Journos: if you ever write "Rebel MP [insert name] has called for the resignation of Starmer," please know that a significant proportion of the population sings this to themselves. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oybs...

There is a pub in Walthamstow that has a firm no kids policy. They are VERY upfront about it and have signs and stickers everywhere to let you know that kids are not welcome. Which I applaud. However, this latest sign feels like they might've gone a bit OTT...

When this all ends the way it does, with Reform in power and the country on its knees, I will blame the BBC. I absolutely loved the institution, but I will never, ever forgive it for normalizing, platforming and not holding to account Farage and his ilk.

Just found a brilliant new word game called Tessera. It's tactical and a bit like Connect 4. You can play for free here www.tesserapuzzle.com. I did today's in 12.

I cannot wait to read this.

There is a lot of talk about smoking on here at the moment. Just a reminder that I wrote the book on this 15 years ago.https://uk.bookshop.org/a/681/9781447200635

Just had an email from Ottessa Moshfegh saying how much she likes my stories! In Italian no less! That's devotion for you. I'm going to give her some money to help her promote my book, as she is now my biggest fan. Can't wait for all those TikTok sales to come rolling in!

Thinking of the classic t-shirt reborn for the 21st Century: I like the woke pope, the woke pope's woke.

I'm sure Georges would have been delighted about these Banana chocolate pretzels named in his honour.

I'm staying in a hotel. Was genuinely shocked to find GB News on in the bar. They changed it when I asked, but still...

Dear @bcdreyer.social My wife and I recently spent an entire underground journey discussing the last line of this advertisement. We could not find a legitimate reason for the use of a semi-colon and we wondered if there is any grammatical justification you can think of for its use.

If I had a billionaire's money, I would put on a one-man show. It would star a well-respected actor playing a much-loved children's character in an East Coast venue. I would introduce the show by saying: "And now, live from Buffalo, Mark Ruffalo IS The Gruffalo." And my life would be complete.

I wonder when the word Prat fell out of favour with the British public. Like Flock of Seagulls, it seems locked to the 80s. Did it have a life into the 90s?

Tonight I finished writing my first short story in about three years. It has the perfect title, but it is the same as a 1980s Delillo novel. Does that matter?

The interview with David Lammy on Today is one of the most potentially dangerous things I've ever heard. It's obvious that Lammy is uncomfortable with the Iran situation, but the interviewer keeps pressing in the hope he will say something that Trump will be upset by. Utterly irresponsible

Occasionally you see an actor on stage and they just utterly have you, no matter the quality of the play. Eli Gelb is one of those actors. His performance in Broken Glass (at the Young Vic) is breathtaking, as it was in Stereophonic. Whatever he is in, I will watch.

Thanks to @ottoenglish.bsky.social for posting this video of Winston Churchill getting booed in E17. There is something reminding me of Stewart Lee at the end. I can imagine SL reacting in the same way: by playing two sections of the audience against each other. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJni...

Was at the Hospital and saw this. Made me laugh and my son asked why. Ended up having to explain The Magic Mountain to him. He failed to see the humour.

This kind of thing always makes me laugh. What, the actors who played roles 40 years ago don't look the same now as they did then?

My eldest son has just read his first Toni Morrison (the story Recitaf). He loved it, and was full of questions about it afterwards. Teachers, have you taught this story? If not, I think it's a brilliant introduction to one of the greatest ever writers.

I once received a review in a national newspaper of record that said my work was "staggeringly bleak". This new story might top that.

There are some really interesting books coming this year. This is one of those I am most excited about. I've loved Keith Ridgway's work since I read The Parts in 2003. If you haven't read him, I think you should.

This is such a seismic story I'm almost surprised I haven't got a book publishing today.

I'm on a bus. Almost everyone has their phones on loud, people watching videos, the racing, having video calls. It's like being in Vegas but without the drinks and faded glamour.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since watching on Saturday night. A sort-of documentary on Don DeLillo, featuring him talking but not being interviewed, it is utterly hypnotizing. But the key thing for me was that this was broadcast on BBC1. BBC1! www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_dH...

This is one of the most impressive debuts I've read in years. The prose is quiet, yet rich; moving yet beautiful. Rebecca Perry is a exhilarating talent and May We Feed the King a novel of rare power.

