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Just finished a re-read of The Idiot. I think Dostoyevsky is like an anti -Dickens - he doesn’t do architecture- instead the text is always on the verge of collapse. Ramshackle narratives, wild digressions, seemingly pointless characters. At one stage I put it down and really did wonder what I...

Just put an order in for this. Thanks.

I think I’ll get that printed for the door of my classroom.

I think it’s what you want it to be too. I re- read it recently and felt on one hand like it was a series of sermons where whaling constantly stands for some aspect of human behaviour. He sees parallels to whaling everywhere. It’s a novel about obsession but just as much as it’s about Ahab’s...

I have just picked up a parallel text of Apollinaire and I’m having a go at a bit of translation of some of his easier ones. Just completed a version of Mirabeau Bridge. Not as seemingly easy as Verlaine but not as knotty as Rimbaud.

Home of the Green Chapel https://www.mythicalbritain.co.uk/post/nobut-an-old-cave-the-power-and-meaning-of-the-green-chapel-in-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight

Sid Lowe on Spanish football is top tier stuff https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/17/cruellest-week-ends-in-despair-for-simeone-after-barcas-late-flourish?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

She’d be delighted to see herself getting attention in the states. She is head of a school called Michaela - it has phenomenal results with kids who enter the school with low prior attainment but she is always banging on about how super strict the place is. There’s clearly some amazing teaching...

The Waterboys have put together a whole album about him - Mike Scott is a big fan of his photography

Started Dave Keenan's collection of music pieces - mainly culled from The Wire, I think. Volcanic Tongue - i like his slightly hopped up style but i know it's not for everyone. Also got my hands on a ARC of the new Penman on Satie - i know a number of you are deeply allergic to him but i like...

This with Jennifer Hodgson is very good. https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/61-ann-quin-berg

Very marginal offside and a lucky escape from a red card. VAR certainly helped Liverpool out. Keeper was on fire and deserved MotM. Liverpool took their one chance. If I were a PSG fan then I’d be fuming.

Nevsky Bridge

Samarkand

Fobbing Mucking

Vange

This has just arrived from his publishers. https://mailchi.mp/fitzcarraldoeditions/ae0s8pfzl0-7402245?e=d1758890cf

i've only read the Bellow but have Life and Fate on my TBR pile. I have got the final volume of a fantasy trilogy to read - i read the first in the series because it was by a writer - Alex Pheby - who had written a book based on Lucia Joyce that i had enjoyed. So when the second came out i...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/02/is-dickens-better-than-shakespeare?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

a few years ago i had a go at writing something about GE - i'll attach it here (there are plot spoilers) it's not my final word on it and i always meant to go back and redraft it but here it is, be kind.