Can anyone recommend to me a (paid) email account system that does not totally suck, i.e. is NOT gmail? Gmail's paid service's inept filters are enough to inspire songs of lamentation in their forlorn users. And the filter interface is unspeakable ( Read more... )

Last weekend I was privileged to attend the Mervyn Peake Centenary conference Mervyn Peake and the Fantasy Tradition, held at the University of Chichester. I was speaking on Sentient Ruins and the Ventriloquised Dead: Mervyn Peake's Wartime PoetryIt was a brilliant event, featuring G. Peter Winnington, Farah Mandelsohn, Robert Maslen, Brian Sibley ( Read more... )

From Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club:

'This was a townscape raised in the teeth of cold winds from the east; a city of winding cobbled streets and haughty pillars; a city of dark nights and candlelight, and intellect.'

My next book is on Amazon! Gothic Science Fiction. My brilliant co-editor is Emily Alder. Ogle the delicious book cover - fantastic design by the brilliant Almacan.

In case anybody is interested in the table of contents, here is a gleeful preview behind the cut.


( Read more... )

Admiring this fantastic site re why WikiLeaks is a good thing - refresh for yet another reason! http://sowhyiswikileaksagoodthingagain.com/

Calling for poetry!

Anyone know any 2010 poetry collections that are especially interesting?

A petition has been launched as part of a campaign to defend the
humanities and social sciences.

Here is the link to the campaign website:

http://humanitiesmatter.wordpress.com/

I quote the organisers:

Please sign the petition yourself, and then send this ( Read more... )

A colleague just alerted me to this - in case you want to sign the petition there is a link below. I have certainly signed it ( Read more... )

Wow ... lots of first-ever experiences going on here. We're now in our new house, named Rosglach (Gaelic for cheerfulness or something). Something about moving home always jostles one productively out of a routine, causing the most random memories to surge up. When I was a kid we moved on average every few years, so there are a lot of moving ( Read more... )

Genetic vampirism (where people become vampires through genes, not through infection/being bitten).

Any books/films leap to your mind? DO tell!

I've already thought of Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls and and Tanith Lee's Blood Opera. But I know there are more, especially films....remind me, do!