Jan Hicks
@dustystacks.bsky.social
Archivist. Book reader. Persistent.
I write down my thoughts about books here https://thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/
I write other things here https://thesiftingwell.wordpress.com/
I write down my thoughts about books here https://thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/
I write other things here https://thesiftingwell.wordpress.com/
Reposted by Jan Hicks
Read Performatively with Effin' Birds buttons, shirts, mugs and stickers.
20% off with the code SHOPWIDE20:
eatf.art/reading
20% off with the code SHOPWIDE20:
eatf.art/reading
November 10, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Read Performatively with Effin' Birds buttons, shirts, mugs and stickers.
20% off with the code SHOPWIDE20:
eatf.art/reading
20% off with the code SHOPWIDE20:
eatf.art/reading
Me: There's no Bake Off.
Himself: No, it's finished.
Me: What am I going to watch?
Himself: It's okay, it's Quizzy.
And that's when I realised it's not Tuesday.
#AShortSadTale #QuizzyMonday
Himself: No, it's finished.
Me: What am I going to watch?
Himself: It's okay, it's Quizzy.
And that's when I realised it's not Tuesday.
#AShortSadTale #QuizzyMonday
November 10, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Me: There's no Bake Off.
Himself: No, it's finished.
Me: What am I going to watch?
Himself: It's okay, it's Quizzy.
And that's when I realised it's not Tuesday.
#AShortSadTale #QuizzyMonday
Himself: No, it's finished.
Me: What am I going to watch?
Himself: It's okay, it's Quizzy.
And that's when I realised it's not Tuesday.
#AShortSadTale #QuizzyMonday
I'm in my Give A Fuck Fifties. Hard identify with these bolshy redbreasts.
Time and time again, the United Kingdom’s robins will literally dance right up to you and shake out a bag containing all zero of the fucks they possess directly in front of your face.
November 9, 2025 at 9:13 AM
I'm in my Give A Fuck Fifties. Hard identify with these bolshy redbreasts.
Reposted by Jan Hicks
Reposted by Jan Hicks
I didn't realise when I woke up this morning that I was going to write a spooky story in its entirety, nor quite sure what it was going to be about. Then I remembered today was Halloween, so I thought: Why not post it here? www.tom-cox.com/lillian/
Lillian
I didn't realise when I woke up this morning that I was going to write a spooky story in its entirety, nor quite what it was going to be about (apart from an unnerving memory from my childhood about a...
www.tom-cox.com
October 31, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I didn't realise when I woke up this morning that I was going to write a spooky story in its entirety, nor quite sure what it was going to be about. Then I remembered today was Halloween, so I thought: Why not post it here? www.tom-cox.com/lillian/
I'm an archivist. I love photographs. It's the names, places and memories attached to these images that give them their power.
November 1, 2025 at 10:52 AM
I'm an archivist. I love photographs. It's the names, places and memories attached to these images that give them their power.
Reposted by Jan Hicks
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
![[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS]
1
NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]:
Hello there
2
[A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk].
DAD:
Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids?
3
NT EMPLOYEE:
Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail!
4
MUM:
That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids?
5
NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]:
Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot!
6
NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]:
Listen - that's their call
[Calls emanating from the landscape]:
tut-tut
woke-woke
7
NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]:
They are extremely sensitive and fragile...
But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery.
8
KIDS [pointing]:
There they are!
[Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure].
[Little people noises]:
woke-woke
tut-tut
woke-woke
9
[Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]:
Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house.
[Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]:
tut-tut
woke-woke
10
MUM [pointing]:
What's that one doing there?
NT EMPLOYEE:
Oh, that's so sweet…
11
[We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away].
NT EMPLOYEE:
I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph…
12
[We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]:
Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE?
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreib7lt736b6rmzinml5s7kxjdaapo2a36xp4d4lssypimx3taqicdm@jpeg)
October 31, 2025 at 9:02 AM
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
I briefly joined Substack to follow a handful of writers I enjoy. I downloaded the app in good faith. The amplification of the Notes function over the actual content annoyed me. The article shared by @allybfraz.bsky.social shows the reason behind that and more. I'm glad I left it behind.
Here’s an article from Tyler Denk back in August that is just one peak behind the curtain for anyone who is interested: mail.bigdeskenergy.com/p/substack-j...
Substack just killed the creator economy
RIP
mail.bigdeskenergy.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:37 PM
I briefly joined Substack to follow a handful of writers I enjoy. I downloaded the app in good faith. The amplification of the Notes function over the actual content annoyed me. The article shared by @allybfraz.bsky.social shows the reason behind that and more. I'm glad I left it behind.
