Great to see a major news outlet putting out such a comprehensive reminder that the human rights abuses in Xinjiang have not stopped

Congratulations! I don't think hiring a PR firm is going to be able to fix this now...

The Ravenshill Project Award is open until 31st May - offering a *free* writing retreat to unpublished writers! Winners receive a secluded writing week in beautiful rural surroundings, plus travel costs (£150) and a small daily stipend. ✒️📚 www.theravenshillproject.co.uk/awards

You can pre-order Dooneen direct from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social here. Officially published on June 4th. I'm grateful for the kind words from Ben Pester, Jonathan Lethem, Isabel Waidner, Mary Costello, Richard Beard, So Mayer, Simon Okotie, David Hayden. fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/dooneen/

For all you post box lovers out there - an Edward VII one on the outskirts of Edinburgh (one for @helenmcclory.bsky.social?)

Sunrise, Portobello-style

'Twas a good day for clouds in the Borders.

Amen.

The pedigree of the fake authors writing me seems to be going up. This from 'Ann Patchett" today.

Today is the 60th birthday of the disappeared Uyghur ethnograhper Rahile Dawut - I wish there was someting hopeful to add to what I wrote in 2018. lrb.co.uk/blog/2018/au... @lrb.co.uk

Trying to remember when U of E had a good reputation as a place to work.

This review (by me) has it all: cultural Marxism, Rockefeller Fascism, Lyndon LaRouche, Christopher Rufo, and, in the end, one very bad book and one very good one dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...

Good way to start the week. Piece forthcoming. Thanks to @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social

"You talk about Gerald Murnane & your varying recollections about the editing process on his debut, Tamarisk Row. He thought u were too interventionist? That was at my very 1st book publishing job at Heinemann. He never forgave me, ever, & still hasn’t" www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/the-...

One of those days when you go out to buy a pint of milk and end up getting something else. A 1930s British take on Vermeer. www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/sam...

I'm chairing the launch of @rosavcampbell.bsky.social's new book at @lighthousebks.bsky.social on Wed! Recommended to all interested in feminist politics, social history, and anyone who likes turning heads on public transport. Come along: lighthousebookshop.com/events/the-b...

My new novel will try to escape in December

My new novel will try to escape in December

I'm editing the first book about Ian Hamilton Finlay foregrounding the voices of his collaborators. My publisher Lund Humphries are crowdfunding for the text. If you're interested in Finlay, concrete poetry, modern Scottish art and lit., etc, please donate! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/crafting-a...

I'm Lead Judge of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction, awarded at University of Edinburgh since 1919 and due to be announced this month. But the university is currently withholding 100% of my pay for participating in a marking and assessment boycott. So, at present, there will be no prize.

Very happy that Lanzhou now has a better claim to fame than once being the most polluted city on the planet. #snooker

Interesting blog post analyzing a new academic journal article in China on the cold, hard mechanics proposed for 'soul-casting' and forging a national identity jamesleibold.substack.com/p/chinas-sou...

this is really good www.nplusonemag.com/issue-52/the...

Bruno Schulz murals! www.yadvashem.org/museum/art/e...

Walter Benjamin, science fiction writer

Bruno Schulz murals! www.yadvashem.org/museum/art/e...

Excited to read @nickholdstock.bsky.social 's forthcoming novel "Porcupine" Out later this year from @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/porc...

To try to deny this in 2026, after all the testimony, all the documents, and all the evidence, requires a degree of denial and dissonance that borders on the clinical

Required reading for all you prize-winners www.nottinghilleditions.com/product/my-p...

''The number of those chased from the land during the clearances enters the inconsolable algebra of the geese.'

I wrote about the Chinese Internet for @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/politics-by-...

If you want to know about how the Commune inspired many movements across the globe, this is the book and Quentin is a brilliant historian:

I wrote about the Chinese Internet for @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/politics-by-...

Good piece by @tomstevenson.bsky.social on the Xi era that deftly unpicks some of the lazy, prejudicial thinking about the CCP that is starting to feel like it's AI generated. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Good response to Murnane's Inland (I don't think a 'review' of it is possible) www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-20...

Crucial - and generally totally overlooked part of this story - is *what* the journalists that Labour Together smeared were reporting on How Labour Together used £730k in illegal political donations to boot strap Keir Starmer’s political rise That’s why they were targeted

A clever form makes me admit that I am all over the place

A fabulous book.

New blog post: “Modernity as Detour: Aby Warburg and the Kyoto School” by Xinyi Wen. From Warburg’s unrealised Japan trip (1896) to Renaissance astrology in Japan’s modernity debates (1942). warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/... #WarburgInstitute #IntellectualHistory #HistoryOfIdeas

Forgive me banging on about this story again - but should you wish to download it, today's the last day (from link below, or Spotify, Apple, etc) - then it's only available on BBC Sounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

Further Reductions.

Great news - The Expansion Project was the best new novel I read last year.

Some colour for this endless January. Released from a box after 25 years.

Belated congratulations!

The multi-talented Emily Nemens has a new novel, Clutch, out in a few months. More on that here emilynemens.com/books/ and pre order here zandoprojects.com/books/clutch/

If all you want for Christmas is new short stories from @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social Mark Haddon and (ahem) me Then check out The Essay on Radio 3 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week Three stories of winter journeys inspired by Schubert's Winterreisen www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I wrote about Blinding for the TLS www.the-tls.com/literature/f...

Sunset is a perfect film. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttF-...

Pentland quarry fern fossils