If you’re in London, Tuesday afternoon next week looking for something to do – I am directing a rehearsed reading of my new play “Face Off”. Tickets are free but you need to book. So that’s Tuesday 9th June 3pm, BOLD Theatre, 2 minutes from Elephant & Castle tube. www.boldtheatre.com/whatson/p/pl...

and The Rest is All Gravy! www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

What a find - the house of Peter Firmin, the creator of bagpuss, which doubled for Emily’s shop, is for sale www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/8...

"It is worth spending some time on parsing the grammar in these exchanges. ... Senior, busy, powerful figures send out curt short missives; they do not always feel they need to waste their time with punctuation." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This feels like a familiar journey. TV commercials → feature films Music videos → features YouTubers → features And debut horror also a well trodden path but past waves unfolded over years. This YouTube breakout has hit in months and with more commercial impact. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju...

“An investigation into acts of self-pleasure among parrots and other birds has reached a climax, with the results providing welcome relief for vets and researchers, not to mention the birds themselves.” I checked the date to make sure it was June 1, not April 1. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

I’ve known about the Pomodoro technique forever but never stuck with it because of the choice/noise of so many other competing “productivity hacks” online. This piece lands differently - it feels more human. Worth a read. Some interesting BTL comments too. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

The 4thWrite prize, annual short story competition for Black, Asian & minority ethnic writers run by publisher 4th Estate and the Guardian is open for entries. Winner receives £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop at 4th Estate and publication on Guardian website. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

So, I seem to have written yet another novel. I really don’t know how this keeps happening.

GIVEAWAY! Dead Weight is coming out next week and to celebrate I'm giving away two copies that have been personally bitten by Uggi and will be personally signed by me and shipped to the winners wherever they live! To enter just like and share this post and I'll select the winners on May 26th!

The South Asian Play Reading Group returns to Tara Theatre starting this Wednesday! Across 6 sessions, we’ll explore plays by writers of South Asian heritage, all read aloud in a welcoming and collaborative space. 📅 Wednesdays, 20 May – 22 July taratheatre.com/whats-on/

This made me laugh out loud

Guardian piece on UCL research suggesting arts and cultural engagement – visiting art galleries/museums, singing, painting etc – can improve health outcomes. Final paragraph has a groan-worthy Grauniad typo – obviously that should read "Festival of the Blitz". www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

With these newly released Arthur Miller tapes, the details of his marriage to Marilyn Monroe are grabbing the headlines but the late playwright also has some interesting things to say about MAGA – er, sorry – I meant McCarthyism. www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Watched a recording (from Talking Pictures TV) of episode 2 of the 1979 series “The Omega Factor” and spotted this classic example of legacy technology. Apparently, it’s called a gas fire and was used to keep a room warm.

Wondering why the Guardian in its Promo Strip slider above the masthead is illustrating a story about Wembley stadium with a picture of one of the CGI planets from the remastered Star Trek: The Original Series?

Hitting your printer with a hammer: 2026: entirely reasonable and probably justified. 1926: assault with a deadly weapon

Commentary: You Can’t Even Watch A Movie Anymore Without Seeing Some Theme Explored https://theonion.com/you-cant-even-watch-a-movie-anymore-without-seeing-some-theme-explored/

What's that? A rare permanent academic job? Come join me in our School of Arts as a Lecturer in Theatre! "We especially welcome ... candidates with practical expertise in theatre technologies, digital media, intermediality or related areas of theatre practice." hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Watched "The Flipside of Dominick Hide" last night. Impressed by its predictions: 3D holographic TV, video calls, Alexa-like digital assistant (called, er, Sue), commuter on 2130 Piccadilly line doing crossword on handheld device, even the iconic status of Patrick Stewart (on wall behind Pat Magee).

TL;DR: It can wait. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

The writer of this article - opinion piece, really - asks the question: "Why do this spring’s blockbusters feel so smug?". The answer they come up with is: Screenwriters. Like writers have the final cut. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap...

How about this for the mother of all plot twists – the nuclear threat in Iran turns out to be… America! And if it that radioactive genie is let out of the bottle, there will be the inevitable sequel in Ukraine. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Only 99p on Kindle today: my eleventh novel, the imaginatively-named Number 11. (Which, in order to achieve better sales, I should really have called What a Carve Up 2: the Return of the Winshaws.) This is the one Ken Loach read and said he wouldn't film because 'I don't really do giant spiders'.

I wouldn’t call myself a “glass half-empty” person – more a “glass half empty which will slip, fall, shatter and send a shard flying up to embed itself in my pupil blinding me” – or "ghewwsfsasasfuteiimpbm" for short – kinda guy. So this news comes as no surprise. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Can't be that many genre writers who haven't read Stephen King's "On Writing". This seems like the perfect companion piece. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

Father’s story is wild too. “As a child he was forced to surrender his lands ... sign away the famous Koh-i-noor diamond ... came to England ... close friendship with Queen Victoria ... later married the daughter of a German banker and an enslaved Ethiopian woman” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"The novel, Bomber (1970), generally reckoned to be the first novel written using a word processor, was a huge success; the computer was an IBM MT/ST weighing 91kg and requiring a crane and the removal of a window to install it in Deighton’s home." www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

Wow! They don't make them like that anymore. Sadly.

All is lost. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

What he said: He quit on Saturday, saying his position in office had become “a distraction from this government’s important work.” What he meant: With the distraction in the Middle East, this is a good day to bury bad news. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is super interesting. The last one I can read fluently is 1600. I can then still read it and figure out (almost) every word, with some puzzling, but then lose it almost completely at 1200. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

What do you do when your media org is captured? You start your own. Introducing....The Nerve!!! @thenerve-news.bsky.social We're all-female, journalist-owned & launching next week. Please help us build a truly independent, progressive new media!👊👊👊

The linked essay by Madeleine Brettingham is so good, I’m going to have to read it again, at a slightly slower pace to take it all in.

Some interesting – and counter-intuitive – thoughts on focus and time management: e.g. “eating the frog” vs “easy wins”. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

It's on iPlayer for a month, though frankly all of Powell and Pressburger's films should be available there at all times in order to boost national morale. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074rq7

£500 given out to a working class writer every month. Details in link. Please share :)

If you're applying for arts funding, The White Pube also has a really useful library of successful funding applications: thewhitepube.co.uk/funding-libr... I used this when applying for Arts Council #DYCP funding and found looking at some examples very helpful when drafting.

Been using Final Draft 5 for 20+ years, originally on Windows 98 (SE) and then XP – upgraded to FD7 in 2007 but so buggy, went back to 5. Had another go with a fixed FD7.2 when Windows 7 came out but new OS didn’t support it so back to FD5 and stuck with it through Windows 10 & 11. Until yesterday.

Larry & Paul knock it for six. (Or "knock it out of the park", if you're American!)

Reading about “Fafo parenting” – acronym defined in article – reminded of the incident in Japan ten years ago when during family outing in the wilds, the parents of a small boy left him at the roadside as punishment but on returning minutes later, he had vanished. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Comedians, with content, and wanting to go straight to fans, without meta/spotify/tiktok/patreon etc, I have been helping a friend develop a new platform and I think it could become something very special - there's already users on there - but only one comedian (me) - so try it out: comedy-club.lol

Review by Toby Litt of Elizabeth McCracken's idiosyncratic, unconventional, novel guide (see what I did there!): "A Long Game: How to Write Fiction" which is less about rules, more about "modes of thinking". www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j... (Re-posting, as I made a hash of the link originally.)

Watching Reform UK unveil its latest failed Tory turncoat, I wondered if choice of background lighting – making audience look monochrome – was deliberate attempt to subliminally invoke a romanticised vision of a past Britain that never really existed, except in half-remembered black-and-white films?

Study finds positive thinking by picturing or imagining good experiences boosts immune system (i.e. antibodies in blood). Link to paper in Nature – abstract says 85 participants in double-blind randomised trial. Needs replication & bigger sample – but interesting. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Never mind all that Six-Seven guff – that’s old hat – as is the term “old hat” – and indeed “guff”. But for all us cool and zeitgeisty snooker fans, the phrase du jour is Six-Two!

Sportswriter Jonathan Liew’s opinion piece on how Starmer has united the country – against himself – made me laugh out loud multiple times. Note: contains that strong four letter word beginning with a Hard C: Keir. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Coincidence or a strategic spoiler? Sky Arts is screening the 1981 adaption of Agatha Christie’s “Seven Dials Mystery” tonight – just three days before Netflix unveils its own new version titled “Seven Dials” (no mystery!) I will end up watching both – but which one to watch first?