Jonathan Gibbs
@jonathangibbs.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at City St George's, Uni of London. I curate the short story project apersonalanthology.com. Novels are Randall or The Painted Grape, and The Large Door. Poetry is Spring Journal. https://linktr.ee/jonathangibbs
Pinned
2026 Reading 1: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett. My second Christmas book, and a wonderfully strange one to start the year with. The strangeness should come as no surprise, after C-L B's previous two books, but still, page by page, it evades certainty and asks question after question.
Three hours. Three stars. At least onr of those for Laura Dern, who does for Lynch what no actress would ever have done for Hitchcock.
(The 21yo did *not* like it.)
boxd.it/cI7Onl
(The 21yo did *not* like it.)
boxd.it/cI7Onl
A ★★★ review of Inland Empire (2006)
When Lynch told us that The Straight Story was his most experimental film, we all smiled and nodded. And then he did this, a more or less improvised, deliberately low-fi rehash of recurring themes he’...
boxd.it
January 18, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Three hours. Three stars. At least onr of those for Laura Dern, who does for Lynch what no actress would ever have done for Hitchcock.
(The 21yo did *not* like it.)
boxd.it/cI7Onl
(The 21yo did *not* like it.)
boxd.it/cI7Onl
So the German name for chaffinch is Buchfink (bookfinch).
Anyone know why this might be? Is it pure coincidence?
Anyone know why this might be? Is it pure coincidence?
January 18, 2026 at 11:15 AM
So the German name for chaffinch is Buchfink (bookfinch).
Anyone know why this might be? Is it pure coincidence?
Anyone know why this might be? Is it pure coincidence?
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
The first of two Lynch films I’m watching with 21yo son at the BFI this weekend. We were one of three father-son pairs that i could see in NFT3. It’s obviously a vibe. Tomorrow, for a bit of a contrast, is Inland Empire.
boxd.it/cGTwTr
boxd.it/cGTwTr
A ★★★★½ review of The Straight Story (1999)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
boxd.it
January 17, 2026 at 11:43 PM
The first of two Lynch films I’m watching with 21yo son at the BFI this weekend. We were one of three father-son pairs that i could see in NFT3. It’s obviously a vibe. Tomorrow, for a bit of a contrast, is Inland Empire.
boxd.it/cGTwTr
boxd.it/cGTwTr
The first of two Lynch films I’m watching with 21yo son at the BFI this weekend. We were one of three father-son pairs that i could see in NFT3. It’s obviously a vibe. Tomorrow, for a bit of a contrast, is Inland Empire.
boxd.it/cGTwTr
boxd.it/cGTwTr
A ★★★★½ review of The Straight Story (1999)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
boxd.it
January 17, 2026 at 11:43 PM
The first of two Lynch films I’m watching with 21yo son at the BFI this weekend. We were one of three father-son pairs that i could see in NFT3. It’s obviously a vibe. Tomorrow, for a bit of a contrast, is Inland Empire.
boxd.it/cGTwTr
boxd.it/cGTwTr
Look, just give him one of the king’s spare decoy crowns. That seems to do the trick.
January 17, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Look, just give him one of the king’s spare decoy crowns. That seems to do the trick.
With some time on my hands I’ve finally got around to playing this weird LP I own: Listen With(out) Piano, a companion piece to Alexis Taylor’s solo album Piano. It’s an ‘overdub’ record by various artists to play alongside Piano, which I’m playing from my phone on a smart speaker.
January 17, 2026 at 5:46 PM
With some time on my hands I’ve finally got around to playing this weird LP I own: Listen With(out) Piano, a companion piece to Alexis Taylor’s solo album Piano. It’s an ‘overdub’ record by various artists to play alongside Piano, which I’m playing from my phone on a smart speaker.
I've updated the apersonalanthology.com website with @polyscribe70.bsky.social Mike Fox's tremendous pick of a dozen favourite short stories.
Check them out here, along with over 3,000 other short story recommendations!
Featuring a Personal Anthology debut for David Bevan, so congrats to him.
Check them out here, along with over 3,000 other short story recommendations!
Featuring a Personal Anthology debut for David Bevan, so congrats to him.
A Personal Anthology
Writers, critics and others dream-edit a personal anthology of their favourite short stories
apersonalanthology.com
January 17, 2026 at 3:47 PM
I've updated the apersonalanthology.com website with @polyscribe70.bsky.social Mike Fox's tremendous pick of a dozen favourite short stories.
Check them out here, along with over 3,000 other short story recommendations!
Featuring a Personal Anthology debut for David Bevan, so congrats to him.
Check them out here, along with over 3,000 other short story recommendations!
Featuring a Personal Anthology debut for David Bevan, so congrats to him.
