Stewart Parsons

I have long enjoyed writing to my literary heroes. No more so than as a romantic book-mad 20year-old, pre library employment. Muriel Spark was quick to recommend the library as a source for her further reading faves to save me 'dipping into my dole'. How I treasure this letter #libraries

Just read the words 'coastal whisky' for the first time together and now I've gone a bit funny...

I don't have much hope for Israel whoever wins but Netanyahu is one of the most disgusting politicians of modern times. He represents all of his country's foulest instincts. It can't even begin to recover until he and his fascist ministers have been rejected

The rewriting of 2016 needs challenging. ❌ The referendum ballot did NOT ask: “Should Britain end freedom of movement?” It asked whether Britain should remain in or leave the EU. Nothing about leaving the Single Market. Nothing about the customs union. Nothing about ending free movement.

Robbie Gibbs' protestations that he 'isn't trying to kill the BBC from within' wear thinner every day.

Took my pension, invested in a secluded Victorian rectory and bucolic woodland and of course the minute the floorboards are down, the storms descend.....

Farage on #R4today piping out the hits and rolling the dice of all his vocal speech tics, and it really is so execrably boring. An increasing sense of a man screaming into the void.

This is just the maddest argument. These people would trap us in poverty to keep a decade old commitment, which no one ever actually made, to an electorate which no longer exists.

Booking for the Historic Libraries Forum annual conference 2026 is now live. Friday 27 November, Merton College Oxford and online. 'How strong is the room? Managing historic collections and buildings' historiclibrariesforum.com/events/

Bolsonaro's loss is not just a loss for Bolsonaro. It's a loss for Trump. For Musk. For Milei. For Netanyahu. For Farage. For Meta and Zuckerberg. For the meat barons, the fossil fuel corporations, and the rest of the neocolonial looters. And it is a massive win for humanity and the living planet.

Europe is the future now www.arguably.uk/p/europe-is-...

Literally nobody asking themselves what Richard Tice would do if he was in charge of the budget but #R4today have him on anyway. Just because...

He's still got it.

"There’s not enough room in my chest for all this joy". What incredible news to wake up to. First Serbia, now this www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

If you are being ground down by the news & the weather at the moment, I do urge everyone to tune into the latest series of 'Last One Laughing' on Prime. Reece Shearsmith is delivering some supremely artful comedy that is classic madness & very, very funny. He's like an actor from the silent era.

Poll finds that in a head to head Burnham would comfortably win against every other party leader.

It's 10.20 really, of course.

Imagine claiming credit for a peace deal that the Pope, the actual Pope, brokered days before. Imagine your state of mind, the colossal hubris, to think you would ever get away with that.

Edgar Allen Poe sent me.

Quite. Almost feels deliberate at this point . The stupidity, not the fringe. Mind you, Claudia has a lot of shampoo to promote.

The remaining entertainment value I was enjoying in 'Celebrity Traitors' is being utterly undermined by their - the faithfuls' - utter collective lack of intuition, deployed on quite a nuclear level. Somewhat frustrating to watch.

Our 1880s cottage is up for sale and the full- blown flakiness & peculiarity of the British adult human is revealing. Disappointment that we don't have a garage, drive, bigger garden etc when all the details are online. People want a fireglow, Rayburn powered insta lifestyle, but in a Barrett home.

Very Wallace & Gromit.

Burnham and Rotherham on the couch wittering about the telly is a clever touch - bezzie mates, good crack, natural warmth. I can't imagine Farage would muster that - whoever you put him with on the sofa.

come for my takedown of Dear Leader's increasingly erratic behavior. stay for my appreciation of Jon Ossoff's awesome ability to control the narrative. thank you for your attention to today's post. please read the damned thing. link is here: bit.ly/4yEKVqW

Cheering to see Blackpool make the final four for this: Immensely proud of the work Get It Loud In Libraries does both in its epic Carnegie library (with epic staff, to boot) but also young aspiring creatives in the area. Would be a well-deserved win. And here's Last Dinner Party back in 2023.

Somewhat telling that although the BBC turned a blind eye to the brilliant ITV expose of Reform's rank bigotry and racism, it did see fit to report that Reform had reported ITV to the police for doing so. The BBC's news editorial is back to front at this point.

