Heard a tawny owl earlier, having a right old hoot

Keen to watch a version of Traitors featuring all the remaining cast of Play School

ONE WEEK TODAY! @burleyfisher.bsky.social 12 Nov, 6.30 pm Me & my giant face will be talking to Samuel Fisher about language, power, pencils, dragons, Ursula Le Guin & listening… Please join us to launch BAD LANGUAGE! burleyfisherbooks.com/products/lau...

Some promo! @danthompson33.bsky.social was in with us at @thebaytrust.bsky.social yesterday, working on our #PinesGardensIn30Objects project. He’ll be in #Margate on Thursday, hosting a conversation with @holsmith.bsky.social on her ‘Up In The Air’ book. You’d never guess I studied town planning…

Blessing your TL with Lina Bo Bardi

Another informative, witty and intriguing podcast from John Grindrod. If you don’t listen to Monstrosities Mon Amour…you really should. It’s good for you and you will enjoy it and…well you just should. So there. That’s it.

Municipal Dreams supremo John Boughton champions 60s expanded town Thetford in the latest episode of Monstrosities Mon Amour podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...

Here’s the cover for LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, out 16 April with @sceptrebooks.bsky.social Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove... Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛

Lovely to hear the Decemberists on the radio. I want more songs about Cold War spies and vagabonds

Carshalton has a new - INCREDIBLE - record shop @lookingforthemagic.bsky.social Really amazing stuff inside (and plenty of heykidsrocknroll.etsy.com goodness)

Latest episode of Monstrosities Mon Amour is out! John Boughton @municipaldreams.bsky.social on the joys of 60s overspill town Thetford open.substack.com/pub/johngrin...

Tonight’s viewing: Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963), and a high-camp spooky Poirot, Halloween Party, to help me recover from Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963).

Hookand is gothic and a conversation with the ghost soil of place 365 days of the year. Halloween and the whole season of the dead is sacred, intimate and primarily focussed on listening for me. So, apologies if you expect movie recommendations and a big event, a Hookland Halloween isn’t that way.

Latest episode of Monstrosities Mon Amour is out! John Boughton @municipaldreams.bsky.social on the joys of 60s overspill town Thetford open.substack.com/pub/johngrin...

Let's take a ride... My next book is coming out with @faberbooks.bsky.social. Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains will be published March 12 2026. Preorder links in profile, and lots more on the book and the remarkable stories people told me to come over the next few months...

Had a truly life affirming, cathartic & beautiful time talking to John for this, one that made it clear he’d handle the experiences of all who spoke to him with empathy, wit & profound care. It is a really special book by an extraordinary writer & human so preorder the net curtains out of it, please

‘There’s a place for us, goes Stephen Sondheim’s opening lyric from that evergreen LGBTQ+ anthem “Somewhere”. But with the best will in the world, I don’t think he meant Milton Keynes.' Introducing Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains by @grindrod.bsky.social, out 12 March 2026.

Let's take a ride... My next book is coming out with @faberbooks.bsky.social. Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains will be published March 12 2026. Preorder links in profile, and lots more on the book and the remarkable stories people told me to come over the next few months...

Giving 55 a go today. Getting older is a privilege isn’t it? And using that privilege to watch Doctor Who and the City of Death

I can't begin to explain what it's like here. So I won't bother.

Just reset the time on my partner’s mum’s ancient Nokia. Hello from 1997. This Radiohead CD is great

Been saving up all my daylight savings time hours over the last two decades. Almost due a whole extra day in bed

Two guys on the train having the most toddler-level taxes-are-evil Bezos-is-the-geezer conversation that I’m feeling a bit Patricia Highsmith

Delightful doc with Mark Bonnar exploring Scottish new town public art, including the hippos of Glenrothes made by his artist dad Stan. New towns, public art, Mark Bonnar? It’s ✅✅✅ from me

Stephen’s vicious and manic impression of Alan on Uncloaked was like an unexpected glimpse of A Bit of Fry and Laurie

Thought I felt a bit wobbly because of the terrifying dental hygenist earlier, but no. Hypo.

Just wrote 'overloaf' instead of 'overleaf' and now think I've accidentally invented a word to describe our useless leaders

Oh horrible to hear that Dave Ball from Soft Cell and The Grid has died. Bedsitter and Torch really did it for me, perfect dark pop that made life better. Thank you Dave

Bruise from my blood test now bigger than Spain

WE HAVE LIFT-OFF! Croydon Spaceport: Mission Control - a solo journalling game of municipal bureaucracy - sees you take on the role of Launch Process Administrative Assistant. Grab the game/zine for £4 at colossive.com/product/croy... #croydonspaceport #zines #spaceisace

New to the Digital Film Archive is this great exploration of the story of Craigavon: from space age urban planning to a failed "new city". A great new documentary by Colm Laverty. digitalfilmarchive.net/media/craiga...

I had a stroll round Seven Dials with historian Matt Houlbrook (@tricksterprince.bsky.social) to talk the locations, people and stories behind his fantastic new book, Songs Of Seven Dials. www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

Great talk last night by Matt to launch his new book, a fascinating social history of a bit of London I know very well but also, it turns out, didn’t know at all

Green Shield Stamps, Timothy Whites and Postal Order outages across the UK.

How much would I love to own an original piece of Croydon artist Bernard Robinson’s work? A lot much.

Today, the weather here is a cross between the experience of hearing The World in Action theme while dreading playground bullying & PE tomorrow & scenes from Threads, deleted for being “too bleak to believe” & “far too fucking depressing for even the most emotionally robust adult audience”

Been at the RSPB in Sandy today. Lost my glasses at some point, and some kind soul found them and handed them in. Cheers whoever you are!

Well this looks great

Someone I did a standup comedy course with at least 15 years ago just got in touch to ask if I was a magician

Yew tree at Marston House, Somerset estimated to be 3,000 years old.

This, about people getting your name wrong, is brilliant. It’s the extra d that broke me.

Deadlines and feeling ill. Not the best

There’s now ten episodes of Monstrosities Mon Amour available! That’s a lot of cheery chat about unloved and unfairly maligned places… podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m... - The Golden Mile with Kathryn Ferry - The Drum, Margate, with Dan Thompson - The Blue Bridge with Catherine Croft

It's a book on High-Tech Architecture. Made out of wood pulp. Not even holograms or shiny inks. I mean.

Just sayin'.

Here's another clip to celebrate Cliff's 85th birthday. This one features him walking around Birmingham in his 1973 film Take Me High. Look out for brutalist landmarks like the Central Library (RIP), Alpha Tower and New Street Signal Box youtu.be/yfvsVcKlLQs?...

People! Next week at the British Library, we're launching the amazing oral history archive of environmental activism in the UK (1970 - 2020). We've assembled an amazing panel of speakers & showcasing the results of our just-finished AHRC project. Tickets are going fast, so sign up here:

WELL THIS NEAT AND UNASSUMING LIBRARY IS RATHER ENJOYABLE ISN’T IT.

Bristol pals! I am coming to talk about language, power & dragons to launch BAD LANGUAGE @bookhaus.bsky.social. I'll be talking to the amazing @noreenmasud.bsky.social so it will be AWESOME. Weds 26 Nov, 6pm Book your tickets here👇 www.bookhausbristol.com/events/#e139...

Had a Christmas sandwich