Simon Spanton
@simonguy.bsky.social
"I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."
Wandering. Wondering. Freelancing. Often acquiring and editing SFFH for Angry Robot Books. Live in Edinburgh. Views my own and independent of my employers. Photos my own unless otherwise etc.
Wandering. Wondering. Freelancing. Often acquiring and editing SFFH for Angry Robot Books. Live in Edinburgh. Views my own and independent of my employers. Photos my own unless otherwise etc.
Pinned
Simon Spanton
@simonguy.bsky.social
· Nov 26
"Out on the pale criss-crossed sand, high-stepping, fringed, gauntleted, stalked some fantastic leviathan..."
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
"To endure a deadly dint and deal no more with blade."
Have added a fifth Green Knight to my collection. The Prof. this time.
Comes with commentaries, his Green Knight lecture and his translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo.
Have added a fifth Green Knight to my collection. The Prof. this time.
Comes with commentaries, his Green Knight lecture and his translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo.
February 6, 2026 at 7:26 PM
"To endure a deadly dint and deal no more with blade."
Have added a fifth Green Knight to my collection. The Prof. this time.
Comes with commentaries, his Green Knight lecture and his translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo.
Have added a fifth Green Knight to my collection. The Prof. this time.
Comes with commentaries, his Green Knight lecture and his translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo.
I care not about the Super Bowl but this lot are awesome. A joy to behold.
Need a mood boost?
Watch the Pacific Northwest Ballet celebrate the Seattle Seahawks being in the Super Bowl
Watch the Pacific Northwest Ballet celebrate the Seattle Seahawks being in the Super Bowl
February 6, 2026 at 4:15 PM
I care not about the Super Bowl but this lot are awesome. A joy to behold.
Post of the Week.
February 6, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Post of the Week.
"How Sophie recognised the Witch would be hard to say. Her face was different. Her hair, instead of being orderly chestnut curls, was a rippling mass of red, hanging almost to her waist, and she was dressed in floating flutters of auburn and pale yellow. Very cool and lovely she looked."
February 6, 2026 at 2:51 PM
"How Sophie recognised the Witch would be hard to say. Her face was different. Her hair, instead of being orderly chestnut curls, was a rippling mass of red, hanging almost to her waist, and she was dressed in floating flutters of auburn and pale yellow. Very cool and lovely she looked."
Hamlet | Official Film Trailer
YouTube video by Universal Pictures UK
youtube.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:23 PM
"He looked up at the vast, vast sky, and she flew along with him, flew high up into the black cloud, and the storm rumbled and roared, as if it were singing ancient ballads...Beneath them rushed the cold wind. The wolves howled, the snow sparkled, and over it flew shrieking black crows."
February 6, 2026 at 12:23 PM
"He looked up at the vast, vast sky, and she flew along with him, flew high up into the black cloud, and the storm rumbled and roared, as if it were singing ancient ballads...Beneath them rushed the cold wind. The wolves howled, the snow sparkled, and over it flew shrieking black crows."
The only ammonite I ever found was barely there at all.
February 6, 2026 at 9:19 AM
The only ammonite I ever found was barely there at all.
Quality content.
Some fun things about The Book of Sir Thomas More, which the internet has been talking about of late.
74% of the surviving text is written by Anthony Munday. Literally. He might have worked on it with someone else, say Chettle, but he LITERALLY wrote it out.
Then the text had some rewrites...
74% of the surviving text is written by Anthony Munday. Literally. He might have worked on it with someone else, say Chettle, but he LITERALLY wrote it out.
Then the text had some rewrites...
February 6, 2026 at 8:38 AM
Quality content.
Sweet dreams.
"A figure in pale, fluttering draperies, ill-defined. There was something about its motion which made Parkins very unwilling to see it at close quarters. It would stop, raise arms, bow itself towards the sand, then run stooping..."
Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad, M.R. James
Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad, M.R. James
February 5, 2026 at 11:18 PM
Sweet dreams.
Reposted by Simon Spanton
Join the STW Society in London on 29th-30th May for a conference celebrating 100 years of Lolly Willowes. Keynote address by Adam Mars-Jones. Early bird tickets till 31st March. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lolly-will...
Lolly Willowes at 100
An international conference to mark the centenary of the publication of Warner's first and still her best-known novel, Lolly Willowes.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
February 5, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Join the STW Society in London on 29th-30th May for a conference celebrating 100 years of Lolly Willowes. Keynote address by Adam Mars-Jones. Early bird tickets till 31st March. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lolly-will...
"But in a Miyazaki movie, the possibility that what we've seen is a dream, or dream-related, is not grounds for disappointment that it isn't real. It's confirmation of how real dreams are, and how expansive and deep their realms can be and feel."
February 5, 2026 at 7:37 PM
"But in a Miyazaki movie, the possibility that what we've seen is a dream, or dream-related, is not grounds for disappointment that it isn't real. It's confirmation of how real dreams are, and how expansive and deep their realms can be and feel."
What Will said.
If you review, blog, booktok or cover books in any way, now's the time to request your copy of "The Dead Man's Empire"! I can't wait for people to get their hands on this book.
A new epic fantasy by @willwiles.bsky.social?
Click if you'd like the chance to see if you agree...
"I haven't been as surprised and enthralled by a fantasy series in years."
Francis Spufford
"Fantasy is rarely as smart, immersive or scintillant."
Adam Roberts
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Click if you'd like the chance to see if you agree...
"I haven't been as surprised and enthralled by a fantasy series in years."
