Timothy C. Baker
@timothycbaker.bsky.social
Lectures on Scottish and contemporary literature, writes about animals, tries to be hopeful. He/they. Currently trying to open a cinema in Aberdeen.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
I’m excited to return to Aberdeen University, where I studied for my PhD a long time ago. I’ll be discussing Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho before the library’s wonderful exhibition Fear and Fascination closes.
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
TALK: Lifting the Veil on Ann Radcliffe's 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' - Professor Angela Wright
We are delighted to welcome Professor Angela Wright for the final event as part of the Fear and Fascination Gothic Exhibition programme. This talk is a collaboration with the Centre for the Novel and ...
www.abdn.ac.uk
November 11, 2025 at 1:01 PM
I’m excited to return to Aberdeen University, where I studied for my PhD a long time ago. I’ll be discussing Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho before the library’s wonderful exhibition Fear and Fascination closes.
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/whats-on/22931
I am halfway through Flashlight, and it is excellent; I also very much liked The Land in Winter. Here endeth my thoughts on the Booker.
November 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
I am halfway through Flashlight, and it is excellent; I also very much liked The Land in Winter. Here endeth my thoughts on the Booker.
I agree with the calls not to get complacent, but for the moment, I'm just really happy.
November 10, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I agree with the calls not to get complacent, but for the moment, I'm just really happy.
Aberdeen friends! I’m going to be talking about Aberdeen friends (Nan Shepherd and Agnes Mure Mackenzie, mainly) for Bookweek Scotland. Come if you can! aberdeencity.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...
Book Week Scotland: Nan Shepherd and her friends | Aberdeen City Libraries
In recent years, Nan Shepherd has often been imagined as a solitary walker and
writer. This talk by Dr. Tim Baker looks at the importance of female friendship
in her writing and life, placing She...
aberdeencity.spydus.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Aberdeen friends! I’m going to be talking about Aberdeen friends (Nan Shepherd and Agnes Mure Mackenzie, mainly) for Bookweek Scotland. Come if you can! aberdeencity.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...
I bought Liadan Ní Chuinn's Every One Still Here knowing nothing about it other than that everyone said it was amazing, and oh gosh, this is amazing.
November 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I bought Liadan Ní Chuinn's Every One Still Here knowing nothing about it other than that everyone said it was amazing, and oh gosh, this is amazing.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
Yes! I wonder if there is a word in German (or perhaps Welsh) which captures the feeling of watching episodes of Morse in the late afternoon?
November 1, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Yes! I wonder if there is a word in German (or perhaps Welsh) which captures the feeling of watching episodes of Morse in the late afternoon?
If anyone does a full taxonomy of emotions, I’d propose the very specific sadness soothed only by ITV crime dramas for the list. (Just started Unforgotten. It’s fine! Soothing!)
October 31, 2025 at 11:34 PM
If anyone does a full taxonomy of emotions, I’d propose the very specific sadness soothed only by ITV crime dramas for the list. (Just started Unforgotten. It’s fine! Soothing!)
It’s a wonder of a novel.
Don't exactly know why this popped into my head but if anyone on #BookSky is looking for an INCREDIBLE work of historical fiction that kinda shreds a lot of the usual mechanisms of the genre but is also wise & kinda quiet I recommend The Corner that Held Them portersquarebooks.com/book/9781681...
portersquarebooks.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:06 PM
It’s a wonder of a novel.
This week I saw Emma Pollock (tiny gig in Aberdeen) and Gillian Welch (big gig in Glasgow), and a) my music taste in my 20s was really excellent and I picked right, but b) it now feels weird to have a night without weeping/reliving the last 30 years at a gig.
October 30, 2025 at 7:05 PM
This week I saw Emma Pollock (tiny gig in Aberdeen) and Gillian Welch (big gig in Glasgow), and a) my music taste in my 20s was really excellent and I picked right, but b) it now feels weird to have a night without weeping/reliving the last 30 years at a gig.
I'm not going to buy a first US edition of The Quarry Wood, but I like this cover so much more than any of the paperback reprints.
October 27, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I'm not going to buy a first US edition of The Quarry Wood, but I like this cover so much more than any of the paperback reprints.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
Barker called me up one night and without preamble said "It's opinions, not onions. Not onions. This is Clive Barker. I've been trying to track down and stop this error in editions for decades. OPINIONS."
(It wasn't until Jeff and Ann VanderMeer were working on their anthology The Weird that I learned that "onions" is a typo. Either Jeff or Ann mentioned to me that Barker asked them to fix the typo that had haunted the story in countless reprintings, incl in their own earlier antho The New Weird.)
