Cairngorm-regarder. Bairn-herder. https://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlyhq56dxc25Among other thoughts occurring on Guardian novel list, I notice comic fiction doesn’t seem to rate highly for the selectors. Hence no: Beckett Twain Waugh Sarraute Bainbridge Edgeworth Bellow Hrabal Flann O’Brien Pynchon Smollett (only 1 18th c. novel on list) John Kennedy Toole16 May 2026 18:23 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlyhq56dxc25https://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mly4h75fic2aNot exactly your standard National Trust tearoom wall decoration: John Duncan’s Ivory, Apes and Peacocks at Pitmedden House, near Ellon.16 May 2026 15:01 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mly4h75fic2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mly2o2pf6c2aNews that stays news from Seamus Heaney as Celtic win the league.16 May 2026 14:29 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mly2o2pf6c2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlv622hzbs2vAmong the student devotees of JH Prynne in 1970s Cambridge was, mirabile dictu, future High Tory grandee Charles Moore.15 May 2026 10:51 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlv622hzbs2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlt6p53ukc2fA tall young man at my front door just handed me this, and when I described it to my family as a ‘200 pound book’ and someone said, How vulgar to talk about its price like that!,* I hastened to clarify that I meant its weight.14 May 2026 15:58 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlt6p53ukc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlqmtxn64s2nTraitors! RS Thomas complains about Welsh birds nesting in England.13 May 2026 15:33 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqmtxn64s2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlqmfp6aas2sThis handsome essay collection on Michael Longley now out from Wake Forest UP.13 May 2026 15:25 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqmfp6aas2shttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlogjynt2c2cA palaeographical puzzler from Ruskin’s Praeterita, a book which features as its frontispiece some portraits of his aunts.12 May 2026 18:35 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlogjynt2c2chttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlo5i7pnv22mA hint of things to come in this Russian-themed poem from Carol Rumens’ debut collection, A Strange Girl in Bright Colours.12 May 2026 15:53 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlo5i7pnv22mhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mllupmy32s2w‘It is hard to imagine a combination with more possibilities for wretchedness than that of poet and agricultural labourer’, observes Edward Thomas (momentarily forgetting the plight of the Edwardian hack reviewer?).11 May 2026 18:10 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mllupmy32s2whttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mllakgx3vs2w'He encouraged nobody to do postgraduate study.' Mr Prynne as tutor. https://catherinebrown.org/mr-prynne-at-caius-college-cambridge/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRupd5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE3MGwwcEV3eTRhM3ZaTEkwc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHuvfD3xMz2lVJmFwIhWYjLcazDixo-XUKxWTaI3xoWKZvXQzKq9zKQ3lcQAe_aem_NlcyP1OjIGp80VCT2ow-JQ11 May 2026 12:10 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mllakgx3vs2whttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mljgateguc26There has yet to be an Oxford Book of Exes, but this Carol Rumens poem would do well in any such volume.10 May 2026 18:46 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mljgateguc26https://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mliajtdd5c2sDiscussing Bach’s cantatas, John Eliot Gardiner suddenly diverts into a discussion of ‘vertical’ versus ‘horizontal’ wine and whisky tasting. Unexpected.10 May 2026 07:31 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mliajtdd5c2shttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mlbcuow2sk2vWhat a pleasure to find myself holding forth on Scottish poetry in the new issue of the New York Review of Books. Many thanks to Jana Prikryl and the Review for extending me the hospitality of their pages. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/05/28/against-nostalgia-kathleen-jamie-peter-davidson/07 May 2026 13:25 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlbcuow2sk2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3ml77wpnyrc2xGlad to learn of Prynne’s short-lived (1957) Martian phase.06 May 2026 17:27 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml77wpnyrc2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3ml4wgp6bvk2rCarol Rumens channelling Montale by the shores of the river Hull.05 May 2026 19:31 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml4wgp6bvk2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3ml4shaohxs2z05 May 2026 18:20 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml4shaohxs2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3ml45plistc2hWinding stair.05 May 2026 12:09 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml45plistc2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3ml2acgjd722fSomething I like in Stewart Sanderson’s poetry is its shall we say eighteenth-century quality.04 May 2026 17:50 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml2acgjd722fhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkzepeay7k2bIn 1705 Bach insulted a bassoonist (‘Zippelfagottist’), was punched for his trouble, and responded by drawing his sword and tearing the lining of his antagonist’s coat. Gott in Himmel!04 May 2026 09:36 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkzepeay7k2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkwll5pwt22pWill Fleming on Prynne as a 'theorist of light, a sun poet'. https://thelondonmagazine.org/essay-the-practical-limits-of-daylight-in-memory-of-j-h-prynne/03 May 2026 07:01 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkwll5pwt22phttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkv7dnnbek2hAs a child, she says, my wife would watch Royal Variety shows and see a pianist who was always introduced with ‘If music be the food of love, let’s cut straight to the entrée! And here to help us do just that’s Bob Fontray’. Bob Fontray though – real or hallucination?02 May 2026 17:49 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkv7dnnbek2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkuveubpz22yA portrait of the Old Pretender James VIII/III at the top of a staircase by the ‘murder room’ in Fyvie Castle.02 May 2026 14:51 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkuveubpz22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkrr7yjdgc2nIs the caste of the bon mot-spouting waspish academic now extinct, I ask myself.01 May 2026 08:59 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkrr7yjdgc2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkrjxkuk422mAn essay collection on the poetry of Michael Longley, out around now I believe. I contribute a chapter on Longley and ‘the west’. https://wfupress.wfu.edu/books/poetrys-abracadabra-essays-on-michael-longley/01 May 2026 06:49 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkrjxkuk422mhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkrivshfbs27This fact about Archbishop Ussher has always lodged in my memory courtesy of Senator Norris’s expounding of it during tutorials in his office, Room 4004 of the Arts Block of Trinity College, Dublin.01 May 2026 06:30 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkrivshfbs27https://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkp2q3a6is22A ten-part baroque canon in the form of a tree.30 Apr 2026 07:11 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkp2q3a6is22https://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkmyxto2f22lFound in the garage, a poem apparently about my balls written in my long-ago teens.29 Apr 2026 11:34 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkmyxto2f22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/nemoloris.bsky.social/post/3mkgavr2r722bAnonymous portrait of an unnamed courier from Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries.26 Apr 2026 19:07 +0000at://did:plc:rkglidit6dpjleio6gaodicf/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkgavr2r722b