I like Epping Forest and Connaught Water
October 28, 2025 at 9:55 AM
I like Epping Forest and Connaught Water
Reposted by Jan Hicks
The stories of Levenshulme take centre stage this November, as A Sense of Place transforms the Old Library into a night of words, sound and memory.
Among the readings is Parakeet by Dipika Mummery, set in Highfield Country Park, one of our neighbourhood's wonderful green spaces.
buff.ly/FPa13ub
Among the readings is Parakeet by Dipika Mummery, set in Highfield Country Park, one of our neighbourhood's wonderful green spaces.
buff.ly/FPa13ub
October 27, 2025 at 2:39 PM
The stories of Levenshulme take centre stage this November, as A Sense of Place transforms the Old Library into a night of words, sound and memory.
Among the readings is Parakeet by Dipika Mummery, set in Highfield Country Park, one of our neighbourhood's wonderful green spaces.
buff.ly/FPa13ub
Among the readings is Parakeet by Dipika Mummery, set in Highfield Country Park, one of our neighbourhood's wonderful green spaces.
buff.ly/FPa13ub
Reposted by Jan Hicks
October Book of the Month is 'Bog People: A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror'. In an extract from the introduction, editor Hollie Starling (@folkhorrormagpie.bsky.social) considers the disruptive potential of stories to upend fortresses of power www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/10/bog-...
October 18, 2025 at 9:41 AM
October Book of the Month is 'Bog People: A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror'. In an extract from the introduction, editor Hollie Starling (@folkhorrormagpie.bsky.social) considers the disruptive potential of stories to upend fortresses of power www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/10/bog-...
Reposted by Jan Hicks
£2 is unlikely to buy you a takeaway coffee.
But for £2 per month you can read everything I write here:
www.tom-cox.com
If you subscribe for a full year it's even cheaper.
Weekly newsletters & an archive of 100s of 1000s of words.
It's kind of like busking.
But I only play my own songs.
But for £2 per month you can read everything I write here:
www.tom-cox.com
If you subscribe for a full year it's even cheaper.
Weekly newsletters & an archive of 100s of 1000s of words.
It's kind of like busking.
But I only play my own songs.
Tom Cox
New writing by bestselling author Tom Cox.
www.tom-cox.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:13 AM
£2 is unlikely to buy you a takeaway coffee.
But for £2 per month you can read everything I write here:
www.tom-cox.com
If you subscribe for a full year it's even cheaper.
Weekly newsletters & an archive of 100s of 1000s of words.
It's kind of like busking.
But I only play my own songs.
But for £2 per month you can read everything I write here:
www.tom-cox.com
If you subscribe for a full year it's even cheaper.
Weekly newsletters & an archive of 100s of 1000s of words.
It's kind of like busking.
But I only play my own songs.
I think about Fen Marilyn a lot. You could say she haunts me, although we've never met in person. The book she appears in, 21st-Century Yokel, is W G Sebald, but if W G Sebald let his surrealism rip.
The book was republished this month blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
#BookSky
The book was republished this month blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
#BookSky
October 23, 2025 at 6:58 AM
I think about Fen Marilyn a lot. You could say she haunts me, although we've never met in person. The book she appears in, 21st-Century Yokel, is W G Sebald, but if W G Sebald let his surrealism rip.
The book was republished this month blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
#BookSky
The book was republished this month blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
#BookSky
Reposted by Jan Hicks
Today’s #1000postcard is the song thrush who sits singing his heart out to anyone who will listen. His liquid song like upward rain dripping over the wet woods in fluting refrain
October 23, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Today’s #1000postcard is the song thrush who sits singing his heart out to anyone who will listen. His liquid song like upward rain dripping over the wet woods in fluting refrain
I had a flexi day off today. We went to see the autumn colours at Dunham Massey this afternoon. The trees and the kitchen garden cooperated nicely.
October 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
I had a flexi day off today. We went to see the autumn colours at Dunham Massey this afternoon. The trees and the kitchen garden cooperated nicely.
It's a grey, damp day, I'm reading Local Haunts by Adam Scovell and his essay about Alderley Edge has sent me back to our most recent visit on a similarly grey, damp day.
#AlderleyEdge #AlanGarner #WierdstoneCountry
#AlderleyEdge #AlanGarner #WierdstoneCountry
October 20, 2025 at 10:15 AM
It's a grey, damp day, I'm reading Local Haunts by Adam Scovell and his essay about Alderley Edge has sent me back to our most recent visit on a similarly grey, damp day.
