David Collard
@davidcollard.bsky.social
Autheur. Unfluencer.
'A Crumpled Swan' (2025)
https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/a_crumpled_swan/
'Multiple Joyce' (2022)
https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/multiple_joyce/
(No DMs. I block anonymous followers with no bio or original posts)
'A Crumpled Swan' (2025)
https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/a_crumpled_swan/
'Multiple Joyce' (2022)
https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/multiple_joyce/
(No DMs. I block anonymous followers with no bio or original posts)
Tonight's viewing: 'Bell Book & Candle' (dir. Richard Quine, 1959). It's a Christmas movie, uniting Kim Novak and James Stewart in a comic antidote to 'Vertigo'. Kim belongs to a coven of witches in modern day Manhattan and falls in love with a mortal. Things happen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=70s1...
December 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Tonight's viewing: 'Bell Book & Candle' (dir. Richard Quine, 1959). It's a Christmas movie, uniting Kim Novak and James Stewart in a comic antidote to 'Vertigo'. Kim belongs to a coven of witches in modern day Manhattan and falls in love with a mortal. Things happen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=70s1...
At some point before the end of the year, find 90 minutes to watch WESTERN APPROACHES (dir. Pat Jackson, 1944). A drama/documentary about the North Atlantic convoys, shot (incredibly) in Technicolor and with no professional actors. The faces are unforgettable. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYNI...
December 26, 2025 at 8:29 AM
At some point before the end of the year, find 90 minutes to watch WESTERN APPROACHES (dir. Pat Jackson, 1944). A drama/documentary about the North Atlantic convoys, shot (incredibly) in Technicolor and with no professional actors. The faces are unforgettable. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYNI...
I watched 'The Passionate Friends' (1949, dir. David Lean, the film he made after 'Brief Encounter') because Paul Thomas Anderson cited it as an influence on his sublime 'Phantom Thread'. A few intense moments aside, it's plodding and cold-blooded; emotions repeatedly asserted, not embodied.
December 25, 2025 at 7:55 PM
I watched 'The Passionate Friends' (1949, dir. David Lean, the film he made after 'Brief Encounter') because Paul Thomas Anderson cited it as an influence on his sublime 'Phantom Thread'. A few intense moments aside, it's plodding and cold-blooded; emotions repeatedly asserted, not embodied.
'Tiny Tim, who did NOT diet...'
December 25, 2025 at 6:42 PM
'Tiny Tim, who did NOT diet...'
This scalded the eyes out of me. What a superb performance.
This is such a weirdly beautiful work of art
December 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
This scalded the eyes out of me. What a superb performance.
Scrooge, redeemed on Christmas day, sends a turkey ('twice the size of Tiny Tim') to the Cratchit family house at 2, Porter Street in Camden (now Marylebone). Here's that address today (right). God bless us, everyone.
December 24, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Scrooge, redeemed on Christmas day, sends a turkey ('twice the size of Tiny Tim') to the Cratchit family house at 2, Porter Street in Camden (now Marylebone). Here's that address today (right). God bless us, everyone.
A Christmas Eve screening of Scrooge (1951), with the peerless Alastair Sim. Am perplexed, as ever, by the prominence of Clifford Mollison in the credits, who has a cough and a spit as Samuel Wilkins. Recommended: a brilliant biography of its flamboyant Belfast-born director, Brian Desmond Hurst.
December 24, 2025 at 7:45 PM
A Christmas Eve screening of Scrooge (1951), with the peerless Alastair Sim. Am perplexed, as ever, by the prominence of Clifford Mollison in the credits, who has a cough and a spit as Samuel Wilkins. Recommended: a brilliant biography of its flamboyant Belfast-born director, Brian Desmond Hurst.
My final nocturnal perambulation featured this little fellow in the window of Dunns the Bakers on Muswell Hill Broadway.
December 24, 2025 at 5:11 PM
My final nocturnal perambulation featured this little fellow in the window of Dunns the Bakers on Muswell Hill Broadway.
Odd graphic for the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of a Jeeves and Wooster story today. Looks more like Phileas Fogg and Passepartout.
