Behind the scenes on Walt Disney’s huge box office hit

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954)

Ken Loach’s Godzilla (2026)

Wishing @smwwriting.bsky.social a happy publication day for MALC’S BOY! A bold, irreverent, funny, intellectually nimble debut novel exploring fathers and sons, northern working-class culture and masculinity. It’s our launch title & a novel like no other. From all good bookshops as of today 23.4.26

After 25 years, we have decided to bring the work of the Oli Bennett Charitable Trust to a close.

Our final event, on 4 June, will celebrate the charity's work and remember Oli.

Tickets are free, but places are limited: www.ticketsource.com/booking/sele...

‘If all of the people who hate Ishtar had seen it I’d be a rich woman today.’
Elaine May is 94.

Meanwhile, on the moon...

Very good to have James Hawes's THE SHORTEST HISTORY OF IRELAND at no.7 in the UK hardback non-fiction charts.

'There isn't currently a written exam for Irish citizenship - but if there were, applicants could do a lot worse than employ Hawes's excellent guide' PAT CARTY, IRISH INDEPENDENT

Morning all.

Photograph by Harry Gruyaert, Ireland, County Kerry, 1983.

I'm thrilled that a book I worked on - James Trapp's translation of the ancient Chinese Book of Songs - has been chosen on @fivebooks.com as one of the best oldest works of fiction. Published by Amber Books Ltd.
fivebooks.com/best-books/o...

TGIF: A small rewrite (Shakespeare sketch) Long-time readers know of my love for both Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie. Here is a live Shakespeare sketch called ‘A Small Rewrite’ made for Comic Relief, with Hugh Laurie as Shakespe…

When it comes to the writing of HAMLET, I much preferred the Rowan Atkinson-Hugh Laurie sketch (written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, I think) about Shakespeare and his editor: @john-self.bsky.social
translationmusings.com/2010/07/02/t...

Morning all.

Photographer Homer Sykes.
London, 1970's.

Morning all.

Photograph by Daniel Meadows. Workington, Cumbria, 1974.

A magnificently detailed dalek made of snow, complete with sink plunger.

My niece in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen, has made a snow dalek that's featured in the Aberdeen Press and Journal. #proudaunt

Morning all.

Photographer Don McPhee for The Guardian, January 1979.
A Mini appears to have careered off the road and been abandoned in heavy snow near Buxton, in Derbyshire

London, 1948

Two Bobbies examine the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree through the smog of a grey December day

#Christmas 🎄

Morning all.

Photograph by Chris Killip ‘Wallsend in the snow’ 1976.

Cartoon of a typical Stonehenge-style arch, except the top stone is hinged and lifting upwards. Caption: Stonehinge

My book FORESTS was republished earlier this year.

Haunting images capture fascinating lost worlds around the globe New book Abandoned Places explores 65 fascinating lost worlds around the globe from rusted locomotives in Bolivia to a dilapidated opera house in Massachusetts.

And @dailymail.co.uk
www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trave...

Colin Burrow fascinating and funny in @lrb.co.uk on Orwell (from a couple of years ago).

What we can learn from the eerie and mysterious worlds we leave behind Abandoned Places explores the worlds that we’ve left behind – eerie ghost towns, trains half-buried in the sand, forlorn movie palaces.

I was delighted to be able to write this piece on the updated edition of my book ABANDONED PLACES for THE BIG ISSUE. @bigissue.com www.bigissue.com/culture/book...

My book ABANDONED PLACES has been lightly updated and is republished today by Amber Books.

First published in 2016, it was featured on the front page of the Guardian and widely translated - German, French, Japanese, among others - as well as launching a whole series of Abandoned books.

1986 - Stand by Me - the final last ending scene (Goodbye) YouTube video by Child of the 80s

Some of my happiest times as a teacher were showing Stand By Me to my Yr11 classes during their last 2 lessons with me.
I did it for decades and each class loved watching it.
Rob Reiner perfectly captured that wistful tone about childhood’s end as seen here:
youtu.be/oBvRV_-FJwg?...

Thrilled to reveal the cover of Conduit Books' first title, MALC'S BOY by Shaun Wilson, designed by Michal Kuzmierkiewicz, with an image by legendary photographer of working-class life, Tom Wood. Publishing April 2026. Available for preorder here: www.conduitbooks.co.uk

RIP Martin Parr. What an amazing body of work he leaves us. Always had a lot of fondness for his photo of the shenanigans one evening at the Union Hotel, Manchester. 1974.

As someone who is still here five years later and had this type of chemotherapy for BC, and has looked (through my fingers) at the stats, in a very real sense ET IN ARCADIA EGO - an absolutely wonderful letter about how the human mind makes creative connections

Tuesday

a man is making a funny face and says i don 't care ! ALT: a man is making a funny face and says i don 't care !

RIP Tom Stoppard
Dazzling talent obviously but I loved that this was the line he wished he’d written.

Cartoon of a fish with thought bubbles which says “I love living under water. I can see myself think.”

Morning all.

Photographer Robert Blomfield. Edinburgh Castle in the fog from Princes Street, 1960.