I can’t believe Jesus invented that staring-into-the-camera-when-somebody-is-being-extra thing they do in mockumentary sitcoms!

I am taking some crumb of comfort this afternoon from the fact that a lot of young people moaning to me about escaping from their 'boring' parents to hide in the bookshop are actually moaning to a person much older than them.

How did it come to this? Yet as Ian Dunt writes: 'Zelensky represents something which does not fit into the Trumpist worldview. He symbolises the pride of smaller states and the dignity of a people who refuse to be absorbed by powerful neighbours.' Another good read here 👇

9 DAYS TO GO until a bunch of US hedge funds (aka Thames Water's creditors) meet to discuss ANOTHER bailout Who would pay for it? Households of course! That's why Thames Water is asking to increase bills AGAIN @andyburnham.bsky.social whose side are you on? weownit.org.uk/act-now/tham...

Naively hoped that Gromit's signed autobiography would bear his muddy paw print and not only that but the genius himself, fellow Preston lad, Nick Park, has left his mark: grand....

People do get the new Yard Act tune into your lives if it isn't already - pop joy. Proper banger.

'What has The BBC ever done for me?' so the quite annoying self promo ad goes. Well, in this case, it's not reported on the forensic expose of the rancid racism & hatred at the heart of one of Britain's major political parties.

Kudos to this woman's one gal No King's crusade in God's own country. Sole purpose being the encouragement to vote and vote early and in great numbers. Via @jefftiedrich.bsky.social

“Reform UK don't need to vet what people will say in the future, as Farage claims. They just need to be genuinely curious about what they've said and done in the past. They are not… Their vetting seems to be a manual on how to circumvent vetting. It’s a hosing-down of candidates so they look clean.”

Aside from the brilliant long overdue question, did Hegseth actually win the 'World Standing Still Whilst Puffing Your Chest Out Like A Pigeon Championship' in the end or not...?

Wise words from @lordrickettsp.bsky.social on BBC R4 Today after Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine: UK gov’t has to start a conversation with the people about the threats from Russia & what it means for us. Europe can’t keep hoping that life will return to normal, as long as Trump & Putin are in power.

Young comic novel fan in bookshop. 'I'm on holiday. We live in Preston.' Me: 'I was born in Preston. Whereabouts in Preston do you live?' 'Brindle'. 'Brindle's more like Chorley.' 'Yeah, what I said. I live in Chorley'. Young 'uns. Then he bought 'Punk'nHeads' to give his teen angst a run out.

Eloquently put. And the UK is struggling to move forward with the fault lines crumbling under our feet.

What a joy to hear 'Tattooed Love Boys' on Rad Mac this morning on 6Music. And then Isobel Campbell, dear me. I remember when Loud In Libraries had Isobel playing with Mark Lanegan in Lancaster Library. We were all smitten with Isobel but Mark was the real sweetie www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wB8...

Our local country inn got a 'glow up'. Just one thing, though....

@jefftiedrich.bsky.social another terrific post again today, Jeff, thank you. By the way, have you seen the huge 20,000 crowds for Obama here in the UK? Man can attract an audience. Go well, sir.

share.google/Br6U4xCQOCwC... Heard and enjoyed Caroline Rose on Lauren on 6 just now. If peak The Wannadies were your thing, you will probably enjoy this....

New Tesla looks amazing

So-called journalists nodding along as Nigel Farage talks about locking up actual journalists for doing actual journalism

Well-written, clearly argued, and yes, harrowing account of the disastrous events in Ukraine this past week. The one glimmer of light being Britain's 'commendable response'. Do read.

This year's 'Celebrity Traitors' isn't as riotously entertaining as the last & I think the reason is the traitor camp needs more laughs. Presumably Richard E Grant was the original go-to but blew it on day one. Maya is too wily & composed. And there aren't any jokes. Acaster is a faithful wannabe.

So we fly a pride flag in our front yard in a very conservative neighborhood and it’s been there for the last few years. Someone put this in our mailbox and my goodness…

George Monbiot explains why the UK should rejoin the EU, "There's a reason why Russia tried to intervene in the Brexit vote, they knew that it would harm the UK and the EU if we left" "They were very clear about that and boy have they been proved right"