Patrick McGuinness
@padrig.bsky.social
Writer, academic, endotic traveller. Books: Blood Feather 2023; Real Oxford 2021. Ghost Stations, CB Editions , Sept 2025. FRSL. Prof of French and Comp Lit, Oxford. Rep'd Peter Straus RCW.
Some inverse relationship between how much History there is to learn from and how little is learned from History. Unless that's the point of it.
January 3, 2026 at 9:42 AM
Some inverse relationship between how much History there is to learn from and how little is learned from History. Unless that's the point of it.
Very pleased to end 2025 with a nice review in @thetls.bsky.social of Ghost Stations , available from @cbeditions.bsky.social . Giving nostalgia a good name.
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
Remembrance of infrastructures past
The themes that bind together this disparate collection of occasional pieces are nostalgia and railways. In the essay that begins Part II, “The Future of
www.the-tls.com
December 31, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Very pleased to end 2025 with a nice review in @thetls.bsky.social of Ghost Stations , available from @cbeditions.bsky.social . Giving nostalgia a good name.
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
Nadolig llawen, merry Christmas , Caernarfon
December 24, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Nadolig llawen, merry Christmas , Caernarfon
Festive florilegium of reviews of local Morrisons , tempered by the realisation that I know most if not all the people evoked in these comments. Da iawn dre, yma wyf innau i fod.
December 24, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Festive florilegium of reviews of local Morrisons , tempered by the realisation that I know most if not all the people evoked in these comments. Da iawn dre, yma wyf innau i fod.
Y Foryd, some elemental views
December 21, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Y Foryd, some elemental views
Also in 2026, my cross-channel Modernisms book. Starts with Mallarmé and Yeats, finishes with Derek Mahon's translations , by way of TE Hulme, Lynette Roberts, TS Eliot and the NRf , Rosemary Tonks, Odilon Périer, the birth of avant-garde theatre and other things.
December 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Also in 2026, my cross-channel Modernisms book. Starts with Mallarmé and Yeats, finishes with Derek Mahon's translations , by way of TE Hulme, Lynette Roberts, TS Eliot and the NRf , Rosemary Tonks, Odilon Périer, the birth of avant-garde theatre and other things.
After foxes of Oxford, writers' cats of Paris. Here seen modelling Gilles Ortlieb's study.
December 11, 2025 at 10:10 AM
After foxes of Oxford, writers' cats of Paris. Here seen modelling Gilles Ortlieb's study.
Always feel privileged to see this fox outside my house , to spend that moment being looked at and looked into , before it turns and goes.
December 10, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Always feel privileged to see this fox outside my house , to spend that moment being looked at and looked into , before it turns and goes.
So glad these 2 bikes have finally met. Magdalen Rd.
December 5, 2025 at 3:27 PM
So glad these 2 bikes have finally met. Magdalen Rd.
Watching this shape up, due out early next year, produced with my colleagues Clément Dessy and Stefano Evangelista. On literature, art and travel, on symbolism, decadence and globalisation, and on the movement of ideas and *people* across borders.
December 3, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Watching this shape up, due out early next year, produced with my colleagues Clément Dessy and Stefano Evangelista. On literature, art and travel, on symbolism, decadence and globalisation, and on the movement of ideas and *people* across borders.
Happy Themes Water hosepipe ban lift-day to all 'customers' who celebrate.
November 30, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Happy Themes Water hosepipe ban lift-day to all 'customers' who celebrate.
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 is ‘And the Walls Became the World All Around’ by Johanna Ekström and Sigrid Rausing, translated from Swedish (Sweden) by Sigrid Rausing and published by @grantabooks.bsky.social !
November 27, 2025 at 7:54 PM
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 is ‘And the Walls Became the World All Around’ by Johanna Ekström and Sigrid Rausing, translated from Swedish (Sweden) by Sigrid Rausing and published by @grantabooks.bsky.social !
