James Latimer awaiting sequel to The Wolf and the Wild King 🐺👑
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jameslatimer.bsky.social
James Latimer awaiting sequel to The Wolf and the Wild King 🐺👑
@jameslatimer.bsky.social
600 followers 350 following 4K posts
Recovering writer. Man of letters. Weltschmerz enthusiast. He/him.
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jameslatimer.bsky.social
A familiar issue to anyone who has read other archival material of the era...
My copy of Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, the 1978 sequel to Star Wars that doesn't know about the revelations in Empire Strikes Back - white cover with red Star Wars font title, a picture of Darth Vader confronting a prone Luke and Leia (both in jumpsuits) in a forest where a red light shines from the mound he's standing on - "From the adventures of Luke Skywalker - based on the characters and situations created by George Lucas" (and by that it means loosely!) and "featuring Luke, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Theeepio & Artoo Detoo (sic) in a spectacular new adventure!'
October 15, 2025 at 5:03 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Sorry not to reply sooner. If you're happy with some TLC it might work for you. Can you collect from Swindon though?

Here's a picture of the vintage machine:
A white 1960s Kenwood Chef stand mixer with powder blue details, also has blender and juicer (maybe?) attachments.
October 7, 2025 at 9:13 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Yeah, that seems a bit...opportunistic?
Google Maps satellite image of a brick-clad, white-roofed high-rise apartment building in the Bronx, with a giant square brick chimney on the corner, trucks full of rubbish parked on a paved lot below. Grass and trees on the other sides.
October 1, 2025 at 1:41 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Here's what my Pocket Oxford (1969) says:
A photo of a page in my pocket Oxford dictionary, centered on animadvert, which it defines as "Pass criticism or censure (upon)." Also other detail about it being an intransitive verb and the noun form being animadversion, derived from Latin (animus meaning mind) and advert, defined elsewhere.
September 29, 2025 at 9:04 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
I also enjoy the time HMS Vanguard went to the pub on the way to the breakers...
An aerial black and white photo of Portsmouth harbour, with a large battleship nosing into the shoreline, dwarfing the buildings. A tugboat lurks beside her, presumably embarrassed.
September 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Ooh look, I found one.
September 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Maleficent Seven is giving me Villains by Necessity vibes, unsurprisingly, and that book is a definite hidden gem from an era before authors* did this sort of thing.

*men, anyway 😏
The colourful cover of Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward, published 1995 and looking like it with an illustration by Darrell K Sweet of a knight on horseback in full plate and tourney plumage charging a gold and green dragon with outstretched wings, a curing trail, and a sharp jaws spewing a gout of yellow fire.
September 21, 2025 at 11:39 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
I seem to have found an Australian book, far from its place of origin. This may explain the slightly underwhelming cover, perhaps?
A paperback edition of Detection Unlimited by Georgette Heyer with a plain green cover, shiny gold lettering for the author's name, plain orange for the title, quotes from the Times and Daily Mail, and the only image is a monochrome photo of a wooden bench with leaves, faint and faded in around the edges. The publishing page, listing the Australian address of Redwood Editions, an imprint of Hinkler Books, Dingley, VICtoria, and the reservation of all rights etc. Original copyright 1953, published 2001.
September 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
The ages of actors in this photo are 58, 25, 50, 34 and 65 respectively.
A photo of Benicio del Toro (58), Chase Infiniti (25), Leonardo di Caprio (50), Teyana Taylor (34) and Sean Penn (65) at a presser for One Battle After Another. The men are in black suits, though Di Caprio is in all black with no tie, while the women are in high fashion items of disparate nature.
September 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Good philosophy for BlueSky, from Noël Coward?
ELYOT: Don't you believe in anything? AMANDA: Oh yes, I believe in being kind to everyone, and giving money to old beggar women, and being as gay as possible.
September 5, 2025 at 9:01 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Okay there was also this one:
A very green river valley with dark deciduous trees below rolling, rather barren hills and grey cloudy skies.
September 4, 2025 at 11:32 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
The morning views from the train have been quite spectacular but hard to capture, so I'm sharing this chap from Carlisle:
The side of a grey industrial building with a billboard for Carpet Ways, the logo words split either side of a black and white cartoon of a happy chap with a raised hand and the slogan "Ah just Love Sellen Carpets" (sic) and "it's impossible to buy cheaper" refereeing to carpet, vinyl, laminate and luxury vinyl tile.
September 4, 2025 at 8:19 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
OK, hear me out. A Lord of the Rings remake, but with these two taking The One Ring to Mordor:
Two figures charge through a multicoloured swirling mist (with rats), swords pointed ahead and daggers ready behind; one is a large, thick-thewed man with long blond hair, a beard and fur waistcoat; the other is a small, lithe fellow with a dark hooded cloak. There are rats in the foreground crawling on a root or branch. They are of course Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser from Fritz Leiber, from the Centipede press editions, but I can't find out the artist!
August 31, 2025 at 7:20 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Clearing out some spare books so if anyone in the UK wants them let me know (tho I can't DM!). Happy to ship for cost or bring to Bristolcon in October.
Books on a blue sheet: Helen Lowe - Heir of Night and Gathering if the Lost Samantha Shannon - Priory of Orange Tree Martha Wells - Wheel of the Infinite (hardback) China Mieville - Perdido Street Station Dan Simmons - Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion Tasha Suri - Jasmine Throne Raymond Feist - Silverthorn, Darkness at Sethanon Roger Zelazny - Guns of Avalon David G Hartwell (ed) - Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment
August 24, 2025 at 10:50 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
IF YOU CLICK THE SEARCH BUTTON 🔍 THIS HAPPENS:
Screenshot of a Google Maps search for 'Las Vegas Monorail' that says 'Google Maps can't find Las Vegas Monorail Make sure your search is spelled correctly. Try adding a city, county or postcode. Try Google Search instead (link) Should this place be on Google Maps? Add a missing place (link)'
August 18, 2025 at 5:47 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Yep, there it is...🙄
“It can go rogue with the conversation,” she says of the possibilities. For example, the AI can give the wrong advice about a potential date or hallucinate the wrong details about people. “But I think these are things that we’re going to be able to fix as time goes on,” she adds.
August 7, 2025 at 9:58 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
What perfect album came out when you were 16?
An album cover illustrated with a collage on a white background with a scratched black and white picture of a motorway junction, a blurry blue figure, some lost child pictures, the nose of an aircraft, and a black x on a blue square. The words OK Computer and Radiohead in small black type adorn the top left corner.
July 29, 2025 at 7:48 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Took a picture for @ewacat.bsky.social .
A strange animal with grey fur and a black mask across the eyes exploring a battered drawer in an old pine Welsh dresser - in a pen designed to look like an abandoned house at Millets Wildside (it's a Racoon).
July 26, 2025 at 1:35 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Hey guys, let me introduce my muse. 😏 I have SO MANY versions of this picture.
A goofy, smug ginger cat lies sideways across the stomach of a reclining writer, his right arm trapped under the cat's head and body, though he can still reach the keyboard on his legs, thankfully. Sorry about the litter tray in the background.
July 23, 2025 at 9:18 AM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
This is one of my favourite visual dialogue gags in Astérix. And kids don't even fill in that many forms...
A panel from Astérix and the Cauldron (in French) where Asterix is accosting a tax collector, sitting on a chest on his donkey palanquin. Astérix says "Give us your money, if you don't want to get slapped" and the tax collector's response is in a square speech box in the format of a form with the question "Are you a) simple passers-by? b) motivated by friendly feelings? c) bandits?" where the tick box next to "c) bandits" has been filled in, whereas in the previous panel the same question was asked but it was still unanswered.
July 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Time for Major Kira again.
A Bajoran woman with a crinkly nose staring earnestly past the camera with the caption "Nothing justifies genocide" in a screenshot from DS9.
July 20, 2025 at 1:23 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Here's one I took earlier, featuring @marklawrenceauthor.bsky.social (in book form) en français.
A bookshelf in a librarie (bookstore in France) featuring a copy of Mark Lawrence's Le livre qui brisa le monde (The Book That Broke the World) facing out, showing off it's very striking cover with a black bird with wings outstretched in a library full of staircases and shelves. Other nearby books include Andrez Sapkowski, Chloe Gong, Rosie Garland.
July 19, 2025 at 3:03 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Guess who just realised he had one of the books mentioned in the forward, and may have been down this path already...😅
Hardbound copy of Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300 by John France. It's plain black (no dust jacket) with gold writing in a double lined gold box.
July 16, 2025 at 9:31 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
Love how the British papers don't even pretend to be consistent:
Telegraph screenshot of an article from 10 May 2025: "Telegraph View The British state is crushing free speech Rather than instructing police officers to act as glorified social media moderators, we should free their time to work on serious crimes" with a picture of a notorious couch botherer (a white man in a suit and tie) Telegraph screenshot of article by Stephen Pollard with the headline "Bobby Vylan’s chant was far worse than Lucy Connolly’s tweet. So why is he not in prison?" and the lede "This is not just two-tier justice. It seems like many institutions don’t take anti-Semitism seriously" with a picture of the punk rapper, a black man with long hair, no shirt and a microphone.
June 30, 2025 at 5:09 PM
jameslatimer.bsky.social
...and yet:
Another Telegraph screenshot from today, headed: "Stephen Pollard Bobby Vylan’s chant was far worse than Lucy Connolly’s tweet. So why is he not in prison? Lede: "This is not just two-tier justice. It seems like many institutions don’t take anti-Semitism seriously" with a picture of the punk rapper.
June 30, 2025 at 5:05 PM