Neil Philip
@neilphilipmyth
Author, poet, mythographer and folklorist. Lover of cats, words, and laughter. Children's books and literature too.
"Myth is the facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter." Maya Deren's definition of myth in her book Divine Horsemen (aka The Voodoo Gods) is the best I have ever come across. #TheHiddenMatrix @unbounders unbound.com/books/the-hidd…
Some scarce items from my extensive Charles Causley collection. Charles gave me the two books of poems by his pupils (which show a pronounced Causley influence), each one dedicated and inscribed. @causleytrust @PNovelistGale
A Letter is a joy of Earth - It is denied the Gods - Emily Dickinson, poem 1639.
It's not often a book comes that takes your breath away. Such is the case with this wonderfully researched and accessibly written account of the slow demise of paganism in Eastern/Northern Europe. So much I didn't know. @DrFrancisYoung - congratulations on a brilliant book.
Are you coming to the annual @FolkLifeStudies conference? (12-15 Sept in Gloucester) Our themes include Food Cultures and traditions, The origin of Folklife collecting and folk museums. More info at folklifestudies.org/conference/
Interested in improving reading ? Get in touch with me to find out more about talk for reading. Beacon PS, despite 47% pp and 40% Send, rocked it this year through rich reading practices - talk for reading. 93% exs 48% gds
Macron: "He's a very clever cat" Merci monsieur le président x bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cy…
Please retweet/share ... thankyou. JH x
A library in every school is an absolute must (TBH beggars belief that some have no library). In the meantime, in every school in the UK you will find computers. Let schools know there is a free poetry resource available! #AccessibleFunInformativeSafe dirigibleballoon.org 🙂🎈
How many people have been strictly instructed by their GP to eat crisps? All to counter low sodium...
Dirigible Balloon 🎈 Poetry for Children freely accessible 24/7/365 ... every year dirigibleballoon.org
Big news! 2026 has officially been announced as the National Year of Reading by @bphillipsonMP. We’re proud to join @educationgovuk to lead this national campaign to get the UK reading again. #NationalYearOfReading2026 nationalyearofreading.org.uk
Our radiotelescopes will reach out beyond the big bang, and what it will sound like is one question, and another what the silence before it will sound like the silence after. Martin Johnston, last lines of "The Brazen Head". A complex chess-player's mind, but brilliant.
I turned on the TV to watch the series-end of Death Valley a brilliant programme with a misleading title. Flawless performance from Tim Spall. Caught the end of Rod Stewart's show, and wondered why on earth he hadn't asked Neil Young to join him on I Don't Want To Talk About It.
A quarter of Alan Garner's eerie novel The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is set in West Mine, below Alderley Edge (pictured). I'll be talking about Garner's relationship w/ landscape & archaeology @BiddulphGrange Garden (Staffs) next weekend @ 1pm on 6 July: nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/shropshi…
I've been reading Beautiful Objects, the poems of Australian poète maudit Martin Johnston. Some of them have a startling clarity. These are the last lines of his last poem: Love is the subject and love's loss the text. Grief breaks the heart and yet the grief comes next.