#John Herron

[nauseousthings]

Cookie Mueller by Don Herron

[orange-park]

Dive into these homes with pools in 32259 for Monday, October 9th #househunting #homesforsale #dreamhome #alwayslookingathomes #listpacks #listreports #houseexpert #homeswithpools

[donotnomi]

SBIFF Cinema Society Q&A - Slow Horses with Gary Oldman and Douglas Urbanski recap

A recap of the juiciest tidbits from the panel featuring Gary Oldman and Douglas Urbanski:

About season 6

Season 6 is currently in pre-production, with most episodes already written.

Adam Randall, the director for Season 4, will helm the entire sixth season.

Production has allowed Randall to contribute to the writing process by joining the writers in the writing room.

Gary Oldman has already read the scripts and finds them fantastic.

About season 5

Season 5 will unveil a significant revelation about Lamb's past.

Viewers will catch a glimpse of Lamb's house.

Gary Oldman describes this season as truly impressive and with a more Le Carré-esque feel, akin to season 2.

Expect an intense exchange where Lamb blackmails Diana.

New, incredible insults directed at River are on the horizon.

Season 5 is a 'three farts season,' says Oldman, laughing his ass off.

About Mick Herron

Gary Oldman asked Mick Herron for extra information about Lamb when working on S1 but quickly realized that the character is a mystery even for his creator. Herron's response is often "I don't know".

Mick Herron asked Gary Oldman to accompany him to a signing session just before the release of the first season, not realizing that the show would eventually relieve him of his signing session obligations for good.

It was actually Mick Herron who suggested using David Cornwell, John Le Carré's real name, as the name on Lamb's passport that briefly appears in S1. And Kristen Scott Thomas's casting as Diana Taverner was inspired by her previous work with Gary Oldman on the set of The Darkest Hour.

Behind the scene

Will Smith is frequently on set, going over scripts with the actors.

Occasionally, there's room for improvisation.

With a single director overseeing the entire season, the Slow Horses team remains committed to their vision for nearly a year of continuous work on set.

Gary Oldman receives the scripts really early for every season.

Fart acting are obviously "sound effects".

There are emails going back and forth between Oldman and production about 'fart acting.' The one in the car in S3 was praised as 'robust.' There were emails about 'the frequency' of the sound because the car has leather seats, being a Rolls Royce.

The trench coat remains the same, unchanged since the very first season. No one is allowed to wash it.

Kristen Scott Thomas's casting as Diana Taverner was inspired by her previous work with Gary Oldman on the set of The Darkest Hour.

Almost all the crew come back year after year.

Gary Oldman compares working with the cast of Slow Horses to the joy of winning his Oscar.

[lokittystuckinatree]

Cursed Doctor Who Pitches That Almost Work:

Doctor Omens: Neil Gaiman as writer, David Tennant as the Doctor, Michael Sheen as the Master, Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service as companions, John Hamm as a villainous President of the USA.

Doctor Loki: Kate Herron as writer, Sophia Di Martino as the Doctor, Tom Hiddleston as the Master, Owen Wilson and Ke Huy Quan as companions, Gugu Mbatha Raw as the Rani.

[j4m3s-b4k3r]

Slow Horses

Fave viewing over the past few years has been SLOW HORSES on AppleTV+. A spy show with all the intrigues of a John le Carré novel, but if George Smiley was written as a sarcastic smart arse and every other spy was a downbeat comedian. 

River Cartwright chased by one of ’The Dogs’.

The show focusses on spies who’ve disgraced themselves, but for various reasons can’t be set free into the wild. We are led into this espionage backwater by an earnest young spy who has become persona non grata with Mi5. His efforts to get back into the slick world of Regent’s Park puts him at the heart of the action in the series. Though he’s from Mi5 royalty (as his grandfather used to head the organisation) he’s banished to a shabby facility called Slough House. 

Lamb uses his signature flatulent power-move on Taverner. 

