I’m trying to do some maths for a thing and shit, my brain has slowed down A LOT.

2026 should be the the year of building your own platform, not sure how often we have to see the platforms we rely on ruined, taken over by fascists, allowed to run with zero moderation, and charging us to reach the audiences we have built over the years with our creativity and toil.

You should leave Substack in 2026, because they platform fascists regularly, but even before that I am *begging* you to stop referring to your writing as "my Substack" because why give them that agency. It's your writing, your posts, your words, on their platform.

And yes, illegal. I hope the potential ramifications of this will make tech companies reflect. Doubt it though.

Just reading about the Grok image controversy and the fact AI is being used to create sexualised images and video of real women and especially children is yet another reminder that if tech can be used for nefarious reasons it surely will be. A disgrace.

Reminder for dry January folk 👇

Morning all. Woke up crazy early and it was snowing. Always feels quite exciting, doesn’t it?

It’s 1pm on the first day of the year and I’ve already annoyed strangers on the internet.

The Mamdani swearing in has real Gotham City vibes. Love it.

Happy New Year everyone, still wishing for a free and just world where everyone gets to live with dignity. ✌️❤️

We don't talk about this upside enough, especially given how insanely expensive it is to buy alcohol. Onwards x

I can see a lot of people are already talking about dry January, it's a good time to reflect on how much of yours (and everyone in the UK's) life is based around alcohol/pubs. One of the hardest things about going sober in the UK is working out WTF to do with your time.

Calls to strip pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah of his British citizenship pile torment on top of torture. New piece by me on a dangerous and manufactured storm: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Yawn

Happily Waterstones withdrew their plans after the widespread negative response to the news. bsky.app/profile/argo...

Not cool, have you told @thebookseller.com about this?

Watched the new Knives Out film yesterday, well actually slept for an hour of it and still found it insanely drawn out and a bit shit. Idea: instead of making one 2.5 hr film, make two shorter ones.

Happy Christmas beautiful people, wishing you all a lovely day and better times for everyone in 2026. ✌️🙏🤩

Oh boy

Polite reminder: if you’ve had a good year (and thankfully I have) don’t forget to share your blessings. 🙏

When is the world (the West) going to finally admit the truth that Israel is committing a genocide and then stop them? Irrespective of all of the evidence right in front of us, their government admits it daily. The gaslighting, lies and complicity MUST stop.

London is great over Christmas - loads of people have left, so all a bit less hectic. Happy Days.

Sorry, but it fucking annoys me when I see a puff piece from a big 5 publisher talking about being 'author-centric' and guaranteeing AI will only be used for the good of authors etc. It's bullshit.

Devil in the detail made flesh. Hachette says against "the creative work of a human author, designer, illustrator, translator or photographer" being replaced by AI but is open to AI in everything else. I want human marketing and sales. I want to know my book is assessed by humans.

Just read this - 'We are committed to navigating this period of change not with fear, but with a clear, author-centric strategy.' Sara Lloyd, Head of AI, PanMac Out of curiosity, have any PanMac authors had their AI strategy or plans explained to them? www.thebookseller.com/comment/copy...

Really worrying. Yet more things for authors to be aware of.

Just saw a woman do this. No idea why.

Let me know if you’d like to know what I really think about this.

Quite frankly fuck them all for allowing young women on £25k to be put in incredibly vulnerable positions.

Don’t let facts get in the way of a good story etc etc

They’re really pushing this narrative about the new CEO. If you want to believe women at HC have suddenly done the right thing, sure. But - Walliams’ editor/publisher was a woman, new head of kids dept & head of Corp Comms both women and new CEO all knew about this for 10+ years and did nothing.

When I read things like this all I think is we seem to find it impossible to arrest and imprison the pedoes, rapists and abusers right in front of us, ie those who have & continue to inflict REAL harm, but were supposed to think laws protecting kids from potential harm is going to work.

There is nobody more than me who would like to say that a woman did the right thing about Walliams, but sorry, no.

For anyone who may be hastily returning certain books they bought as Christmas presents, here's a thread of excellent children's books I highly recommend you buy instead: Loki A Bad God's Guide To Being Good by Louie Stowell Funny, chaotic and a little bit naughty okay, a lot naughty

🤔 Reminder that HC published him for 15 years and seemingly sacked him off due to Telegraph investigation NOT their own >> The publisher said it took employee wellbeing "extremely seriously" with "processes in place for reporting and investigating concerns". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Agree

On David Walliams: The Daily Mail reveals that “showbusiness reporters at The Sun were told to drop negative stories about Walliams because both that newspaper and HarperCollins are owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsUK, even sharing offices near London Bridge.” archive.ph/2025.12.20-0...

Easy to forget about these abusive men. There are just so many, it seems.

Good morning all. Have a guess who hasn't done any Christmas shopping yet, including ordering any food?

I do a thing and then I do another thing. It seems like there is an endless number of things to do. 🤷‍♂️

Jeffrey Epstein & David Walliams leading all the bulletins but Kemi Badenoch knows that only men from ‘different cultures’ pose a threat to women.

No, don’t know deets, but whispers of his own scandal.

He is certainly the most high profile author, but he definitely isn’t the only one with a terrible reputation. Perhaps it’s time for the big 5 publishers to take all the trash out?

Innit

Walliams eh, didn't see that one coming.

Yep, until those who are complicit have consequences, nothing changes.

News is strategically broken on a Friday afternoon so people forget about it over the w/e, so I think it’s very important that we return to this on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday etc etc

Just heard that HC UK is having a town hall. ‘Um, there has been an investigation into one of our authors with some shocking allegations which we knew absolutely nothing about 🤥 We have acted decisively…. after publishing him for 15 years….’

Also, as an aside, I feel like nobody should be putting anyone with a well-known reputation into rooms with hundreds of children. But, call me old-fashioned.

Love to know if the C-suite at HC would be happy if their daughters, nieces, female friends had to work with a man with a reputation like this?