appropriate.