Andy Charman
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andyandz.bsky.social
Andy Charman
@andyandz.bsky.social
1.5K followers 2.5K following 420 posts
Author of Crow Court. published by @unbounders.bsky.social. Longlist Desmond Elliott 2021. Shortlist CWA Historical 2022. Laureat Festival du Premier Roman 2022. Researching 1983 and philosophers in WWII. Assistant Editor of Thin-Skin.com
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andyandz.bsky.social
He can have the house, I’m half packed.
July 31, 2025 at 8:13 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Was hoping for a bath this evening, but looks like I'll just have to move house instead.
A very large spider has taken up residence in my bath. Very Large.
July 31, 2025 at 7:04 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Just finished this from @kitdewaal.com and still feeling the impact of a wonderfully emotional redemptive ending.
July 20, 2025 at 10:32 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
June 27, 2025 at 8:03 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
I'm excited to have received this from Wiley Books, 'Marseille 1940' by @uwewittstock.bsky.social
Looking forward to reading this soon!
PIcture of a book, Marseille 1940 (The Flight of Literature) by Uwe Wittstock, showing the cover image of the waterfront of Marseille.
May 13, 2025 at 12:34 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Happy Birthday, Karl. I am smack dab in the middle of this one, which is a corker (apols Verso, not one of yours, but I'm sure you understand).
Karl Marx by Isaiah Berlin. Karl Marx's birthday!
May 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
If you see this, post your getaway vehicle.
May 3, 2025 at 12:50 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Sage advice as always. Turkeys and canaries and how to avoid killing the messenger.
May 3, 2025 at 11:23 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
I've often wondered the same. 'Gossip' makes an appearance in William Barnes's 19th C Glossary of Dorset Dialect and the meaning is very different (and without a hint of judgement).
GOSSIP Is still used about Wimborne for a godfather, or godmother. Godcib (gossip) in A.S. meant a good kinsman, or kinswoman, and in lower meaning a good friend, but we now use Gossip for the talk of the good friends, instead of themselves.
May 3, 2025 at 10:08 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/emmadarw...?
Sage advice from @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social as always: on Canaries and Turkeys and how avoid killing the messenger.
May 3, 2025 at 9:15 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
Just starting this. Surprisingly excited about it.
April 6, 2025 at 6:54 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
I started re-working the current draft of this current WIP in September 2023. If I stick to the program, I *might* be finished in June this year. #TuckeredOut
As a witty allegorical illustration, I have chosen a detail from the painting 'Remnants of an Army' by Elizabeth Thompson. It depicts William Brydon, assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army, arriving at the gates of Jalalabad in January 1842. Brydon was a survivor of the very ill-advised attack on Kabul by British Imperialist forces and he is shown looking completely exhausted riding an equally tuckered-out horse. It's a perfect illustration to depict how you feel when you have taken on something too big and you're nearing the end.
March 24, 2025 at 5:22 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
You certainly are not alone in being upset by it. It is frustrating and distressing.
My own work is heavily laced with Dorset dialect which sincerely hope screws with their dumbass 'training'
March 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
How's this for a damning description? Daniel Maier-Katkin on Berthold Brecht:
"A Marxist with a Swiss bank account."
Cover of Daniel Maier-Kakin's "Stranger From Abroad" showing the faces of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt
March 2, 2025 at 8:47 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
“Freedom to philosophise usually came under threat where mass opinion opinion governed the state…”
So said Kant in Richard Bourke’s excellent ‘Hegel’s World Revolutions’
“Freedom to philosophise usually came under threat where mass opinion opinion governed the state…”
January 28, 2025 at 7:51 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
January 9, 2025 at 10:36 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 12/20
#books
#booksky
#bookschallenge
How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. Eve Cat Bohannon
December 8, 2024 at 12:58 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 11/20
#Booksky
#Books
#Bookschallenge
Joseph Campbell Primitive Mythology The Masks of God
December 5, 2024 at 4:59 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Why that would be Joseph Campbell. I still listen to his PBS interviews with Bill Moyers because he had such wisdom and such soul. @laurarichmond.bsky.social who’s your literary guardian angel?
December 3, 2024 at 8:51 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Disappointed by all these fake accounts on BlueSky
Please let me know if you are a fake, and for a bonus points answer this question: What is the true identity you fear might be revealed?
I'll start.
Andy Pandy
November 30, 2024 at 2:08 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
7. The Smuggler’s Trick
It’s a modern marvel to see Charles’ ship come in. But it'll take older tricks to see it unloaded under the suspicious eye of the customs men. Is he being too clever for his own good?
#CrowCourt is a wintery read, so I'm re-introducing all 14 chapters. www.crow-court.com
The Smuggler’s Trick Poole, Dorset, October 1850 Is it a trick? Or is it more of a wonder? A wonder of modern science. Last evening as the sun was descending towards the Americas, the Sherborne Abbey was sighted making steady progress up the English Channel battling a troublesome north-westerly. Upon this intelligence reaching the offices of the Lloyd’s agent in Plymouth—which it did as the last fishing boat was docking in the dying light—it was submitted to the post office and transmitted by electric telegram, taking but one sixteenth of a second to arrive at the leaden halls of London. There it was received gratefully by the ship’s owners and noted diligently by her insurers. That was yesterday. This morning at precisely 8.07 a.m. the news was further relayed to Mr Charles Ellis Esq., wine merchant and ship’s agent, and a little later it was delivered entirely separately to Mr Horace Domoney, customs officer for Poole and the surrounding area.
November 30, 2024 at 1:05 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 10/20
#Booksky
#Books
#BooksChallenge
Roland Barthes Mythologies
November 30, 2024 at 11:48 AM
andyandz.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 9/20
#Booksky
#Books
#BooksChallenge
Hermann Hesse Steppenwolf
November 28, 2024 at 5:19 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 8/20
#Booksky
#Books
#Bookschallenge
Charles Dickens - Bleak House
November 25, 2024 at 9:47 PM
andyandz.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. 7/20
#Booksky
#Books
#Bookchallenge
Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas read by Richard Burton & All Welsh Cast
November 24, 2024 at 1:33 PM