Oh how very splendid!

Oh come on National Gallery I really can't stand it

Nature pic for today: a trio of Bee-eaters here in Jerusalem

Just heard Claire Dederer talking on BBC Radio 4 about 'the genius as asshole'. Gripping. She was speaking about film. If you started on literature there would be no end to it.

How To Do It part 324: ‘I hope I’m not going to have any trouble about House Styles, I don’t recognise them … and I shall insist on my own punctuation, commas in particular’. Jan Morris to a new OUP editor, 1982

“I told you I didn’t want to play”

Wonderful little segment on BBC Radio 3 just now on a #PaulAuster character wondering if a piece is by Mozart or Hayden. RIP

Bluebells by the Dwyvor today

Dylan Thomas’ ‘The Followers’. ‘Put a drop of Worcester on the chips’, Leslie whispered, as he stared through the window. And by God, she did.’

Gorgeous Bhutanese film, on i-player.
samuelgoldwynfilms.com/lunana-a-yak-i…

#footballchants . When Barnet FC were 4:0 down in their crucial qualifier yesterday and supporters started leaving, the away Solihull fans chanted, 'Is There a Fire Alarm?' A son gave this heartening bulletin.

Heath swans hatched

Shattering and vg piece by James Robins on Steve Colls' monumental book: read and weep with shame for all of us
the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-a…

My author of the month is Mollie Panter-Downes and my top story is 'Cut Down the Trees'. Very fine indeed. Go girls.

Still life on Sunday

It so is

The kind of deeply buried, deeply informed generalisation that makes Tony Judt a superstar: 'The war revealed everything that was wrong with French institutions and political culture'.

Oh National Gallery! I miss him so much. Date for his return?

Writers avoiding work: in the 1970s Jonathan Raban signed off a letter to fellow travel writer Jan Morris by reporting a scaffolder's van parked outside his Seattle home promising ‘A Good Erection Every Time’.