This kingdom of losers is ruled by Jackson Lamb, hilariously played by Gary Oldman. Famed for being a chameleon, Oldman is clearly having enormous fun here, playing this jaded old cold warrior, who doesn’t care any more. Lamb has let himself go physically, but is still mentally sharp enough to anticipate when he’s being setup. Which is often, and most likely by his Mi5 boss Diana Taverner (played with deadpan ice queen flair by Kristin Scott Thomas). Her disdain for the screwups of Slough House doesn’t stop her from using their services. These ‘Slow Horses’ are ostensibly kept on by ‘the service’ for menial jobs - filing and desk work - but they are sometimes caught up in intrigues too. Simply because Mi5 often needs fall guys.

Shirley & Marcus pinned down by The Tiger Team.

Mi5 is portrayed as a world of grasping political climbers. The higher up the political totem pole, the more damehoods & knighthoods there are. But ruthless sociopaths abound too. More than willing to sacrifice their underlings if it advances their own interests, or covers up a blunder. The traditional baddies of spy stories are here, but rather than the Russians or international terrorists, domestic political dirty dealing is responsible for most of the body count.

Min & Louisa surprise an intruder at Slough House.

For all their flaws, the Slow Horses have more decency than the ‘winners’. They are prickly & snarky characters, that are nevertheless likeable. A fave of mine is Roddy Ho, Slough House’s IT expert. His hilariously pompous dialog is brilliantly played to the smugly annoying hilt by Christopher Chung. Pint-sized firecracker Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and wily old school operative Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) are a couple of other faves, but honestly, all the characters have their moments. 

Roddy analyses the kidnap photo of Standish. 

The show-runner is standup comedian & writer Will Smith, who manages to deliver laughs aplenty but also real drama. Main characters can die, and probably when you’d just learned to love them. We enjoyed watching this show so much that, after finishing the 3rd season, we RE-watched the entire thing, and were entertained even more the 2nd time. 

Jackson Lamb has an ice cream.

Having just exhausted all the viewing options available, Julia & I just began the book series that the show is based on, by Mick Herron. Though many details differ, the books are remarkably similar to the TV series, tonally. Added background details to the characters & plots make them enjoyable even after seeing the show. Hopefully they will feed us enough Lamb until season 4 drops at the end of 2024.

[todaysdocument]

The DC branch of the NAACP brought lynching statistics to the attention of President Wilson on July 1, 1918. 

“[African Americans might] ask if it were worth while to send their sons and brothers to make the world safe for democracy when America, their home, is not safe for them . . . “

Record Group 60: General Records of the Department of Justice Series: Straight Numerical Files File Unit: 158260

Transcription: 

[[left aligned]]NATIONAL OFFICERS

President:

   MR. MOORFIELD STOREY

Vice-Presidents:

   ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE

   REV. JOHN HAYNES HOLMES

   BISHOP JOHN HURST

   JOHN E. MILHOLLAND

   MARY WHITE OVINGTON

   OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD

Chairman, Board of Directors:

   MAJOR J. E. SPINGARN

Treasurer:

   OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD

Director of Publications and Research

   DR. W. E.B. DUBOIS

Secretary

   JOHN R. SHILLADY

Field Secretary:

   JAMES WELDON JOHNSON [[left aligned]]

[[centered]]The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

OFFICIAL ORGAN

THE CRISIS

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS

70 FIFTH AVENUE

NEW YORK CITY

WASHINGTON, D.C. [[centered]]

                                                                                                     July 1, 1918

The President,

  Washington, D.C.