#AlderleyEdge #AlanGarner #WierdstoneCountry
#AlderleyEdge #AlanGarner #WierdstoneCountry
2.5 months ago, while assembling some boltless shelving at work with an inadequate camping mallet, I clobbered a finger. Like the rings on a tree, my finger nail tells the story.
#HumanBiology #FingerNail
#HumanBiology #FingerNail
October 20, 2025 at 10:03 AM
2.5 months ago, while assembling some boltless shelving at work with an inadequate camping mallet, I clobbered a finger. Like the rings on a tree, my finger nail tells the story.
#HumanBiology #FingerNail
#HumanBiology #FingerNail
I was not expecting the payoff in Hedgecock's Trip Down Memory Lane. 10 blurts of uncontrolled laughter out of 10.
There's a poem & three new stories here, including the title. one (which is my personal favourite). The poem is free to read. For £2 a month/£20 a year minimum you get access to the other three, all the new stuff I post & an archive of hundreds of thousands of words: www.tom-cox.com/fungal-misad...
Fungal Misadventure (Some New Stories And A Poem)
Division Of Labour
I dust my house
I have my own style
Not quite like anybody else
Who ever dusted
Honed
One might say
Over many years
Not unsurpassable
But unparalleled
From across the ro...
www.tom-cox.com
October 19, 2025 at 8:41 AM
I was not expecting the payoff in Hedgecock's Trip Down Memory Lane. 10 blurts of uncontrolled laughter out of 10.
Reposted by Jan Hicks
As I walked, aimless, to the frayed edge of the country, I noticed I was being watched. The antlers did not fool me. I knew it was my former work colleague, Richard Cruckshank, from long ago. Some had called him my nemesis. We’d never had much to say to each other & this afternoon was no different.
October 18, 2025 at 12:43 PM
As I walked, aimless, to the frayed edge of the country, I noticed I was being watched. The antlers did not fool me. I knew it was my former work colleague, Richard Cruckshank, from long ago. Some had called him my nemesis. We’d never had much to say to each other & this afternoon was no different.
I read this at lunchtime but it can be enjoyed at other times of day, also. Worth the subscription.
Some recent diary entries by me, in case anyone would like a read... www.tom-cox.com/autumn-diary/
Autumn Diary
The full version of today's piece is paywalled but can be read it - along with all my other upcoming pieces, and my archive - for a price beginning at £2 per month/£20 per year. I also wanted to take ...
www.tom-cox.com
October 8, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I read this at lunchtime but it can be enjoyed at other times of day, also. Worth the subscription.
Reposted by Jan Hicks
Yes, yes I know I keep banging on about my fucking book! However, if you want one repost this and I’ll do a random winner pick thing by the end of the week because I’m great like that. ♥️📚
#amindofmyown
#amindofmyown
October 7, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Yes, yes I know I keep banging on about my fucking book! However, if you want one repost this and I’ll do a random winner pick thing by the end of the week because I’m great like that. ♥️📚
#amindofmyown
#amindofmyown
At the end of this week we packed 663 volumes onto 11 pallets at the off-site store and reshelved them in the new store. Pictured are the Rate Books which measure roughly 55cmx60cmx5cm and weigh up to 10kg each. I'm glad I had the DeepStore team's help!
#archives #collectionsmove
#archives #collectionsmove
October 4, 2025 at 7:35 AM
At the end of this week we packed 663 volumes onto 11 pallets at the off-site store and reshelved them in the new store. Pictured are the Rate Books which measure roughly 55cmx60cmx5cm and weigh up to 10kg each. I'm glad I had the DeepStore team's help!
#archives #collectionsmove
#archives #collectionsmove
Reposted by Jan Hicks
I've decided to make this piece permanently unpaywalled, as a sample of the writing I do on my newsletter. If you like it, you might enjoy a subscription. If not, you probably won't.
P.S. It's significantly better if you read it to the end, I promise.
www.tom-cox.com/once-upon-a-...
P.S. It's significantly better if you read it to the end, I promise.
www.tom-cox.com/once-upon-a-...
Once Upon A Time On A Lane
A few of you - but probably not loads - will have read this before but, while I put a few finishing touches to a new piece ready for Sunday, I wanted to post it again, in slightly spruced up form, for...
www.tom-cox.com
October 3, 2025 at 7:33 AM
I've decided to make this piece permanently unpaywalled, as a sample of the writing I do on my newsletter. If you like it, you might enjoy a subscription. If not, you probably won't.
P.S. It's significantly better if you read it to the end, I promise.
www.tom-cox.com/once-upon-a-...
P.S. It's significantly better if you read it to the end, I promise.
www.tom-cox.com/once-upon-a-...