HarperCollins eh. What on earth is going on? Some high-level top-brass internecine warfare by the looks of it.

It's fair to say none of our current crop of hapless journeymen would be fit to lace the man's boots. RIP Billy Bonds #whufc

Controversial I know but the Christmas Tree is already up. Elf already sitting on the shelf.

Interesting choice of Yellow Wagtail to illustrate this BBC report. Let's just say it's not a Welsh one. Who fancies IDing to subspecies?

A sudden flurry of excellent book ideas and proposals. The pre-Santa bounce. A reminder of why I enjoy my job.

It is just too cold, wet and horrible outside to go watch football. Will sit by the fire and doom-scroll instead.

Rather shamelessly heading on the tube with an award I collected on someone else's behalf at a ceremony earlier. Fun to see people clock the award, then try to figure out if I'm famous. Bad luck, fuckers. 10/10, would recommend.

@sophiepavs.bsky.social from this week's Beano.

We are watching K-Pop Demon Hunters.

It is genuinely amazing just how much work I can get done – and how much happier I feel as a result – when I can get on with some actual work and not be in sat in meetings all day.

I will be limping in to work tomorrow. Pulled a muscle in my arse clambering through the softplay. Tough times.

Forced to go inside the giant soft-play ziggurat. Failed to stretch beforehand. Serious muscle strain the inevitable result.

Wild that Picador have restoked the Kate Clanchy affair (see @thebookseller.com). Why? This pandemic-era fiasco was basically forgotten.

Waiting for a train at Waterloo means time spent in @foyles picking holes in the output of rival publishers. A rare joy.

I've tried to like this. I really have. The subject is something I'm really interested in. But the author is just too boasty-humble braggy, and I've had to knock it on the head. His editors haven't done him any favours here.

This Friday, 7pm Halloween night, Bev the Haunted Doll and I will be at Waterstones Aberystwyth to talk about Ghosted. Will anyone be brave enough to shake her little haunted hand? 👻 Tickets and info: www.waterstones.com/events/alice...

Telling scary stories around the campfire to young people: "...and you had no way of knowing who was calling. You just had to pick it up." "...co...couldn't you put it on silent?" "There was no silent. And anyone in the house could answer. Even if the call was for you."

Today I'm trapped in a Welsh airbnb with no heating. The curse of the 'smart' thermostat. Sat in my coat under a duvet. A long and difficult night ahead.

I'm trapped at London Waterloo. Trains are few on a Sunday. There are worse places to be stuck. The pub 'The Victory' is really very nice and the football's on.

I am on my second Yakult of the day. #NewScientistLive doing its bit for gut health. Currently learning about witness mis-remembering with @ciaragreene.bsky.social and @gillian-murphy.bsky.social

Back at New Scientist Live this morning. @helenczerski.bsky.social on earth energetics is a good way to start the day.

Main learning of the day: Gravity isn't a force. Got told this three times in three talks by three professors, so I am guessing it's true. Did everyone know this but me? Must up my physics game. #NewScientistLive

Final talk of the day at #NewScientistLive. I have drunk a lot of Yakult. Bought a book about fermentation. Handful of book ideas. Doze on the train home to come.

Busy at #NewScientistLive. Gravitational waves first thing, and now it's the gut/brain connection. Yakult is sponsoring. Lots of free Yakult. I am expecting a first-class gut lining by teatime.

I am at the Excel centre for New Scientist Live. National Wedding Show is next door, and the other side is MUSICAL-CON. Which looks a lot of fun. Much cosplaying. I'm cosplaying for New Scientist as Peter Higgs.

My favourite news story of the decade to date. #trains #time #GBR www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I do quite like a bit of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Why look: a box of some sort of newish, bookish things arrived this morning. Seems to be about spinosaurid #dinosaurs... coauthored with @davehone.bsky.social... and published by Bloomsbury. Available 6th of November In the UK; then worldwide in early 2026.

This has inexplicably made it into paperback. 70th on the Sunday Times hardback list now constitutes a 'best-seller'. Intriguing.

Today I'm at Moneyfields v Horndean in the Isthmian League. Moneyfields is a suburb of Portsmouth. A lot of England flags and Union Jacks on lamp-posts. Not, I suspect, in a good way.

Today's amazing fact: in Costa Rica they don't have street names or house numbers. So if you want to send something you have to give a vague set of directions in the right town. I'll be honest, I am not optimistic my package is going to arrive.

I may not know much, but that this subtitle somehow got approved is troubling.

Hats off to staff at @foylesforbooks.bsky.social for this pleasingly subversive piece of book placement.

@timsmedley.bsky.social yeah OK. (I am in Foyles BTW)

Realised today that I have never knowingly been for drinks with an agent. This is a lapse. All the real trade publishers do it. I am clearly off the pace here.

Mesozoic Art II - edited by @sharkbitesteve.bsky.social and myself and featuring the incredible work of 25 cutting-edge palaeoartists - is out in just a few days. The ultimate must-have book on modern #palaeoart / #paleoart. Buy yours now ... www.bloomsbury.com/uk/mesozoic-... #books #dinosaurs

There's a mind-blowing Jimi Hendrix concert on BBC4 iPlayer at the moment. Atlanta Festival 1970. Heard bits of it but never seen it before.

Neolithic Great Auk capture ILLUSTRATED. Mind is blown.

Every day, I open my email to find something intractable that I can't solve. It's wearing.

Ill on the sofa. The Thursday Murder Club ft. Mirren, Imrie, Kingsley and Brosnan is bringing me the good cheer I needed.

Shout out to the photo on this cover for making me scared of stairs between the ages 11-the present day

Out TODAY - this magnificent new book by @alicevernon10.bsky.social. GHOSTED. A brilliant journey into ghost-hunting, historically and today. Why are we so fascinated with the paranormal? Get a copy here to find out: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ghos...

Brogen Murphy wins the Children's Fiction award for Wildlands. Which does sound very very good. #wainwrightprize

The big one. @benhoare.bsky.social v @juleshoward.bsky.social (among others). Heavyweight children's non-fiction action. Jess French adjudicates. #wainwrightprize

Nature writing book of the year is Raising Hare by @chloedalton.bsky.social. Bravo. A very worthy winner. #wainwrightprize

Children's book legend @isabelthomas.co.uk on the picture book panel - a seriously strong selection of titles, to my eye. Her book is Frog. #wainwrightprize

First panel covers the Illustrated Books. Our author Carry Akroyd with Melissa Harrison. Good luck to them both! Richard Shimell & Peter Kuper round off the quintet.

TV's Adam Henson compères. His farm is about 10 minutes up the road. He arrived on horseback.

The #WainwrightPrize ceremony has begun. And we are IN IT TO WIN IT.

I am off to rural Oxfordshire for @wainwrightprize.bsky.social. Carry Akroyd our contender for silverware. But it'll be nice to see some old pals over the course of the afternoon. A strong ex-Sigma contingent among the runners and riders. @juleshoward.bsky.social @helenscales.bsky.social