How a lyric book with Wednesday's new album got me thinking about how American and British rock songwriting are really quite different. open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...

An eloquent, insightful and heartfelt reflection on 13 years as the Observe book critic. And the mostly lovely of ways to find out your book won't be reviewed in the Observer.

Wrote about the successful delivery of a £4bn supersewer for @telegraphnews.bsky.social. Speaking to CEO Andy Mitchell, he wanted to "repair a broken love affair between London and its river." To hear a civil engineer talk in that poetic, almost lyrical way was hopeful. substack.com/@benjamineas...

Today my final Observer books review column is published. Reflections on the last 13 years and why arts journalism is important at my new Substack... which I'd love you to subscribe to! open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...

I've been doing monthly reviews of books in @theobserveruk.bsky.social for nearly 15 years. Never before, though, has a book I marvelled at got on the @thebookerprizes.com longlist two days later! Benjamin Wood's Seascraper is a great book by the way... observer.co.uk/culture/book...

The Club World Cup is over. An advertisement for sport as entertainment product? How did Chelsea even qualify never mind win it - now they're £100m+ better off. 'Our' game wasn't always like this. Read 'Cutting the Mustard' to see how football was sold to the highest bidders @beneast.bsky.social

85 years ago to the night my grandfather was at Dunkirk after a harrowing retreat through Belgium and France. Next month I shall try and honour him by riding his journey en velo to coincide with the Tour de France stage 3. And write about it too. Good on you Private Warner.

Fascinating spending time in the utterly magical valleys around Wild Haweswater speaking to the RSPB and farmers about what landscape preservation (don't call it rewilding!) means for sheep farming - and what the true soul of the Lakes really is... www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...

Interesting that Reform overlooked Jason Moorcroft for the Runcorn by-election in the end. I went to speak to him in Frodsham and he had a lot of support locally. But it became more and more obvious that Farage didn’t fancy him. And Reform voters there weren’t that impressed with Farage.

Back in 2019, when my child was just 3, I interviewed Onjali Q Rauf for The Boy At The Back of the Class. Yesterday he skipped home chatting about this great new book they'd started in class. Lovely to see such a hopeful, inclusive and kind book is enduring. www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture...

Well, I for one am really excited #ncfc finally got a defensive midfielder. He comes on and we lose a 1-0 lead, he starts and it’s our worst performance of the season! Sure it’ll end up being all wright on one night…

Burns night party clobber

First batch of reviews for 2025 in The Observer; really liked Rowan Jacobsen’s take down of big chocolate/ quest for the ultimate bar in Wild Chocolate. Hope by Andrew Ridker is fun, perceptive and… hopeful. And Night Watch by Jayne Ann Phillips is a tough but rewarding civil war tale.

I was pretty concerned after the jht presser that he was spooked by the qpr result / the continual shipping of goals - he absolutely signposted thet #ncfc performance tonight. Just have to hope that was a defensive reset type of game rather than a systems change.

This is the second piece in a couple of weeks I’ve done where local people are saying national government are simply running all over any power they might have had to make their own decisions. One to watch for Labour. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12...

I always love reading these as I come across some incredible pop song that somehow had passed me by. But… you can’t have a top 20 with entries where you can’t decide on the best song by one artist so just put them all in! It’s more like the top 30…

This is a brilliant piece and exactly how I felt about the show in Manchester. I took my son and we were 20 years too old and too young for it. But we loved it all the same, even though it was so different from what a traditional pop concert might once have been.

Went to see Paddington in Peru. It’s fun in lots of sub Indiana Jones ways, but it doesn't really hit home comically or emotionally as the other two. Still, Julie Walters DJing drum’n’bass to the junglist massive of the home for retired bears is gold…

Absolutely fascinating day in the Conwy Valley tracking down the hideout of FBI Most Wanted Daniel San San Diego. Beyond the Hunted style escapades, the villagers were lovely and did know him… but only had the lightbulb moment this week about who he actually was. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...

Given the Plymouth fan said on Radio Norfolk they’d only win if there was no-one there to see it, then I’d say 461 brave souls was probably 200 too many, eh @chrisreevo.bsky.social ?

Had such a lovely day in Lincoln. Lark Books is the kind of book store I’d like to own if I had the nerve (and backing). Given it’s literally around the corner from Waterstones I really hope it works out. And just down the same street Back To Mono is a complete treasure trove of a record store.

First post is on Bluesky is going to be a bit of a wedge issue but I spent the day in Salford on the Lime e-scooter trial and found it's a far more nuanced picture than a simple 'they're a menace to pedestrians'. Read the whole story if you can... www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...