I have a new article on Jorge Luis Borges and failure (the latter being a topic on which I am somewhat of an expert) up on early view at Critical Quarterly. The article is open access, and reads a bit better in the PDF version: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

"Comically unqualified, intensely partisan, & unflaggingly devoted to whatever ridiculous thing bubbled out of Trump’s mouth 5 minutes ago, as the next DHS secretary, Mullin will fit right in what will undoubtedly be regarded as the worst presidential cabinet in history." — @paulwaldman.bsky.social

Though many of Austrian Jewish novelist Leo Perutz's books are available in print in English translation, his work remains far less well known than that of his contemporaries Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig. Back in 2013, I looked at Little Apple, his novel of war and obsession. neglectedbooks.com/?...

Real war and culture war. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog analyzing the Brexit imprint of domestic responses to the Iran crisis, the hypocrisy & sectarianism of Reform's response to the by-election and the questions it poses for Labour: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/03/real...

Today, on @flakphoto.news: an essay by photographer Peter Hoffman on AI-generated images and the human touch. Enjoy! www.flakphoto.news/p/peter-hoff...

J. H. Prynne, on reading

Very sad news. RIP Antonio Lobo Antunes. A true magician of the word. One of the greats.

More Kurtág: link to my article in CMR www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XAMQ6...

The NYT style guide

New post: Why Gorton and Denton is still a good result for Reform mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/03/why-... Some say that the Gorton and Denton result shows how to defeat Reform. It doesn't. The right wing vote was higher, and if repeated in a General Election the right would be very hard to beat.

85 years ago today, Gertrude Eileen Trevelyan, one of the most remarkable novelists of the generation that followed Virginia Woolf, died at her parents' home in Bath of injuries sustained when her flat was bombed during the Blitz. Died—and was utterly forgotten. A thread. 1/9

Starmer’s real leadership crisis. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog. Fatuous media coverage aside, Starmer’s challenge is to make good on his claim that Britain isn’t the country of the Brexit years in the face of rising ethno-nationalism: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/star...

100 years old today. Happy birthday to composer György Kurtág! 🥳 Read an interview with Kurtág's close friend and colleague, Pierre-Laurent Aimard: bachtrack.com/interview-pi...

Boldog születésnapot és gratulálok, happy birthday and congratulations to György Kurtág, who turns one hundred today. His new opera premieres tomorrow. Here he is playing some Bach with Márta Kurtag. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8lT...

On this date in 2022, I told the story of Kathleen Sully, the working-class self-taught novelist whose books are stunning in their violence, outsiderness, odd comedy, and originality. Sadly, her copyrights are now in the hands of the Church of Scientology. neglectedbooks.com/?...

Following the success of DREAMING OF DEAD PEOPLE, we’re pleased to announce that we will be bringing you Rosalind Belben’s IS BEAUTY GOOD on July 14, with a new introduction by Esther Kinsky. www.andotherstories.org/is-beauty-go...

My substack newsletter on Brexit, political folly and the yawning horror of a Reform government. open.substack.com/pub/mattcarr...

My brother wanted a London pub crawl. The result? My new Substack post: "Britain Lost 14,000 Third Places. They were Called Pubs. Is Your Local Next?" How private equity reshaped the local, which pubs are most at risk and most importantly what to do about it. open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

read our interview with Moresco here: minorliteratures.com/2026/01/07/i...

To think Osborne was Starmer’s pick for US ambassador. Impossible to reconcile this with his anti-austerity rage at PMQs yesterday PM told Ed Davey to “take accountability and take responsibility for what he has inflicted on this country.” Points once again to Starmer’s lack of politics

Day after Alex Pretti killing I complained to BBC about presentation of White House statements and evidence as equivalent. Duty of balance doesn’t extend to complicity with clear lies, I said. BBC could and should report WH making false statements as a *fact of the story*. Today I got response …

Over at @thebaffler.com, some thoughts on spiritual cinema, medieval mystics, Shaker chairs, dance music, and what it might mean for modern art to yearn for the divine. thebaffler.com/latest/wild-...

