I started reading _George Perec’s Geographies: Material, Performative and Textual Spaces_ — and it’s not working out right, I am highlighting or bookmarking every page.

Thirty years ago, in December 1995, I was reading Pig by Andrew Cowan which I remember being quite impressed by. I went on to read Common Ground but nothing since.

Anti AI writing project. universalturingmachine.co.uk

Decided instead of promoting my own crap today I’d like to help others instead. Feel free to share your newsletters and independent gigs or even some story you wrote and I’ll repost some

I wrote an obituary for my friend Ian Marchant, despite his resistance to ever being contained. I miss him. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

I wrote an obituary for my friend Ian Marchant, despite his resistance to ever being contained. I miss him. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Just downloaded a video-making app, so here’s my first effort with it…

Tonight. Ten quid. Bargain. cockpitdirect.gn.apc.org/show/the_lur...

Get your tickets in advance for 'The Lure of Class' on November 10th (once again at London's Cockpit Theatre) here: tickets.thecockpit.org.uk/sales/shows/...

RIP to David Bellos, a great translator, teacher, scholar and popularizer. Here's a charming little essay about what he learned from his landmark translation of Georges Perec's 'Life: A User's Manual'. online.wsj.com/article/SB10...

Aside of course from his masterly Perec translations, what a marvellous biography this was. RIP David Bellos.

1920s vampiric shenanigans, if you're on the lookout for halloween reading: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hoke...

Thanks Katie. Everyone welcome.

This will be really good.

Publishing today! Memoirist and teacher @lilydunn.bsky.social shares the secrets of writing a new, transformative kind of memoir. Inspired by her own experience, as well as interviews with fellow memoirists, she shows how you can turn writing memoir into a journey of discovery. ✍🏼 #booksky

This was a brilliant event and some special editions of The Breaking Wave by @mrmarchant.bsky.social are still available. Follow the link, catch the wave.

INTO BEING: A reading list We asked author @lilydunn.bsky.social to compile a list of books by the authors she interviewed for her new book, 'Into being'. Full list on our Blog now, and you can also shop the full list on @gloucesterroadbks.bsky.social' @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social page now.

In this piece there's an excellent summary of The Universal Turing Machine, and what it's for.

Cannot recommend these two books highly enough. Absolutely fascinating for anyone interested in politics, literature, art, resisting fascism, etc etc. Beautifully done.

The first results of my FIFA-funded project are out in the world! ⚽ Why the FA's takeover of women's football from the WFA in 1993 was a "Hobson's Choice" for the WFA, & a moment of disempowerment for #womensfootball ⚽ It's open access & available here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Lily Dunn's 'Into Being' is a milestone text in the art of life writing. I'm looking forward to chairing a discussion with her at @rilch-ljmu.bsky.social next month. It will be a great evening about how we raise raw personal material and make it powerfully universal.

Welcome! A home for anyone who wants to write a memoir and isn’t sure where to start. Full details of how to get involved: www.universalturingmachine.org

Reminder that my new poetry collection (my SEVENTH because I apparently cannot take a hint) is available from Picador www.panmacmillan.com/authors/luke...

In @thebookseller.com today, author @lilydunn.bsky.social on how writing memoir can be exposing, but Substack is a good place to experiment. Read it here: www.thebookseller.com/comment/a-sa... Lily's new book 'Into being: The radical craft of memoir and its power to transform' is out next month.

Novelist and memoirist Richard Beard (‪ @richbeard.bsky.social‬ ) is launching “the first-ever mass participation online memoir” on 8th September 👇 #BookSky

Ian Marchant's final novel The Breaking Wave exists now as a pre-publication special edition, for reasons too miserable to mention. Except by Ian himself, of course. imarchant.substack.com/p/breaking-w...

A most discerning reader. Thank you Steve, happy travels!

Certainly a more unusual photo ... the beautifully designed and constructed toilets at the Nursery End at Lord's were built in the late 1890s and demolished to make way for the new Edrich Stand in 2019. They were considered to be classic examples of Victorian enamelware

In her latest book, acclaimed memoirist, teacher and mentor @lilydunn.bsky.social shares the secrets of writing a new, transformative kind of memoir. 'Into being' shows readers how to turn writing memoir into a journey of discovery - one that can be shared with the whole world. #booksky #memoir

“Journalist writes novel” is about as interesting a headline as “Dog bites man”, but Richard Lloyd Parry’s debut novel In the Green Heart is a good, nasty, thought-provoking entertainment. My review:

Thanks Lynn, and thanks Matt ... 'a collaborative work of collective autobiography, which, well, is just fcuking great' ... can't say fairer than that.

Very happy to tell you that my novel Dooneen will be published next June by Fitzcarraldo Editions (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social) and New Directions (@ndbooks.bsky.social). Many thanks to Jacques and Barbara - both of whom say lovely things here - and to superagent @laurencelaluyaux.bsky.social.

“It’s almost taboo among writers to say, ‘I am interested in finding out what a person could do with this technology.’” I spoke to @naomialderman.bsky.social, @richbeard.bsky.social and Sarah Hall about what AI means for novelists, in this week’s @ftweekend.com Books Essay:

NEW HAL HARTLEY

Into Being by @lilydunn.bsky.social is about the transformative power of writing memoir. It serves not only as a starter kit for those interested in writing and reading memoir, but it's also for anyone who is already writing or teaching, to expand and enhance their understanding of the art. #booksky

'This is how they train them, this is how they think life works.' Why AI makes writers even more important than we always thought we were. Excellent piece by @john-self.bsky.social in @ftweekend.com

RB is one of my very favourite 21st century British novelists and this is a beautiful take on the memoir I’ve been losing myself in this morning:

'A most original masterpiece'. The Universal Turing Machine, as recommended in Engelsberg Ideas. engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-sum...

Turning my BIG BOOK OF UNFORTUNATE AUTHOR DEATHS into a zine or something, will probably make it available as a free PDF when it's done: causticcovercritic.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-...

That was quick. Expected a period of author disclaimers (claimers) in the Acknowledgements or before the title page. Like coffee, might soon be apparent when the Fairtrade logo is missing. (AI Free is better than Human Written, though).

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Margaret Jull Costa. Published by the Half Pint Press, London, 2017. There were only 50 copies of this made for sale (out of a total run of 80), so I thought I’d share as much of it as I can. Numbering of fragments follows the 1982 edition.

‘For man is a creature of no fixed age, a creature who has the ability to become years younger in only a few seconds ... thus putting him in reach now of one time period, now of another.’ Proust, birthday-boy, on remembering and The Universal Turing Machine. universalturingmachine.co.uk

My new history of the World Cup, out September 4 but available for order now. www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Histo...

UTM in the TLS. Contributions welcome from September. www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

Sounds about right.

'A man provided with paper, pencil and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.' From 'Intelligent Machinery: A Report by A. M. Turing' (1948). universalturingmachine.co.uk

'Playful, subversive, experimental, wise, moving and utterly human.' Many thanks to @lilydunn.bsky.social for this generous championing of the UTM and memoir generally.

'If by the O-Level exams I was floundering, I made up for my lack of revision by cheating. It was the intelligent thing to do.' 1982, 15. universalturingmachine.co.uk

News worth knowing.