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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 7h

A fire in heaven

A suburban street seen through a car windshield with a beautiful sky above with low fluffy clouds underlit by red from the setting sun.

Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs

European Writers Salon @saloneurope.bsky.social · 8h

1 place left for 'Writing from Rage' with @markabowles.bsky.social now, then we will open a waitlist.

Don't miss out, come hang out with us in London!

26 November

🖊 🎤 🖊 🎤

European Writers Salon @saloneurope.bsky.social · 1d

Paris and Madrid sold out super fast.

Don't miss us in London!

26 November
The Queen's Larder, Holborn

Salon and writing class with @markabowles.bsky.social

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 8h

Looks a bit like your copy is heading for the same fate as mine.

A copy of Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton that has started to fall apart. Left to right you can see: the cover, two separated individual pages, and the main body of the book.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 15h

Books Do Furnish a Room (part of Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time) has long been a favourite book title, but I’d forgotten that it’s named for a character whose nickname is “Books-do-furnish-a-room Bagshaw”, and who everyone calls, affectionately, “Books”.

I now have a new life-goal.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

And off it goes – better later than never: entirely my fault! – Niall Griffiths's Personal Anthology, clambering up and along the gangway carrying a big pole, going quietly among the chalets of the asylum park, moving its jaw, slow and bovine, frequenting neither churches nor poor men's homes...

A Personal Anthology, by Niall Griffiths

By way of an introduction, what introduction can there be, that you, dear reader, since you’re visiting here, will not have heard before?

apersonalanthology.substack.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

I went to see One Battle After Another in VistaVision at the Odeon Leicester Square so you don’t have to.

boxd.it/bjI6ZB

A ★★★★ review of One Battle After Another (2025)

First up: Vista Vision. What’s the big deal? The presentation at Odeon Leicester Square was disappointing, in high-up circle seats at least. The screen is tiny for such a big auditorium. Though the so...

boxd.it

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Let's be charitable and go with (b)!

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Looks like someone was learning to play Minecraft but then got bored.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Coming this afternoon (slightly later than usual): @niall2025.bsky.social's Personal Anthology - his pick of and introduction to a dozen favourite short stories.

Sign up here to get it in your inbox!

apersonalanthology.substack.com/about

About - A Personal Anthology

A weekly guest-editor picks and introduces a personal anthology of twelve favourite short stories. Click to read A Personal Anthology, by Jonathan Gibbs, a Substack publication with thousands of subsc...

apersonalanthology.substack.com

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

I’d have cut that too! 😼

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

Agreed. I liked the Charlene/Bob ending, despite as you say its incongruity, especially the final exchange: “be careful”/“I won’t”.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

In narrative terms it’s pointless. We learn nothing new about them or him. It’s like the short final shot you get in an advert when it recaps the comic element from the main part of the ad that is then followed by the brand announcement.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

I went to see One Battle After Another in VistaVision at the Odeon Leicester Square so you don’t have to.

boxd.it/bjI6ZB

A ★★★★ review of One Battle After Another (2025)

First up: Vista Vision. What’s the big deal? The presentation at Odeon Leicester Square was disappointing, in high-up circle seats at least. The screen is tiny for such a big auditorium. Though the so...

boxd.it

1 2

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

I can imagine that! (Especially if you edit out the flagrantly unnecessary ’welcome to your office’ segment.)

£20 was also what I paid for VistaVision at Odeon Leicester Square, which seems poor value by comparison.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 1d

I’m not sure. I’m hoping someone will enlighten me! My sense is that it was a higher resolution format that was superseded by imax. The image wasn’t the problem: the screen/auditorium relationship was.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

So the Vista Vision presentation of One Battle After Another at Odeon Leicester Square was very disappointing, in high-up circle seats at least. The screen is tiny for such a big auditorium. (Amazing soundsystem, though.)

Happy to be educated if anyone can explain why it’s so great!

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

Certainly not worth the candle to my mind, at Leicester Square at least. Perhaps if you’re in the best seats. The screen really is quite small for such a huge auditorium. The soundsystem, however, is top-notch: real seat-shaking bass.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

(It’s Odeon Leicester Square - one of only four screens worldwide that can show VistaVision. I went just to see it as it’s such a rarity. Certainly way below IMAX in terms of quality I’d say.)

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

Vista Vision very much not worth the extra money I’d say, at this cinema at least – unless you pay top dollar for best seats. The screen really is quite small. The soundsystem, however, is top-notch: real seat-shaking bass.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

One Battle After Another in Vista Vision, hell yeah! But damn I forgot to bring my binoculars…

Screen One at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. Yes the chairs are luxurious and the sound is good, but the screen is… small, and… far away.

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2d

It's Thursday afternoon, and so nearly the weekend – and A Personal Anthology! This week's guest editor, picking and introducing a dozen favourite short stories, is Niall Griffiths (@niall2025.bsky.social), author of Grits, Sheepshagger, Kelly + Victor (*shivers*), Stump, Broken Ghost etc!

Details:

About - A Personal Anthology

A weekly guest-editor picks and introduces a personal anthology of twelve favourite short stories. Click to read A Personal Anthology, by Jonathan Gibbs, a Substack publication with thousands of subsc...

apersonalanthology.substack.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs

Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · May 29

Krasznahawkeye

A poorly spliced pair of photographs showing, on the left, Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, and on the right, Alan Alda in M*A*S*H as Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3d

Not read the Raven - have heard similar things!

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3d

a man with a red face is standing in a space ship and saying it 's a trap .

Alt: Star Wars gif of Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi in a space ship, saying “It's a trap”.

media.tenor.com

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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 3d

Books on the tube

Atomic Habits by James Clear
A Court of Silver Flames & Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
Grunwick by Jack Dromey
The Trading Athlete by Shane Murphy
Let the Snog Fest Begin by Louise Rennison
Villains Academy by Ryan Hammond

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