October 25, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Barker called me up one night and without preamble said "It's opinions, not onions. Not onions. This is Clive Barker. I've been trying to track down and stop this error in editions for decades. OPINIONS."
Okay, I’ve broken. Closing the flat window, for my toes is froze.
October 25, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Okay, I’ve broken. Closing the flat window, for my toes is froze.
I've no beef with your Pynchons and your Danielewskis, but Janice Galloway's The Trick is to Keep Breathing takes bigger risks than any of that crowd. Every time I read it I find it impossible and new.
October 24, 2025 at 6:14 PM
I've no beef with your Pynchons and your Danielewskis, but Janice Galloway's The Trick is to Keep Breathing takes bigger risks than any of that crowd. Every time I read it I find it impossible and new.
'"This is horrifying and I want to go home," I said, although I pronounced it, "Ah, I see."'
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
October 15, 2025 at 8:45 PM
'"This is horrifying and I want to go home," I said, although I pronounced it, "Ah, I see."'
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
T. Kingfisher describing my day exactly right.
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
It's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...
October 14, 2025 at 4:30 PM
It's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...
As someone who believes there are only two seasons in the year that matter, asparagus and lebkuchen, I'm delighted to report I emerged from Lidl this evening with two bags of biscuits.
October 10, 2025 at 6:23 PM
As someone who believes there are only two seasons in the year that matter, asparagus and lebkuchen, I'm delighted to report I emerged from Lidl this evening with two bags of biscuits.
Reading A Room with a View - for the manyeth time, but finding a perfect paragraph I'd never dwelt on before - while listening to Rickie Lee Jones for the first (genuinely) time is about as nice as an evening at work can be.
October 8, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reading A Room with a View - for the manyeth time, but finding a perfect paragraph I'd never dwelt on before - while listening to Rickie Lee Jones for the first (genuinely) time is about as nice as an evening at work can be.
The fun thing about aging past Maxim de Winters over multiple rereadings of Rebecca is moving from 'patriarchal tyrant' to 'aw, he's just a wee guy!'
(Favourite detail on this reading: even Jasper's mum [the spaniel] doesn't get a name.)
(Favourite detail on this reading: even Jasper's mum [the spaniel] doesn't get a name.)
October 7, 2025 at 4:36 PM
The fun thing about aging past Maxim de Winters over multiple rereadings of Rebecca is moving from 'patriarchal tyrant' to 'aw, he's just a wee guy!'
(Favourite detail on this reading: even Jasper's mum [the spaniel] doesn't get a name.)
(Favourite detail on this reading: even Jasper's mum [the spaniel] doesn't get a name.)
Pocket universe filled only by items Evri claims to have delivered.
October 7, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Pocket universe filled only by items Evri claims to have delivered.
I’m watching Misery for the first time, and Kathy Bates is so aspirational. Cute neurodivergent literary critic who fights Trumpist patriarchal men? Sign me up!
October 3, 2025 at 9:34 PM
I’m watching Misery for the first time, and Kathy Bates is so aspirational. Cute neurodivergent literary critic who fights Trumpist patriarchal men? Sign me up!
Reposted by Timothy C. Baker
Morning walk
September 26, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Morning walk
You gotta hand it to freshers' flu. When so much in life is uncertain, here it is, late September, and I've got the sniffles again.
September 23, 2025 at 11:03 PM
You gotta hand it to freshers' flu. When so much in life is uncertain, here it is, late September, and I've got the sniffles again.
Honestly, the best predictor of whether or not a novel moves from the Booker longlist to shortlist is if I haven't read it yet. (I've read the Miller, which is good! And own the Choi! But that's it.)
(But anyway, Sarah Hall's Helm is the book that most should be there.)
(But anyway, Sarah Hall's Helm is the book that most should be there.)
September 23, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Honestly, the best predictor of whether or not a novel moves from the Booker longlist to shortlist is if I haven't read it yet. (I've read the Miller, which is good! And own the Choi! But that's it.)
(But anyway, Sarah Hall's Helm is the book that most should be there.)
(But anyway, Sarah Hall's Helm is the book that most should be there.)
I'm not going on a much longer rant, because I don't want to give them the outrage they desire, but I am in the UK because of the Indefinite Leave to Remain scheme and want to stress that it is a) really (and unnecessarily) arduous and expensive, and b) a very good thing to have.
September 22, 2025 at 1:37 PM
I'm not going on a much longer rant, because I don't want to give them the outrage they desire, but I am in the UK because of the Indefinite Leave to Remain scheme and want to stress that it is a) really (and unnecessarily) arduous and expensive, and b) a very good thing to have.