Peter Parker

My X account was hacked twice. Now I have regained control and warn everyone not to click on any links in messages like the one below. Huge apologies for all this. Please make sure you have your 2-factor authentication turned on to avoid my fate.

“The blessèd part has not been given to me Gladly to suffer fools, I do confess I have enticed and merited distress, By this, that I have never bow’d the knee Before the shrine of wise Hypocrisy...” Lord Alfred Douglas, died 20 March 1945, excusing his life-long intemperance.

@sapphicapuella Hear hear!

Loved happening across this reference to Housman & Shakespeare in Kenneth Williams’ autobiography. Don’t agree that Housman is minor - my book, out later 2026, shows that at his best AEH is as good as anyone in the language (& few are as linguistically sensitive).

“Little islands are all large prisons; one cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.” Sir Richard Burton, born 19 March 1821 #sirichardburton #explorer

“A short life and a merry one, my buck! We used to say we’d hate to live dead-old,— Yet now ... I’d willingly be puffy, bald, And patriotic. Buffers catch from boys At least the jokes hurled at them.” Wilfred Owen, born 18 March 1893 #wilfredowen #poem #warpoetry

“Yesterday I began drawing the great Mr [John] Osborne, tall, thin, spectral: in black skin-tight trousers that showed a cute bottom and a huge lunch. And camp, my dear – not ’arf.” Colin Spencer, 17 March 1962 #johnosborne #colinspencer

@alchemiebooks Perfect reading for St Patrick's Day.

“Steward showed enormous exposure after dinner—stiff down left thigh...I wanted awfully.” Bless. A new biography of darling diarist Roger Casement, Broken Archangel by Roland Philipps, appeared in 2024, and now there's this one, which has scored a rave in The Times today.

“Mosley spoke for an hour and a half and to my dismay seemed to have the meeting mainly with him.” George Orwell, Barnsley, 16 March 1936 #georgeorwell #oswaldmosley

@wigglenator1625 @HookArron76532 I don't think so. Curzon died in London.

@PParkerWriting @HookArron76532 Not Blenheim?

“Lady Curzon’s birthday – we dined with her quietly [...] Lord Curzon is still very weak, He was allowed three oysters, but ate four to spite his doctor.” Chips Channon, 14 March 1925 [Curzon died six days later.] #lordcurzon #chipschannon

“The winds are sometimes sad to me, The starry spaces, full of fear; Mine is the sorrow on the sea, And mine the sigh of places drear.” Lionel Johnson, born 15 March 1867 #lioneljohnson #poem

@ArmchairBard I hadn't hear that. Perfect.

@PParkerWriting (from memory alas) Was he the Lord Curzon once chided by a friend for having no idea how ordinary people lived: — Had m’lord ever travelled on an omnibus? No but he’d give it a try. So they catch one. And when the conductor comes along, Curzon says, “32 Onslow Square, please”.

@wigglenator1625 @HookArron76532 At home, quietly (as they say in Death Notices).

@PParkerWriting @HookArron76532 Where did they dine?

@LauraCummingArt @eggsbened Thank you for this. Hacked twice. Now restored.

@eggsbened @PParkerWriting They sure have

@PParkerWriting By the looks of things your DMs have been hacked.

@BrophyLevey Thank goodness!

@PParkerWriting I realized, Peter. It definitely wasn't you 'speaking'!

“You never know what you will learn till you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed.” Anita Brookner, died 10 March 2016 #anitabrookner #writing

@LuciaOC_ Happy birthday 🎂

It’s my birthday!

“So we’ll go no more a roving So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright. Though the night was made for loving, And the day returns too soon, Yet we'll go no more a roving By the light of the moon.” Lord #Byron, 28 February 1817

“An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.” Lawrence Durrell, born 27 February 1912 #lawrencedurrell

“Some have tennis-elbow And some have housemaid’s knee, And some I know have got B.O.: But these are not for me.” ‘The Ascent of F6’ by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood opens 26 February 1939 #whauden #christopherisherwood #grouptheatre