Author | Lightnews

Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · 14h

The reason I’ve found the Louvre situation so bizarre is that I’ve seen French security up close - we visited Ile de la Cite just as the trials for the terrorist attacks were starting. (Not on purpose, obvs). The security cordons to walk anywhere round the area were immense.

Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · 9d

I obviously still know my childhood phone number, but the other one that stuck with me was my desk phone from the job I had in 2002-07. I get a weird urge to call it and see if it’s still 28 year old me on the other end, trying to buy banner ads on Yahoo.

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 9d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · 14d

Another of those days where I silently fume at my nemesis. Do I live rent free in her head or is she in mine?

Reposted by Alison Gibbs

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 15d

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 15d

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 15d

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 22d

“An example of the town of the future is Coventry.... Traffic and pedestrians are kept apart and the roads are planned to let traffic flow smoothly”

(Our Land in the Making, 1966)
Artist: Ronald Lampitt

Illustration of the precinct shopping centre in Coventry, with its shiny 1960s architecture, walkways and colourful flower planters

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · 22d

I really hope this doesn’t catch on, in general, but also this particular example - living in a place called Norwood, the name is going to play havoc with the algorithm. I don’t want a load of AI nonsense to come up whenever I search for Norwood.

Jessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social · 22d

Quelle surprise that the first plagiarized person is made to look like a young woman.

Shame on Eline Van der Velden for this crap.

variety.com/2025/film/ne...

AI Actress Tilly Norwood Condemned by SAG-AFTRA: Tilly ‘Is Not an Actor… It Has No Life Experience to Draw From, No Emotion’

SAG-AFTRA issued a statement on the AI 'actress' Tilly Norwood, saying she is not a real performer and can never be.

variety.com

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · 22d

I remember the double standard of the ‘rule of 4’ being different in England/Wales & Scotland: Scotland didn’t include young children in the ‘4’, so in Scotland I could have met a friend with her 2 kids and my 2 outdoors, in England I couldn’t. It just seemed so unfair.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 22d

Covid exercise messaging left children stuck indoors, UK inquiry hears

Children not allowed out partly because their exercise – playing – looked too much ‘like fun’, says campaigner Children were stopped from playing outside during Covid partly because it looked “like fun” and did not fit with the seriousness of the restrictions, the UK’s inquiry has heard. Alice Ferguson, the founding director of Playing Out, which campaigns for children’s freedom to play outside, told the inquiry that play was fundamental for children’s health and wellbeing, especially play outside with other children. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · 29d

I feel like I read Great Expectations too young - I found it a struggle at the time - but Bleak House’s plot really is a tangled web. The other (Dickens adjacent) book I definitely read too young was the Moonstone: re-reading once more familiar with detective fiction as a genre, I tore through it!

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · 29d

I saw this come up again on Facebook today and re-read that opening paragraph. I feel like I understand the context much better than when I first read it - having the Crystal Palace dinosaurs in the neighbourhood helps - but there’s no doubt it’s the Dickens I found most challenging to read.

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Sep 18

A 2024 study found that 58 per cent of English majors at two Midwestern universities had so much trouble interpreting the opening paragraphs of “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens that “they would not be able to read the novel on their own.”

What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?

The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.

www.newyorker.com

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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · Sep 23

It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity

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Jon Wesley Huff @jonwesleyhuff.bsky.social · Sep 19

This was a great joke.

From 30 Rock:
Tracy Jordan: I finally understand the ending of The Sixth Sense. The names are the people worked on the movie!

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · Sep 20

Watching Nosferatu in the hope of being pleasantly scared in a minor key, but it’s just pure ham. What a shame…

Reposted by Alison Gibbs

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · Sep 17

I have dealt with my BIG FEELINGS about people saying mean things about London by writing this about 57 things I love in London. There were 100 things I loved, but it got too long for one email. London is inexhaustible.

naomialderman.substack.com/p/57-things-...

57 things I love in London

because London is so good. it's just so so good.

naomialderman.substack.com

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · Sep 17

I can add so many things - the Crystal Palace dinosaurs, Tooting lido (I’d choose it over Brockwell), the view from Streatham Common (Van Gogh loved it too), the Ikea towers of Croydon, Battersea Park & its zoo, John Soane’s museum, the Inns of Court, Bloomsbury, the Barbican, the wobbly bridge…

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · Sep 17

It’s my favourite no filler album. No track I’d skip, except Waking the Witch, because to this day I still find it too scary to listen to. But I’d add in Under the Ivy, which is glorious.

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Alison Gibbs @guineagibbs.bsky.social · Sep 11

Our daughter’s school suffered a fire in the holidays and we are fundraising to buy books and resources for the temporary site they are moving to. Anyone who is able to donate - thank you!

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/juliansptfa

Supporting Julian's Primary School after fire

On 23 Aug, the Streatham site of Julian's Primary school suffered a serious fire. We will soon be crowdfunding to help support the school.

www.crowdfunder.co.uk

Reposted by Alison Gibbs

John Self @john-self.bsky.social · Sep 2

Fifteen years ago, Jon noticed that Penguin's new Modern Classic edition of Nabokov's Lolita had stripped out the foreword by "John Ray, Jr." - who needs this yawnsome old intro! - ...which is actually part of the novel. A contact at Penguin told me the following Monday morning was not a jolly one.

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Michael Stipe @michaelstipe.bsky.social · Aug 30

I can

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Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · Sep 2

This is just the saddest news. A really good man and a really good bookseller.

Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · Sep 2

Really sad news.

Jonathan was a mensch and Bookseller Crow is a joy.

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · Sep 2

Shocked beyond belief to hear (via the shop’s IG account) of the death of Jonathan Main, the stalwart of Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace.

I only met Jon once but we chatted online for years and he was so very funny, interesting, and knowledgable (with apt cynicism) about the book world. RIP Jon.