Almost at the end of my @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social holiday countdown! #20 is @timb-m.bsky.social brilliant Critical Games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, Literature and Life newbooksnetwork.com/critical-games

Our Annual Review 2024/25 is here! 👇 From policy to culture, the European Institute spent 2024–25 connecting experts, shaping debate, and bringing research to life across Europe. Read the full review: www.ucl.ac.uk/european-ins...

My friend and colleague, Michael Collins's Windrush Cricket arrived in the post today. Christmas has come early! @uclhistory.bsky.social y.social @academic.oup.com

The @karolinumpress.cuni.cz will be publishing my Critical Games in Czech. Such a privilege! Here's hoping that Czech and Slovak readers enjoy my takes on Kundera, Vilikovský, Juráňová, alongside Carrère, de Vigan, Bolaño, etc. @manchesterup.bsky.social

Thanks! My book, described as "a historical reclamation that pulls no punches in unpacking the racism surrounding one of America’s greatest folk voices” - #LeadBelly (1889-1949), a deep dive into post-Reconstruction America. www.cambridge.org/core/books/b... - Just $22.36 with code BJD2025!!!

"[...] redefines our understanding of funerary culture" - Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. "It makes the seemingly rigid traditions come alive" - Hana Navratilova (Oxford) "A guaranteed cure for insomnia" - Me 🏺 #OA #openaccess #egyptology #religion www.bloomsbury.com/uk/transmiss...

MY PUBLISHED BOOK! Emmanuel Carrère says it "explodes all academic frames and expectations", so handle with care! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177766/

PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS! EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR PUBLISHED BOOKS! gonna be reposting your books because hoo you made a book! www.versobooks.com/products/303...

Today! @manchesterup.bsky.social

IAS Book Launch: Critical Games 2 Dec, 6:30-8pm Please join @timb-m.bsky.social Tim Beasley-Murray for the launch of his new book Critical games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, Literature and Life. www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

In case you, like me, have not yet found this incredible resource/s by @annakornbluh.bsky.social and a few others, IT IS SO GREAT!!! 🙌🔥🙌 against-a-i.com

If you are in London on 2nd December and interested in Critical Games, do come and help launch it at the UCL Institute of Advance Studies! I'll be in discussion with Abigail Wiliams (Oxford/KCL). @manchesterup.bsky.social @artshumsucl.bsky.social @ucl-ias.bsky.social www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

@timb-m.bsky.social's new book Critical Games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, #Literature and Life reflects on how literature, #culture, #universities and society can be both playful and profound Find out more 👇 manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177773/

I have long been a, well not a fan as such, but an avid and intrigued reader of Christian Kracht. His vision of the world is disturbing but once you have seen it, you just can’t look away! Great to see his book doing so well now in English.

Listen! @timb-m.bsky.social talks to @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about the excellent "Critical Games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, Literature and Life" newbooksnetwork.com/critical-games

It's official @fmussgnug.bsky.social @uclselcs.bsky.social has sold out the Gustave Tuck. Clearly we do, indeed, love apocalypses too much.

Want to find out more about Critical Games? About how games can get serious, whether played by academics or by authors of fiction and non-fiction? Listen to this new @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast with @drdaveobrien.bsky.social about my book. @manchesterup.bsky.social @artshumsucl.bsky.social

Such a pleasure to talk with @drdaveobrien.bsky.social about my book, Criticsl Games for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social Do have a listen! newbooksnetwork.com/critical-games

My New Books Network interview with Prof Dave O’Brien is now available: newbooksnetwork.com/culture-capi... @drdaveobrien.bsky.social @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social

📆 Coming up on 15 October Join us for an afternoon and evening of events and activities, centring on UCL’s museums and their unique collections, and marking the publication of Thomas Kador’s Object-based Learning book. buff.ly/9RfLExs

With her extraordinary work—in collaboration with her husband, Peter—no one has done more to promote Slovak literature in the anglophone world than @juliasherwood.bsky.social And this latest translation of powerful short stories about the atrocity and violence of the Second World War is a triumph.

On International Translation Day, we are delighted to introduce our collaborator in the Modern Slovak Classics series, the London-based @juliasherwood.bsky.social. She is not only active as a translator but also as a tireless promoter of Slovak and Czech literature abroad.

Next Monday at Hatchards Piccadilly: UK launch of two Slovak masterpieces in English – "The Hours and the Minutes" by Alfonz Bednár & "The Last Thing" by Leopold Lahola. Join scholar Tim Beasley-Murray, translator Julia Sherwood and editor Jan Zikmund for a fascinating discussion!

We warmly invite you to the UK launch of two newly translated Slovak classics from Karolinum Press: "The Hours and the Minutes" by Alfonz Bednár and "The Last Thing" by Leopold Lahola at Hatchards Piccadilly on 29 Sept, 6:30pm with Tim Beasley-Murray, Julia Sherwood and Jan Zikmund. Join us!

