Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"... and I still think that an hundred Bishops, with Athanasius at their head, were as competent judges of the discipline of the fourth Century, as even the Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford" is an extremely sick burn by Mr Gibbon. 011
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 22/09/2026It's actually a pretty amazing party trick-type ability how long Chris Mason can talk without saying anything 150
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Not a Christian or religious in any way, but I'm sad to learn that the "woman taken in adultery"/"cast the first stone" story is universally agreed to be a later addition, because it's a banger. 130
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Practical Magic 2 is diabolical but my whole household is still laughing about the Ian Wright/custard scene. 000
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 11/09/2026My new crank belief is that The Man has deliberately made morning R3 music choices crap in order to drive everyone back to the hated Today Programme to be radicalised by Justin Webb 020
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Telling teenagers that the stereo has an input "on the back of the amp" turns out to have the same sort of results as telling Hansel that the files are "in the computer" in Zoolander. 150
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 13/08/2026I kind of love the way all of Hall and Oates's songs are about how this scarily hot woman is making unreasonable sexual demands of Hall and Oates, who look like this. 120
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 30/07/2026The nicest man in rock strikes again: a friend went to interview Johnny Marr and mentioned what a fan I was, so he sent him back with this. 110
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 18/07/2026My only real Odyssey criticism is that the sun god had a weirdly mixed herd of cattle. I think there was a Frisian in there at one point. They should have been all Limousin. 110
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 12/07/2026The are/is thing for teams blowing minds at the New Yorker - www.newyorker.com/sports/world...newyorker.comBritish Grammar Invades the American World CupThe World Cup has brought Britishisms to U.S. soccer coverage. “Linguistically, as on the pitch, the Americans can often be found ball-chasing,” Zach Helfand writes. 010
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 07/07/2026Akusmi at Rough Trade East last night. New album here - share.google/wZMVzszHdcjb... 000
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Wrong use of "disinterest" on the first page of the first Game of Thrones book 1100
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 30/06/2026At last catfishing.net #737 - 10/10 🎉 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈catfishing.netcatfishing - the Wikipedia guessing gameGuess the Wikipedia article from its categories. 10 interesting people, places, and things to guess every day. 120
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Come to this - dice.fm/event/bbo96v...dice.fmAkusmi: Live w/ Sarathy Korwar, Marysia Osu, Dudù Kouate and more Tickets | From £14.62 | 6 Jul @ Rough Trade East London, London | DICERough Trade East is very excited to present a live performance from Akusmi w/ Sarathy Korwar, Marysia Osu, Dudù Kouate and more and signing from Akusmi. This... 000
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Random guy on my feed having a normal one 100
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Good piece on the cage fighting/manosphere/MAGA entertainment complex www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...nybooks.comPlanet UFC | Nic JohnsonFor decades it has been White House tradition to invite Ireland's prime minister, the Taoiseach, to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with a ceremonial 010
Reposted by Christopher TaylerShiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 30/05/2026I hate to hand it to him, but he's right, my girlfriend is women 2879663
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 28/05/2026After revising Macbeth all day, daughter thought she heard me mutter "The sad people always ride single file." Yes, she thought, they're each trapped in their individual sadness, unable to reach out to one another - great image. Was then disappointed to learn I'd actually muttered "sand people." 050
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 26/05/2026youtu.be/OCcys7FIhis?...youtu.beMiles Davis - Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins [1954]YouTube video by Classic Mood Experience 030
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 26/05/2026This is good, and I think it's right too. 000
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 14/05/2026RIP Clarence Carter. People are going on about your novelty record but this is immortal. youtu.be/tj8eAHn_2YM?...youtu.beSlip Away- Clarence CarterYouTube video by LaBamba1680 000
Reposted by Christopher TaylerThe New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 14/05/2026“One of the qualities that has helped Ben Lerner’s writing flourish...is a knack for treading a nicely judged line between intellectual grandiloquence and comic self-deflation.” —@mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social nybooks.com‘Facing the Past’ | Christopher TaylerBen Lerner’s dazzling new novel, Transcription, plays variations on the conflicts and bonds that are felt among three generations. 051
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 08/05/2026There are times when I wonder about the wisdom of choosing "Mansfield Von Rank" as a social media handle, and this is one of them. 030
Reposted by Christopher TaylerThe New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 08/05/2026Christopher Tayler (@mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social) on Ben Lerner’s Transcription nybooks.com‘Facing the Past’ | Christopher TaylerBen Lerner’s dazzling new novel, Transcription, plays variations on the conflicts and bonds that are felt among three generations. 073