A brilliant workshop on class in French literature at @stannescollege.bsky.social finished with an inspiring talk by Maurice East on Working Oxford. Made possible by the @britishacademy.bsky.social organised by @hollylangstaff.bsky.social and me. More projects and events planned...
November 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM
A brilliant workshop on class in French literature at @stannescollege.bsky.social finished with an inspiring talk by Maurice East on Working Oxford. Made possible by the @britishacademy.bsky.social organised by @hollylangstaff.bsky.social and me. More projects and events planned...
Late to listen in, as I've been travelling, but it was a pleasure to be on The Verb to speak about the poetry of trains and stations with Carmen, Don and Bella. Ian's Beeching joke was our terminus.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - The Verb, Train Poetry with Don Paterson, Bella Hardy, Carmen Marcus, Patrick McGuinness
Ian McMillan with Don Paterson, Carmen Marcus, Patrick McGuinness & Bella Hardy on trains
www.bbc.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Late to listen in, as I've been travelling, but it was a pleasure to be on The Verb to speak about the poetry of trains and stations with Carmen, Don and Bella. Ian's Beeching joke was our terminus.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Lôn las, Caernarfon
November 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Lôn las, Caernarfon
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Trouble is, the buck doesn’t stop any more.
November 16, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Trouble is, the buck doesn’t stop any more.
Shit and inhumane ideas that drive away your natural voters without attracting your less natural voters, part 150.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Refugees to face 20-year wait to settle permanently under asylum reforms
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to announce major reforms to the asylum system on Monday.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Shit and inhumane ideas that drive away your natural voters without attracting your less natural voters, part 150.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
A few pictures from Charleroi, Belgium's industrial capital, home of coal, steel and glass (and literature). Sunset Triptych; maison des 8 heures (ref to the 8/8/8 work/leisure/sleep law); a bucolic hill that's a coal mound; a cathedral rebuilt.
November 14, 2025 at 8:33 PM
A few pictures from Charleroi, Belgium's industrial capital, home of coal, steel and glass (and literature). Sunset Triptych; maison des 8 heures (ref to the 8/8/8 work/leisure/sleep law); a bucolic hill that's a coal mound; a cathedral rebuilt.
Enjoyable but poignantly Kleistian moment in our culture here:
A humanoid robot powered by artificial intelligence, believed to be one of the first in Russia, face-planted during its highly anticipated debut in Moscow on Tuesday after briefly staggering onstage. nyti.ms/49Ly3GI
November 13, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Enjoyable but poignantly Kleistian moment in our culture here:
Such a great shortlist - was at the ceremony last year when the winner was the brilliant Nelly Sachs translated by Andrew Shanks @carcanet.bsky.social . Great to see another poet, Krisztina Tóth @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social, in the running this year.
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025! "Each of these books arrives in English in expert and accessible translations that honour the art and voice of their original authors."
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
November 12, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Such a great shortlist - was at the ceremony last year when the winner was the brilliant Nelly Sachs translated by Andrew Shanks @carcanet.bsky.social . Great to see another poet, Krisztina Tóth @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social, in the running this year.
Just in case we didn't have enough examples of how appeasement never works...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Katie Razzall: A seismic moment that shows rift at top of BBC
There may be more to this than meets the eye, says the BBC's culture and media editor.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Just in case we didn't have enough examples of how appeasement never works...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Nottingham has one of the most vibrant and forward-looking departments of modern languages around. Music too. To cut them like this, leaving no chance for future rebuilding, is educational vandalism.
tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham
In a statement the institution also says it is
tinyurl.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Nottingham has one of the most vibrant and forward-looking departments of modern languages around. Music too. To cut them like this, leaving no chance for future rebuilding, is educational vandalism.
tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
The eternal return wrapped around the eternal departure wrapped around the eternal return, etc. Station fractals as I bring the book back, by way of its places, to the people who are in it. Embarquement terminé? I wouldn't be so sure.
November 6, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The eternal return wrapped around the eternal departure wrapped around the eternal return, etc. Station fractals as I bring the book back, by way of its places, to the people who are in it. Embarquement terminé? I wouldn't be so sure.