That's your wood s lot

In the early days I posted this to Spike Magazine's Splinters blog.

Looking at wood s lot's web archive, I see it began in 2001, the year after Splinters, which makes Mark Woods one of the veterans of literary blogging. When I moved to This Space, wood s lot featured on the blogroll from the start in 2004 until late last year when it became clear that July 13th's entry was its last. It happens, I thought: Spike itself and Ready Steady Book, another site discovered from the referral feed and whose name I also questioned, also closed without any valedictory message. I wondered if, given the blog's political stance, Mark had given up in despair, and recalled in my own despair how a friend had told me that when Magritte was asked whether he believed in Heaven, he answered "Yes, when I am working". But Languagehat reports that there were darker, sadder reasons for the silence, and the work is over. RIP Mark Woods.