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 07/05/2026I write about Ben Lerner's latest novel for @nybooks.com. The marvellous editors there were okay with me spending about a quarter of the piece on a close reading of the opening page. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...nybooks.com‘Facing the Past’ | Christopher TaylerBen Lerner’s dazzling new novel, Transcription, plays variations on the conflicts and bonds that are felt among three generations. 021
Reposted by Christopher TaylerThe New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 07/05/2026Our 5/28 issue is now online, with @bentarnoff.com on Bill Gates, Frances Wilson on Liza, @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social on Ben Lerner, Lynn Hunt on Marat’s afterlife, Charlie Lee on John Gregory Dunne in Vegas, Nina Siegal on the Hoosier grave robber, and much more. nybooks.comMay 28, 2026 IssueTable of Contents 1143
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 07/05/2026All left-wing political parties could save a fortune by simply not leafleting people who have floor-level letterboxes, because those people clearly don't believe in the dignity of labour. 010
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 06/05/2026There's now a guy permanently stationed in the locker room at the British Library to unlock your locker and slap a magnetic "out of service" sign on it when the numeric keypad fails. 020
Reposted by Christopher TaylerMaria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.com · 29/04/2026Do you realise what today’s date is? Happy The Devil Rides Out day! 813851
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 16/04/2026Pretty sure Bluesky went down this morning because of the volume of people firing it up to comment on the GB News-style Today Programme opening about dodgy solicitors proving asylum seekers are bad. 000
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Charles Gray would have made a good John Ashbery 100
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Some of the quoted stuff is actual physical laugh out loud 000
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 01/04/2026"Space is not a safe space, it is the opposite." Justin Webb's war on woke slipping the surly bonds of earth on the Today Programme just now. 010
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 25/03/2026Post a non-religious picture you think of as holy 010
Reposted by Christopher Tayler"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 25/03/2026Well, I am not sure what my analysis here is worth, but here is my 7,500 word primal scream of a military historian's take on the War in Iran. My best summary: this war is dumb as hell. acoup.blog/2026/03/25/m...acoup.blogMiscellanea: The War in IranThis post is a set of my observations on the current war in Iran and my thoughts on the broader strategic implications. I am not, of course, an expert on the region nor do I have access to any spec… 701577513
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 20/02/2026Peter Guillam's tactics won't work on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor 010
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 16/02/2026This is good heatherparry.substack.com/p/this-is-no...heatherparry.substack.comthis is not an essay about Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights"why can't we cope with ambiguity these days? 020
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 13/02/2026Since Malcolm Cowley is doing the rounds again - harpers.org/archive/2014...harpers.orgThe Passenger, by Christopher TaylerCreating the Lost Generation 000
Reposted by Christopher TaylerHarper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 29/01/2026“Divorce, naturally, wasn’t mentioned. The affair wasn’t either. They continued to edit and publish Bainbridge’s novels.” Christopher Tayler ( @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social ) on Beryl Bainbridge and Anna and Colin Haycraft.buff.lyThe Zone of Silence, by Christopher TaylerBeryl Bainbridge’s dramas of failed attachment 161
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 28/01/2026Does anyone want two tickets for Lost Highway at the BFI IMAX at 11am this Sunday? 000
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 27/01/2026I thought of Beryl Bainbridge as this rather normie figure growing up, but I was wrong about that. At her best she's a bit like Muriel Spark, but without the implicit idea that that all the chaos and darkness make some kind of sense from an inaccessible supernatural point of view. 342
Reposted by Christopher TaylerPopehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 26/01/2026“After you murder someone you should send a series of cryptic letters in some sort of unbreakable code. That’s the responsible — I would say, the fatherly — thing to do.” 832721307
Reposted by Christopher TaylerHarper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 23/01/2026“It’s all a trap. The intricate plot builds up to some disturbing sexual and emotional punch lines that are all the more disturbing because the principal characters are neither clowns nor monsters.” Christopher Tayler on Beryl Bainbridge.buff.lyThe Zone of Silence, by Christopher TaylerBeryl Bainbridge’s dramas of failed attachment 021
Reposted by Christopher TaylerStuart Evers @stuartevers.bsky.social · 22/01/2026I've never read Beryl Bainbridge, but this piece really makes me want to. harpers.org/archive/2026...harpers.orgThe Zone of Silence, by Christopher TaylerBeryl Bainbridge’s dramas of failed attachment 031
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 21/01/2026Keeping the flame of civilisation burning, I wrote about what's really important (English novelists in the Seventies and Eighties) - harpers.org/archive/2026...harpers.orgThe Zone of Silence, by Christopher TaylerBeryl Bainbridge’s dramas of failed attachment 032
Christopher Tayler @mansfieldvonrank.bsky.social · 21/01/2026Keep seeing the term "gutter racism", but how is that worse than "boardroom racism", "megayacht racism"? Is the implication that it's worse because uncouth? 010