David Collard

Yesterday I recorded this conversation with Gerry Fialka in California, the most enjoyable, unpredictable and stimulating interview I've ever done. I hope you find the time to join us. www.youtube.com/watch?v=29yf...

This Thursday 29th October at 7pm (GMT) an online gathering to celebrate 20 years of Bluemoose Books, the mighty indie press. With co-founders Kevin and Hetha Duffy and author Sharon Duggall. All welcome. If not already invited contact me via m'website davidjcollard.wixsite.com/my-site

Trying to mix some essays, poetry and philosophy into my reading (what else are bank holidays for). In despair at people outsourcing their thinking to others (including writers), it's refreshing to dip into In Extremis by @jgoldsmith.bsky.social with its open minded, playful intelligence.

I read this several times and was very moved. I should have shared it at the time and am belatedly doing so now. Do read, and do share.

Friends, I am so looking forward to talking about the US publication of my memoir Home Is Where We Start with brilliant @iammoonunitzappa.bsky.social TODAY ! 26/10 1-2pm Eastern time, 6-7pm GMT. All welcome. ❤️ To join us follow Moon on Insta & connect to the live. www.instagram.com/iammoonunitz...

Lettuce go then, you and I, While Liz Truss is brighter than the sky With her shit book, mocked-up on a billboard;

Share who you think looked the hottest anyone has ever looked in a movie! #SweatationNeeded

First light this morning falling directly on the works of Thom Gunn. A sign?

First light this morning falling directly onto the works of Thom Gunn. A sign?

Micheál Mac Liammóir (born Alfred Lee Willmore on 25th October 1899) www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfgh... Interviewed by Mavis Nicholson in 1976. Wonderful.

Favorite film in haiku - Marlowe on the case. Two sisters, a casino and Realito.

Please take a look at this online auction organised by Matilda Leyser, and share widely. Click to view items (which include copies of my most recent book). www.32auctions.com/matildaleyser

Good point well made.

"Artists of real substance . . . will attempt to change the form in which they work. So when we think about writers, whether it’s Anakana Schofield, Adrian Duncan, Guillermo Stitch . . . what they are doing is trying to show a mastery of the form but not to just stay at that level."

From T. S. Eliot's 'Little Groening' : "All Shelbyville, and all Shelbyville, and all manner of thing Shelbyville".

I just signed the petition to save the BBE store - the world renowned Black music independent labelled. Will you join me and add your name? you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

The latest in a series of short exchanges about indie publishing. Rónán shares some startling insider knowledge about the reality of being a writer and the benefits of being with a small press: exactingclamcephalopodcast.com/episode/in-c...

With you every day until 21st December...

When I think about things we’ve lost… that bring tears. I think about performances like this.

"One of the best things about receiving the Nobel is that I will never receive it again." A really fascinating interview.

In Issue Ten we published an interview with Jon Fosse, conducted by Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social. To celebrate Fosse's new novel, Vaim Hotel, (trans. Damion Searls), the interview is now available to read on our website. tolkajournal.org/read-online/... @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

Please donate! Thank you to everyone who submitted to the prize this year. Our longlist will be announced in December. barbellionprize.org/donate/

Born 100 years ago today, the great Leonard Rossiter, seen here briefly as the funeral director Emanuel. Shadrack in 'Billy Liar' (1963) clip.cafe/billy-liar-1...

Motörhead aside, what's your favourite umlaut? Mine is Dürer, followed close behind by Hölderlin.

This is the best and most essential of literary prizes, recognising and celebrating writers with disabilities. It depends entirely on donations (until some generous partner/sponsor steps up who wants to support such a thing). PLEASE SUPPORT THE BARBIE.

Why don't the BBC explain exactly how much money they save by cancelling Radio 4 Extra, or flagship programmes like Free Thinking? Then confirm how much Claudia Winkleman earns.

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Our next online gathering is on Thursday 29th October and celebrates 20 years of mighty independent publisher Bluemoose Books. Join co-founders Kevin & Hetha Duffy and & Sharon Duggall. Free, and all welcome. If you're not on my mailing list email me via m'website: davidjcollard.wixsite.com/my-site

What a performance!

Wonderful! @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social publisher Jacob Smullyan kindly shared this ~Wikipedia page devoted to American Diner slang. There's way more to it than 'ham on rye' and 'eggs over easy'. A whole world. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diner_l...

Seconded. Lucid and furious.

It runs from just before the end of Humph's innuendo, i.e. 09:24 to 10:20, so almost a full minute of continuous, unbroken laughter. Can anyone suggest a longer broadcast laugh?

Surely the longest continuous stretch of laughter in broadcasting history? Listen for yourself, from 09:11 onwards. Then marvel at the whole 25 minutes of matchless filth from the much-missed Humph. www.reddit.com/r/panelshow/...

Reform UK has said he 'firmly denies' the accusations that he shared 'naked and sexualised' images of himself to a female member of staff. 'Firmly' mark you. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Gorgeous promo short. This sort of thing could catch on.

The capital had experienced “a level of violence that we have never seen before, I believe”, said the Socialist deputy mayor, Lamia El Aaraje. Really? She's only 39 so I suppose les événements of Mai 1968 are as remote as, I dunno, the Occupation? www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

It's the overwhelming majority of racists in Reform who give the rest a bad name.

Alexander Schulman in The Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... Q: Aside from property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought? A: A Roger Hilton gouache of a nude. Me too. What are the odds?

@regretteruane.bsky.social will, I'm sure, be able to tell me the makers/provenance of these odd plastic Highland tartan dolls with blinking eyes, once sold in transparent tubes but unseen (by me) for many years.

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o... 'The prize is run by Planeta, one of the largest publishing groups in the Spanish-speaking world, and includes the condition that the winning book be published by them'. 🤔 Does that mean it has to be already published by them, or that they have the first option?

Here's a thing: three illuminating minutes with Sartre and de Beauvoir. At the end of the clip I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to see them playing draughts, and not chess. What kind of intellectuals were they? www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlI7...

Wishing Alan Garner a very, very happy 92nd birthday.

Live online now (just started) the great Gerry Fialka innerviews publisher Jacob Smullyan. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cigP... Best natter you'll hear this week.

'In the future everybody will be White House Press Secretary for fifteen minutes'

🎶 Shitty Wank Tank Shitty Shitty Wank Tank 🎶

This was a rare treat. Look out for Dawn's spellbinding novel 'Boundless as the Sky. - the second part of which is set in Chicago in 1933 and the arrival at the World'sFair of a fleet of seaplanes from fascist Italy. A nod to Calvino's 'Invisible Cities' 👌 www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/boun...

A year ago today the Liverpool Irish Festival opened with this interview. Still available to watch online. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjf...

Has anyone read this blog?