Simon Spanton

It very much felt that even in London drivers gave you space and leeway when you were a learner (possibly out of fear of what you might do). This was thirty plus years ago, mind...

Had ten lessons in Suffolk when I was 18 and then ten more lessons and a test in London when I was 28 having not driven in the meantime. It was fine. Going round Hyde Park Corner on my first of the second ten lessons was an experience... (I passed first time.)

Possibly niche but also very funny.

This is honest and important stuff, especially in the context of the recent "nature cure" furore.

One of my very favourite writers. And Lolly Willowes has my favourite last paragraph of any and all other books I've read.

100%

A photo of the 1979 Women's Press edition of Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. The cover is by Suzanne Perkins.

"A closer darkness upon her slumber, a deeper voice in the murmuring leaves overhead—that would be all she would know of his undesiring and unjudging gaze, his satisfied but profoundly indifferent ownership."

A happy birthday to the delightful power that was Olivia Townsend Warner.

Your guess is as good as mine.

From kindertransport to this.

Where to begin?

Chilling Lit: Six Novels in Translation That Blend Folktales and Horror Togetherness that’s on the side of suffocating, history that won’t stay put or past, and nature that doesn’t just exist, benignly, but watches and waits….Folk horror deals in dissonance, drea…

Six novels in translation that blend folktales and horror.

lithub.com/chilling-lit...

A photo of the CD slip case for Everybody Scream by Florence and the Machine.

This is great. As anthemic as you might expect but personal and so, so furious as well.

Washing down a multi-vitamin and a cod liver oil tablet with black coffee like a detective in a failed attempt by Richard Osman to write a noir novel.

Quote with your model of masculinity.

A photo of Edinburgh castle at light, lit red. Trees can just be seen on the steep slop below it.

Took a photo of Edinburgh castle last night and ended up with William Hope Hodgson's House on the Borderland.

I've had this address book for more than 30 years. It's begun to look like the cursed tome the foolish academic takes home from the cathedral library in a M.R. James story.

The hurricane will release its caviar after its cowling has been flooded with petrol. But only if plenty of it is used.

Proud to have worked on @stewarthotston.com's book.
Thrilled with its reception.
He and it deserve every iota of the praise it's garnering.

PS Just occurred to us that you might have stuff on on Saturday - we could have them then too?

Or anything really.

Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, Judge Dredd, Handmaid's Tale: NOT INSTRUCTION MANUALS.

Sitting there with your started beer and your not started notebooks.

A reliable purveyor of superb pony shnozz content.

A photo of a copy of the 1970 Puffin edition of The Whispering Mountain by Joan Aiken. The cover art is by Pat Marriott.

"These beings were referred to politely as the Tylwyth Teg, the Fair People, but some townsfolk asserted that the name should really be Fur People, or Fur Niskies, and many believed that they were the black imps of Old Bogey-Boo himself."

The Whispering Mountain, Joan Aiken

A photo of a copy of the 2008 Penguin Classics edition of Christina Rossetti's Selected Poems. The cover image is a detail from The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke by Richard Dadd.

"Laura stretched her gleaming neck
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone."

Happy birthday, Christina Rossetti

It's from IKEA'S Escher range.

This seems to be the pattern in many of the teams that I follow: English Test Team, Scottish Rugby Team, Spurs. Especially Spurs...

I'm beginning to think it can't be a coincidence. Do I seek out the rollercoaster? I can't be causing it, can I?

Awesome. Thank you.

A short letter that reads: Hi Steven, This is your CD player writing. You listened to Hounds of Love quite a lot again, didn't you.

Wrapped

👀