How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon? Paul Bowles

Heard your favourite team won, Don www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Hilariously grouchy review of Hamnet by AN Wilson substack.com/@anwilson/no...

Had an anxiety dream about volunteering to perform Falls to Climb at a karaoke night, then promptly losing my nerve "A punch toy volunteer/A weakling on its knee" indeed! open.spotify.com/track/2jBrtj...

“The Alpe d’Huez stage almost wrecked his career.” Tom Pidcock has had a fraught past with the Tour de France. I asked both him and his close circle about his main goal this year: to find joy in the race again www.cyclingweekly.com/racing/tour-...

"It's probably clear by now that literature has nothing to do with national prizes and everything to do with a strange rain of blood, sweat, semen, and tears" Roberto Bolaño

Shan't get involved in the banner discourse, except to say the @lrb.co.uk has a very good podcast about the Falklands www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

Quick Step to Safety Jogger – a team name masterclass in 'don't run before you can walk'

Nice to think mine might finally get their asses in gear once I'm dead share.google/moafqKdzesOW...

Living in a powder keg and giving off sparks forever – RIP Bonnie T ✨

It's democratic republic of to you

Good grief

*Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things. The honest thief, the tender murderer, the superstitious atheist* allpoetry.com/Bishop-Bloug...

Can only imagine the hype that will be generated when I make my comeback, aged 44, to the King's Head Canter 5k www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/m...

Quite the David Hockney tribute from Cofidis rider Alex Aranburu – from the latest issue of Cycling Weekly

Burnham should be hurling his Blairite proclivities into the ocean in a weighted bag. Instead...

Finding Nemo the biologically accurate recut... www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

You'd be mad not to resign today, frankly

Danny Boyle produced this resignation

In 1981 Alan Hollinghurst read this essay by Brigid Brophy and, finding it "unanswerable", has not eaten meat since www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v0...

Happy solstice 🌄

As a sign of the apocalyptic times, I have bought a – no doubt highly dubious – evaporative home-cooling device

Norma Percy's Brexit doc: Christ, what a bunch of absolute weirdos!

"By the fifth episode the show had lost my vote as it twisted its own arm into a Lord Of The Flies meets Hollyoaks crescendo" A very incisive, funny and fair review of Tip Toe by Jack Cullen open.substack.com/pub/jackcull...

Ten years ago I gave a vial of blood to the '100k Genomes Project' and very hesitantly ticked the "Yes, please inform me about any mutations that sentence me to a grim fate" (I paraphrase)... so it was a relief to learn, 10 years on, that my fate remains unknown

Completely agree with this. Tip Toe was like the worst excesses of my imagination when I get trapped on a Brighton train packed with sweaty, lowkey-lewd BHAFC supporters. The point is, I soon calm down, I don't write a C4 drama

Had been enjoying Tip Toe, but jesus that final episode. What a massive let-down Completely agree with this from Jen Ives open.substack.com/pub/lobotomy...

Well done #Brighton

RIP, DH 💦

A paragraph is a unit of thought. This guideline is fine for anyone who has only small thoughts

Hockney. I was concentrating very hard on spelling Lucian correctly. Anyway check out these two in 2002 and imagine the extremely well-lit sitcom they were almost in

I've drawn Iran in the office sweepstake. Let's hope their winning streak can continue 🤞

If I were a cuckoo, I'd file for defamation www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This drug for ppl like me losing our sight (retinitis pigmentosa) looks set to be approved in the US next year. Kinda exciting, but no idea whether it'll be approved or affordable here 🤷

He looked good for 78 too

If you say "I support Palestine Action", they might put you in jail. If you incite a racist riot, they put you on the news.

A reminder to watch 'Gaza: Medics Under Fire', for anyone who hasn't seen it open.substack.com/pub/owenjone...

Nah, didn't rate it

Item on #WATO about iced buns has triggered a memory of how, growing up, everyone referred to them as "sticky willies" #EightiesInnuendo

Not saying this is exceptionally bad, but we slogged thru two episodes waiting for it to go somewhere interesting. Feels clunky, overly signposted, like misfiring YA fiction. Five stars is wildly generous! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Cataract op was booked for today. Had to be there at 7.30am. To be on time, last night schlepped 3hr to NE London. Pricey Airbnb. Pricey dinner. Sleepless night - too hot, too noisy...

If you read only one thing today...

Someone's having quite the afternoon... "Rockwell appealed, but got no satisfaction" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is addictive and horrifying and brilliant

Delighted to announce that my first monograph, Richard Burton, T.E. Lawrence and the Culture of Homoerotic Desire, is now available in paperback 🎊 Get your copy for only £23.19 📕📘 📚 (with this discount code: GLR BD8) directly from @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/richard-b...

Wow, 'London Falling' won't make easy reading for any John Sweeney fans

💚

JM Coetzee bang on the mark as ever www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

Blimey, 27 years ago! Seems like yesterday observer.co.uk/culture/inte...

Christ