James Latimer awaiting sequel to The Wolf and the Wild King 🐺👑
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jameslatimer.bsky.social
James Latimer awaiting sequel to The Wolf and the Wild King 🐺👑
@jameslatimer.bsky.social
610 followers 350 following 4.2K posts
Recovering writer. Man of letters. Weltschmerz enthusiast. He/him.
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jameslatimer.bsky.social
Are you fucking kidding me with this? We remember 2016-2020, and the rest! "I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."
BBC screenshot of Noem quote: "They responded according to their training, and took action to defend the officer's life and those of the public around him. And, I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."
January 25, 2026 at 10:10 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
So I'm moving soon, and also being realistic, so if anyone out there wants something from my "classics" TBR shelf, I'd be happy to send to a good home. Seems a shame to just dump them on the charity shops. 😕
A white bookshelf with five shelves of paperbacks, mostly the old A or pocket size, of older SF&F, with authors like Blish, Cherryh, Douglass, Elliott, Jones, Moon, Saberhagen, Vance and more...
January 23, 2026 at 10:40 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Guess which one of these has 200 extra pages and 28 extra chapters? But WHY? Why can you never trust classics???
Two copies of The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas, one smaller and bound in blue with gold lettering on the spine by Collins library of classics (no date but old), and one a Penguin Popular Classic in faded beige, almost twice as large, and yet...
January 21, 2026 at 7:46 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
So, on a bit of an escapist whim, I rewatched The Sword and the Sorcerer for the first time in 30 years, and it's actually...not bad? I mean, it's uneven, cartoonish, confused and overcrowded, but for all that, quite enjoyable in a way more sophisticated or recent films sometimes aren't.
The classic film poster for The Sword and the Sorcerer, very 70s Frazetta-style, with a muscle-bound warrior wielding a three-bladed sword (yes!) against a shadowy demon while a scantily-clad woman is threatened by a snake (yep!). The font is also classic metallic faux-fantasy fare.
January 8, 2026 at 1:07 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Snakewood by Adrian Selby, one of the most intriguing, inventive and memorable fantasies I've read, while also among the grimmest, is apparently on sale for $1.99 on ebook so now's your chance to ring in the new year with a brilliantly crafted but bloody tale of fallen legends (or save for later).
The bright blood red cover of Snakewood by Adrian Selby, with a mysterious hooded figure in a dirty white robe sitting cross-legged in the centre, a sword by his side. The tagline reads "A lifetime of enemies has its own price".
January 3, 2026 at 11:39 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
No cheating, reskeet the most recent pictures of your pet(s)
An idiot tabby cat sitting plum on a winter hat in the middle of a table covered with a yellow floral tablecloth in a room with yellow walls, staring gormlessly to the left of camera.
January 2, 2026 at 11:41 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Would you look at these beauties!
Gorgeous hardbacks of Anna Smith Spark's A Sword of Bronze and Ashes (red detail ) and A Sword of Gold and Ruin (yellow detail) both with black and white illustrations of a woman and child against trees, with sprayed edges and shiny title text in the detail colour.
December 29, 2025 at 11:44 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
This ain't my childhood copy, but a random find - in very good condition! I actually read (or had read to me) this (American?) edition:
A screenshot of a cover for Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, showing a dark horseman on a black hose, rearing up on a snowy doorstep over a prone boy who has raised a hand to shield his face, all backlit by the light from the open door. The Rider's black cloak billows behind him, and black rooks swoop in the margins of the scene.
December 29, 2025 at 8:35 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Snap!
A 1980s print of a 1970s edition of The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, with a dark Rider on the cover, highlighted in a circle revealing the snowy background. His head is owl eyed, stag antlered, wolf eared as in the book, which is pretty freaky, and has a smaller blue superimposed circle over it, picking out the only colour on the cover, including some pink and green like a heat map.
December 29, 2025 at 8:14 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
At last! Hooray for Santa!
Heart of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker, on a wintry jumper. The title text is bright green, with eerie faces made of vines and crossed swords behind on a black background.
December 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Ye gods but the @barristersecret.bsky.social's 2018 book is (justly) infuriating. Yet another vital public service allowed to rot, cuts to funding leading to waste, injustice, and anguish. Don't imagine anything's changed with the new government either...
A slightly battered copy of The Secret Barrister, Stories of the Law and How It's Broken, a white paperback with an image of a barrister in robes and wig with yellow scribbles obscuring his face.
