Sign in

Patrick McGuinness

@padrig.bsky.social
991 followers 781 following 290 posts

Endotic traveller. Recent books: Blood Feather 2023; Ghost Stations 2025. FRSL. Prof French & Comp Lit, Oxford. Rep'd Peter Straus RCW.

PostsRepliesMedia
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
An occasional series on the travelability of iconic writers. Today it's Montaigne in Seoul. Not clear from outside or indeed inside what the great essayist had to do with this place, but if you want to attract the digressive urban customer, it works.
150
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Very sad to hear of Bonnie Greer's death. We appeared together at the Frankfurt Book fair a few years ago & spent happy hours exploring the city. I enjoyed her company and insight, her particularly memorable discussion of Hedda Gabler which she was adapting, and a visit to Goethe's house.
090
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
What a rancid bunch of people.
020
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
A strange out of body experience when instagram suggested for me a book I edited and introduced. Very Huysmansian sense at once of singularity and futility
271
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Despite the dust, the age and the abandonment, there's something enduring about these perfect shoes on their perfect wooden feet. A whole world stepping out.
060
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Chimneyscapes of the 10th arrondissement
1121
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Cllr Dr Alex Powell @apowelllaw.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
it's interesting isn't it that for some in the media and government: Holding up a sign declaring support for a group = Terrorism. Storming a port in masks and all black clothes to try and force political change = Protest.
13512
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 05/09/2026
As gangs of masked men block Dover port, I will just leave this here www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Campaigners receive longest ever sentences for non-violent protest after being convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance
3923951157
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I must have thought, back in late June/early July, that I'd need a snack when I returned to my desk in college in September. The banana of summers past.
040
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Preparing a book on Rimbaud, hence Charleville. Rimbaud and Verlaine used to visit Bouillon and stay in the Hôtel des Ardennes. My great-grandmother and her mother were chambermaids there. It can't be ruled out that my g-g-gm changed their sheets.
1131
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Raoul Vaneigem, lifelong heretic and heretophile(?), a thinker and scholar, poet of revolt & ex situationist comrade (then not) of Guy Debord. His Traité de savoir vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations was an inspiration in 68 and remains thrilling to read. www.liberation.fr/idees-et-deb...
liberation.fr
Mort de Raoul Vaneigem, philosophe libertaire et inspirateur de Mai 68
Le penseur belge, mort cette semaine à 92 ans, fut aux côtés de Guy Debord l’une des figures du situationnisme, ce mouvement de contestation radicale du capitalisme et de la «société du spectacle», in...
252
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Libération @liberation.fr · 30/07/2026
⚫ Le penseur belge Raoul Vaneigem, mort cette semaine à 92 ans, fut aux côtés de Guy Debord l’une des figures du situationnisme, ce mouvement de contestation radicale du capitalisme et de la «société du spectacle», inspirateur de Mai 68. ➡️ l.liberation.fr/Vc3
22216
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Bouillon.
070
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Another satisfied tourist leaves a review. Bouillon, Rue Saint Nicolas.
130
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Every regular becomes a ghost in their local. Unless the local itself becomes the ghost. I used to come here and dislodge my grandfather Eugène from the bench by the window. And have been dislodged in my turn, and now finally. Café du Centre, Bouillon, 193?-2026.
282
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
A lot of what's wrong with the people who run universities can be summarised in the word 'hub', notably, as here, replacing the word 'library' (or llyfrgell as here).
13212
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Robert Graves’s house in Deià, Mallorca. His desk, his Aga, his jams (by now probably explosive) and my face in his shaving mirror while he recites 'The Face in thr Mirror' in that mirror on the screen beside me.
0273
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Belgian Red Devils @belreddevils.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Overturn this! 😎
933153799
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
🇧🇪
090
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
A bit late to this. Once again, Stefan Collini's great article for @lrb.co.uk tells the truth about the REF. I'm wondering how we across subjects and universities can start to mobilise in this direction...
080
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
www.slowtravelberlin.com @slowberlin.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Do you like Hipster Marx 😎 Or are you, like Robbie Williams, loving Engels instead? 😃
0316
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Honoured and excited to be a judge, with such fantastic fellow judges. Currently making some shelf-space...
1172
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
🇧🇪 Ouf Oef phew
020
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Inspiring story... www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Children embrace Cornish language as it enjoys ‘remarkable resurgence’
Go Cornish Celebration engages younger generation as council finalises strategy to boost everyday use of Kernewek
061
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
c.org/Tw9XbZtL5k
c.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
010
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Heatwave advice Belgian style: plenty of salt on those chips.
081