Essayistic Grace I have read (and reread) eleven of Pascal Quignard's books on my shelves and have written about him for fourteen years on this blog, probably more often than I've written about any writer except Beckett and Woolf. Yet, once read, I never retain him: no favourite passages that keep…

The Largest Historical Dictionary of English Slang Now Free Online: Covers 500 Years of the “Vulgar Tongue”

I hope you'll read my short story "Dogelon Mars" in @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social: thelondonmagazine.org/article/fict...

Toni Morrison considers Blackness in the literary canon and what Flannery O’Connor’s fiction reveals about race in America.

There is a new book by Mark Bowles on the way. It's called How Do People Stay The Same. It is, as you might expect, a thing of beauty and wonder. Details here: www.galleybeggar.co.uk/campaigns/vi...

Available at The Reading Experience: readexperience.net/2026/01/31/p...

‘One Battle After Another’ Isn’t Up For The Fight - defector.com/one-battle-a...

New Swingometer post now out - my look at the Gorton and Denton by-election, taking place down the road from me swingometer.substack.com/p/the-gorton...

I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!

Splendid tribute to Fanny Howe at Arrowsmith Journal via @arrowsmithpress.bsky.social -- beginning with a reading by Fanny -- www.arrowsmithpress.com/journal/fann...

Writing toward the endless horizon: Landscape with Landscape by Gerald Murnane roughghosts.com/2026/01/26/w...

On the fifteenth anniversary of his death, I wrote about one of my favourite poets, R.F. Langley, who I was lucky enough to know for ten years someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/we-speak-f...

If Maduro has barely been mentioned lately, think what else hasn't been reported. In this video, I run through various things that have happened in the last 2 weeks in the US that really matter even if they aren't making the front pages. youtu.be/TQRtdX4IE-w

Luke's article is available here. 👇👇👇👇 Enjoy Ends

From @genesegrill.bsky.social: "It is astonishing to experience Musil experiencing and trying to describe the new phenomena of Robert Walser and Franz Kafka here, fresh, unprepared, astonished." genesegrill.substack.com/p/musils-191...

Making sense of the madness. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog. Analysis of the international and domestic implications of the ‘Greenland crisis’, including how the ‘Carney doctrine’ could offer a way forward for post-Brexit Britain: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/01/maki...

I've been dying to tell people I wrote the essay for TROUBLE IN PARADISE, a true Lubitsch masterpiece, and now I can. It's hilarious, it's gorgeous, there's nothing like it, and spending time with Trouble last year soothed my soul. www.criterion.com/films/723-tr....

Remembering James Mosley hyphenpress.co.uk/2026/01/07/r...

We're excited to announce that the judges for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award, given annually for the best book in English about Greece or inspired by a Hellenic theme, has agreed a long list of 20 books for the competition in 2026. See our website for more - www.anglohellenicleague.org

This is a really informative vlogpost (if that's the right term) from @chrischirp.bsky.social. It's almost impossible to keep up with even the headlines of what Trump is doing, and there's so much else going on beneath: christinapagel.substack.com/p/war-and-pr... 1/2

#botd Kathleen Byron, 1949.

Very proud to review Peter Oborne's book, 'Complicit: Britain's Role in the Destruction of Gaza' for @bylinetimes.bsky.social. A forensic indictment of Britain’s political and media establishment. History will judge them. www.bylinesupplement.com/p/complicit-...

RIP Béla Tarr, one of the great, great directors This scene, from Sátántangó (1984), is just one of his many great treasures. I knew he was never to make another film but what a loss.

RIP to Béla Tarr, an artist who made beautiful (often haunting) films on his own terms and took no prisoners when talking about them. Truly one of the best to ever do it. Full interview: www.filmcomment.com/blog/intervi...

If Nicolás Maduro stands trial in the United States and gets convicted of 34 felonies, does that mean he’s qualified to be our next president now? Just checking what the standards are these days.