Andrew Frayn
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afrayn.bsky.social
Andrew Frayn
@afrayn.bsky.social
2.2K followers 840 following 490 posts
Academic. Work on First World War literature (Assoc Ed., FWW Studies); modernist studies (former BAMS Chair); non-canonical literature; rural modernity; late style. Grumbles my own.
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afrayn.bsky.social
Merry Christmas from Burntisland High Street.
A stone faced building with large windows, with a Christmas tree in the second top left, and a Christmas star in the far top right.
November 8, 2025 at 2:02 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
But you also got the solo classics and hits like 'Rip it Up', 'Don't Silly Shally', and 'A Girl Like You', as well as a finish of the Orange Juice classics 'Felicity' and 'Blue Boy'.
Edwyn Collins seated, singing, in front of his band, and the Edwyn backdrop in Elvis 1968 style. The photo is taken from the venue balcony looking down.
October 9, 2025 at 10:09 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Just back from the last show of Edwyn Collins's last tour, in Edinburgh, his birthplace. An incredibly moving show, packed with favourites and hits. And the beginning of the encore, where he played 'Low Expectations' and 'Home Again' was absolutely emotionally devastating.
A seated Edwyn Collins, singing next to his son, standing, in front of his band. The backdrop says "Edwyn", in the style of the Elvis Comeback Show backdrop.
October 9, 2025 at 10:09 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
That's it - until another tbc but potentially very exciting location in another couple of years time. Meanwhile, I'm home.
A view down a suburban road. The Forth Bridge is visible in the distance over the modern housing, under leaden grey skies.
October 5, 2025 at 2:11 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Enjoyed walking round Thessaloniki a bit more yesterday - a fascinating range of cultures colliding.
The minaret next to the Thessaloniki rotunda, which at times has been a Muslim and Christian faith space. The minaret is pale white against a clear blue sky. The Rotunda, only part of which is shown in the photo, is built of red tile and stone. Looking up at the Arch of Galerius against a clear blue sky. The top part is red tile masonry. The bottom part of faced with carved marble, which is eroded over approximately 2000 years. Pigeons are sitting in the marble carvings in the shade of the arch. The inside of the Church of Panagia Chalkeon in Thessaloniki. Looking up from the aisle between rows of seats, a lavish, large gold chandelier hangs on large supports from an ornate ceiling. The decoration is fine and gilded all around. The Arch of Galerius. The top is of red tile masonry, and the lower parts are faced in white marble, carved but eroded over approximately 2000 years. A modern white apartment block with balconies is framed by the arch.
October 5, 2025 at 1:44 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Appreciated the trip to the Zeitenlik (military cemetery) in Thessaloniki, led by Vlasis Vlasidis. It was interesting to see the different decisions made about the politics and iconography of memorialisation in the different parts of the cemetery - English, French, Italian, Serbian, etc.
A war cemetery consisting of rows of pale stone crosses either side of a wide, paved central walkway, with perpendicular paved areas between rows of crosses either side. Large conifers (or similar evergreen trees) divide the cemetery from bright blue skies with just a hint of cloud. A war cemetery cross with only the name Abdou, and an S (for Senegal) rune in the top part of the cross. Rows of crosses are in the background, and the sky is clear blue. Rows of rounded top British tombstones, each with individual engraving, separated by grass and wit individualised planting between them. In the same cemetery as other pictures, the general aesthetic is strikingly British. A large mausoleum in shadow, with a central dome and steps up to a stone platform on either side. It is surrounded by evergreen trees against a cloudy but bright sky.
October 5, 2025 at 1:44 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
I'm on the final leg of my journey back to Fife from the @fwwsoc.bsky.social conference at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, so here's some pics and thoughts. Firstly, well done @sdanisimova.bsky.social and local organisers for putting on a great, truly international, collegial event!
A busy conference room, with a panel of three presenters at the front.
October 5, 2025 at 1:44 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
I laughed out loud for approx 5 mins at this from the Dalgety Bay Diary Newsletter (sic)
7. Councillors' Reports SN - Relations with the owner of Bark Park remains strained, however the owner did remove a doll with its eyes gouged out.
September 26, 2025 at 8:07 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Not a spice, but I've got these cocktail sticks which have a 2005 date on them.
A box of Tesco cocktail sticks. The small print says (c) Tesco 2005.
September 10, 2025 at 8:26 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
You can come and see how this figure features in my show...
A plush puppet of William Shakespeare, in purple and black but with an additional pale yellow tutu, sitting on a windowsill.
August 7, 2025 at 1:05 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Different times in academia in summer 1947.
A letter from Kenneth Tynan to Julian Holland of 1 July 1947. Tynan writes: "Have been offered a permanent job at Windsor Rep on strength of my Holofernes in OUDS - Coghill advises me not to take it, and the Windsor man in a kind letter agrees to hold the job till next year - there may be a Chair of Drama at Oxford in five years time and I'd I get a good degree Coghill says he will get me a lectureship". [Tynan was 20.]
August 4, 2025 at 9:43 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
It's begun
A very busy Royal Mile in Edinburgh on the first weekend of the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe.
August 3, 2025 at 6:34 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Even in North Leith
Street bins in front of graffiti on the wall of a rundown warehouse building. The central graffito says, in clear letters, Free Palestine.
August 1, 2025 at 4:49 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Guess this is definitely happening... Come see my try to be funny about what we're doing when we call something a classic, and when we demand that people read them!