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The Oxford Union, always been a wankers' nursery. Now the rest of the city pays its nappy fees. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Oxford Union should pay for Tommy Robinson policing, says council
Tommy Robinson is due to take part in a debate at the historic union on Wednesday.
181
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Cardiff was once a great university, and U of Wales once a visionary university system. This is grim, the senior management and bosses at Cardiff are (rich) vandals, and the Cardiff uni in Kazakhstan stuff is like a David Lodge novel @nation.cymru nation.cymru/news/what-it...
nation.cymru
What it's like working in a university hit by budget cuts and job losses
Martin Shipton A Cardiff University lecturer has written a bleak account of working in an institution diminished by financial cuts and job losses. In a piece first published by voice.cymru, the worker...
2157
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
A pair of empty boots, rain and a rail replacement bus. Sunday, distilled
1100
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Of course I signed. Didn't you (yet)?
rebootfifa.com
Infantino isn’t fit to lead FIFA. 
And FIFA isn’t fit to govern football. Agree? Add your name now >>
Add your name to our mass complaint
04822
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you.
And our governments are very much the same.
- Marjane Satrapi, Iranian Graphic Novelist
1030751300
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Sea-sculpted tree that looks like an animal skeleton, and proof that, however remote you are, however far from towns and houses and cars, the universal upturned shopping trolley will find you.
0100
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Oxford Translates @oxfordtranslates.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
⏰ 5 days remaining to apply for this year's summer school. Only a few places left for select languages remaining!
002
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Because it's going so well.
070
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
'Stuck in the hole it was meant to fix'. The Starmer metaphor lorry: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Lorry gets stuck in hole it was sent to fix in Somerset
Lorry left at near 45-degree angle after ground gave way on road near Walton
0105
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
To treat this and other cases as mere faulty vetting is disingenuous and lets Reform off the hook of being challenged for who and what they are. metro.co.uk/2026/05/09/r...
metro.co.uk
Reform councillor said 'Nigerians should be melted down to fill in pot holes'
141
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Pob lwc Cymru heddiw. It's time.
030
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
A fine and thoughtful poet who lovedpoetry and shared that love widely in all her writings, and wrote and read with huge range. Very sorry to hear.
192
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
I wrote about what it's like to read the poetry of J.H. Prynne
someflowerssoon.substack.com
In Darkness by Day
Reading J.H. Prynne (1936-2026)
34419
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Very sorry to hear of JH Prynne's death.I was sent to him for my u/g dissertation on Wm Cowper, 1990. He was brilliant, warm and kind, & talked about poetry as if he was there, somewhere along the chain of its making, speaking from inside as well as outside it. www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6...
theparisreview.org
J. H. Prynne, The Art of Poetry No. 101
“Writers had better not be too cocksure that they’ve got inspiration on their side.”
2385
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Very sorry to hear that the poet J.H. Prynne has died, at the age of 89. Here, from 10 years ago, is my attempt to describe the man and the work
prospectmagazine.co.uk
Jeremy Prynne, prankster poet
The famously obscure poetry of JH Prynne glitters with aphorisms and jokes
513552
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
A propos Trump's use of My Way... the original song is French: Comme d'habitude. Sung by Claude François, written by him, Jacques Revaux & Gilles Thibaut, it's a charming self-deprecating and witty song, far from the puffy boomer anthem My Way, now a dictator dotage-dirge. www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-...
ina.fr
Claude François "Comme d'habitude" | INA
172
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Very taken with Bristol Temple Meads Lost Property office. All these characters angry getting ready to go find their owners.
190
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Trumpton Fire Brigade ultra @captainflack.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MAGYAR.
76214
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Jacques Brel, born today in 1929. Here in my home town of Bouillon, quite the young bruxellois on a day out to the provinces. My mother and aunt saw him in concert.
1388
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Louise, Prof/Dr @louiselocock.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Staff in the Oxford branch of Lush have had to deal with some harassment from the so-called Oxfordshire Patriots recently. So I dropped by today to offer some moral and financial support, and picked up the excellent @migrantsrights.bsky.social leaflet.
A purple booklet saying Racism is a threat to our community, not migrants. Make your words matter.
3104
Reposted by Patrick McGuinness
Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Thames Valley Police have now confirmed that they have arrested a 44-year-old man from Bromsgrove on suspicion of causing racially and religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress, in connection with reports of incidents on Abingdon Road. He has been released on police bail.
1318746
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Far right thugs getting called out and shown up, and for several of them it's far from their first arrest.
050
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
So he did come in the end:
0161
Patrick McGuinness @padrig.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
From Didcot and Reading to Paris, where the Coolest Man ou No competition has been won by Gilles Ortlieb. André Chénier a close second.
1111