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
The play starts in three minutes, so here come all the people with seats in the middle of a row. That they chos and booked.
January 17, 2026 at 2:28 PM
The play starts in three minutes, so here come all the people with seats in the middle of a row. That they chos and booked.
Watched Barton Fink last night for the first time since release. Got me thinking how much I'd like to rewatch Steve Buscemi's 1996 Trees Lounge. Anyone watched that recently?
Oh well. I watched this for the first time since release, and I feel like the Coens were still learning, still trying to make bigger movies than they had the budget, or the skills, to make. Great fun, at many moments, but not quite clever enough to pull off its thematic gambit.
boxd.it/cFM0u7
boxd.it/cFM0u7
A ★★★½ review of Barton Fink (1991)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
boxd.it
January 17, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Watched Barton Fink last night for the first time since release. Got me thinking how much I'd like to rewatch Steve Buscemi's 1996 Trees Lounge. Anyone watched that recently?
I appear to have bought a tumble dryer with wifi connectivity. This is not the future we were promised.
That said, if we’d ended up with jet packs, they’d probably run on AI and be self-driving and we wouldn’t want to use them anyway.
That said, if we’d ended up with jet packs, they’d probably run on AI and be self-driving and we wouldn’t want to use them anyway.
January 17, 2026 at 11:32 AM
I appear to have bought a tumble dryer with wifi connectivity. This is not the future we were promised.
That said, if we’d ended up with jet packs, they’d probably run on AI and be self-driving and we wouldn’t want to use them anyway.
That said, if we’d ended up with jet packs, they’d probably run on AI and be self-driving and we wouldn’t want to use them anyway.
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
Oh well. I watched this for the first time since release, and I feel like the Coens were still learning, still trying to make bigger movies than they had the budget, or the skills, to make. Great fun, at many moments, but not quite clever enough to pull off its thematic gambit.
boxd.it/cFM0u7
boxd.it/cFM0u7
A ★★★½ review of Barton Fink (1991)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
boxd.it
January 17, 2026 at 12:14 AM
Oh well. I watched this for the first time since release, and I feel like the Coens were still learning, still trying to make bigger movies than they had the budget, or the skills, to make. Great fun, at many moments, but not quite clever enough to pull off its thematic gambit.
boxd.it/cFM0u7
boxd.it/cFM0u7
Newspapers are for men.
Magazines are for women. (Apart from one magazine, I note. Interesting to see that it’s there at all, really.)
Magazines are for women. (Apart from one magazine, I note. Interesting to see that it’s there at all, really.)
Ladybird book in the spotlight.
The Story of Newspapers, 1969
Artist: Ron Embleton
The Story of Newspapers, 1969
Artist: Ron Embleton
January 16, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Newspapers are for men.
Magazines are for women. (Apart from one magazine, I note. Interesting to see that it’s there at all, really.)
Magazines are for women. (Apart from one magazine, I note. Interesting to see that it’s there at all, really.)
Radio 3 Unwind is the chattering classes’ equivalent of Paddington walking you into the sunset.
January 16, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Radio 3 Unwind is the chattering classes’ equivalent of Paddington walking you into the sunset.
Trying to read Andrew O’Hagan on Walter Lipmann and American journalism and all I can think is suck my dick, lick my balls, and make me a fucking sandwich.
January 16, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Trying to read Andrew O’Hagan on Walter Lipmann and American journalism and all I can think is suck my dick, lick my balls, and make me a fucking sandwich.
The #totp hashtag drifts into my mentions on a Friday night and seeing as I’m in alone I thought I’d sit down with my lentil and spinach curry to watch it, and… Jesus. I guess I wasn’t watching Top of the Pops in the 90s but this is all shite.
January 16, 2026 at 7:24 PM
The #totp hashtag drifts into my mentions on a Friday night and seeing as I’m in alone I thought I’d sit down with my lentil and spinach curry to watch it, and… Jesus. I guess I wasn’t watching Top of the Pops in the 90s but this is all shite.
Just worked my way to the weekend with Artur, as is traditional, and indeed recommended.
Remember: they’re not Ballades; they’re Bad Lads!
Remember: they’re not Ballades; they’re Bad Lads!
January 16, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Just worked my way to the weekend with Artur, as is traditional, and indeed recommended.
Remember: they’re not Ballades; they’re Bad Lads!
Remember: they’re not Ballades; they’re Bad Lads!
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
There is a precedent for a person getting someone else's Nobel Prize. In 1943, the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, gave his Nobel Prize in literature to Joseph Goebbels uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295...
