I obviously still know my childhood phone number, but the other one that stuck with me was my desk phone from the job I had in 2002-07. I get a weird urge to call it and see if it’s still 28 year old me on the other end, trying to buy banner ads on Yahoo.

Another of those days where I silently fume at my nemesis. Do I live rent free in her head or is she in mine?

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is? It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

“An example of the town of the future is Coventry.... Traffic and pedestrians are kept apart and the roads are planned to let traffic flow smoothly” (Our Land in the Making, 1966) Artist: Ronald Lampitt

I really hope this doesn’t catch on, in general, but also this particular example - living in a place called Norwood, the name is going to play havoc with the algorithm. I don’t want a load of AI nonsense to come up whenever I search for Norwood.

I remember the double standard of the ‘rule of 4’ being different in England/Wales & Scotland: Scotland didn’t include young children in the ‘4’, so in Scotland I could have met a friend with her 2 kids and my 2 outdoors, in England I couldn’t. It just seemed so unfair.

I saw this come up again on Facebook today and re-read that opening paragraph. I feel like I understand the context much better than when I first read it - having the Crystal Palace dinosaurs in the neighbourhood helps - but there’s no doubt it’s the Dickens I found most challenging to read.

It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity

This was a great joke.

Watching Nosferatu in the hope of being pleasantly scared in a minor key, but it’s just pure ham. What a shame…

I have dealt with my BIG FEELINGS about people saying mean things about London by writing this about 57 things I love in London. There were 100 things I loved, but it got too long for one email. London is inexhaustible. naomialderman.substack.com/p/57-things-...

Our daughter’s school suffered a fire in the holidays and we are fundraising to buy books and resources for the temporary site they are moving to. Anyone who is able to donate - thank you! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/juliansptfa

Fifteen years ago, Jon noticed that Penguin's new Modern Classic edition of Nabokov's Lolita had stripped out the foreword by "John Ray, Jr." - who needs this yawnsome old intro! - ...which is actually part of the novel. A contact at Penguin told me the following Monday morning was not a jolly one.

I can

This is just the saddest news. A really good man and a really good bookseller.

Shocked beyond belief to hear (via the shop’s IG account) of the death of Jonathan Main, the stalwart of Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace. I only met Jon once but we chatted online for years and he was so very funny, interesting, and knowledgable (with apt cynicism) about the book world. RIP Jon.

Ozzy going out after raising $190 million for sick kids and a Parkinson’s cure is metal AF.

Sorry but personally if a miniature horse woke me up from anesthesia by banging out nonsense on a miniature keyboard it would send me into a liminal space between life and death from which I would never return

No council, or councillor, has the right to "ban" any books. The library service are the only body that makes decisions on stock selection. A councillor, as a member of the public, can *request* books are removed on a title-by-title basis, but the reply should come that under @cilip.bsky.social

alien graffiti can be pretty hurtful 😔

Venn diagram Further explanation in the alt text in case you're struggling. When I posted this on twitter it was described as most middle class venn diagram ever. Which is incredibly patronising and classist. No middle class person knows who the bloke on the right is.

We've heard from a lot of ex-Unbound authors about the wreckage we are wading through after the demise of the publisher but what about the views of a reader who had supported their books and trusted in the company? This, from Jan Hicks, is excellent: thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/r...

Now THAT was a great Glastonbury set from Loyle Carner. 👏👏👏❤️

Damn right!!!

Calm it cats, you're not REM.

Paper Dolls and Tiddler should be top 5. Detective Dog Nell wuz robbed. Snail and the Whale is my personal favourite, as it seems to be for lots of the parents.

Very pleased to say that my new publishers, Swift Press, will be republishing my novel Villager this September. The link is now up if you'd like to preorder (and the ebook will be available a little earlier): www.amazon.co.uk/Villager-Tom...

Our local cemetery has had a makeover and to celebrate they installed the moon.

Formerly pretty-boy actors who scrub up rough round the edges is DEFINITELY my thing. I would never have looked twice at Matthew Goode before.

One of those weeks where you get a little reminder that you might be on the team, but you’re not in the club. Folks out there who are more confident, if you wonder about the shy awkward one and think ‘maybe she’d like to be invited too’, the answer is yes, yes she would.

It finally happened - I put cumin instead of cinnamon in my overnight oats mix. Luckily before the wet stuff had gone in, so I just scooped the central cumin zone out of the rest, but you bet it’s still going to have a weird cumin under taste tomorrow morning.

The perfect bird feeder doesn't exi--

Second episode of this was particularly charming and silly. It’s refreshing to have Welsh crime that’s not grim & anguished. And people speaking Welsh on BBC1! Has that ever happened before?

This map tool from @levparikian.bsky.social is great fun, though my shame in admitting I’ve never been to Hull! Never seen a white phone box! (I’m a bit hazy on Scottish counties passed through en route to the bits I have been to, so I’ve guessed there). NI, only been to Belfast.

So, I think it's time I begin, in detailed specifics, talking about the mess that is Unbound / Boundless as a book publisher, in essence stealing most of a years royalties from me and many other authors, as a result of poor financial decisions, and legal BS. Please read and share this thread.

The Unbound/Boundless thing just leaves me dumbfounded. I am one of those rare lucky people who is a freelancer but the people I work for always pay on time and support me - and I know how damn lucky I am to have that.

When you receive the email you’ve been dreading, about how your outstanding royalties will now *not* be honoured by your ex-publisher’s new shiny identity, they try to reassure you by saying this person or that person on the board is “working for free” and “not taking a salary”… >>

So, this Unbound/Boundless fiasco. I was going to be polite about it, but after this morning’s email: no

This is extraordinary: "emissions by data centres needed to train and deliver AI services are estimated at around 3 per cent of the global total, close to those created by the aviation industry."

This is an excellent episode of RHLSTP Books where @herring1967.bsky.social interviews @outonbluesix.bsky.social about his brilliant book "The Golden Age of Children's TV" which I read a few months back. The book could almost have been written for Rich and they cover some fascinating ground here.

If you wouldn't accept "we are at risk of becoming an island of strangers" from Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage you probably shouldn't accept it from Keir Starmer. Don't pretzel yourself trying to explain why it's ok from the guy in the red tie.

“Substantial ethical issues” 🫠

Still no payment from my ex-publisher, so I'm selling a few more of these (all purchased from their warehouse). The offer I'm doing is ALL FOUR of these, signed, for the price of the 1983 hardback (£16.99) plus postage. Please email me at [email protected] with your address if you want to nab them.

The conclave is now longer than Conclave

admittedly I've had Some Drinks but there's something genuinely quite hysterical about the image of a cardinal's PR team going "shit, boss is up for the big gig, update the Wikipedia page", like he's some cheap reality TV contestant

And you may find yourself living in a thatched-roof hut And you may find yourself living in the Holy Roman Empire And you may find yourself negotiating with your lords And you may find yourself in a beautiful hall, with a beautiful wife And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

Foreign films are a national security threat? We’re shaking our heads. We’d laugh if this wasn’t such dangerous, authoritarian rhetoric. What other countries do this? Russia and China.