Rave, games and showers of Coco Pops: a night out at Liverpool’s Bongo’s Bingo The city’s madcap mix of bingo, dressing up and dancing has become a cultural phenomenon, bucking the trend of a declining UK club scene and expanding nationwide

This piece by Miranda Sawyer brilliantly encapsulates the joy and eccentricity of a night at Bongo’s Bingo - and makes me want to hide in a quiet room www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...

Giant beetle sculpture outside a grand looking building with a sign reading Rural Arts

It was lovely to meet so many of the artists exhibiting at North Yorkshire Open Studios’ and Rural Arts’ exhibition Idea of North, which I’m helping with the publicity for. So much talent and interesting, diverse processes. And yes that is an enormous beetle

Photo of Theatr Clwyd, a red and grey 70s-style building of different heights, on the opposite side of the road

Having a lovely time interviewing people about their memories of this incredible place - Theatr Clwyd - that will form part of a new heritage trail. It was so misty there yesterday that I couldn’t get a photo of the view - so here’s the theatre under construction

Very much this! We had a black and white telly longer after all my friends had moved over to colour. And when I got to uni Bagpuss posters were a trend for some reason - I couldn’t believe he was pink!

Corner shops and tigers Chila Kumari Singh Burman: Chila Welcomes You at IWM North | HOME's new artist development hub | Latest NW arts news

In this week’s Stored Honey, I make myself at home in Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s new exhibition at IMW North and remember a time I nearly pursued Alistair Campbell into the gents

www.stored-honey.com/p/chila-kuma...

Feel like I’m being haunted by the ghosts of old intros this morning. Everytime I think of a way into the article I’m writing I can hear echoes of things I’ve written before

Definitely worth you crossing the water for

Image of an art work in which a corner shop is depicted in pink, red, blue and green neon. Above the door is the word ‘Burmans’ and above the windows are the words ‘Silk Cut’. In one window is a sign that says ‘Open’.

Loved meeting Chila Burman in her new exhibition IWM North yesterday - and chatting about her work and memories of growing up in Merseyside. The show is like being invited into someone’s home to listen to their stories

Great year for lovers of landscape painting Galleries across the North West celebrating 250 years of Turner | 5 arty skills to learn in 2025 | Latest NW arts news

If you’re a fan of Turner then this is the year for you - latest edition of @www.stored-honey.com

www.stored-honey.com/p/turner-250...

You’re such a superfan

Photograph of a book. The cover is white with a simple drawing of mountains in pale blue, and the outline of waves in navy. There are also the silhouettes of seabirds in navy. Text reads: Christiane Ritter. The classic memoir of a year in the Arctic wilderness. A Woman in the Polar Night.

A foolish move to read A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter during some of the chilliest days of 2025 so far? Her descriptions of a year spent living in a tiny hut on the frozen Spitsbergen carry you off to that beautiful, terrifying world - but you don’t have to eat bear. It’s a win-win

Trees with their bare branches covered in white frost

Jack Frost showing off in the woods opposite our house. I can overlook ego when it’s accompanied by this level of talent

Book jacket for Fifty Words For Snow by Nancy Campbell. Navy blue with white text and frost like swirls

Given the weather, I’m dipping back into Fifty Words For Snow by Nancy Campbell. My favourites include Tykky (‘thick snow and frost that accumulates on tree branches and other structures’ - Finnish) and Cīruļputenis (‘a blizzard of skylarks’ - Latvian)

This would be wonderful. Sooooo many connections

Why do I work so much better with deadlines but also resent them?

No!

Was about to berate you for regifting my gift but then realised that if it’s *The* panettone then I’m misremembering buying it from Tesco and must have regifted it myself

Liverpool folks - does anyone know if the statue of John Lennon is still at Liverpool Airport please?

I once gave you a panettone

We’re at that point in January when Christmas seems like a fever dream

Spent yesterday writing about a musician who spent six months living on a boat and now there’s only one thing stopping me from swapping life on land - no room for my towering to-read list

Quiz: How well do you know the UK's New Year folk traditions? - BBC Bitesize From burning straw bears to hanging toast in trees, test your knowledge of the UK's New Year folk traditions.

While I’m waiting for the inside of my car windscreen to de-ice, here’s a small diversion: a quiz on NY folklore I wrote for the BBC www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/art...

The unexpected movie star Podcast Episode · Liminal · 06/04/2020 · 29m

I once captured a walk in the pinewoods for my Liminal podcast, which told the stories of people who make their lives along the Merseyside coastline. Loved making this back in 2020 and learned so much - but I’d record it differently today for a better sound quality podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...

A Polaroid photo inside a white surround and brown wooden frame sits on a wooden mantlepiece decorated with red berries. The Polaroid shows a pine tree that has a bare trunk except for a few branches at the top that have been wind blown to grow all to the left hand side. There are clouds in the background and a tiny bit of blue sky. There’s a greenish tint to the photo.

Going for a walk in my old stomping ground of Formby pinewoods with some friends today. Wondering if my favourite tree has survived. Here’s a polaroid of it by Nathan Pendlebury that sits on my mantlepiece

Book cover that is white, mostly covered with an image of a tiny figure walking though woods. The tree trunks are towering over him. The text reads: The Stranger in the Woods. ‘A meditation on solitude, wildness and survival’ WALL STREET JOURNAL. Michael Finkel’

Finished my Christmas Eve book this evening: The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel. Well- constructed story of a man who chose to completely isolate himself. Provokes questions of why we are compelled to pathologise someone’s behaviour that’s different to the ‘norm’.

Hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely Christmas Day - and that those having a tough time were treated kindly. After a whirlwind of family time I will mostly be catching up on Christmas TV today

Black and white photo of a family party c.1940s/50s. There are 11 adults sitting in rows, many of them wearing party hats. At the front, a woman with brown curly hair, wearing a mid-length long-sleeved dress with buttons at the neck is holding a pig toy.

I’d love to know the story behind this festive photo of my grandparents and their friends/relatives (?). My grandma is in the front row with the pig and my grandad is far left at the back. He was a keen photographer so we have lots of photos from a time when it was still fairly unusual

My son just tried to burn me by saying I’m so old I had to wait for the DVD to launch when I was a kid. Erm…

Happy Old Midwinter, chaps

Apparently Andy even out-performs Michael Caine in the Muppets version