Knut Hamsun
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, Knut Hamsun (1859–1952) was a towering figure of Norwegian letters. He was also a Nazi sympathizer and supp...
uwapress.uw.edu
January 16, 2026 at 1:41 PM
There is a precedent for a person getting someone else's Nobel Prize. In 1943, the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, gave his Nobel Prize in literature to Joseph Goebbels uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295...
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
I feel like I haven't drawn in awhile. here's a quiet morning moment or whatever
November 20, 2024 at 7:57 PM
I feel like I haven't drawn in awhile. here's a quiet morning moment or whatever
And off it goes, Mike Fox’s Personal Anthology, stooping at the bathroom sink in stripy pyjamas to wash, filling its smelly pipe with minute pinches of tobacco from a pouch in its cracked sheepskin waistcoat, going through the moor gate and following the path along the drainage dyke...
A Personal Anthology, by Mike Fox
‘The Quiet’ by Carys Davies (First published in The Stinging Fly 2014, then in the collection The Redemption of Galen Pike, Salt 2014.
apersonalanthology.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 2:11 PM
And off it goes, Mike Fox’s Personal Anthology, stooping at the bathroom sink in stripy pyjamas to wash, filling its smelly pipe with minute pinches of tobacco from a pouch in its cracked sheepskin waistcoat, going through the moor gate and following the path along the drainage dyke...
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
My best reads of 2025 roundup list for them as wants it:
pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/b...
pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/b...
Best of 2025!
I know, everyone else published their best of posts ages ago. What can I say? It’s fashionable to be late. 2025 was a great reading year for me. I’ve winnowed down my best of list to a …
pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:46 PM
My best reads of 2025 roundup list for them as wants it:
pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/b...
pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/b...
Hey, cool cats! This is to let you know that A Personal Anthology is back, baby! Yes: back! Back! BACK!
Today's anthology features a dozen favourite short stories picked and introduced by Mike Fox (@polyscribe70.bsky.social), and hits inboxes at 2pm.
Sign up here, and RT if you already subscribe!
Today's anthology features a dozen favourite short stories picked and introduced by Mike Fox (@polyscribe70.bsky.social), and hits inboxes at 2pm.
Sign up here, and RT if you already subscribe!
About - A Personal Anthology
A weekly guest-editor picks and introduces a personal anthology of twelve favourite short stories. Click to read A Personal Anthology, by Jonathan Gibbs, a Substack publication with thousands of subsc...
apersonalanthology.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 9:54 AM
Hey, cool cats! This is to let you know that A Personal Anthology is back, baby! Yes: back! Back! BACK!
Today's anthology features a dozen favourite short stories picked and introduced by Mike Fox (@polyscribe70.bsky.social), and hits inboxes at 2pm.
Sign up here, and RT if you already subscribe!
Today's anthology features a dozen favourite short stories picked and introduced by Mike Fox (@polyscribe70.bsky.social), and hits inboxes at 2pm.
Sign up here, and RT if you already subscribe!
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
I took out a big pile of library books pre Christmas to try and get myself out of a slump. Now down to 1 left to read and gave most of them back today. Here are my thoughts on each:
January 15, 2026 at 9:47 PM
I took out a big pile of library books pre Christmas to try and get myself out of a slump. Now down to 1 left to read and gave most of them back today. Here are my thoughts on each:
I mean, this is good news, but the tone (high puffy) and competence (low) of this press release makes me despair.
There are infelicities in all three pars, but the middle one makes me despair.
“The health service will take learnings”?🧐
And then “take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS”🤮
There are infelicities in all three pars, but the middle one makes me despair.
“The health service will take learnings”?🧐
And then “take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS”🤮
January 15, 2026 at 9:13 PM
I mean, this is good news, but the tone (high puffy) and competence (low) of this press release makes me despair.
There are infelicities in all three pars, but the middle one makes me despair.
“The health service will take learnings”?🧐
And then “take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS”🤮
There are infelicities in all three pars, but the middle one makes me despair.
“The health service will take learnings”?🧐
And then “take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS”🤮
Two recent reads, that helped me with a January cold. Secondly, The Safekeep by Yael van den Wouden. It's a solid novel, but I found aspects of it annoying – very possibly because I'd just read two student essays on it, so approached it as much as a lecturer as a reader, with an eye on technique.
2026 Reading 5: The Safekeep by Yael van den Wouden. Read while in bed with a cold. A really impressive debut. Two things about it I liked a lot, two less so. Positive: one of them you'll know if you've read it, and I won't spoil if you haven't; the other is the sex scenes, which are splendid.
January 15, 2026 at 6:26 PM
Two recent reads, that helped me with a January cold. Secondly, The Safekeep by Yael van den Wouden. It's a solid novel, but I found aspects of it annoying – very possibly because I'd just read two student essays on it, so approached it as much as a lecturer as a reader, with an eye on technique.