Road Safety Experts: Helmets and Hi-Viz Are the Best Tools To Ignore Root Cause Of Road Violence

Recent reading. As always thanks to all the writers, publishers, @backlisted.bsky.social @judecook.bsky.social @drjamesbailey.bsky.social @grantabooks.bsky.social @stuhennigan.bsky.social @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social @omnibuspress.bsky.social @serpents-tail.bsky.social @bhousepress.bsky.social etc

This Bowie project: BowieOdyssey by Simon Goddard pub @omnibuspress.bsky.social is a work of art. We’ve reached 1976 and almost all other work on Bowie seems flat and dull and plain by comparison.

MaÏa Hruska’s Kafkaesque (expertly translated by Sam Taylor pub @wmcollinsbooks.bsky.social ) is a must read for not just for Kafka fans but for anyone interested in language, identity, loss and translation itself. In many ways it’s a history of the twentieth century- genuinely moving work.

If only all writers could be served as well as Muriel Spark has been by @drjamesbailey.bsky.social Like a Cat Loves a Bird. Clear eyed analysis, some lovely close reading, fair on the faults as well as the triumphs. There won’t be many better books on a writer this year.

Any email that begins ‘I appreciate…’ clearly doesn’t appreciate

“The last thing the world needs is another middle-aged white man writing about masculinity, politics and whatever”: An Interview with @stuhennigan.bsky.social — @susannacrossman.bsky.social minorliteratures.com/2026/04/14/t...

What a way to end publication day! For the Guardian, I’ve written a piece on navigating the weird and wonderful word of Muriel Spark. Read it, and do give my book a read, too. LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK is out right now! 🐈‍⬛ www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Lovely event to launch Maïa Hruska’s Kafkaesque from William Collins Books on Kafka and translations.

The cafe on the tenth floor of the new tower at Tate Modern is like some middle class tastefully dressed enclave high above London directly out of a JG Ballard gated community novel.

This looks easy. It’s not. After work, if I wanted to think about the future, I might have a drink in one of those dark-wood, etched-glass Victorian pubs near Pimlico, sitting on a wobbling stool by the wall. The Palm House - Gwendoline Riley.

The postman always rings twice - when he forgets he’s got a second parcel for me - this just in from @reversediorama.bsky.social eagerly awaited indeed.

Been looking forward to this from @drjamesbailey.bsky.social what a beautiful thing it is too complete with my very own badge.

Writers and book designers, how can you encourage me to buy your book? Maps. The answer is always maps. Look at this beauty from Jane Rogoyska - Exile Hotel pub by Allen Lane

Many years ago I did a History of Art A level as an adult. The first old painting that I really connected with was a Masaccio. Today I got to stand in a gantry less than a metre from it. It sounds daft but I had tears in my eyes.

Just started reading this, I think.

Great work by @faberbooks.bsky.social getting this translated and published - Trotzig’s Queen. A quite remarkable novel with the family resemblance to Out Stealing Horses in its reticence and harsh emotions. Brilliant and brutal.

Spent the week immersed in this phenomenal book. Kim Ghattas has put together a guide for the uninformed on the fault lines, history, machinations and murderous ambitions behind Middle Eastern politics. It feels even more essential by the day

As a vegetarian can I suggest that restaurants don’t bother trying to replace the meat with some crappy Wellington or nut based abomination in a Sunday roast. Just give us extra roast potatoes, like lots and we’ll be happy.

Auditory is my new highlight of the week This instalment will chime with those of us who were deeply unsettled by the gleeful reporting of Reading 94 in the music press at the time. And anything that is done to reclaim YMG from obscurity is fine by me. Thanks Andy.

‘When a cat voluntarily disappears from home’, Muriel Spark once said, ‘it’s merely because the whim has seized it to look for something less boring elsewhere’. That was Spark, in her life and in her work: untethered, aloof, and forever seeking a life less ordinary. 🐈‍⬛ Out 9th April! (link in bio…)

I am a rock bottom riser/and I owe it all to you Sometimes all I want to do is listen to Bill Callahan like forever.

This is a fine take on biography. Christofi crafting Dostoyevsky’s life out of Fydor’s own words. Utterly readable and convincing. He’s also on this giving good value with @iammilliam.bsky.social , John and Arifa Akbar www.backlisted.fm/episodes/150...