Popular this week on #MLO 📣 'Black Skin, Red Masques: Reading Frantz Fanon and Audre Lorde in Tension with Edgar Allan Poe' by @xineyaophd.bsky.social @qucl.bsky.social Read it #OpenAccess on MLO: bit.ly/BlackSkin-RedMasques @timb-m.bsky.social @uclselcs.bsky.social @ucldiscovery.bsky.social

Out now in paperback! A fascinating look at the role that music played in Jane Austen's world. Delving into the Austen family music books, discover a treasure trove of evidence that unveils this underappreciated facet of her life and writing. Available from bookshops & online retailers. #booksky

“Every man who plays with literature at all must be ambitious to succeed in some form of art that may be called 'creative,' as distinct from critical—a distinction which, since Arnold taught us our lesson, we know does not exist. ” Macy's nascent Creative-criticsm @creativecritical.bsky.social

Quoted in John Albert Macy's The Critical Game, 1922. A curious book that I wish I had know about when playing my own Critical Games.

“Contre l'opinion commune, la critique est peut-être le plus subjectif de tous les genres littéraires; c'est une confession perpétuelle; en croyant analyser les œuvres d'autrui, c'est soi-même que l'on dévoile et que l'on expose au public." Remy de Gourmont

Politics has always been a game – but why does it now feel like we’re being cheated? Author @timb-m.bsky.social writes in @uk.theconversation.com Now available! Critical Games, On play and seriousness in academia, literature and life theconversation.com/politics-has...

A starting point of my book: in the eyes of right wing critics, the academic humanities are simultaneously a serious threat & a total joke. I argue that insisting on seriousness isn’t enough; we need to own up to and even embrace our playfulness. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177766/

This looks fascinating! cc @hellomizk.bsky.social @eleanormaybaker.bsky.social @guildmedmak.bsky.social

What we've been reading this week @mr.place @thetimes.com @meghanowen.bsky.social @theguardian.com @nilspratley.bsky.social @timb-m.bsky.social @uk.theconversation.com @labourlist.bsky.social @bencope.bsky.social www.radixbigtent.org.uk/news-comment...

Here's my piece on Trumpian cheating in the Conversation. For more on how games can get serious, take a look at my book, Critical Games manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177766/ @manchesterup.bsky.social

From golf course antics to constitutional power grabs, Donald Trump’s rule-bending reveals how narcissistic politics risks breaking democracy itself.

Book launch for the Anti-Atlas. London, Tuesday. uclpress.co.uk/book-launch-...

The Salt Path scandal—an assault of fiction on life. In Critical Games, I explore how literary games can blur the line between play and reality—sometimes with real-world consequences. manchesterup.bsky.social manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/978152617776... www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

"[Brexit] was put to the people as if it was some sort of Eton game." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... In Critical Games manchesterup.bsky.social I explore how power turns politics into a game whose consequences fall on those who can least afford them. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/978152617776...

"[Brexit] was put to the people as if it was some sort of Eton game." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... In Critical Games manchesterup.bsky.social I explore how power turns politics into a game whose consequences fall on those who can least afford them. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/978152617776...

Looking for some summer reading? All MUP books including The Return of the Housewife are available with a 50% discount until 7 July here: linktr.ee/ManchesterUn... @manchesterup.bsky.social

‘the lines between fiction and the real, simulation and sincerity, play and seriousness, have become blurred to the point of indistinguishability. My book is one attempt to help us better navigate that world.’ @timb-m.bsky.social on the MUP blog 👇 manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/06...

Further content: DeLillo's “shot that was heard around the world”, Slovak feminist revenge, Dickens’s Miss Mowcher, Squid Game, Czech Structuralism, Parisian narcissism, Bentham’s corpse & a Cambridge lamppost, more rugby (Welsh), Academics at parties, Sartre's literary graveyards, failed holidays

Further, further content: “the shot that was heard around the world”, Dickens’s Miss Mowcher, Squid Game, Czech Structuralism, Parisian narcissism, Bentham’s corpse & a Cambridge lamppost, more rugby (Welsh)

Further content: Alexievich up to no good, Lorraine Kelly’s tax affairs, Archimboldian cannibals, all Kundera in 4.5 words, a joke about cows, Greek nightingales, The Purge franchise, one line of Polish poetry, rugby and snooker

Spotlight on: A European Literary Map of London 🗺️ Dr Uta Staiger and Lucy Shackleton guide us through this online map and physical exhibition revealing London’s dichotomies through a literary lens. Read this spotlight in the recent edition of the Portico magazine: buff.ly/Cdy6VaT

Published in the new issue of the Journal of Popular Film and Television, out now! ‪@tandfresearch.bsky.social @tomue.bsky.social

Published in the new issue of the Journal of Popular Film and Television, out now! @tomue.bsky.social

The latest issue of Journal of Popular Film & TV's out! www.tandfonline.com/toc/vjpf20/5...

Published in the Journal of Popular Film and Television ‪@tandfresearch.bsky.social