11.45am Mon 11 Aug; 5.40pm Fri 15 Aug. Ticket links in thread from quoted post.

@standcomedyclub.bsky.social
A performer pass for the Stand a Comedy Club during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, for Andrew Frayn for the public engagement series Provocateurs.
July 30, 2025 at 12:08 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Looks great - congratulations Matt. I might pre-order it along with R. F. Kuang's Katabasis, which looks like quite the mood...
Part of the Wikipedia page for R. F. Kuang's forthcoming novel, Katabasis. Background: Kuang's sixth novel, Katabasis was announced to the public during her promotional cycle for Yellowface in 2023. Kuang wrote it while enrolled as a PhD student in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University and while planning her wedding. She stated that the idea for the book came out of a "cute, silly" idea about how "academia is hell" before seriously realizing, "Oh, no, academia is hell." Synopsis: The novel follows two doctoral candidates who must venture into Hell in order to save their thesis advisor in order to get letters of recommendation.
July 29, 2025 at 9:45 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
How do you know you're back in Scotland? A black marker sign on a piece of A4 in the loos at Edinburgh Gateway saying "no toilet paper", and an empty mickey of Whyte & Mackay on a seat on the station platform.
An empty bottle of Whyte & Mackay on a metal railway station seat.
July 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Scotland looks very nice in summer in the late evenings.
A twilight view of the Scott Monument from Waverley Bridge in Edinburgh. A twilight view of the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh from Waverley Bridge. A view across the Forth Road Bridge and Queensferry Crossing from a train going over the Forth (Rail) Bridge.
July 9, 2025 at 9:25 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
I'm very grateful to the no doubt I paid people who pull together the local freesheet, but every month this tautology makes me grind my teeth.
The masthead of a local freesheet called Diary Newsletter.
July 8, 2025 at 6:32 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Who's this in the @edfringe.bsky.social catalogue?
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe catalogue listing for the show 'The Provocateurs: Forensic Jewellery / Don't Read the Classics!'
July 4, 2025 at 3:49 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
I have some questions.
A Google Maps card for a business called "Brexit Electrical Services. Ltd". The image is of a small black car and some terraced houses.
June 16, 2025 at 10:27 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Would you like to see a very early to mid 1990s artefact before I throw it away? No idea where most of these were tapes from!
A mixtape cassette with a range of classic rock (Hendrix, Jam, Echo and the Bunnymen, etc) and middling 1990s indie (Mover, Shed Seven, Hoffman, Urusei Yatsura, etc).
June 7, 2025 at 1:18 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Because hubris, you can come see me do two (half) shows drawing on my research on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the series The Provocateurs (prev Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas). My provocative title: 'Don't read the classics'... Scene from writing/rehearsals in pic, links in thread below!
A bald, shaven-headed man in a green jumper, taking a selfie in a mirror while holding and looking quizzically at a soft puppet of William Shakespeare.
May 7, 2025 at 3:50 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
A contemporary commentator on the state of UK Labour? No, Sylvia Pankhurst in September 1919.

(Quoted by Barbara Winslow, Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics and Political Activism, p. 161)
"The Labour movement in England is being ruined under my eyes by parliamentary and municipal politics. Both leaders and masses are only waiting for elections, and, while preparing for the election campaign, quite forgetting the socialist work. Nay, they totally suppress all socialist propaganda in order not to frighten the electors. [...]"
April 21, 2025 at 10:46 AM
afrayn.bsky.social
Took a picture of this in London last weekend, and for some reason it sprung back into mind
A poster, partly scratched from a lamppost, with the slogan "Their wars our dead", above a stylised image of workers raising the fist. The slogan below is "Sir! No sir!" A web address which suggests it is posted by a communist group is too damaged to work out.
February 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM
afrayn.bsky.social
Was in London at the weekend, and couldn't resist buying this from one of the cheap boxes outside Judd Books, just for the inscription. Anyone come across Winifred Finlay?
The title page for Peril in Lakeland, by Winifred Finlay. The facing page is an illustration of an oldish man against a Lake District backdrop, in a grey tweed suit carrying a staff. An inscription: For Tony-- who is rather shy, from Winifred Finlay (she wrote it) & Gillian Finlay (the heroine)
February 25, 2025 at 9:18 AM