Francis Spufford
"Fantasy is rarely as smart, immersive or scintillant."
Adam Roberts
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
February 5, 2026 at 6:06 PM
What Will said.
Jeffrey Archer informed me that I could not possibly be correct when I told him that his new book was not the number one bestselling title in the bookshop I was working in.
One of my academic colleagues looks a bit like Bob Mortimer. One time near our labs I saw him walking towards me and I warmly said Hey Kevin. It was Bob Mortimer.
Please share your very low impact celebrity encounters here.
Please share your very low impact celebrity encounters here.
Fun low level anecdote: I once sat near Peter Mandelson in a theatre but I had a name blank and said rather too loudly ‘ooh look it’s Michael Portillo!’
He was visibly unamused.
He was visibly unamused.
February 5, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Jeffrey Archer informed me that I could not possibly be correct when I told him that his new book was not the number one bestselling title in the bookshop I was working in.
Mark Fisher linking Eno's Ambient 4 and "Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad" FTW
February 5, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Mark Fisher linking Eno's Ambient 4 and "Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad" FTW
Reposted by Simon Spanton
We are very sad to learn of the death of Dr Neil Philip, folklorist, writer, poet, & long-standing member of The Folklore Society.
Jack Zipes says: ‘He was one of the most kind and helpful people I ever knew. … He was a superb scholar and devoted to the study of folklore.’
Jack Zipes says: ‘He was one of the most kind and helpful people I ever knew. … He was a superb scholar and devoted to the study of folklore.’
February 4, 2026 at 10:08 PM
We are very sad to learn of the death of Dr Neil Philip, folklorist, writer, poet, & long-standing member of The Folklore Society.
Jack Zipes says: ‘He was one of the most kind and helpful people I ever knew. … He was a superb scholar and devoted to the study of folklore.’
Jack Zipes says: ‘He was one of the most kind and helpful people I ever knew. … He was a superb scholar and devoted to the study of folklore.’
Post of the week.
And very much here for heroic posties. Our dog ADORES ours and goes frantic with joy even if he spots him down the street.
We used to think it was just Ollie but apparently every single dog in the neighbourhood goes into similar fervent passionate throes.
What is Gary's secret?
And very much here for heroic posties. Our dog ADORES ours and goes frantic with joy even if he spots him down the street.
We used to think it was just Ollie but apparently every single dog in the neighbourhood goes into similar fervent passionate throes.
What is Gary's secret?
Postman EXPLODES through shop door (which also has a jingly old-school bell for full attack mode). “BILL! BILL! SPAM!” he chants as he hands me three envelopes, one at a time. EXPLODES out of shop. I love our postman (we have discussed his v operatic entrances and exits before)
two men are carrying a statue of a deer on a dolly
Alt: two men are carrying a statue of a deer on a dolly
media.tenor.com
February 5, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Post of the week.
And very much here for heroic posties. Our dog ADORES ours and goes frantic with joy even if he spots him down the street.
We used to think it was just Ollie but apparently every single dog in the neighbourhood goes into similar fervent passionate throes.
What is Gary's secret?
And very much here for heroic posties. Our dog ADORES ours and goes frantic with joy even if he spots him down the street.
We used to think it was just Ollie but apparently every single dog in the neighbourhood goes into similar fervent passionate throes.
What is Gary's secret?
Forty curlews busy on the school rugby pitch.
February 5, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Forty curlews busy on the school rugby pitch.
"Like many of those who give their lives in loyalty to a cause or banner, these people were also betrayed by their banner. The great Austrian myth of the servant faithful to his master teaches us that the servant is indeed faithful, but the lord is often faithless."
February 5, 2026 at 8:11 AM
"Like many of those who give their lives in loyalty to a cause or banner, these people were also betrayed by their banner. The great Austrian myth of the servant faithful to his master teaches us that the servant is indeed faithful, but the lord is often faithless."
Portalage alone.
A gate in the woods with no wall or fence either side of it is surely some mysterious portal. @simonguy.bsky.social ?
February 5, 2026 at 7:35 AM
Portalage alone.
"the act of ever-tightening categorisation is one that haunts and harms the genre and all who sail in it" @chloroformtea.bsky.social
PREACH
PREACH
I promised ducks, quacking: well! @chloroformtea.bsky.social (not a duck) provides Thursday's essay on knowing genre when you see it.
"We need a more expansive approach to any attempt at definition today. The genre can and plainly does sit alongside other genres which operate on different axes."
"We need a more expansive approach to any attempt at definition today. The genre can and plainly does sit alongside other genres which operate on different axes."
Quacking Like A Genre
What is SF? Idk, vibes.
strangehorizons.com
February 4, 2026 at 9:57 PM
"the act of ever-tightening categorisation is one that haunts and harms the genre and all who sail in it" @chloroformtea.bsky.social
PREACH
PREACH
Muddy spaniel in the curtains and all's well.
February 4, 2026 at 7:42 PM
Muddy spaniel in the curtains and all's well.
Cooking tea music.
February 4, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Cooking tea music.
Of all the covers on all the books I own this has the weirdest cover.
Plus it has a story called The Inspired Chicken Motel ("a motel straight out of revelations").
Plus it has a story called The Inspired Chicken Motel ("a motel straight out of revelations").
February 4, 2026 at 3:13 PM
Of all the covers on all the books I own this has the weirdest cover.
Plus it has a story called The Inspired Chicken Motel ("a motel straight out of revelations").
Plus it has a story called The Inspired Chicken Motel ("a motel straight out of revelations").