Another year, another History Cycle. Join me for a bike tour of Hackney, part of @hackney-hist-fest.bsky.social, on Sunday 24 May, 4pm–6pm. All proceeds go to Leaside's cycling projects. Tickets here: www.tickettailor.com/events/hackn...
On the Tube. Translation mine.
‘Having planned four quadruple jumps for the programme, Shaidorov added a fifth. His winning element was a triple Axel-Euler-quadruple Salchow combination. You didn’t need to know who invented these jumps to see that he landed them all.’
@anna-aslanyan.bsky.social:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
What's harder to land: a tune or a toe loop? I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
‘Watching the games as a schoolgirl in Moscow, I cheered when Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean beat the Soviet pair with their flawless performance to Ravel’s Boléro. The USSR had enough medals anyway.’
@anna-aslanyan.bsky.social on the Winter Olympics.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
My review of Maria Stepanova's novel, translated by Sasha Dugdale and published by @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social
Snappy Headline Tells Story
Chuckling Chekhov: my @thetls.bsky.social review of Earliest Stories www.the-tls.com/literature-b...
Conk with his ‘clown egg’
Non-diminishing returns
The Little Tramp was inspired by a Londoner called Rummy Binks. archive.is/0Jn1w
Reviewed Jacqueline Riding's Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin’s London for @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/0545...
When a whale swam into the Thames 20 years ago, some called her Willy, others, Wally. This, for the avoidance of doubt, is Sally the seal. She came ashore in Wapping and feels at home here.
Double stamps courtesy of an unknown librarian.
Turf war trophies
The Art Newspaper includes Pyotr Pavlensky's Subject–Object Art Theory in its January Book Bag. Despite what it says, a paperback copy doesn't cost £89.99. Despite what it omits, the book is a translation: from Russian, by me.
www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/06/j...
Something to keep you afloat
Absent or present? Gothic or uncanny? Fantastic or fantastique?
My @thetls.bsky.social review of Paris Fantastique by Nicholas Royle
www.the-tls.com/literature/f...
‘A sound archivist told me he and his colleagues could earn more in the private sector but they work here for less pay because “we believe in what we do.”’
Anna Aslanyan on the picket line at the British Library, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
‘“People need to pay their bills,” one of the pickets told me. Some are forced to work several jobs. Many talked of the effect of the 2023 cyberattack on their workload.’
Anna Aslanyan on the strike at the British Library, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
British Library staff asked for a decent pay. Instead they got ‘a few money-saving present ideas’, such as ‘consider not giving presents this holiday season’. They are on strike this week. I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
‘“I can’t pay my rent with prestige,” one sign said. Another was a mock-up of the cover of Great Expectations, with “Great” crossed out and replaced by “Reasonable”.’
Anna Aslanyan on the strike at the British Library, new on the blog:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
No one expects PR peeps to read the books they're promoting, but a glance at the cover used to be common practice.
'The translation, by Anna Aslanyan, carries the text with admirable clarity—no small feat given its density, barbed turns, and occasional plunge into feverish abstraction. Her steady hand stops the book from tipping into chaos.'
artlyst.com/books/pyotr-...
London launch, 16 December. Tickets free, copies thrown in, RSVP essential
Tykes on Bikes
Raymond Bykes, Western Union No. 23, Norfolk, Va. Said he was fourteen years old. Works until after one A.M. every night. He is precocious and not a little "tough."
Documented by American sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine
mashable.com/feature/bike...
He put the other half to good use.
A year after John Berger donated half of his winnings to the British Black Panthers, the party dissolved. What happened to the money? There must be a (prize-winning) novel in it.
