Murder, murder everywhere, even at the windmill museum.

God yes. Publishing has increasingly shifted promotion onto authors themselves via social media. There is no real-world back-up for most of us. Tube ads are for the very privileged few.

A friend of mine who does not identify as a writer recently talked about how she had written something with an idea in mind, and during the writing things took unexpected directions, as if this was a failing. I'm here to let you know that's literally how art works. A huge part of the process is

The best thing I will read today.

Any excuse to share this magnificent Caravaggio which you can see for free in Dublin. The events of Holy Thursday: betrayal, alarm, despair, resignation and the artist holding a lantern to show the scene to the world.

love it when the rocket removes its clothes in order to enter space Nude

Rory was out with his littermate and best pal Callie today. She is half his size but has a huge personality.

i appear to have asked a question akin to "how do Rebel Alliance schoolteachers feel about Darth Vader?"

Ok I like this one.

What a lovely story. And you have to watch the video. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

I did a little (obvious!) joke on my instagram account last year and honestly it’s not worth the hassle even if the world isn’t on fire, which it currently is.

Big adventure for the cat who lost his tracker, ficher-ed le camp to his favourite part of the neighbourhood, forgot (?) how to get home and was rescued last night after two weeks by the dog on his night-time walk who found him and led him a mile or so home.

"ladies and gentlemen," he breathed, "the candles are lit, the band plays softly, and as the force-shielded dome above us fades into transparency, revealing a dark and sullen sky hung heavy with the ancient light of livid swollen stars, I can see we're all in for a fabulous evening's apocalypse!"

Out with the 14 year old and I put on sunglasses to combat the bright spring sunshine. 14yo: sort your hair out. You look like Ozzy Osbourne. Please scatter my ashes in Co Mayo.

My new essay is about the situation where there is no right way to be a woman. And how, in the end, accepting this really does set you free. open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...

My husband has an atrocious sense of smell except for the sample perfume I accidentally spilled all over myself/his car just now. We smell like a teenager’s going-out-handbag circa 1993.

"We have things that resemble plates, but they can’t be used as plates because they are too small. Or maybe, you think, they could be plates for hamsters. They aren't. These things are actually things to place candles on. So, a candleholder? Well, no." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wel...

The cat’s tracker ‘came off’ and was ‘lost’ some days ago. He is currently frolicking like a youth whose tag has stopped working and hasn’t been home since the weather improved.

Incredibly detailed and upsetting report but so worth reading and supporting this kind of journalism.

I remember listening to this in 2024 and feeling depressed at the ‘this is the inevitable future goodbye Hollywood’ take on it. Well done, everyone.

The thing I love about social media is that I get to engage with my readers directly. I - good grief.

More Ross Macdonald! after talking to Sergio Angelini @tippingmyfedora.bsky.social on his Tipping my Fedora podcast, I'm doing a post on The Ivory Grin - a very very good entry, a standout from the early years. And has some great clothes.... clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-...

“De rattentaxi nemen” on Dutch Wikipedia nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_ratt...

(Sigh) the cat lost his tracker a few days ago, slept for 36 hours, ate his body weight in Whiskas and hasn’t been seen since.

My photograph of the ISS tonight looks like Paddington coming for me after I flatline on the operating table

in ireland, we don't say 'serial killer', we say 'he's a divil for the aul' murder' & i think that's beautiful.

Sprung! Twice in the year, around the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the sunrise shines right along Ingram Street, turning the Iron Duke, his steed, Copenhagen, and even his traffic cone hat into a shadowy work of art against the great doors of GoMA. Picture: u/Hoyerman68

Once again: your kids should be reading things that shock and excite them, that scare them and widen their perspective on life, and that will make them read more, not sanitising their reading until it’s totally bland. I don’t have words for the bias of the list. Poor librarian, poor kids.

googoo dolls iris voice

An Gaeilge tracks well with this meme. #speirgorm

There will be a new book by me in July! People like it! The alt text was a battle here as the words didn’t all register correctly yet I persevered, like a woman on the edge of a cliff leaning into the rain-filled Atlantic breeze…

The unexpected consequence of this awards season is that I’m getting a lot more ‘you look like that Australian actress’ than previously. 3/3 of my last events. NB she is haggard, exhausted and on the verge of a nervous breakdown in her film so…

bring back teaching every child that f*iries, elv*s and any of the other 'little folk' should be avoided and undisturbed at all costs, and we shouldn't even speak their names

Where to begin with this

I have accidentally read a dystopian novel and as usual I hated it.

Tulips from Columbia Road market today

Perrrrfect.

This is an absolute corker from Persephone Books. Like a US Celia Fremlin - a proper mystery but also a woman constrained by life and other people’s expectations.

Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate it. My sons are asleep. The dog presented me with my own boot, which he had thieved. The cat is AWOL. Standard.

If you can drop into the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester you’ll find a stunning exhibition of William Nicholson’s work…

I wore a lovely pleated skirt for an event last night, got it caught on the arm of the chair when I sat down: long story short I looked exactly like Whistler’s mother.

Stay for the end of this short video. It’s perfect. 📚

Narratively having Ever Given getting stuck in 2021 to set up Hormuz in 2026 is great foreshadowing. You want your audience to understand the basics of international shipping in a lower stakes context so you drop the real plot without a lot of saggy exposition about the minutiae of cargo logistics.

The loveliest coin designs. The detail on them was incredible.

Writers over the age of 18 living in Ireland, and Irish writers around the world have until Friday 15th May 2026 to submit their short story, in English or Irish at www.rte.ie/writing. Story wordcounts must fall between 1800 and 2000 words, excluding the title @rte.ie www.rte.ie/culture/2026...

I went to a small art exhibition this morning with my husband and we were the only people there so I chatted to the gallery assistant LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN WOULD and when we left I realised my husband had not said one single word. I file this under English behaviour.

in case you've never seen it, this is Roger Ebert on The Mummy

Matt Lucas after I was mildly critical of his performance on Bake Off. I hadn’t tagged him; I’m not a monster.

But my favorite pictures from Venice is not cats but this combination that I think of as “missed connections.”