David Simpkin
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simplerdave.bsky.social
David Simpkin
@simplerdave.bsky.social
1.1K followers 2.3K following 1.5K posts
Fine words butter no parsnips.
Once and future bookseller, currently based in deepest Nottinghamshire.
@Simplerdave on all decent social media - find me here, there and almost everywhere...
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simplerdave.bsky.social
Share your favourite black & white film (apart from all the others...)
September 25, 2025 at 8:51 AM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Image of Joe 90, nine-year-old hero of a string puppet TV adventure series of the late 1960s (Gerry Anderson/ITC). The small blond child is wearing black-rimmed glasses that transmit the brain patterns of whoever he was being that week. (No, really)
September 15, 2025 at 3:16 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
1,184

(Location in alt text)
Ornate hymn board showing numbers totalling 1184. Location is St Peter and St Paul's Church, part of the Belton House Estate (NT), Lincolnshire, UK
September 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Charity shop bargain: four novels and two books of short stories in a single (massive) volume for the princely sum of £1.50. Drinks coaster for scale.
The Complete Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace, a fat paperback book containing four novels and two books of short stories written between 1905 and 1928. Drinks coaster showing Winchester's Round Table included for scale.
July 10, 2025 at 7:41 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Still one of the greatest album titles by one of the greatest TV and film music composers. The soundtrack to Bullitt, amongst many, many others, is the absolute business. Farewell, Lalo. You were magnificent.
An album of film and other music by the late great Lalo Schifrin, brilliantly titled There's a Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On.
June 26, 2025 at 9:53 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Nice twist, retitling Thunderbolts as the New Avengers, but for those of us of a certain vintage, there can still only be one... (well, three...)
Hawkeye, Yelena and - sorry, this is your actual New Avengers from 70s TV, Gambit, Purdey and the peerless John Steed.
May 7, 2025 at 3:00 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Movies produced abroad are a threat to national security #FilmSky
A colourised version of a still from the cinematic masterpiece Jour de Fete (1949). In the still, Jacques Tati, playing a postman, seems to be talking into a telephone mounted on the front of his bike, while two American Military Policemen stare at him with suspicion.
May 5, 2025 at 9:01 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
#Ghostsign on the side of a house near the Trent Lock, Sawley, Nottinghamshire, UK
Ghostsign on a house near a lock on the Trent in Nottinghamshire. Mostly illegible, but the bottom line clearly says 'Mineral Water'
April 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
One of my all time favourites of his: Venus Prise a la Gorge, 1964
A photograph by the French photographer Robert Doisneau in which some men are moving a statue of the goddess Venus. Appropriately enough, the men, while looking down at her feet, are braced against her breasts.
April 14, 2025 at 6:42 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
It is still a magnificent sticky floor music venue, though. I went to a lovely gig there just a few days ago...
Live at the Angel Microbrewery, Nottingham, the band Danny and the Champions of the World, with their support act Annie Dressner on backing vocals and tambourine.
April 4, 2025 at 9:35 AM
simplerdave.bsky.social
I enjoyed the fun @pussellrarker.bsky.social & friends had yesterday, with the old Target paperbacks seen in a Ken Dodd documentary.
As a (then) academic bookseller, I had a similar rush from this moment in 'The End of Time', with a prominent guest role for the Routledge Classics spinner...
Screengrab from the Doctor Who episode The End of Time (2010). Jessica Hynes is doing a book signing in a large modern bookshop. The Routledge Classics spinner is very much seen front right.
March 26, 2025 at 11:25 AM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Post a warning...
National Trust warning sign saying 'Naturists may be seen beyond this point' on Studland Bay, Dorset, UK. There are no Naturists to be seen beyond this point, or, indeed, anybody else.
March 23, 2025 at 2:30 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Some lovely books I own for #WorldBookDay - please reply or quote with books of your own...
The top shelf of my nearest bookcase with several scale model cars in front of a variety of books about film, television, drama, pantomime, and some absolutely gorgeous graphic novels...
March 6, 2025 at 1:08 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
If you're delving into the far corners of Gene Hackman's backlist, don't sleep on this one: Twilight (no, not that one, 1998). A lovely piece of California neo-noir, it's Newman's film really, but Hackman is great - as is James Garner, who nearly steals the film without getting on to the poster...
A poster for the film Twilight (no, still not that one, 1998). The poster includes the faces of the film's stars Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, and Paul Newman looking suitably moody, with the shadow of a hand holding a gun below and behind them. It's a great little film - go seek it out
March 2, 2025 at 9:17 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Post a picture of you that's not actually a picture of you
A photo of a penguin I took in South Africa about twenty years ago. The penguin is looking away from the camera and appears to be shrugging in a "Do the what now?" kind of a way.
March 2, 2025 at 8:24 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
It's a fine line between genius and stupid, but I'm sure you can walk it...
Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in the cinematic masterpiece A Shot In The Dark (1964), cutting a fine dash in a belted raincoat and a soft felt trilby.
March 1, 2025 at 1:24 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Repost with the first album you bought with your own money
(I am nothing if not consistent...)
An LP of songs from the TV's The Goodies (1975)
February 23, 2025 at 12:49 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Public asked to name next Archbishop of Canterbury after Justin Welby resignation
Revd Lisa Coupland of TV's The Traitors
February 7, 2025 at 8:32 AM
simplerdave.bsky.social
We got a few in the run up to Christmas (charity bookshop, Nottinghamshire), so we put them on display and they all went.
Some humour books from the charity bookshop I run in Nottinghamshire UK, including a Giles Annual (topical cartoons from 50s to 70s), an American classic, and several of Joel's Ladybirds.
January 4, 2025 at 12:09 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
"You will be visited by three spirits..."
Will Hay, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt in the cinematic masterpiece Oh Mr Porter (1937)
December 24, 2024 at 4:08 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
As the old saying goes...
A picture of a delightful library with a comfy chair and a coffee table. Superimposed on this picture are the words "It's not hoarding if it's books". Picture sourced from web, artist (so far) unknown.
December 22, 2024 at 6:58 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Post a pic of yourself holding a DVD/Blu-Ray.
Physical media rocks.
#IStandWithDVDs
A boxed set of the Complete Maigret (BBC, 1960 - 1963) from the much missed Network Media. In the background, tastefully out of focus, two model buses and some framed pictures.
December 6, 2024 at 1:57 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Definitely not me in the tepid bath of managed decline
Your actual Joan Collins looking all sudsy in the 70s
December 6, 2024 at 9:44 AM
simplerdave.bsky.social
Still some decorations to add, but I've built this year's tree for the our local Methodist church tree festival...
A Christmas tree made entirely out of second-hand/used books for a local church festival.
December 4, 2024 at 3:25 PM
simplerdave.bsky.social
There's a fine one in Winchester, UK, to represent a long-disappeared Abbey. The enclosed trees also represent where pillars used to be:
A glass etching designed to show people where an Abbey used to be, in Winchester, UK
November 27, 2024 at 12:43 PM