This might be a controversial opinion, but after sitting through the full 2 hours 39 minutes of Brad Pitt's FI, I'm fairly confident it isn't going to win the Best Picture Oscar. Even if I hadn't seen many films from 2025 - or had never before seen a film - I'd be similarly confident.

I saw Blue Moon last night. Brilliant performances, especially from Ethan Hawke, and downbeat moving. Like a night at the theatre, but on my own sofa.

I'm off to see Lost Highway for the first time. It's significant, because 97 was when I lost most of my passion for cinema and going to the cinema. One day I was working at the 051 in Liverpool, the next, I wasn't bothered to see one of my idols' new film. By then, I think, I was lost to books.

Over New Year, I accidentally called the fridge with all the soft drinks in it the Non Fiction section and now all non-alcoholic drinks will forever be non fiction beers etc.

I've never read Beryl Bainbridge, but this piece really makes me want to. harpers.org/archive/2026...

It's PLR day, in which I congratulate those who borrowed by books, and have enough extra money to buy half of a pair of relatively decent shin pads.

It's been an incredible run, but it's finally over. I think for the first time ever, I'm going to not enjoy a New York Review Books book.

My last novel turns 6 this year and what better way to celebrate its depiction of Cold-War nuclear terror than by living through it all over again.

When everyone leave the house of a morning, I like to go round the house turning off all the lights, each room the next leg on an epic farewell world tour, culminating with the bathroom, when I press the switch and say Goodnight, Wembley!

Can you guess the film from the warning?

In the early years of Twitter, I used to write a Christmas story based on prompts from followers. My favourite involved Noel Edmonds, beef jerky and the end of the world. If you'd like to see this Christmas tradition revived, reply with a prompt or two. Might be fun.

Genuinely shocked at the death of Tom Stoppard. I loved his work so much, but Rosencrantz & Guildenstern was an absolutely foundational text for me. A total one off, singular writer. The world is a poorer place without him.

After having read Lord of the Flies for the first time alongside my eldest son, we're now going into Brave New World, another book I somehow missed out on reading when I was 14.

I am about to write a David Foster Wallace (It's about x but it's really about all of us) style pitch for an article about Adidas' Customer Service and their truly outrageous, once-in-a generation ineptitude. It will be over 5,000 words and will make you weep over a pair of football boots.

Went to see All My Sons at the Wyndham's last night. Cried twice. The play has its holes and its didactic lines, but Bryan Cranston, Marianne Jean-Baptiste & Paapa Essiedu were utterly mesmerising. It felt vital and urgent and from the heart, and you should try to see it if you can.

I went to pay homage at Thomas Bernhard's grave in Vienna. A few minutes later, I was locked in the cemetery and had to try to flag down the caretaker to let me out. It was pitch black aside from the many candles guttering on the graves. I was unnerved, but I expect TB thought it hilarious.

Showed my 12 year old Pretty in Pink the other night. Was hoping to have that bonding over seminal teenage angst, but as with so many things my memory of it was nothing like the reality. This Duckie, my son said, is an absolute creep. Why is she hanging out with him? I had no answer to that.

Just finished THE DEVIL BOOK by Asta Olivia Nordenhof, and am again floored by her intimate and expressive concision. It's also very funny in places. I can't wait for the next in this radical suite of novels.

Went to see The Weir last night. Was slightly apprehensive as the reviews have been so good, but it was absolutely superb. Perfect writing and ensemble cast. If you can get a ticket, make the effort, it's worth it.

I watched The Brutalist last night. I was expecting to love it. I mean really love it. How could I not? And yet I thought it almost unbearably pointless. Acting, visuals, music all stunning, but there is something vital missing at its heart that stops it from really coming to life.

So it's Lazlo!

I also really love that the biggest announcement in world literature looks like it's a book talk at a provincial literary festival running in its first year.

We've had some really deserved Nobel Laureates over the last few years, so I really hope that streak continues.

Last night, I finished Vilhelm's Room by Tove Ditlevsen (trans Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell) and its violent, defiant sadness is still lingering around this morning. There are moments of great beauty in the despair, and also humour, but still it feels like the aftermath of a slap.