I know everyone means well with their 'scoop this reporter up immediately' endorsement posts but christ — who's doing the scooping? What's left? Thinking about our industry this way, like this is a momentary setback and there are ample open roles, obscures the truth about the rot at its core.

Words for then, words for now. How he continues to guide us. Happy Birthday, Derek Jarman. The last day of the long drag of January, now time for more light:

A pal recommended Schitt’s Creek to me during lockdown, in the pit of my grief, & this brilliant woman saved me. Catherine O’Hara, what a class act:

My fit test result came back 24 hours later, a colonoscopy within 2 weeks, it literally saved my life. Very pleased to read this knowing how much bowel cancer cases are rising in young adults – not just in the UK but globally:

The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

my thoughts on this whole “grief porn” hoopla is whether it’s solely about the quality of the narratives we’re seeing on screen or whether it’s also about the ubiquitousness of them atm. Genuine q, not a stance. But I feel like we’re less tolerant of how much – as well as how – it’s expressed?

Most days, I cloister myself away from the news, writing my book. And most days, I come up for air around this time, refresh the news, and think to myself: well, look what's happened now.

Hurrah! It was written about in the Guardian today! I am a very happy lady, link here: www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

a decade is a long time in politics

How has it been 10 years since I took this photograph? Fond memories of standing outside the Ritzy that night with a few tinnies – along with Pat & @tomhuddleston.bsky.social – singing Bowie songs along with so many others

What a time for this book to be published in the UK for the first time. Written in 1989, Parsipur was imprisoned in Iran for daring to write about the desirous internal lives of her five fictional women - including Munis, who dies not once, but twice, before being born again…

i think standing too close to ICE is what has been getting people killed

I don’t normally partake in these but I did once sprain my ankle dancing to the Happy Days theme tune & I feel like this should be known

I am off to Frankfurt the week after next – just a few nights for some book research – & will have TWO dinners there which means I have spots to fill for TWO restaurants. Does anyone have any recommendations? I will be staying near the old town, & let me tell you, I'm in the mood for some schnitzel

The good people at @theipaper.com asked me to recommend a few dance productions for 2026 & here they are…along with some great art, theatre, music & comedy picks – all bookable now!

What a way to start the new year, this book is a tiny masterpiece, love love love

I was going to share this today, my no.1 read of 2025, & then I read of Tatiana Schlossberg’s death yesterday. Any other words, in addition to her own, feel superfluous & inadequate so I won’t even try. Only to say: what a desperate loss, what an extraordinary woman:

I love that Jafar Panahi line: “We learned from him how to stand against forgetfulness.” I could have read much more here, will be booking my tickets to see a few of Beyzaie’s films at the Barbican in February:

I rewatched A Matter of Life and Death last night, what a strange & wonderful film, it seems to find your own liminal spaces & speak to them – the fog, the stairway & those pink rhododendrons. It is both here & it is not here – as one reviewer wrote the “too-muchness of it all is exactly the point”.

If you need me in January this is where I’ll be…😍

Behold, my 10 reading picks of 2025! Some new, many old – with apologies to all the authors whose latest books I haven’t got to yet. It’s been so difficult keeping up with all the new releases alongside my writing so this is a little random & loose – but it’s always nice to share, I think:

Don’t you love it when a series delivers? I watched three eps of Mubi’s new Spanish 10-parter back-to-back last night: vignettes of a decade-long relationship told through consecutive New Years. A little Linklater – yet also entirely its own. I hope to see it reviewed more in the UK soon:

I always take this for granted on my mum’s wall, her costume sketch for BBC’s Emma, 1972 – she played Jane Fairfax – with a swatch of green silk. Alas, I can’t seem to find any images of the finished dress online, I wish I did, so here she is in another…

*whispers*: I have never read Dracula, today I start reading Dracula, no spoilers please, I’m excited

Thinking about anyone who is struggling at this time of year, including those who are grieving, remembering time past. These days, stretched out like they are, can feel particularly jarring (I remember it well) which chimes with this piece I wrote for Xmas 2021. Posting now for anyone who needs it:

Wow, an artist who could have joined the other seven artists in my upcoming book, Fragile Bodies. If only I could afford the flight to Switzerland, this exhibition looks extraordinary:

Bluesky, I need your expertise! I am looking for an enticing book to buy for my 9 year old goddaughter, perhaps something that’s been published this year that she might not already know about. I know diddly squat about contemporary children’s books – help!