December 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Odd graphic for the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of a Jeeves and Wooster story today. Looks more like Phileas Fogg and Passepartout.
Is there a technical term for the addition of snow to letters, as seen in this Christmas Eve issue of Smash! (1966). A kind of visual onomatopoeia, seen (e.g.) on signs for 'ICE COLD DRINKS' or in the addition of flames to labels for RED HOT sauces.
December 24, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Is there a technical term for the addition of snow to letters, as seen in this Christmas Eve issue of Smash! (1966). A kind of visual onomatopoeia, seen (e.g.) on signs for 'ICE COLD DRINKS' or in the addition of flames to labels for RED HOT sauces.
Reposted by David Collard
Ladies and gentlemen, @johnnymuggins.bsky.social
Thanks to @johnnymuggins.bsky.social, author of TEETH, FINE, and SPINE, for this reading from @guillermostitch.bsky.social's forthcoming THE COAST OF EVERYTHING. Preorder at thecoastofeverything.com.
John Patrick Higgins Reads From Guillermo Stitch's THE COAST OF EVERYTHING
Thanks to John Patrick Higgins, author of TEETH, FINE, and SPINE, for this unexpectedly polysyllabic reading from Guillermo Stitch's THE COAST OF EVERYTHING....
youtube.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, @johnnymuggins.bsky.social
The interior of W. Martyn, Muswell Hill, earlier this afternoon.
December 23, 2025 at 2:58 PM
The interior of W. Martyn, Muswell Hill, earlier this afternoon.
Researching the Ivor Montagu archive in the British Film Institute library I discovered some unpublished verse translations of Uzbek folk songs by W. H. Auden, lost since the 1930s, which were written to accompany a screening of Dziga Vertov's 'Three Hymns for Lenin.' It was a giddying moment.
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Researching the Ivor Montagu archive in the British Film Institute library I discovered some unpublished verse translations of Uzbek folk songs by W. H. Auden, lost since the 1930s, which were written to accompany a screening of Dziga Vertov's 'Three Hymns for Lenin.' It was a giddying moment.
The Guardian's Poem of the Week is taken from Chris McCabe's superb recent collection 'Hedonism' and comes with a thoughtful commentary by Carol Rumens www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
Buy 'Hedonism' here: ninearchespress.com/publications...
Buy 'Hedonism' here: ninearchespress.com/publications...
Poem of the week: Down on the canal on Christmas Day by Chris McCabe
A melancholy December vision in Liverpool invokes a Dickensian ghost with more worldly but still warm realism
www.theguardian.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:41 AM
The Guardian's Poem of the Week is taken from Chris McCabe's superb recent collection 'Hedonism' and comes with a thoughtful commentary by Carol Rumens www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
Buy 'Hedonism' here: ninearchespress.com/publications...
Buy 'Hedonism' here: ninearchespress.com/publications...
'Nous maigrirons ensemble' (1979)* in which Peter Ustinov tries to lose weight. That's it. That's the plot. Witless 1970s French farce - but marvel at the cast, clothes, cars, and decor! www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_w3...
December 21, 2025 at 1:29 PM
'Nous maigrirons ensemble' (1979)* in which Peter Ustinov tries to lose weight. That's it. That's the plot. Witless 1970s French farce - but marvel at the cast, clothes, cars, and decor! www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_w3...
Thank you Penny. All support (and donations) are very welcome!
You know as a writer (and reader), I support this down to my marrow. I've written about our exclusion from literature so many times, most recently in The Bookseller and I'm exhausted. But still, the words keep coming. They must. @thebookseller.com @royalliteraryfund.bsky.social #untoldstories
If you see this please share (i.e. repost, not just like)! The Barbellion Prize is a unique award for writers with disabilities. We need to raise £20k to secure its future, so please make a donation, no matter how large, no matter how small, here: barbellionprize.org/donate/ Thank you!
December 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Thank you Penny. All support (and donations) are very welcome!
An early perambulation (still daylight, just) and impressed to learn that Tarzan the Ape-man has branched out into catering.
