Swithun
@swithuncooper.bsky.social
Stay-at-home mother of none
George Saunders ending his latest Story Club email with :) is delightful to me. :) to you too George.
January 25, 2026 at 6:18 PM
George Saunders ending his latest Story Club email with :) is delightful to me. :) to you too George.
My brain when I enter the work Zoom
1777: Fog, dark & still, deep fog.
January 19, 2026 at 7:26 AM
My brain when I enter the work Zoom
Did The Observer used to DATE The Salt Path?! Girl! Move on
January 18, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Did The Observer used to DATE The Salt Path?! Girl! Move on
Okay, the end of this article does suggest JOINING YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY and PUTTING YOUR PHONE AWAY, but this all comes after "spend £50 on a blanket and £12 on a mug"....
I read 50 books last year. Here's everything that helped me stay on track
From the right e-reader to a book subscription, here are my favorite ways (some free, some vibe-setting) to read a lot
www.theguardian.com
January 17, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Okay, the end of this article does suggest JOINING YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY and PUTTING YOUR PHONE AWAY, but this all comes after "spend £50 on a blanket and £12 on a mug"....
One day (🙏) I'm going to earn more than twelve grand a year again, and the HMRC online self-assessment portal will assume I've spent the last three years running some wild scam and have me arrested
January 16, 2026 at 3:15 PM
One day (🙏) I'm going to earn more than twelve grand a year again, and the HMRC online self-assessment portal will assume I've spent the last three years running some wild scam and have me arrested
If this whole "you in 2016" thing has taught me anything it's that 2016 wasn't the other week. Recently I had been wondering why all the lettering had peeled off this T-shirt and why I haven't starved myself into fitting into it again, and the answer is: I'm no longer 30.
January 16, 2026 at 7:57 AM
If this whole "you in 2016" thing has taught me anything it's that 2016 wasn't the other week. Recently I had been wondering why all the lettering had peeled off this T-shirt and why I haven't starved myself into fitting into it again, and the answer is: I'm no longer 30.
Extremely niche literary anecdote:
Before the Robert Glück event at Foyles this evening, Adam Mars-Jones crept unannounced onto the stage and hid a paper-wrapped baked good behind the podium. But! The organisers didn't realise this had happened, so when the Q&A was about to begin...
Before the Robert Glück event at Foyles this evening, Adam Mars-Jones crept unannounced onto the stage and hid a paper-wrapped baked good behind the podium. But! The organisers didn't realise this had happened, so when the Q&A was about to begin...
January 8, 2026 at 9:45 PM
Extremely niche literary anecdote:
Before the Robert Glück event at Foyles this evening, Adam Mars-Jones crept unannounced onto the stage and hid a paper-wrapped baked good behind the podium. But! The organisers didn't realise this had happened, so when the Q&A was about to begin...
Before the Robert Glück event at Foyles this evening, Adam Mars-Jones crept unannounced onto the stage and hid a paper-wrapped baked good behind the podium. But! The organisers didn't realise this had happened, so when the Q&A was about to begin...
The writer doesn't get to tell the reader how to read their book or how to understand it. Do what you want with it! It's *your* book now, motherfucker
Settle an argument: I told my wife I never read epigraphs in books because they are pointless and she was outraged. Who's right?
January 7, 2026 at 10:15 AM
The writer doesn't get to tell the reader how to read their book or how to understand it. Do what you want with it! It's *your* book now, motherfucker
I told the therapist that an agent had called my novel "unsaleably strange" and he suggested it might win me the Nobel Prize for Literature?? Do we chalk this down to an erroneous overcorrection or is this the point where I leave therapy to avoid becoming a complete narcissist
January 6, 2026 at 7:33 PM
I told the therapist that an agent had called my novel "unsaleably strange" and he suggested it might win me the Nobel Prize for Literature?? Do we chalk this down to an erroneous overcorrection or is this the point where I leave therapy to avoid becoming a complete narcissist
Trying to hype myself up out of my sick bed by pretending I am in a French existential romance novel, or, like, Room at the Top. I am simply a man whose lungs are sore. It is time to wash my face and leave the house.
January 2, 2026 at 1:54 PM
Trying to hype myself up out of my sick bed by pretending I am in a French existential romance novel, or, like, Room at the Top. I am simply a man whose lungs are sore. It is time to wash my face and leave the house.