Sir:

  The District of Columbia Branch, National Association for the Advancement of colored People, numbering upwards of 7,000 members in the District of Columbia, respectfully invites your attention to the attached clipping from the Washington Post giving authoritative figures for lynchings in the United States for the past six months.  Issued at a time when it appears that the fury of the German blow may fall at any time upon American troops, these figures will not be happy reading to the thousand of colored Americans whose sons and brothers will help to stem this blow.  A people less loyal than those represented by this Association would ask many questions upon reading these figures.  They would ask if it were worth while to send their sons and brothers to make the world safe for democracy when America, their home, is not safe for them; if the lynching of women is a fair sample of the treatment they may expect from the nation which was (and rightfully) shocked beyond expression by the execution of Miss Cavell; if this great government really includes them in its laudable program for world betterment.  Finally, they would want to know if the President, speaking the demands of this country for freedom for the oppressed peoples of distant lands, either knew or cared whether his words were being compared by the civilized world with the attached record of unpunished and unrebuked lawlessness.

  This Association believes, Mr. President, that you owe it to

[page 2]

The President - Sheet 2

yourself to express your disapprobation pf the lynching of colored men and women.  We gather from the press that you are to deliver a speech on the 4th of July.  May we suggest that this would be a fitting time to include in your remarks some assurance of your belief that the lynching of colored people should no longer be tolerated in this country.

                                                                             Respectfully.

                                                              DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BRANCH

                                                  National Association for the Advancement of colored People

                                                  By:  Archibald H. Grimke (Signed)

                                                               President

[page 3]

158250-64                                    Misc.                                 7-1-18         7-12-18  W

  Archibald H. Grimke

            Washington, D.C.

Calls attention from Wash.Post giving authoritative figures for lynchings in the U.S.A.

                                      Fitts Herron

(The article from the Washington Post)

Tuskegee, Ala.,  June 30 --  Thirty-five Persons were lynched in the United States in the first six months of this year, according to announcement by the division or records and research of Tuskegee Institute.

   The total exceeds by 21 the lynchings for the six months of 1917 and by 10 the number during a similar period in 1916.

   Thirty-four of the 35 persons lynched were negroes.  Three negro women were included in the list.

   Eight lynchings occurred in each of the States of Georgia and Louisiana, seven in Texas, four in Tennessee, two in Mississippi and on in each of the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina and South Carolina.

[insanityclause]

A few months ago the number of people Tom was 114 and three days he's only now following 111 people

And?? Of the people he followed in 2020 (115 at that time), 4 no longer have accounts. That makes 111. Not sure when John Boyega's page disappeared, but it's no longer there, but Google says he posted a few months ago; same with Jordan Vogt-Roberts. Kevin Wright was tagged by Kate Herron when S2 was airing, so his account was around then, but no longer. So that would be three right there.

Not sure why you think it's important, tbh.

[alexilulu]

Books I read in 2024 Masterpost

#0: A Memory Called Empire (Arcady Martine, Tor Books, 2019)

#1: A Desolation Called Peace (Arkady Martine, Tor Books, 2021)

#2: Exordia (Seth Dickinson, Tor Books, 2024)

#3: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives Inside Your Home (Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor, Harper Perennial, 2020)

#4: The King In Yellow (Robert W. Chambers, Warbler Classics (originally F. Tennyson Neely), 1895)

#5: Katana-Ra (Jay Libby (based on an outline by Kosala Ubayasekara), W.R.K.S. Games (self-published), 2023)

#6: Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (Greg Stafford Steve Perrin Jeff Richard Jason Durall and friends, Chaosium Inc., 2019)

#7: Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë under the pen name Ellis Bell, Thomas Newby, 1847)

#8: Moby Dick (Hermann Melville, Independent Publisher (originally Harper & Brothers), 1851)

#9: Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead (K.J. Parker (pen name of Tom Holt), Orbit Books, 2023)

#10: A Legacy of Spies (John le Carré, Viking Press, 2017)

#11: Saevus Corax Captures the Castle (K.J. Parker (pen name of Tom Holt), Orbit Books, 2023)

#12: Karl Marx (Isaiah Berlin, Times Inc. Books, 1963)

#13: The Yiddish Policeman's Union (Michael Chabon, HarperCollins, 2007)