December 20, 2025 at 3:46 PM
An early perambulation (still daylight, just) and impressed to learn that Tarzan the Ape-man has branched out into catering.
Perfect seasonal viewing. Claude Chabrol's marvellously bleak and wintery debut, which initiated the nouvelle vague. Shot on location in a depressed rural backwater and featuring three great performances, plus the locals. I love it so much I bought the poster. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrqI...
December 20, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Perfect seasonal viewing. Claude Chabrol's marvellously bleak and wintery debut, which initiated the nouvelle vague. Shot on location in a depressed rural backwater and featuring three great performances, plus the locals. I love it so much I bought the poster. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrqI...
My Book of the Year. Read about it (and others) here: review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...
December 19, 2025 at 3:24 PM
My Book of the Year. Read about it (and others) here: review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...
Reposted by David Collard
Authors and agents have to make sure their translation contracts have a human translators only clause
Hard no to this: French publisher Harlequin has told translators that their work will now be done by AI. They can ‘revise’ AI translations at much lower rate. It’s a subsidiary of Harper Collins so treat this as a test for rollout elsewhere
"Bradage de la traduction, plan social invisible : Harlequin passe à l’IA"
Faites tourner, parce qu'il va falloir se battre encore plus. :/
#traduction #IA #Harlequin #ATLF
Faites tourner, parce qu'il va falloir se battre encore plus. :/
#traduction #IA #Harlequin #ATLF
December 18, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Authors and agents have to make sure their translation contracts have a human translators only clause
Reposted by David Collard
"Except those conversations, while normal in speed and rhythm, were anything but normal in terms of content."
Rufo Quintavalle's tribute to the late Ian Monk. Winter '25 DADA issue.
https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19-winter-2025/ian-monk-19602025/
Rufo Quintavalle's tribute to the late Ian Monk. Winter '25 DADA issue.
https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19-winter-2025/ian-monk-19602025/
December 18, 2025 at 5:01 PM
"Except those conversations, while normal in speed and rhythm, were anything but normal in terms of content."
Rufo Quintavalle's tribute to the late Ian Monk. Winter '25 DADA issue.
https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19-winter-2025/ian-monk-19602025/
Rufo Quintavalle's tribute to the late Ian Monk. Winter '25 DADA issue.
https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-19-winter-2025/ian-monk-19602025/
Reposted by David Collard
Not sure where to start with translated literature? Or does it sometimes leave you puzzled or unsure? Then this FREE (fun, interactive) Webinar with @annmorgan.bsky.social on 20 Jan will help you become a confident literary explorer. Hosted by 'moi' 😂 Register now us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Relearning to Read? Adventures in Not Knowing. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Relearning to Read? Adventures in Not Knowing. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
us02web.zoom.us
December 17, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Not sure where to start with translated literature? Or does it sometimes leave you puzzled or unsure? Then this FREE (fun, interactive) Webinar with @annmorgan.bsky.social on 20 Jan will help you become a confident literary explorer. Hosted by 'moi' 😂 Register now us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Reposted by David Collard
New Substack. Horses, Stanbridge, mud in your eye.
“To find the centre, begin at the edge”, he had scribbled in a margin.
Two months ago you were God.
guillermostitch.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:34 PM
New Substack. Horses, Stanbridge, mud in your eye.
Reposted by David Collard
Very sad to report that JOHN ANTROBUS died yesterday (15th December) aged 92. A frequent writing collaborator with Spike, he conceived and co-wrote The Bed Sitting Room, two Goon Shows, sketches for the Fred shows & so much more. Glad we got a chance to salute him with a show earlier this year. RIP
December 16, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Very sad to report that JOHN ANTROBUS died yesterday (15th December) aged 92. A frequent writing collaborator with Spike, he conceived and co-wrote The Bed Sitting Room, two Goon Shows, sketches for the Fred shows & so much more. Glad we got a chance to salute him with a show earlier this year. RIP
That time of year again, and here's my off-trail Book of the Year choice.
December 16, 2025 at 1:50 PM
That time of year again, and here's my off-trail Book of the Year choice.