Ruthless self promotion! Okay, I’m really proud of Wash, my novel coming from @saltpublishing.com in May… and this week there’s a preorder deal from @waterstones.bsky.social ! Till Friday only! Roll up! www.waterstones.com/book/wash/er...

Join us for an Observer Book Club evening with @naomialderman.bsky.social, award-winning author, as she discusses her latest book, Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today. Book your tickets here: https://bit.ly/4adkMqg Have a question about our events? Reach out to us at [email protected]

Everywhere we look in the press we read of violence, degridation and corruption. Kindness, thoughtfulness, and moral courage doesn’t make good copy. Happily I see humanity, compassion and good friendship all around me and I never take that forgranted.

"I think we should call it the Minneapolis massacre, and Paul Revere should come back from the dead and do an engraving showing our guy being shot" — how fortunate I was to talk to the great Ken Burns for @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Farewell to the Backlisted pod, where I have discovered so many great books & had my eyes opened onto ones I thought I knew. It was such a joy going on to discuss Werner Herzog's On Walking In Ice live at End Of The Road festival many moons ago, tune in thus: www.backlisted.fm/episodes/101...

You could start here. And there is great grandeur in this episode. But you could also start anywhere. @backlisted.bsky.social is a real national treasure, I don't say that lightly. If you need inspiration to read, you'll always find it here. Bravo Andy, and all the team. Heroic, heroic stuff.

The point of the AI project is to provoke despair in creative people. They haven’t produced profits or anything anyone wants, just a steady stream of articles about how us artistic types can’t do the thing we’re already doing, making art. Jokes on them, we’re even better at despair than they are.

I hope my dear colleagues at @theobserveruk.bsky.social will forgive me if I say, it's so much fun working at the paper, but nothing, nothing, compares to my Muppet days... 😉

That splendid sign-off of the Queen Mother’s – “Tinkety tonk old fruit, & down with the Nazis” – celebrates its 85th anniversary today

The Washington Post will shut down and refurbish for two years while Kid Rock writes most of the op/eds

Lovely piece…

ohhh ‘democracy dies in darkness’ was aspirational

Wonderful piece by the great Siri Hustvedt —

I’m only a humble science fiction writer but this seems like a terrible terrible idea.

Woohoo! Can’t quite believe it. This book, you know, is my soul.

French embassy only serving water and juice to attendees until the evening's speeches are over, a misunderstanding of what Brits look for in a drinks reception of such proportions that I can only assume the declaration of war will come overnight

the new season of Curb is bleak

I think the media want to find some secret to unlock here precisely BECAUSE the footage is so straightforward. It shows us clearly what DHS has become. And it leads them to a conclusion that they dare not take: there is only side of the story here in Minneapolis, and a monstrous, powerful villain

I have been avoiding the news just because I really can’t watch Alex get killed over and over. I understand why it’s important that the world see, but the presentation of the crystal-clear footage as some kind of mystery to unlock, plus it being such a familiar scene in so many ways… I just can’t

The media should cover sport the way they cover the state murder of civilians: ‘Jannik Sinner appeared to win the French Open yesterday after what supporters say was a comeback from being two sets down.’

Far from Minnesota but want to help? Here's how: www.standwithminnesota.com

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945

A hero, a legend, a great and kind man.

Seconded. Read on, enjoy, feel hopeful.

Another day, another attempted scam from a supposed BookTok content creator…. Writers beware!

Because I was so unjustly overlooked by THE ACADEMY in this years rigged OSCAR “nominations”, I hereby declare myself EMPORER OF LICHTENSTEIN. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO ME!!!

By the end of the week horses will speak English.

Man thinks are dark but this thread made me LOL

I'm no big political guru, but I sure don't understand how everyone was banging on about Biden's fitness for the presidency and no one is saying anything about this

DUTCH WARN TULIP BOOM COULD FALTER WITHOUT WIDER ADOPTION

Where's the story, morning glory? observer.co.uk/news/columni...

i have been reading Tom Ricks’ “Fighting the Good War” which is a military analysis of the civil rights movement, and one thing that comes abundantly across is that movement leaders and ordinary people made it a practice to refuse to fall into despair and cynicism.

BBC report at a headline level that Grok will now not make sexually exploitative images any more. An actual reporter comes on and explains that it will do no such thing, and will just make the images invisible in the UK. These are two very, very different things.

leopard/face, etc.

So, Francis is my husband. We’ve really worked on stuff, I’m proud of him and he is a mensch. This is a good and real offer.

Trumpist F-bombs are blowing up the delicate language of statecraft. America’s Maga leaders are as gung-ho with their expletives as they are with their geopolitics. This coarsening of public discourse could prove just as dangerous, writes @ericawgnr.bsky.social https://bit.ly/4q8qr6u

I understand the pressures on the BBC, but Radio 4's coverage of the Minneapolis shooting is an example of "bad balance". It's all "the Trump regime says she was a terrorist, but Democrats say it was murder". The BBC has the footage. It doesn't have to treat truth and falsehood as equally valid.

No, there’s nothing new under the 🌞— alas

reading moby-dick and getting brainwashed by Big Spermaceti

☺️

There we go. That there’s a headline.

amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders

Oh Jesus Christ…oh no…Paddington?

Inspired by CBS News' bold and transparent release of its "Five Simple Principles," here are mine:

“…so help me Bob.”

I'm trying to get a sense of how many (other) people were invited and then disinvited from US campuses last year. If you have a story to share, please dm. I will keep it confidential – just trying to figure out the scale of this.

Why is it always ‘Who’s the best frontman of all-time’ when no vocalist has ever - nor ever shall - elevate a band as much as Sandy Denny did Fairport and Fotheringay?

Just making sure that 2025 is definitely over