December 8, 2025 at 11:17 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
I don't remember that scene...
A photo of Amazon Prime TV showing the icon for a Movie pick ostensibly for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but the picture is of a 1960s/70s convertible driven by a blonde, with a man in sunglasses behind her.
December 4, 2025 at 11:16 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Seriously, wtf is going on here?
Close up of the bowsprit of the nonsense Flying Dutchman poster ship reveals A SECOND BOWSPRIT, or maybe a rogue flagpole, and some nonsensical rigging. Very shoddy.
November 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Absolutely nonsensical ship here from the Welsh National Opera. AI slop I wonder? 🙄
A nonsensical two-masted sailing vessel with a giant on board, square sides, a bowsprit with a disappearing flag, and one sail - rigged backwards on the second mast.
November 22, 2025 at 12:17 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
A familiar issue to anyone who has read other archival material of the era...
My copy of Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, the 1978 sequel to Star Wars that doesn't know about the revelations in Empire Strikes Back - white cover with red Star Wars font title, a picture of Darth Vader confronting a prone Luke and Leia (both in jumpsuits) in a forest where a red light shines from the mound he's standing on - "From the adventures of Luke Skywalker - based on the characters and situations created by George Lucas" (and by that it means loosely!) and "featuring Luke, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Theeepio & Artoo Detoo (sic) in a spectacular new adventure!'
October 15, 2025 at 5:03 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Sorry not to reply sooner. If you're happy with some TLC it might work for you. Can you collect from Swindon though?

Here's a picture of the vintage machine:
A white 1960s Kenwood Chef stand mixer with powder blue details, also has blender and juicer (maybe?) attachments.
October 7, 2025 at 9:13 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Yeah, that seems a bit...opportunistic?
Google Maps satellite image of a brick-clad, white-roofed high-rise apartment building in the Bronx, with a giant square brick chimney on the corner, trucks full of rubbish parked on a paved lot below. Grass and trees on the other sides.
October 1, 2025 at 1:41 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Here's what my Pocket Oxford (1969) says:
A photo of a page in my pocket Oxford dictionary, centered on animadvert, which it defines as "Pass criticism or censure (upon)." Also other detail about it being an intransitive verb and the noun form being animadversion, derived from Latin (animus meaning mind) and advert, defined elsewhere.
September 29, 2025 at 9:04 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
I also enjoy the time HMS Vanguard went to the pub on the way to the breakers...
An aerial black and white photo of Portsmouth harbour, with a large battleship nosing into the shoreline, dwarfing the buildings. A tugboat lurks beside her, presumably embarrassed.
September 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Ooh look, I found one.
September 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Maleficent Seven is giving me Villains by Necessity vibes, unsurprisingly, and that book is a definite hidden gem from an era before authors* did this sort of thing.

*men, anyway 😏
The colourful cover of Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward, published 1995 and looking like it with an illustration by Darrell K Sweet of a knight on horseback in full plate and tourney plumage charging a gold and green dragon with outstretched wings, a curing trail, and a sharp jaws spewing a gout of yellow fire.
September 21, 2025 at 11:39 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
I seem to have found an Australian book, far from its place of origin. This may explain the slightly underwhelming cover, perhaps?
A paperback edition of Detection Unlimited by Georgette Heyer with a plain green cover, shiny gold lettering for the author's name, plain orange for the title, quotes from the Times and Daily Mail, and the only image is a monochrome photo of a wooden bench with leaves, faint and faded in around the edges. The publishing page, listing the Australian address of Redwood Editions, an imprint of Hinkler Books, Dingley, VICtoria, and the reservation of all rights etc. Original copyright 1953, published 2001.
September 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
The ages of actors in this photo are 58, 25, 50, 34 and 65 respectively.
A photo of Benicio del Toro (58), Chase Infiniti (25), Leonardo di Caprio (50), Teyana Taylor (34) and Sean Penn (65) at a presser for One Battle After Another. The men are in black suits, though Di Caprio is in all black with no tie, while the women are in high fashion items of disparate nature.
September 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Good philosophy for BlueSky, from Noël Coward?
ELYOT: Don't you believe in anything? AMANDA: Oh yes, I believe in being kind to everyone, and giving money to old beggar women, and being as gay as possible.
September 5, 2025 at 9:01 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Okay there was also this one:
A very green river valley with dark deciduous trees below rolling, rather barren hills and grey cloudy skies.
September 4, 2025 at 11:32 AM