Threatening charcoal sky over today’s diary of the broken.

Wholly deserving of this nomination and many more.

Thank you @alcs.co.uk for being the champion of authors. Your work is always appreciated. UK authors join, register your published works and start collecting!

Pioneering French photographer Felix Nadar died #onthisday in 1910. @AllisonCMeier explores his determined efforts to document the beauty and terror of this realm of the dead: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/photographing-the-dark-nadars-descent-into-the-paris-catacombs #otd

Nothing short of astonishing, powerful and courageous. Giséle Pelicot and Virginia Roberts Giuffre have lent their voices to history to record the unimaginable. Manon Garcia's insights are brilliant, translated by Maya B. Kronic. None are easy reading, and are at times harrowing, but indispensable.

The 2026 Climate Fiction Prize shortlist is here! 🤩 📚️ The Climate Fiction Prize, supported by Climate Spring, brings together six spectacularly wide-ranging novels for our 2026 shortlist, exploring the climate crisis, and our response to it. Discover the shortlist: climatefictionprize.co.uk

Our reaction to today's AI news 📣 “The Government’s decision to move away from its previously ‘preferred option’ of a broad copyright exception.. is welcome & reflects the positive impact.. the creative industries.. have had." Stay tuned for more. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

It all began in Ireland. My mother’s ancestors were coffin makers in Donegal who immigrated to America in the late 1900’s. Half a century later my mother married a farm boy who became an undertaker. My memoir was published in the UK where I have happily immigrated & the US. 🍀 Happy St Patrick’s Day.

At dusk on a Monday.

Fashion goal 2026 mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-conten...

On International Women’s Day, #internationalwomensday just a few stellar female authors. *there are many more*!

The critics are at odds with George Saunders’ VIGIL. I’m entranced. It compels me to think that bit harder. I am falling under the spell of its characters.

Felt like a vampire in London’s sun today. Bright, consuming, enveloping.

Delighted to have received an ARC of @emilymidorikawa.bsky.social 's powerful debut novel 'A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing'. A story seeped in Osaka noir, both tender and razor-sharp. With memorable, complex characters. Out in July by @bonnierbooksuk.bsky.social

Fascinating. George Saunders is such a generous interviewee. Here he talks about his new novel VIGIL and shares his writing process, inspiration and insights. Great job @lonesomereader.bsky.social

Wouldn’t mind adding the Vampire Castle bag to my essentials. By Abodi Transylvania aboditransylvania.com/cdn/shop/fil...

ABODI TRANSYLVANIA, 2026 rtw Photography by Szilveszter Makó Set Design by Obsidian Lune

Stormy Sunday reading. The art of Macbeth’s witches. From the accompanying book of the 2013 exhibition of the National Galleries of Scotland.

A bit of a walk across the grounds of lost loves on the 14th of February.

;-) #WinterOlympics #Olympics #milanocortina #Olympicgames #Cumbria #bobsleigh

NEW ESSAY — Christine Jacobson’s “Typing for Love or Money”, on the neglected efforts of women like Theodora Bosanquet, Véra Nabokov, and Valerie Eliot, who — through their work as typists and editors — had a profound impact on modern literature: publicdomainreview.org/essay/typing...

Stripping away the sensationalism that surrounded these unimaginable crimes, AS IF by Blake Morrison, and THE CASE OF MARY BELL by Gitta Serena boldly and bravely sought answers to the questions the courts did not ask. #books

Hamnet-ing at table lucky 13. #hamnet

Some homes hold their ghosts with quiet forbearance. They do not boast of their phantoms nor advertise for psychic researchers to poke and test them. They accommodate both living and dead residents, afford privacy to both sides. Places of gentle spectral tolerance. – #CJosiffe #Ghosts

Thank you again to @alcs.co.uk for championing authors’ works by collecting money from around the world when someone copies or uses our work. It’s payment day soon thanks to their achievements.

Very Crimey, Espionagey, Bookerey January so far.

Died #onthisday in 1834, Giovanni Aldini, the Italian "galvanist" whose experiments in animating the muscles of the dead with electricity inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Read more in our essay by Sharon Ruston: publicdomainreview.org/essay/t...

A new, light coloured notebook for old, dark stories.

Photographs of the Arctic in the 1880s by self-styled glaciologist, Frenchman Charles Rabot: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/rabot-photographs-of-the-arctic

I was without The World Wide Web for 48 hours and it felt like 48 years. I lost my bearings and wondered if the microwave still worked. Could I still make coffee? Find food? When I woke up from the bad dream the world had tilted again.

I wish you all a good year. As you can see, I’m following the remarkably predictable Health and Wellbeing guidance for January with a bit of light reading and even lighter blackberry hazelnut meringue cake.

Season’s greetings to everyone.

Most likely place to find a ghost on Christmas Eve: The only surviving medieval wooden Watching Loft in England (c.14). Monastic officials conducted surveillance on pilgrims visiting the Shrine. #ghosts #ChristmasEve #history

On a sweltering summer day years ago in Santa Monica, I found these vintage ornaments in their original 50’s boxes at an outdoor antique market. They’re all made of glass and it’s a miracle they’ve survived a couple of transatlantic moves. Meet Harriet, the tree that supports them. #WinterSolstice

So happy to stand in a long queue at a bookshop teeming with people. #books #reading

I stumbled into a fever dream.

Greetings, fellow British citizens. Citizen Kate here. After many years as a resident, I have finally faced the daunting admin challenge and have emerged victorious.

The tree at St Pancras. Not as nice as the book tree last year. OBVIOUSLY

+++ Best Take Extra Care Out & About Today! - As Storm Bram, will be biting hard the UK & Ireland. +++ V''''V #StormBram #BramStoker #Dracula

Zara's gone all gothic this season.

Our traditional December dinner. Lively, warm, joy and mirth with special friends. All authors, we covered absolutley every topic ever, as you do.

I read page-turning translated fiction in 2025. Top 3: THE WIDE WORLD Pierre Lemaitre, Translated by Frank Wynne What a saga. ALONE IN BERLIN Devastating. Hans Fallada, Translated by Michael Hofmann I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN Unsettling. Jacqueline Harpman, Translated by Ros Schwartz

The NY Times just posted their '10 best books of 2025' and I'm here to discuss it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvzW...

Turned over the page on your #Countryfile calendar today? Then say hello to my #barnowl :)

I’m on the Radio 2 Book Club with Sara Cox, for the Christmas special! If you’re after some books for those tricky relatives, or just yourself, have a listen. #booksky www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

“Plenty of vociferous readers can sustain themselves by library card alone, but the coveting of the physical object of the codex is its own thing.” In praise of bibliomania.

Bone rattling cold out there this morning. The sunshine is a deceitful mistress. #cold #winter

Something wonderful for a weather dull Monday. www.npr.org/2024/01/12/1...

Who wrote the Gospel of Witches?

Harrowing and heartbreaking, a visceral account of the Ukraine war by Rosemary Jenkinson. drb.ie/articles/aut...