Thomas Dillon

Umberto Eco, who owned 50,000 books, had this to say about home libraries: “It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones. “There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion. “If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That’s why you should always have a nutrition choice! “Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it. They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity.”

@arcolatheatre shows how it should be done - how to engage respectfully with a great work and yet bring it into communion with our times. Outstanding theatre. arcolatheatre.com/event/iphigeni…

@ArchRose90 I noticed that. Perhaps it is national policy!

This genre of British police officers kicking the worst people in the head is so satisfying to watch.

@metpoliceuk @adje__ Please identify a moment when the semiconscious, prone man tried to attack the officers.

Our brave officers confronted a man they believed to be a terrorist, who refused to show his hands, who was violent, and who continued to pose a clear threat. Using only their training, courage and tasers, they detained him while he continued to try to attack and stab them. This took true courage.

As bad as what he did was, abhorrent actually, police absolutely cannot do this. Wtf!?

@msjenniferjames @metpoliceuk @adje__ This is so obvious, yet in our terrified world people will turn a blind eye to what was revolting violence. What if he had died from the repeated kicks to the head?

@metpoliceuk @adje__ The officers did amazing work up until they chose to put the boot in. You can’t kick someone repeatedly in the head when they don’t pose a threat. Disproportionate use of force which could have killed him. He’d been tasered and he was face down on the

I’m outraged by the excessive use of force used by police in London to detain the Muslim man who stabbed two Jews. This is the type of violence towards Muslims learned from the IDF and Israeli police.

@metpoliceuk @realrabbilinda Are they not aware that a man who has been electrocuted cannot release his grip? This was a disgusting display that should result in disciplinary action.

Our brave officers confronted a man they believed to be a terrorist, who refused to show his hands, who was violent, and who continued to pose a clear threat. Using only their training, courage and tasers, they detained him while he continued to try to attack and stab them. This took true courage.

@metpoliceuk Is repeatedly kicking a prone, tazered man in the head an approved form of restraint?

@Hamps_Theatre If Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen spins a lot out of a factual little, it is still a stylish, paradoxical and witty caprice on a fascinating theme. It’s well staged; and Damien Molony excels as Heisenberg. #details" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2026/…

@NationalTheatre The NT’s staging is impressive, but one views Gorky’s coruscating play through the distorting mirror of Nina and Moses Raine’s crassly vulgar “version”. Sadly this infects some of the acting. Disappointing. nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/su…

Tim Crouch’s tiresome Tempest at #SamWanamakerPlayhouse reassigns text for anti-colonial point-scoring. He casts himself as lead - reminded me of Jason Statham, but Statham might have been all right. Good music, the lovers touching. But still a shambles. shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/the-t…

@OrangeTreeThtr Few modern plays are revived - understandably. Nicholas Wright’s deft, humane “Vincent in Brixton” is a happy exception, now at the Orange Tree in Richmond. A uniformly excellent cast, led by the outstanding Niamh Cusack, does it justice. orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/vince…

@WelshNatTheatre presents Thornton Wilder’s Our Town brilliantly at @Rosetheatre, Kingston. Michael Sheen is (unsurprisingly) outstanding as the master of ceremonies. The movement, timing, lighting are crisp, the play very moving.

Pour comprendre le monde de mars 2026, il faut lire le discours visionnaire de Churchill à Fulton marianne.net/agora/tribunes… via @MarianneleMag

Important segment starting at 25 : 39 in Tucker’s video on who is a “Heritage American”, a now necessary term. A young Anthony Scalia, future Supreme Court justice, upholding Anglo-American law, consciously bristled at his ethnic and religious distinction from the WASPs whom foreign professors assigned a foundational status. But then he went to England and saw it and felt it;

Be warned! Section 90c German Criminal Code Disparagement of symbols of European Union (1) Whoever publicly, in a meeting or by disseminating content... disparages the flag or the hymn of the European Union incurs a penalty of imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine.

The past is a foreign country conservativehome.com/2026/01/29/the… via @conhome

In an otherwise good segment on the Today Programme, Nick Robinson repeated the lie that the Government wants to give the Chagos *back* to Mauritius when Mauritius never owned the islands. It's very basic, very sloppy stuff for people who claim to be concerned abt disinformation

The only doubt in my mind about the genius of @EStoneOfficial is that she likes working with Yorgos Lanthimos. But she overwhelms his misogyny with her humour and force of character. focusfeatures.com/bugonia

The Menier’s production of Noel Coward’s Fallen Angels is superb. To pick out one detail, Janie Dee gives the wittiest drunk act I have ever seen. Please go. @MenChocFactory menierchocolatefactory.com/tickets/fallen…