Paul Leyland

Then & Now: Frank O’Connor and Kevin Barry #readingirelandmonth26 One of the great strengths of the Irish short story tradition is its attention to ordinary lives lived on the margins: people who are awkward, disappointed, or quietly excluded. Reading Frank O’Con…

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The Lighting Of The Lamps Isleworth: ink and watercolour on vintage paper. On show at my exhibition Seasons In Suburbia at Moore Gwyn Fine Art 6 Masons Yard Duke Street St James until tomorrow, March 13th.

Spring Day at Durdle Door - by Dorset artist, Gina Marshall

More of this artist's wok, here: www.ginamagnoliaart.com

Maybe it's either this or AI, take your pick

The women published by Persephone Books. Malachi Whitaker is 4th from left, on bottom row.

The Journey Home & Other Stories (2017; foreword by Philip Hensher) is the only work of Whitaker's fiction currently in print.

Thanks to Persephone for the image & for publishing Malachi 💛 💛 💛

Virago Modern Classics and @radzpandit.bsky.social? The perfect combination.

I went on one a couple of years ago. Strange how places that I once just thought of as home, are now tourist attractions

I celebrate good restoration of pools everywhere..

Terry Tempest Williams on the Plight of the Monarch Butterfly Tell me what supernatural life / Is painted on your wings, the poet Homero Aridjis writes of monarch butterflies. He knows the migrations, the flaming butterflies, from his childhood when they retu…

“Who are we as a species if we allow monarch butterflies, a living symbol of metamorphosis, to cease to exist?” Terry Tempest Williams on the plight of the monarch butterfly.

‘I love midges because I know what their hearts look like’: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out? Insect taxonomist Art Borkent has described and named more than 300 species of midges but fears his field of science is dying out, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be ...

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

It's a sniket where I liv

The 'Royal Family' are a disgrace. They've spent most of their lives killing animals and then have the nerve to lecture the public about protecting the planet.

What did it do to the sales?

So is he now going to close down all book coverage in the paper?

God, I'm slow this morning. It took me a little while to figure out what Joan Baez had to do with the Washington Post. I do wonder why people just can't read, or listen to, a book without making a big deal about it. I believe some people increase the speed of audio books to get through them quicker.

It's always worth having some muscari in a window box just to observe hairy-footed flower bees from the comfort of your own home... 👀

Hardly been out with the camera so far this year 🌧🌧🌧 The sun came out today for a bit though 😃📸 and I'm off to a start with my #ladybirdyearlist 🐞

1️⃣ Propylea quatourdecimpunctata (14 spot ladybird)

#ukladybirds #ukwildlife #macrophotography

Just watched it, fantastic

This is from Guardian Saturday, they wasted 3 pages on it. I found it quite a good waste of 1/2 an hour of my life.

Great photo. I'm lucky enough to watch them hovering from the kitchen window.

Presumably only white women

A Personal Anthology, by Paul McAuley ‘A Way Home’ by Theodore Sturgeon (First published in Amazing Stories, 1953.

@jonathangibbs.bsky.social 's A Personal Anthology project now features over 300 guest editors. I'm honoured to be the latest -- my selection of 12 stories that have taken up permanent residence in my head can be found here:

Some of My Favourite Books from NYRB Classics One of the most interesting literary trends in recent years has been the success of various imprints specialising in reissues – lesser-known or neglected books given a new lease of life by publishe…

New on the blog today for #ReadIndies, I've written about some of my favourite books from NYRB Classics.

Featuring books by Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Comyns, J. L. Carr and more! @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social #BookSky 💙📚 #TranslationThurs

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/s...

You could start here. And there is great grandeur in this episode. But you could also start anywhere. @backlisted.bsky.social is a real national treasure, I don't say that lightly. If you need inspiration to read, you'll always find it here. Bravo Andy, and all the team. Heroic, heroic stuff.

Stories for Mothers and Daughters – Maeve Brennan, A. S. Byatt, Jeanette Winterson & more! Over the past few years, the British Library has been doing sterling work with its excellent Women Writers series, reissuing lesser-known 20th-century novels by female authors for modern-day reader…

New on the blog today I've written about STORIES FOR MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS, another excellent anthology from the @blpublishing.bsky.social Women Writers series.

Featuring stories by Maeve Brennan, A.S. Byatt, Jeanette Winterson & more! #BookSky #ReadIndies 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/02/08/s...

Colour-printed illustration of insects on Willow catkins.

Can’t wait for it to be like this. Spring scene with insects, from ‘Brehms Tierleben’ (Leipzig, 1892). Waddleton.b.1.146 @theul.bsky.social

Nature is under threat from rapidly rising pesticide use | Natural History Museum An international target to slash pesticide use by 2030 is unlikely to be met.

Humans continue to poison the species that sustain planetary ecosystems. We are so very stupid....
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Everything seemed so affordable then

Could you tell how much they had read? Did they seem to be enjoying it?

I love it when I don't know if it's sharp pins by balloon balloon balloon or balloon balloon balloon by sharp pins