#14: Final Girls Support Group (Grady Hendrix, Berkley Books, 2021)

#15: Slow Horses (Mick Herron, Soho Crime, 2010)

#16-18: The Scholomance Series (Naomi Novik, Del Rey Books, 2020-2022)

The Rules

1: unless tagged #spoilers, any novel I post will not contain plot spoilers but may contain vibe spoilers or allusion to events; I may talk about what the story is About that the dust jacket or my own synopsis may not make obvious but I won't tell you who killed somebody or a cool twist

2: I'd I post a book here it is because I finished it and liked it, OR I finished it and need to untangle why I didn't. Novels I simply don't enjoy I don't finish anymore, as a rule, but I may break it if something about it compels me to finish it. I've only had to do it twice in the last year, but both novels were so antithetical to my enjoyment that it made me actually feel mad about trying to read them.

3: I'm not gonna rate them. I don't like ratings systems, I'm not gonna try to hammer something into a number, and forcing it is just going to be dumb. I did think about making a 7 point criteria list that if a novel met it I would declare perfect, but that's too much work. Maybe in a lull of books or something I'll hammer one out. If I do, one point will be "did it contain a character wielding a sword flicking the blood from their blade before sheathing it?"

4: no rereads. I have a bad habit of returning to old books series when I have so many books that interest me that I'd like to break, so for 2024 unless I need to for something wild like a series entry I'm not expecting, no rereads.

5: There's gonna be some nonfiction in here. I've got a couple of things at the top of my to-read list that are political or social in nature, but if you're following me or reading these you probably can attune yourself to my political stances to know what's up pretty quickly. That said, I'm gonna talk about social shit occasionally even outside of those, so idk if that's a big deal but, yknow.

6: fuck it, we ball

[bandiera--rossa]

In ‘ Operation Demetrius’ (the British Army name for the internment arrest operation) in the early hours of 9 August 1971, soldiers and police men smashed into homes and arrested 342 men across the north. Their intelligence proved faulty. The operation didn’t significantly damage the IRA. Sixteen men were arrested in Derry, not all of them republicans.

Rioting erupted across Free Derry, and barricades again surrounded the area. A British soldier was shot dead by the IRA while on sentry duty at the British Army base in Bligh’s Lane, and Hugh Herron (31) was shot dead by a soldier in Henrietta Street.

Anger increased with news that a number of those arrested – “The Hooded Men” – had been tortured. On 18 August came the British Army response to reborn Free Derry. Over 1,300 troops, with helicopters and armoured cars, began dismantling barricades. PIRA Volunteer Eamonn Lafferty (19) was killed in a gun battle during this operation. Barricades were replaced as quickly as they were dismantled.

John Hume and two other SDLP leaders were arrested during a protest against the British incursions. Annette McGavigan (14) was shot dead by the British Army on 6 September, the day the SDLP three appeared in court.

In early September, the British Army embarked on large scale incursions into Free Derry. Gary Gormley (3) was crushed to death in his pram by an armoured car on 9 September. His death is officially recorded as a traffic accident. On 14 September, William McGreanery (41) was shot dead by British soldiers stationed in the army observation post in Bligh’s Lane. On 6 November, mother-of-six Kathleen Thompson (47) was shot dead by a British soldier as she stood in her own back garden in Rathlin Drive, Creggan. By the end of 1971 seven British soldiers had been killed in Free Derry. One IRA volunteer had been killed in action. British soldiers had killed eight civilians.

[coochiequeens]

Only TRAs could say that wanting people to be fully informed and have some therapy before undergoing surgery that could leave them "infertile, incontinent and in ongoing pain" is hateful and the same as wanting them dead.

"Doctors refused to admit de-transitioners like me exist... will that finally change now?': As NHS launches clinic for patients who regret their sex-change ops, one person who hopes to become a patient speaks out

READ MORE: NHS set to launch its first ever de-transitioning service for patients

By John Ely Deputy Health Editor For Mailonline

Published: 05:30 EDT, 14 August 2024 

Like many people suffering from gender dysphoria, Ritchie Herron hoped having radical trans surgery to have his body better match his apparent female identity would transform his life for the better. 

But instead, he has been left infertile, incontinent and in ongoing pain and claims he was fast-tracked into making 'the biggest mistake of my life'.

Now 37, Ritchie, born male, has been living a nightmare for the past six years after being allegedly 'rushed' into having extensive surgery to become a woman.

He has heartbreakingly described how it now takes him 10 minutes to slowly and painfully empty his bladder. 

His sex drive has been 'killed', his genitals 'shell-shocked' by the damage wrought by an operation that was supposed to help combat his gender dysphoria. 

Pictured: Ritchie Herron says he was fast-tracked by the NHS into life-changing surgery

But now after years of fighting to get help, Ritchie has in recent days had cause for optimism.

Earlier this month the NHS announced it was launching its first service to help transgender patients like Ritchie return to the gender they were born as.

Ritchie said he couldn't be happier with the announcement.   

'I cannot wait for the clinic to open. I would use the service straight away once it's up and running,' he told The Daily Telegraph. 

'What is most significant about this service is it actually acknowledges detransitioners and that hasn't ever happened before in the NHS. It's a huge step forward.'

However, he cautioned that detransitioners would not want to the NHS's new clinic staffed by the same medics that that run gender dysphoria services who, in some cases, patients blame for putting them in this situation in the first place.     

'People who have detransitioned don't want to go back to gender clinics. We need to make sure this service is run by professionals and not influenced by these activist groups through various consultations,' he said. 

Ritchie is one of the faces of what are called detransitioners, those who regret the radical surgeries and treatments they underwent to better match their supposed gender identity, and now want support for the complications they are suffering. 

Pictured: Ritchie dressed in female clothes and went by 'Abby' before his surgery

He previously told The Mail On Sunday how, as a teen, he buried his homosexuality which left him with depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, using repetitive behaviours to mask his unhappiness.

Then, in his 20s, he stumbled across the idea of gender dysphoria in an internet chatroom. Older men on the forum convinced the vulnerable young man he 'must be trans'.

After a series of breakdowns, in 2012 he decided to seek professional help.

He was referred to a psychologist, who did not dissuade him of the notion he had gender dysphoria, and then to the Northern Region Gender Dysphoria Service, run by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust.

The waiting list for appointments was long so , consumed with the idea, Ritchie paid for an appointment at a private gender clinic in March 2014.

According to Ritchie, he was diagnosed with 'transsexualism' after two 30-minute appointments.

A psychiatrist recommended he take medication to block his testosterone production – the first step towards gender reassignment.

He began living full-time under the name 'Abby', dressing in female clothes. The testosterone-suppressing drugs he was given meant he began developing breasts. 

By March 2015, he was attending appointments at the NHS gender clinic in Newcastle.

'The first question you get asked there is, 'Do you want genital surgery?' ' he says. 'I wasn't sure. But I'd heard you could get therapy if you were on the waiting list for surgery, so I said yes.'

Less than six months later, in July 2015, Ritchie received a referral for vaginoplasty surgery, an irreversible procedure where medics remove the male sex organs and craft an artificial vagina. 

Ritchie says he told the psychiatrist he was unsure and turned it down, but continued to receive therapy.

In 2017, he was given another referral for surgery, to be performed at the Nuffield Health hospital in Brighton but paid for by the NHS. 

Ritchie refused it again – but said he was told that if he did not accept the referral he would be discharged from the service.

Pictured: Ritchie Herron as a young boy

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass speaking about the publication of the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People (The Cass Review)

This sent him into a 'tailspin', he recalls. He believed it meant his therapy would also be withdrawn, which had been a 'lifeline'. 

At 10am on May 23, 2018, Ritchie was wheeled into the operating theatre. 'I didn't even see the surgeon,' he says. 'I was very much in the mindset of 'I'm here now, there's no stopping it even if I wanted to.' '

For 8 days he lay in a blur of painkillers. His first thought as he recovered his lucidity was: 'Oh God, what have I done?'

He's not alone. Data obtained under Freedom of Information laws shows at least 64 former NHS gender dysphoria patients who underwent treatment to become transgender 'detransitioned' between 2010 and 2020. 

While NHS England has committed its intent to run a detransition service when it could open remains unclear. 

It has only firmly committed to 'establish a programme of work to explore the issues around a detransition pathway by October 2024'. 

The NHS announced the move as part of its plans to 'transform' its care for gender-questioning children following the publication of the Cass Review.

This report, leading paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, found that children were being hurried down treatment pathways that saw them given powerful drugs and drastic medical interventions.

While Dr Cass said there was a lack of data to show how many people detransitioned after undergoing gender reassignment surgery, anecdotally it appears to be 'increasing'.

Now the NHS has said there is no 'defined clinical pathway' for people who want to return to their birth gender, and it will have to create one as there's no guidance on how to treat them at the moment.

[randomberlinchick]

Death of a Codebreaker

Trevor Noah is right: we should all have a couple conspiracy theories that we believe in. He's right about a lot of other stuff too, but l need an excuse to post this.

I'm already on the final episode, and I know there's not going to be any definitive answer about what truly happened to Gareth Williams, because I've read just about everything John le Carré has written and I recently finished Mick Herron's Slow Horses book series. Obviously, these feats make me an expert on British Intelligence, even leaving out my extensive knowledge of James Bond (books and films). The point being that if the intelligence services are involved, then you might as well make up your own solution, because that's about as close as you'll get to the truth.

So, by the time I finish the final episode, I hope to have an intriguing, new conspiracy theory to add to my repertoire. . . because one bit of this is straight out of Mick Herron's Joe Country.

[justforbooks]

Best crime and thrillers of 2023

Given this year’s headlines, it’s unsurprising that our appetite for cosy crime continues unabated, with the latest title in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, The Last Devil to Die (Viking), topping the bestseller lists. Janice Hallett’s novels The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, which also features a group of amateur crime-solvers, and The Christmas Appeal (both Viper) have proved phenomenally popular, too.

Hallett’s books, which are constructed as dossiers – transcripts, emails, WhatsApp messages and the like – are part of a growing trend of experimentation with form, ranging from Cara Hunter’s intricate Murder in the Family (HarperCollins), which is structured around the making of a cold case documentary, to Gareth Rubin’s tête-bêche The Turnglass (Simon & Schuster). Books that hark back to the golden age of crime, such as Tom Mead’s splendidly tricksy locked-room mystery Death and the Conjuror (Head of Zeus), are also on the rise. The late Christopher Fowler, author of the wonderful Bryant & May detective series, who often lamented the sacrifice of inventiveness and fun on the altar of realism, would surely have approved. Word Monkey (Doubleday), published posthumously, is his funny and moving memoir of a life spent writing popular fiction.

Notable debuts include Callum McSorley’s Glaswegian gangland thriller Squeaky Clean (Pushkin Vertigo); Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of an Eye (Simon & Schuster), a police procedural with an AI detective; Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (Pushkin Vertigo), featuring queer punk nun investigator Sister Holiday; and the caustically funny Thirty Days of Darkness (Orenda) by Jenny Lund Madsen (translated from the Danish by Megan E Turney).

There have been welcome additions to series, including a third book, Case Sensitive (Zaffre), for AK Turner’s forensic investigator Cassie Raven, and a second, The Wheel of Doll (Pushkin Vertigo), for Jonathan Ames’s LA private eye Happy Doll, who is shaping up to be the perfect hardboiled 21st-century hero.

Other must-reads for fans of American crime fiction include Ozark Dogs (Headline) by Eli Cranor, a powerful story of feuding Arkansas families; SA Cosby’s Virginia-set police procedural All the Sinners Bleed (Headline); Megan Abbott’s nightmarish Beware the Woman (Virago); and Rebecca Makkai’s foray into very dark academia, I Have Some Questions for You (Fleet). There are shades of James Ellroy in Jordan Harper’s Hollywood-set tour de force Everybody Knows (Faber), while Raymond Chandler’s hero Philip Marlowe gets a timely do-over from Scottish crime doyenne Denise Mina in The Second Murderer (Harvill Secker).

As Mick Herron observed in his Slow Horses origin novel, The Secret Hours (Baskerville), there’s a long list of spy novelists who have been pegged as the heir to John le Carré. Herron must be in pole position for principal legatee, but it’s been a good year for espionage generally: standout novels include Matthew Richardson’s The Scarlet Papers (Michael Joseph), John Lawton’s Moscow Exile (Grove Press) and Harriet Crawley’s The Translator (Bitter Lemon).

Historical crime has also been well served. Highlights include Emma Flint’s excellent Other Women (Picador), based on a real 1924 murder case; Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s story of a fortune teller’s quest for identity in Georgian high society, The Square of Sevens (Mantle); and SG MacLean’s tale of Restoration revenge and retribution, The Winter List (Quercus). There are echoes of Chester Himes in Viper’s Dream (No Exit) by Jake Lamar, which begins in 1930s Harlem, while Palace of Shadows (Mantle) by Ray Celestin, set in the late 19th century, takes the true story of American weapons heiress Sarah Winchester’s San Jose mansion and transports it to Yorkshire, with chillingly gothic results.

The latest novel in Vaseem Khan’s postcolonial India series, Death of a Lesser God (Hodder), is also well worth the read, as are Deepti Kapoor’s present-day organised crime saga Age of Vice (Fleet) and Parini Shroff’s darkly antic feminist revenge drama The Bandit Queens (Atlantic).

While psychological thrillers are thinner on the ground than in previous years, the quality remains high, with Liz Nugent’s complex and heartbreaking tale of abuse, Strange Sally Diamond (Penguin Sandycove), and Sarah Hilary’s disturbing portrait of a family in freefall, Black Thorn (Macmillan), being two of the best.

Penguin Modern Classics has revived its crime series, complete with iconic green livery, with works by Georges Simenon, Dorothy B Hughes and Ross MacDonald. There have been reissues by other publishers, too – forgotten gems including Celia Fremlin’s 1959 holiday‑from-hell novel, Uncle Paul (Faber), and Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground (Vintage). Finished in 1942 but only now published in its entirety, the latter is an account of an innocent man who takes refuge from racist police officers in the sewers of Chicago – part allegorical, part brutally realistic and, unfortunately, wholly topical.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[whavsims]

📍John F. Kennedy International Airport

maeve boards a 6am flight to windenburg for her euro summer. this is the first stop of her trip, she'll be attending the herron family ball while visiting

[dance-magic-dance]

kate herron really said what if we brought jack back because jack was hot but also not john barrowman

[prettytoxicrevolver]

The Graveyard

How to Navigate:

While these are all fandoms and people I do NOT write for anymore, some of the work written for them has been my best. I encourage you to search their names on my tumblr if you want to read some fics for these people. I will not link any fics as it takes too long and I don’t write for them anymore anyway. Much love to everyone in The Graveyard™

Hi5

Tanner Malmedal 

Woodland Demars 

Connor Melville 

Gunner Gomez 

Team Edge

Bobby Frederick 

Why Don't We 

Daniel Seavey  

Corbyn Besson 

Jack Avery  

Jonah Marais  

Zach Herron 

Eben 

Outer Banks 

John B Routledge 

JJ Maybank 

Other

Jack and Jack  

CrankGamePlays 

Markiplier 

Steve Harrington 

Jaeden Lieberher