'As a critic, Brandon Taylor knows himself, and his arguments are bolstered by his certainty. This is a virtue in a reviewer, but it can make for a tedious novelist.' In the new issue, @lifeisnotanovel.bsky.social reviews Minor Black Figures: thelondonmagazine.org/article/revi...

Very pleased to be featured in the upcoming February / March issue of @thelondonmagazine.bsky.social, reviewing Brandon Taylor’s new novel Minor Black Figures. Pre-order b e l o w . . .

@gabrielflynn.bsky.social hi mate, regrettably Bluesky won’t let me reply to your messages! They allege it’s to ‘build a safer internet’ . But good to hear from you — I’ll reply by email now

Here’s my short critique for of the speech columnist/thinker/Olympian Matthew Syed gave at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this week. My thanks to George Monaghan for commissioning the piece and choosing the pensive cover image.

My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...

‘Half a century on, Howard Kirk still has plenty to teach us about class, intellectuals, and the real importance of a university education’ | Joe Williams

My @unherd.com piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/less...

My short review of ‘The Reapers’, Ivan Morison’s imposing yet wacky set of four-metre-high piles of ‘agricultural material’, is now on my substack: lifeisnotanovel.substack.com/p/big-farmer-the-reapers-by-ivan-morison

One underreported facet of the Great University Crisis is the contribution of a small number of consultancy firms who recommend: *Centralise functions *Cut small courses *Reduce student options *Abolish loads of joint awards *Chop staff headcount This is *exactly* what you must not do. (1/3)

Characteristically witty yet perceptive letter from your humble servant in this week’s TLS

My piece for @boundlessmagazine.bsky.social on Malcolm Bradbury and the real idea behind the UK's first MA in Creative Writing, with reference to Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Anthony Burgess, Salman Rushdie, the Goldsmiths Prize etc www.boundlessmagazine.com/p/when-mcewa...

A pleasure to join Jesus and Robert Lucas Scott for the launch of his world-historical monograph Reading Hegel with its bombastic green livery

Long one from me in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social letters, about the fact that Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man was never really about sociology

I’ve got an idea for an article on the gothic, epistolary fiction, provenance, affect and immediacy… with reference to the obvious combo of Frankenstein, Dracula, M. R. James and (of course) the Castle of Otranto… but no idea where to place it once written. Any recommendations?

Reading Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ I’m struck by the faint sequence of ‘fire or lime’ then ‘thick green light’ then ‘such high zest’. Is this a deliberate citral pun?

This year I’ll be writing the ‘Fiction 1945-2000’ section for the 2024 edition of The Year’s Work in English Studies. If you published a monograph / chapter / article on (or mostly on) British fiction from 1945 to 2000 between 1st January and 31st December 2024, please let me know! Thanks

I’ve just been made aware that if you are just one month late paying a tuition fee payment, @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social will slap on a £50 ‘late fee’ before emailing or ringing to check on you (and your ‘welfare’) and ask why you aren’t able to pay the fee. Even HMRC offer payment plans! Outrageous

Congratulations Dr Williams! It has been a pleasure working with you. It’s an excellent thesis- and will make a brilliant book. Cheers 🥂

Very pleased to have passed my viva this afternoon. Big up!

“Hello, I was wondering if you had anything in stock by James Patterson? You do? Oh.”

STAR: War of the psycho scumbag chatbots #TomorrowsPapersToday

Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below.

How timely

Worth noting how much more positive this assessment is compared to Terry Eagleton’s uncharacteristically humourless review, ‘The Silences of David Lodge’ in the New Left Review of November/December 1988. Eagleton and Burgess were always going to have divergent tastes, but it’s clearest here

RIP to a real one

Unboxing my copies of The British Novel of Ideas, hot off the press from @cambridgeup.bsky.social. A beautifully produced book! My own chapter looks at comedy, sincerity, and hypocrisy in novels of ideas by Rose Macaulay, Doris Lessing, Jonathan Coe, and Jeanette Winterson.

On 25th Jan I'll be running a day school on women modernist poets and there are still spaces! Come join and read some poetry with me! We'll be reading some of the greats and looking closely at some real gems 💅 norwichlifelonglearning.co.uk/courses/wome...

From 15th January I'll be teaching a ten-week course on Gothic fiction, looking at some real belters. There are still a few spaces, so if you're in Norwich and free on Wednesday afternoons, do join us: norwichlifelonglearning.co.uk/courses/goth...

Excellent mix by my bro-in-law, / Hip Hop Highlights of 2024. (Etc) Ted Draws - 2024 Special (Part III) 070125 by NTS Latest on #SoundCloud on.soundcloud.com/1SFyAKhyiJeF...

In October last year I was pleased to appear on the 99 Novels podcast with Graham Foster @anthonyburgess.bsky.social, in which we discuss Malcolm Bradbury’s 1975 novel The History Man and I do my best to say the phrase ‘sort of’ as many times possible… www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/n...

Very sad to read of David Lodge's death. He was one of the few British novelists who managed to combine ideas with pleasure. His excellent Small World, now four decades old, is still a hilarious seminar on literary theory.

I met David Lodge when he was promoting his novel Deaf Sentence, and tried to tell him of the comedy resonated with me because I am half-deaf myself. But he couldn’t hear me well enough. Him: what? Me: what? Almost a scene from the novel. What? Rest in peace David Lodge, you made us laugh a lot.