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

Seems Boris Johnson was both phenomenally corrupt and a hopeless liar. Who saw that coming? Major scoop by @theguardian.com as yet unreported by BBC or anyone else ...

We couldn't be more thrilled to announce that Swoop Sing Perch Paddle by Carry Akroyd and John McEwen has been shortlisted for the @wainwrightprize.bsky.social for Illustrative Books! This beautiful book celebrates British birds in all their colour and glory🐦 Have you got your copy yet?

May I suggest that a few heads might roll? WOW. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Aurochs extinction in the UK seems to have been 1k years or so after Stonehenge was built. And yet ... www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A new season starts at Bedfont Sports v @kingstoniansc.bsky.social and it's CUP FEVER. FA Cup extra-preliminary action, directly under the Heathrow flight path. Plastic pitch, no programme. Meat or nothing in the food kiosk. Bleak.

The big problem with having agreed to write a book is having to actually write the book

Royal Society prize shortlist is up. For the first time in a while, none of them are books that I turned down. Must be losing my touch. royalsociety.org/news/2025/08...

Yes it is.

JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. I mean. God Almighty.

The Observer is on a bit of a roll with exposing publishing bullshit. I hope they dig further into Unbound and specifically who spent the author royalties.

@amandatuke.bsky.social great news - bravo.

Insert joke here.

@tetzoo.bsky.social from this month's Cotinga. I felt you should be informed.

Breaking: Bye to Boundless. Following Unbound into the abyss.

A wild, slightly terrifying look at the markets. Literally everything is down, across the board, except government bonds and gold. The entire global economy foundering for a second time at the whim of one orange twat.

OMG I can't access my DMs without 'age verification'. Which I emphatically am not prepared to do. I'm sure everyone else has already encountered this but ... wtf?

This is two Tigers (presumably Caspian/Amur) and a Leopard. No? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fuck the Mail.

#QTWTAIN www.thebookseller.com/news/are-men...

Friends who've published with Hopkins, check out the below if you weren't already aware:

Made the mistake of reading a 1994 edition of The Dandy with my son. Packed with gender stereotypes, fat-shaming, disability-shaming, bullying and punches in the face. And no jokes. No wonder we all turned out to be psychopaths.

Will be spending most of today hulking up in tribute. #hogan

Out of Space by The Prodigy is my son's current favourite. Today we learned that three of the key protagonists on this song are named Keith. #fact

Etymology of the day: spiders were once known as ‘attercops’, or ‘poison-heads’, because it was believed most spiders were venomous. The ‘cop’ element became the ‘cob’ in ‘cobweb’.

I thought I might like to go to the Chelsea Flower Show next year. Ticket prices though - insane. £140 a day! I expect it'll still be sold out.

More on this: I assume you've all seen that Wetransfer is now awarding itself via revised t&cs the right to use everything uploaded to it for AI training. EVERYTHING. With respect, go fuck yourself. Your business is finished.

Why it is important to always be kind.

People think money has ruined football but the sight of a rapist dictator standing next to a corrupt football official in front of a big gold trophy at a competition bankrolled by Saudi Arabia reminds me the game still belongs to us.

Birdfair should be a vegetarian food-exclusive festival. Which I think it used to be, pre-pandemic? (I might have imagined that). Thoughts? #birdfair