Bookpost is the best post. @littletollerbooks.bsky.social continuing to do God’s work with this lovely reissue of Thomas’ The Icknield Way with a gorgeous Spencer Gore cover.

Sometimes as a teacher you mark something that makes you want to applaud the child for genuinely showing you something you’ve never seen before.

I think I may love @iammilliam.bsky.social Auditory even more than his Inventory. Today I was transported back to 1985 and the Hammersmith Palais where I had my brain shredded by the Cramps with my good friends Jon and Mike. We still talk about that gig. Man, Andy has good taste. Thank you.

What I’ve read so far this year. Thanks to all the writers, publishers and enthusiasts, including @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social @stuhennigan.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social @conduitbooks.bsky.social @smwwriting.bsky.social @judecook.bsky.social @pippayork.bsky.social @backlisted.bsky.social

“Small presses who can’t afford big advances get gazumped by publishers who then do nothing to promote those books.” Good interview with Neil Griffiths - founder of Weatherglass Books and the Queen Mary small press fiction prize (né the Republic of Consciousness Prize).

Have faith in wordless knowledge Well, I can tell you about the river Or we could just get in Bill Callahan

You know sometimes you just need to remind yourself just how enjoyable it is to listen to Bob just do Bob stuff. I maintain he’s one of the best rhyming poets of the 20/21 Century. Sublime.

If all the Bob Dylan ‘official bootleg’ sets that have been put together, the one I return to most often is Tell Tale Signs, and in particular, an absolutely barnstorming High Water (for Charley Patton)

Re-reading Jean Rhys. Every page studded with these kind of moments.

Been looking forward to seeing this - there was a period of time where every time KPunk posted it was a vital dispatch from the frontline.

Happy publication day to @stuhennigan.bsky.social and @ortacpress.bsky.social #GetKeshed

Particularly enjoyed @iammilliam.bsky.social latest Inventory - it’s a manifesto for caring about things and shouting loudly about the importance of art and music and culture and all those artefacts they make us tick. Art may not make anything happen but makes us us.

#nowplaying treated myself to a copy of this as I’d only ever had an early cd. Sounds as marvellous as you’d expect. I walk across the rooftops On graduation day To look for independence, yeah I am in love, I am in love with you I am in love, I am in love with you

Thinking about what the Reform party are doing to the Tories reminds me of these critters: Parasitoid Wasp Larvae The larvae feed on the caterpillar's bodily fluids and fat bodies, and when mature, they eat their way out, often leaving behind a largely hollowed-out, paralyzed, or dead shell.

London event for Keshed with @stuhennigan.bsky.social and @judecook.bsky.social at the brilliant Bard Books by Victoria Park. March 12th. This’ll be a good one - get your tickets before they go!

More of this please

Come on London show Stu some love and #GetKeshed

As always an absolute polymathic blast of a dispatch from Miller Towers. But also a very lovely personal reminder of my good friend Jon who introduced me to this mad delight of a record (and many many others) when we were young and easy under the apple boughs.

And come on - look at that cover! They don’t make them like that anymore.

Came across ‘cafard’ in a Jean Rhys story - not a word I was familiar with. A great word for feeling low/miserable/depressed especially as it’s also the word for a cockroach in French.

2/2 and then the Y12 girl who said out of nowhere that I “gave Fantastic Mr Fox aura” and I took it, and she meant it, as a compliment. I just need to remember that stuff and not the nonsense.

I had a heavy heart packing my bag for the start of another school week. It was tough going back - relentless in fact. Pressure everywhere. But then I remembered the ex students who came in for their certificates and were so excited to tell me what they’re now doing in their lives. 1/2

Can I just say I really miss Neil Kulkarni.

My wife can’t quite believe it - actually did a minor cull of the bookshelves - just under 100 books on their way to the local charity shops.

#nowplaying the third solo Sylvian album with the gorgeous Let the Happiness In nestling on side two. No1 in heaven, as someone once said (guilty of stealing every thought I own, as someone else said.)

Dec reading. Thanks to @stuhennigan.bsky.social @ortacpress.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social @jonathancape.bsky.social @scratchbooks.bsky.social @judecook.bsky.social @faberbooks.bsky.social @backlisted.bsky.social @burningshed.com @thamesandhudson.bsky.social