Just wrote "title-less" as "tit-less" and please god can I break for xmas now...

Many thanks to the Royal Ballet’s Mayara Magri for being such a good sport, putting up with my pedantic qs about what it takes to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy role at xmas. I am also DELIGHTED that her post-performance steak frites (“I am Brazilian, after all”) made the standfirst, what a winner:

Thinking about one of my favourite scenes in When Harry Met Sally when Billy Crystal ad libs his pecan pie skit. There’s a moment where Meg Ryan’s eyes dart to her right (at Rob Reiner) & he signals for her to keep going. She does. It’s magic. That scene is “it” for me, the purest comedy there is.

Rob Reiner was a good guy. He made a lot of movies about good guys, in worlds where not everyone was good and you didn’t have to be good. He made movies about people trying. He was angry, as many hopeful people are. He knew the world could be better and he wanted it to be. His death is devastating.

I’m quite speechless after reading this nuanced exploration of Oliver Sacks’ embellishments & fabrications – “half-report, half-imagined, half-science, half-fable, but with a fidelity of their own,” he once confided to his brother. Very clever on the nature of empathy & projection. But boy, oh boy…

I think it’s also true that loneliness among women has historically been treated as an individual problem, while loneliness among men is treated as a societal problem. That, in turn, comes from an assumption that women are supposed to earn the company of others while men are entitled to it.

I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork

I can’t say I’ve ever had the norovirus come on in public before. Throwing up at the Barbican was quite special. But hurling my guts up at the top of the underground escalator at London Bridge station was a real memory maker. A perfect way to end the year.

Bluesky minds, is it possible to read archival pieces from Ms Magazine (I'm talking 1973)? And if so, how might I go about it? (I have tried the Ms website itself and it's not there)...

There's a point in this fortifying two-parter (a mix of documentary and lengthy interview) where Orson Welles describes Shakespeare as "profoundly against the modern age" – as he was, he's quick to add. & that's just one juicy bite. This is a dazzling piece of journalism – well worth your time:

This is extraordinary:

I am fascinated by the continued wrangling over Hilma af Klint’s legacy & this raises so many Qs about art scholarship in general. Firstly, who gets to steward it & why? Added to the mix, how best to define authorship when it was subject to outside collaboration?

Another characteristically niche Q from yours truly but does anyone know of any writers/thinkers who have explored the symbolism of the window? I'm keen to dive into its meaning in particular art works that I'm writing about atm & wondering if I'm missing anything...

I love commissioning these for our supporters and this was a particular joy – absolutely rammed with bangers. Have also just read next month's essay, Tariq Goddard brilliant on the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes. @thequietus.com would be dead without subscribers & I hope these perks are a fine reward.

Tried to wave at my boyfriend from the organ loft but he wasn’t having any of it. The Clientele sounding wonderful last night at St Pancras Old Church, what a beautiful night:

We are playing two sets at both shows this week. In the second set we’ll concentrate on songs from the violet hour LP Times: Doors: 7.30pm First set: 8:15pm - 9pm Interval - 15 mins Second set: 9:15pm - 10:15pm curfew 10:30pm

Jimmy Cliff had one of the sweetest voices in popular music of all time. It was a pleasure to speak to him a dozen years ago for this profile. Rest in peace sir. thequietus.com/interviews/j...

I had to sit very quietly after reading this otherworldly essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, it will stay with me for a very long time. I wish she could, too:

Can I also just say that this is brilliant reporting by my pal Jude, questioning not only where Westminster's priorities lie but how we consume our news & what that means when things like this get ignored:

As Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s story is dramatised tonight, on the BBC, I am reminded of this piece I wrote about Richard Ratcliffe’s unwavering campaign when she was finally released. I first interviewed Richard in a car park outside the Iranian Embassy in 2017 & this is what followed:

Extraordinary reporting

The sheer delight of discovering a "new" author for the first time…I'm not sure how – or why – it's taken me as long as it has but l am so grateful to have found William Maxwell…in an airport WH Smiths no less!

$54.7 million. Christ, this makes me sad. I wonder if any of us will see it exhibited again? More than half of Frida Kahlo’s paintings are privately owned. This one, outside of Mexico, I believe. A strange thing to ponder when you consider how irrevocably Kahlo is tied to its people and its history.