Richard Smyth
rsmythfreelance.bsky.social
Richard Smyth
@rsmythfreelance.bsky.social
Writer.
Pinned
This is what I'm working on next: fascism and the environment. Hoping to finish it before the world burns and/or the fascists take charge. Fingers crossed. Do ask me about it, if you're curious. www.thebookseller.com/rights/manch...
Manchester University Press signs Richard Smyth’s ‘vital’ book on fascism and the environment
Manchester University Press has acquired Richard Smyth’s Greenshirts, a new book that uncovers the "deep, often obscured entanglements between fascist ideologies and environmental thought" over the la...
www.thebookseller.com
It's like if me and @derbren.bsky.social were on OnlyFans and you are all our subscribers and also everyone is a dweeb.
🎄*TIME FOR THE BIG REVEAL*🎄
It’s Monday. The 15th. The ides of December. And that means that it’s time for the 2025 Bluesky Bubble Christmas Present. (¼)
December 15, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Morning.
December 15, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Brussels sprout bhajis.
December 14, 2025 at 12:09 PM
My small son just jive-walked into the room singing DA-AD, CAN YOU SO-OLVE MY PRO-OH-OH-OBLEM and I think we have the germ here of Parenting: The Musical.
December 12, 2025 at 6:34 PM
I'm in the bumper Christmas @litreview.bsky.social, talking mostly about pickles. #pickles
December 12, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Morning.
December 12, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
What actor’s facial expression in a movie will stay with you for the rest of your life?
December 11, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
‘A sound archivist told me he and his colleagues could earn more in the private sector but they work here for less pay because “we believe in what we do.”’

Anna Aslanyan on the picket line at the British Library, from the blog.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Anna Aslanyan | On the Picket Line
On Monday morning, more than a hundred people formed a picket line outside one of the entrances to the British Library...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 11, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Ahh.
December 11, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Christmassy library.
December 11, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Pub absolutely rammed to the rafters at 11.58 on a Thursday. God bless this stupid country.
December 11, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
The size of life. So beautifully done by Neal Agarwal.

neal.fun/size-of-life/
Size of Life
From an amoeba to a blue whale
neal.fun
December 10, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
Keeping quiet on the school discipline discourse so as not to out myself as a secret fascist.
November 4, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
I love books but is reading really doing all that much for you if it hasn't taught you not to characterise systematic societal issues as personal moral failings
December 10, 2025 at 12:42 PM
They sang Somewhere Only We Know at the school Christmas show last night, which reminded me of the time I posted on Twitter about how, in my head, the chorus goes "Tony Dorigo, Tony Cascarino". Long story short, Tony Dorigo got involved, and my friend made me this commemorative coaster.
December 10, 2025 at 9:25 AM
I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without Ceefax - my dad in 1978
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"

Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
I tell you what, that Santa Claus has got real presence about him
December 18, 2024 at 5:32 PM
Completely in love with this review, by Mancunian suffragist, socialist and Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson, of an adoring 1934 biography of Oswald Mosley.
December 8, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
A Personal Anthology will return in 2026, but I'd like to end 2025 with a Collaborative Festive Anthology!

So if you have a favourite Christmassy, Hanukkah-y, New Year Evie or otherwise Wintry short story that you'd like to write about, hit me up! DMs open.

Going out Friday 19th December.
December 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
I wrote a SubStack about my books of the year, enjoy!

The photo is in no way related to the books, it is just from the section feat. links to my latest articles.

open.substack.com/pub/sianushk...
2025 - my year in books
Reading. It's my hobby.
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
Reposted by Richard Smyth
John Bevis's definitive study concerns itself with the lives and partnership of the Keartons, especially their role in the history of nature photography; their attitudes to and interaction with nature; and the status of invention in their work. uniformbooks.co.uk/thekeartons.php
December 8, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Richard Smyth
What did I do, if anything, in 2025? I'm glad you asked! IT'S THE SMYTH REVIEW OF THE SMYTH YEAR.
December 8, 2025 at 12:36 PM
When in fact the answer is a topless calendar, incrementally concealed by packets of peanuts.
why do English people always think the answer is a nude calendar
I would also like some news. tbf I'd probably prefer news, nudes would be awkward
December 8, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Was feeling like I didn't really do anything this year. But it turns out I did [checks notes] six things.
What did I do, if anything, in 2025? I'm glad you asked! IT'S THE SMYTH REVIEW OF THE SMYTH YEAR.
December 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM