James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2

@jameslatimer.bsky.social

638 Followers 355 Following

Recovering writer. Man of letters. Weltschmerz enthusiast. He/him.

An aerial photo of a ploughed field next to a railway line, with a very straight diagonal roadway being built across it in bright grey slabs of what looks like concrete, by a specialist engineering vehicle. The crashed trains can be seen in the background and the caption reads "Engineers are building a temporary road to remove the damaged trains" and credit is to NETWORK RAIL.
Quotes from Alan Milburn on the BBC, 'Directly addressing those in the Labour Party nervous about reforms to welfare he said: "Labour is what it says on the tin. "It's the party of work. Work gives purpose. Work gives income. Work gives meaning."'
A stack of 21 volumes of Time Life Books' "The Epic of Flight" with silver typography on navy blue covers - The Soviet Air Force, Fighting Jets, The Jet Age, The Luftwaffe, The Bush Pilots, Flying the Mail, The Pathfinders, Barnstormers & Speed Kings, The Giant Airships, The First Aviators, The Road to Kitty Hawk, Architects of Air Power, Knights of the Air, Designers and Test Pilots, Women Aloft, The Airline Builders, The Explorers, The RAF at War, America in the Air War, The Carrier War, Soldiers of Fortune
Screenshot of a news headline from The Telegraph that reads "The Civil Service has replaced academia as the home of bourgeois idleness" and has a picture of someone relaxing on a green lawn with a brownish bowler hat over their face and hands laced on their chest, excruciating idle, presumably.
Cover of Simenon's Maigret novel Le Port des Brumes (aka The Misty Harbour, Death of a Harbour Master, Maigret and the Death of a Harbor Master, The Port of Shadows) French livre de poche edition with a sepia photo of a small harbour with a wooden wharf or jetty, stacked lobster pots, and some small open boats tied up beyond.
Book cover of Remake by Connie Willis (1994) featuring an art deco meets Blade Runner cityscape with lots of giants screens all showing scenes from classic movies including Casablanca, Top Hat, Marilyn Monroe, etc.
Signed title page of Mark Lawrence's The Book That Wouldn't Burn, on a shop shelf.
Screenshot of the very 1980s cover of The Wizards and the Warriors by Hugh Cook, with a fantasy castle or cathedral with towering spires on a cliff with a lava moat and a mountainous landscape behind. The only sign of life is a soaring bird of prey. The title is in a salmon coloured lozenge with a gold border. Very 80s.
The White Witch from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe but the 1980s BBC version played by Barbara Kellerman, who could chew cardboard BBC scenery with the best of them. She's on her sleigh in front of a grey sky and evergreens, showing her chalk-white face, spiky silver crown and shaggy white fur mantle.
Publishers Marketplace Deal Report WICKHILLS By Premee Mohamed Imprint: Tor Nebula Award and World Fantasy Award winner Premee Mohamed's WICKHILLS, a spy thriller pitched as Cold War-era John le Carre meets Gormenghast, to Eli Goldman at Tor, with Jonathan Strahan editing, in a two- book deal, for publication in fall 2026, by Michael Curry at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world English). Fiction: Sci-Fi/Fantasy January 28, 2026
Captain Haddock from Tintin turning around in his chair and shaking a fist, while the other hand holds a bottle.
BBC screenshot of Noem quote: "They responded according to their training, and took action to defend the officer's life and those of the public around him. And, I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."
A white bookshelf with five shelves of paperbacks, mostly the old A or pocket size, of older SF&F, with authors like Blish, Cherryh, Douglass, Elliott, Jones, Moon, Saberhagen, Vance and more...
Two copies of The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas, one smaller and bound in blue with gold lettering on the spine by Collins library of classics (no date but old), and one a Penguin Popular Classic in faded beige, almost twice as large, and yet...
The classic film poster for The Sword and the Sorcerer, very 70s Frazetta-style, with a muscle-bound warrior wielding a three-bladed sword (yes!) against a shadowy demon while a scantily-clad woman is threatened by a snake (yep!). The font is also classic metallic faux-fantasy fare.
The bright blood red cover of Snakewood by Adrian Selby, with a mysterious hooded figure in a dirty white robe sitting cross-legged in the centre, a sword by his side. The tagline reads "A lifetime of enemies has its own price".
An idiot tabby cat sitting plum on a winter hat in the middle of a table covered with a yellow floral tablecloth in a room with yellow walls, staring gormlessly to the left of camera.
Gorgeous hardbacks of Anna Smith Spark's A Sword of Bronze and Ashes (red detail ) and A Sword of Gold and Ruin (yellow detail) both with black and white illustrations of a woman and child against trees, with sprayed edges and shiny title text in the detail colour.
A screenshot of a cover for Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, showing a dark horseman on a black hose, rearing up on a snowy doorstep over a prone boy who has raised a hand to shield his face, all backlit by the light from the open door. The Rider's black cloak billows behind him, and black rooks swoop in the margins of the scene.
A 1980s print of a 1970s edition of The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, with a dark Rider on the cover, highlighted in a circle revealing the snowy background. His head is owl eyed, stag antlered, wolf eared as in the book, which is pretty freaky, and has a smaller blue superimposed circle over it, picking out the only colour on the cover, including some pink and green like a heat map.
Heart of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker, on a wintry jumper. The title text is bright green, with eerie faces made of vines and crossed swords behind on a black background.
A slightly battered copy of The Secret Barrister, Stories of the Law and How It's Broken, a white paperback with an image of a barrister in robes and wig with yellow scribbles obscuring his face.
A photo of Amazon Prime TV showing the icon for a Movie pick ostensibly for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but the picture is of a 1960s/70s convertible driven by a blonde, with a man in sunglasses behind her.
Close up of the bowsprit of the nonsense Flying Dutchman poster ship reveals A SECOND BOWSPRIT, or maybe a rogue flagpole, and some nonsensical rigging. Very shoddy.
A nonsensical two-masted sailing vessel with a giant on board, square sides, a bowsprit with a disappearing flag, and one sail - rigged backwards on the second mast.
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!'
A white 1960s Kenwood Chef stand mixer with powder blue details, also has blender and juicer (maybe?) attachments.
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.
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.
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.
In a black and white film, a woman tries to roll down her nylon stockings while handcuffed to the man next to her and holding a sandwich in the other hand. They are only visible waist-down, and he's wearing a suit, with a sandwich on his lap. His handcuffed hand is limp as it trails awkwardly down her leg...
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.
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.
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.
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.
A very green river valley with dark deciduous trees below rolling, rather barren hills and grey cloudy skies.
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.
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!
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
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)'
“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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
A Bajoran woman with a crinkly nose staring earnestly past the camera with the caption "Nothing justifies genocide" in a screenshot from DS9.
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.
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.
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)
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.
Screenshot of The Telegraph website headline "The British state is crushing free speech" followed by "Rather than instructing police officers to act as glorified social media moderators, we should free their time to work on serious crimes" byline 10 May 2025
My copy of How The Railways Will Fix The Future by Gareth Dennis, a simple red and white cover with a line graphic of a railway track, and the subtitle "Rediscovering the essential brilliance of the iron road".
The final image of the title sequence of Cheers: a black & white photo of a group of gentleman in early 20th C garb - bowler hats and bowties and three piece suits - mostly holding glasses of coloured alcohol.
The Barbed Coil by J V Jones, with an illustration of a man with a sword and a woman holding a torch on a rampart over a gate.
Paperback of On by Adam Roberts (2002), which is very white (even the title is white on white with a slight purple shadow) with an illustration of a figure hiding on a rough landscape from a futuristic/insectoid robot/creature.
BBC News article screenshot: Trump also sent a direct warning to protesters who confronted police and federal forces. He wrote on social media: "IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!"
A screenshot of a tweet from Dalles Texas TV with a picture of a giant, grey, armoured police vehicle on 1m+ tyres and armoured windows, with two police officers pointing proudly at it, and the caption "The Prosper Police Department shows off their new $689,000 multi-purpose vehicle at the annual Chrome and Coffee car show". Disgusting.
A smol black kitten with short fur and big paws, eyes still blue-grey, lying on it's side by my arm, looking at the camera for once!
A BR class 91 electric locomotive in LNER heritage InterCity livery, so a yellow nose, white cab, thick black stripe at window level and a thin red stripe below, like it should have (though the black maybe deep purple?). It's sitting in Leeds station, I think.
A bottle of Duck Island hand soap in a pub toilet. It's pale goldy coloured, and the black logo on the bottle is of a bird in some stylised ferns. The bird is NOT a duck. More of a pelican, maybe a heron...but not a duck.