Finished the Debsey Wykes memoir at 9.30pm last night and went to FUCKING BED like it was some kind of WEDNESDAY
January 1, 2026 at 9:49 AM
Finished the Debsey Wykes memoir at 9.30pm last night and went to FUCKING BED like it was some kind of WEDNESDAY
I am ill but with JUST ENOUGH energy to watch A Matter of Life and Death, the best ever film about how being ill is also a ✨️magical journey✨️
December 31, 2025 at 9:32 AM
I am ill but with JUST ENOUGH energy to watch A Matter of Life and Death, the best ever film about how being ill is also a ✨️magical journey✨️
Reposted by Swithun
third base is when you discuss the frankfurt school
December 31, 2025 at 2:01 AM
third base is when you discuss the frankfurt school
I am currently part of a conversation in which someone just said of her husband "he's been very supportive of my reformer pilates"
December 27, 2025 at 10:13 PM
I am currently part of a conversation in which someone just said of her husband "he's been very supportive of my reformer pilates"
At the dementia care facility. A woman being helped onto her walker asks the carer: "Are you my son?" Him: no. Her: "Oh, of course, you're much too handsome to be my son."
Friends, her son was standing beside her, holding her bag. An absolute assassination, ten out of ten, no notes.
Friends, her son was standing beside her, holding her bag. An absolute assassination, ten out of ten, no notes.
December 26, 2025 at 1:21 PM
At the dementia care facility. A woman being helped onto her walker asks the carer: "Are you my son?" Him: no. Her: "Oh, of course, you're much too handsome to be my son."
Friends, her son was standing beside her, holding her bag. An absolute assassination, ten out of ten, no notes.
Friends, her son was standing beside her, holding her bag. An absolute assassination, ten out of ten, no notes.
Reposted by Swithun
Last Christmas Ich gave thee myne hearte
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
December 24, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Last Christmas Ich gave thee myne hearte
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
The verye next daye ther came a wolf
Wyth sinews of whispers - quiet as frost -
And the wolf stole myne hearte, fled
To a tower out of tyme biyonde all the stars.
Seek now myne hearte,
Return it within a yeare and a daye:
Thys ys thy queste
Fayle not
After a long day of biting ankles, jumping on sofas, and begging for food off people's plates at dinner, my mum's dog has finally.... worked up an appetite for maximum attention.
December 20, 2025 at 9:45 PM
After a long day of biting ankles, jumping on sofas, and begging for food off people's plates at dinner, my mum's dog has finally.... worked up an appetite for maximum attention.
Back into Proust, bébé, and the essay-meditation after the sex scene at the start of Vol 4 contains everything I've been trying to embody in the novel I've spent the last 9 months working on. (In a good way! Thanks for doing the work, Marcel, so I don't have to!)
December 18, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Back into Proust, bébé, and the essay-meditation after the sex scene at the start of Vol 4 contains everything I've been trying to embody in the novel I've spent the last 9 months working on. (In a good way! Thanks for doing the work, Marcel, so I don't have to!)
I'd quite like a transgender for every member of my family, especially at Christmas. Just a designated trans person for each of us. Nobody else in the family meets them. But they are there for us when we need time away from whatever drama starts brewing. Not a volunteer service! I would pay!
Trump: "Transgender for every member of your family. If they're not feeling well that night, let's just change their sex."
December 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM
I'd quite like a transgender for every member of my family, especially at Christmas. Just a designated trans person for each of us. Nobody else in the family meets them. But they are there for us when we need time away from whatever drama starts brewing. Not a volunteer service! I would pay!
Baudrillard's stages of semiotics and simulacra except applied to the fact that Matt from Busted is now playing the Emcee in Cabaret
December 10, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Baudrillard's stages of semiotics and simulacra except applied to the fact that Matt from Busted is now playing the Emcee in Cabaret
Eavesdropping on my partner getting a £10 refund from B&Q on the phone. Terrified. Partly by his no-bullshit attitude ("there has been poor communication on your part") but also he just KNOWS the phonetic alphabet? Spelling out his email like "alpha romeo tango" without thinking. How
December 6, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Eavesdropping on my partner getting a £10 refund from B&Q on the phone. Terrified. Partly by his no-bullshit attitude ("there has been poor communication on your part") but also he just KNOWS the phonetic alphabet? Spelling out his email like "alpha romeo tango" without thinking. How
Spent the last two days editing & rewriting what turns out to be almost 45,000 words, to send out for approval. Feel entirely unhinged, brain like wet cotton wool. Please someone cook me a hot meal
December 5, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Spent the last two days editing & rewriting what turns out to be almost 45,000 words, to send out for approval. Feel entirely unhinged, brain like wet cotton wool. Please someone cook me a hot meal
Reading an article on Charles Dickens that calls Miss Wade a "crypto lesbian", so now I'm picturing her walking in, kicking off her Birkenstocks, adjusting her shades and telling Tattycoram to invest in Bitcoin
December 4, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reading an article on Charles Dickens that calls Miss Wade a "crypto lesbian", so now I'm picturing her walking in, kicking off her Birkenstocks, adjusting her shades and telling Tattycoram to invest in Bitcoin
Reposted by Swithun
‘Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia’
December 2, 2025 at 9:11 AM
‘Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia’