Jonathan Gibbs
@jonathangibbs.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at City St George's, Uni of London. I curate the short story project apersonalanthology.com. Novels are Randall or The Painted Grape, and The Large Door. Poetry is Spring Journal. https://linktr.ee/jonathangibbs
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Enchanting Prelude to The Hobbit’ as it will now say on the covers presumably.
November 10, 2025 at 8:18 PM
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Enchanting Prelude to The Hobbit’ as it will now say on the covers presumably.
Real sexy just you asked for, boss.
November 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Real sexy just you asked for, boss.
Books on the tube
Bluebeard’s Egg by Margaret Atwood
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Bluebeard’s Egg by Margaret Atwood
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
November 10, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Books on the tube
Bluebeard’s Egg by Margaret Atwood
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Bluebeard’s Egg by Margaret Atwood
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
You were the guy in that Kit-Kat advert, weren’t you!
November 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
You were the guy in that Kit-Kat advert, weren’t you!
Ah, no system, man. My reading choices are strictly vibes-based. I close my eyes, hum to myself, reach out one arm, and the correct book flies off the shelf and into my hand.
November 9, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Ah, no system, man. My reading choices are strictly vibes-based. I close my eyes, hum to myself, reach out one arm, and the correct book flies off the shelf and into my hand.
Oof. Thank you. I love it when someone explains something that’s been hanging around unresolved in my brain (and likely never to be resolved as I didn’t realise it was a problem) for, well, decades.
November 9, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Oof. Thank you. I love it when someone explains something that’s been hanging around unresolved in my brain (and likely never to be resolved as I didn’t realise it was a problem) for, well, decades.
Reposted by Jonathan Gibbs
A great band is a collective of talented musicians. A great group is everything else.
November 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
A great band is a collective of talented musicians. A great group is everything else.
Balanced by the feeling of unmoored awe that descends when you finish a book and it’s so good you… don’t want to read anything else right away. The unread books shrink back on the shelves, spooked, but respectful. They know they wouldn’t measure up, just now, but if the time was right, then maybe.
November 9, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Balanced by the feeling of unmoored awe that descends when you finish a book and it’s so good you… don’t want to read anything else right away. The unread books shrink back on the shelves, spooked, but respectful. They know they wouldn’t measure up, just now, but if the time was right, then maybe.
My first thought also!
November 9, 2025 at 5:31 PM
My first thought also!
Featuring the Personal Anthology debuts of:
Viv McDade
Alan McMonagle
Colm O’Shea (@colmoshea.bsky.social)
So congrats to them!
Viv McDade
Alan McMonagle
Colm O’Shea (@colmoshea.bsky.social)
So congrats to them!
November 8, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Featuring the Personal Anthology debuts of:
Viv McDade
Alan McMonagle
Colm O’Shea (@colmoshea.bsky.social)
So congrats to them!
Viv McDade
Alan McMonagle
Colm O’Shea (@colmoshea.bsky.social)
So congrats to them!
So... it's the novelisation of a podcast?
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
So... it's the novelisation of a podcast?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Tessa Hadley is my favourite living British short story writer. I'd happily make the argument that she's the best, too. Certainly the most consistent.
Don't just take my word for it.
apersonalanthology.com/tag/tessa-ha...
Don't just take my word for it.
apersonalanthology.com/tag/tessa-ha...
Tessa Hadley – A Personal Anthology
Posts about Tessa Hadley written by Jonathan Gibbs
apersonalanthology.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:29 PM
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Tessa Hadley is my favourite living British short story writer. I'd happily make the argument that she's the best, too. Certainly the most consistent.
Don't just take my word for it.
apersonalanthology.com/tag/tessa-ha...
Don't just take my word for it.
apersonalanthology.com/tag/tessa-ha...
And how does that pay off? It pays off, so subtly that you might not notice it, in the telegram that Valerie sends Gil from the station before heading back north: "Returning with daughter". The enforced terseness of telegram communication means she doesn't put *your* daughter. Just "daughter". Wow.
November 6, 2025 at 7:26 PM
And how does that pay off? It pays off, so subtly that you might not notice it, in the telegram that Valerie sends Gil from the station before heading back north: "Returning with daughter". The enforced terseness of telegram communication means she doesn't put *your* daughter. Just "daughter". Wow.
And look at how it inverts fairytale tropes. Marise literally calls Valerie a "wicked stepmother" (as if in jest) but after an overnight snowfall transforms London into a magic otherworld, it's Marise who is revealed as the wicked witch: "You know nothing about motherhood, nothing! Marise shrieked".
November 6, 2025 at 7:24 PM
And look at how it inverts fairytale tropes. Marise literally calls Valerie a "wicked stepmother" (as if in jest) but after an overnight snowfall transforms London into a magic otherworld, it's Marise who is revealed as the wicked witch: "You know nothing about motherhood, nothing! Marise shrieked".
There's doubling too between the domestic-erotic 'game' that Valerie and Gil play and the strange 'bear game' that is the only real connection between Marise and her daughter Robyn. (And the word 'game' appears for a third time, this time linking Jamie and Valerie, as he helps her outwit Marise.)
November 6, 2025 at 7:21 PM
There's doubling too between the domestic-erotic 'game' that Valerie and Gil play and the strange 'bear game' that is the only real connection between Marise and her daughter Robyn. (And the word 'game' appears for a third time, this time linking Jamie and Valerie, as he helps her outwit Marise.)
- Valerie and husband Gil;
- Gil's first wife Marise and her toyboy Jamie;
- but also Gil and Marise, linked by their flamboyant, careless tastes;
- and Jamie and Gil, when Jamie's gaze drifts from Marise to boring Valerie;
- and of course Valerie and stepdaughter Robyn, as they form a bond.
- Gil's first wife Marise and her toyboy Jamie;
- but also Gil and Marise, linked by their flamboyant, careless tastes;
- and Jamie and Gil, when Jamie's gaze drifts from Marise to boring Valerie;
- and of course Valerie and stepdaughter Robyn, as they form a bond.
November 6, 2025 at 7:15 PM
- Valerie and husband Gil;
- Gil's first wife Marise and her toyboy Jamie;
- but also Gil and Marise, linked by their flamboyant, careless tastes;
- and Jamie and Gil, when Jamie's gaze drifts from Marise to boring Valerie;
- and of course Valerie and stepdaughter Robyn, as they form a bond.
- Gil's first wife Marise and her toyboy Jamie;
- but also Gil and Marise, linked by their flamboyant, careless tastes;
- and Jamie and Gil, when Jamie's gaze drifts from Marise to boring Valerie;
- and of course Valerie and stepdaughter Robyn, as they form a bond.
I've just reread Charles Baxter's essay on Counterpointed Characterisation (patterning between characters rather than forcing conflict) and that illuminates how 'Funny Little Snake' works so well: how Hadley establishes a series of couples...
November 6, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I've just reread Charles Baxter's essay on Counterpointed Characterisation (patterning between characters rather than forcing conflict) and that illuminates how 'Funny Little Snake' works so well: how Hadley establishes a series of couples...
*instinctive, or perhaps instinctual, not instructive in the first post.
November 6, 2025 at 6:19 PM
*instinctive, or perhaps instinctual, not instructive in the first post.
Second example:
Valerie had “been singled out by the professor among the girls in the faculty office in King's College London, marrying him, moving with him to begin their new life in the North – there had been some quarrel or other with King's, he had enemies there.”
Valerie had “been singled out by the professor among the girls in the faculty office in King's College London, marrying him, moving with him to begin their new life in the North – there had been some quarrel or other with King's, he had enemies there.”
November 6, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Second example:
Valerie had “been singled out by the professor among the girls in the faculty office in King's College London, marrying him, moving with him to begin their new life in the North – there had been some quarrel or other with King's, he had enemies there.”
Valerie had “been singled out by the professor among the girls in the faculty office in King's College London, marrying him, moving with him to begin their new life in the North – there had been some quarrel or other with King's, he had enemies there.”
Kinda, yeah. Like a sort of involuntary eye roll, I think.
November 6, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Kinda, yeah. Like a sort of involuntary eye roll, I think.