Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Patrick McGuinness

@padrig.bsky.social

700 followers 550 following 140 posts

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.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 1h

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.

Warwick Prize for Women in Translation @womenintranslation.bsky.social · 21h

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

A photograph of the 6 titles shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025. The books are stood on their side on a wooden table with wood panelling backdrop. The six titles photographed are:

Johanna Ekström and Sigrid Rausing, And the Walls Became the World All Around, translated from Swedish (Sweden) by Sigrid Rausing (Granta)

Evelyne Trouillot, Désirée Congo, translated from French (Haiti) by M.A. Salvodon (University of Virginia Press)

Maylis Besserie, Francis Bacon's Nanny, translated from French (France) by Clíona Ní Ríordáin (The Lilliput Press)

Krisztina Tóth, My Secret Life, translated from Hungarian (Hungary) by George Szirtes (Bloodaxe Books)

Liliana Corobca, Too Great A Sky, translated from Romanian (Romania) by Monica Cure (Seven Stories Press UK)

Han Kang, We Do Not Part, translated from Korean (South Korea) by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House UK)

1 5

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 1d

Just in case we didn't have enough examples of how appeasement never works...

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

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 5d

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

Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham

In a statement the institution also says it is

tinyurl.com

5 38 96

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 5d

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.

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 6d

Chimneyscapes of Brussels

4 24

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 7d

True - I dont remember seeing many if any in the past...

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 7d

@lieven.bsky.social just missed by a few minutes...

1 1

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 7d

Foxes of Brussels , 1 of an occasional series.

2 3 16

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 8d

And some other autumn sights and colours

1 4

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 8d

Couple of Oxford-related images, all from Headington. William Kimber's grave, a couple of pubs and a slow-at-first then all-at-once sunset.

1 6

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 12d

Terrific

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 12d

Bangor station buffet. Something for everyone

2 3 36

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 12d

Yes nice touch I thought

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 12d

This is really good example of a headline that is completely at odds with the article's content. Good local journalism is really important but this isn't it.

www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/2558076...

Damning verdict by people on day one of Oxford's congestion charge

Confusion, surprise and anger - this is the damming verdict from people coming to Oxford on day one of the city’s new congestion charge.

www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 13d

Thinking of opening a hardware store myself and retiring early.

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 13d

Great to see this and also to see his later flowering of poetry given its due.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Where to start with: Paul Bailey

The novelist and poet, who died a year ago, left a huge body of work distinguished by its melancholy wit and warmth. These are some of the highlights

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Patrick McGuinness

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 13d

‘It is on the border between the ordinary and the peculiar that Parr likes to work. He points out, more than once, that what is commonplace now will one day be remarkable.’

Rosemary Hill on Martin Parr’s people:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Rosemary Hill · Saturdays at the Sewage Works: Martin Parr’s People

It is on the border between the ordinary and the peculiar that Parr likes to work. He points out, more than once, that...

www.lrb.co.uk

1 13

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 15d

My kind of place!

1 1

Reposted by Patrick McGuinness

Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · 19d

If Labour is continuing to lose votes, just got 11% in a by-election in a seat they've held for 100 years and in a few recent polls is equal to or just behind the Greens maybe we should stop suggesting they're the only thing that can defeat Reform.

51 460 2.5K

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 22d

Confirming the old rule: first slowly then all at once.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/wal...

The death of Welsh Labour

As the party loses its grip on power, progressives must find a new vehicle to defeat Reform

www.newstatesman.com

Reposted by Patrick McGuinness

Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 25d

Democracy cannot survive if people like Jenrick, who is prepared to lie continually and without compunction, can prosper.

Football in the 80s was frequently violent and, especially in the first part of the decade, awash with racism. These were not halcyon days, especially for non-white Britons.

Robert Jenrick

@RobertJenrick

Follow

Something has fundamentally changed in Birmingham. And Britain, too, has changed with it.

Consider football: the rough and tumble of our national game is nothing new for the West Midlands. Growing up in the eighties, my Dad took me to more than a few matches at Villa Park in the away end. The language, chants, and antics were - at times - less than well-mannered.

But it was largely good-natured fun. Where there was violence, the police put a quick but firm end to it. Such was the rhythm of British life. The same men and women worked together all week, turning up and supporting different teams on a Saturday.

47 96 410

Reposted by Patrick McGuinness

Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 29d

4 20

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · Oct 12

How long before ICE agents come for Pope Leo?

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · Oct 10

Really enjoyed this

Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · Oct 8

Oxford sights, in l'an trentiesme de mon eage, or at any rate my 30th Michaelmas Term as a tutor here. Not sure where the years went, somewhere between the purposeful paddleboarder and the skull on the hull.