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

Tiny Tim who did not dye, let his hair go grey.

Took a break from our Christmas as I knew there was a new Inventory. As I now wipe a tear from my eye, thank you Andy! The best I can do is repeat the ISB wish to you too: May the long-time sun shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light within you Guide you all the way on.

#nowplaying from 1986 a Becker/Fagen/Katz side project which I’ve continued to love - Magic Smile is SD sung by a sultry female jazz singer rather than Don’s cynical sneer.

An early Christmas gift from Andy. The writing project of the year, constantly illuminating, genuinely funny, often moving and a treasure trove of musical gems, some totally new to me whilst others are re-polished reminders of brilliance forgotten. Take the rest of the year off young Master Miller.

#nowplaying a constant companion since 1989. It’s got a few pops and crackles over the years but it’s still a pop vision prosecuted with precision.

Can I just say that the government announcing another thing teachers have to do on the penultimate day of the hardest term of the academic year is not going to go down well. Charged with fixing society’s ills as if they start at the school gates. Beginning to feel like the mule in buckaroo.

Finally something to celebrate. We’ll have to dismantle Brexit brick by brick.

I love a proper boozer. I don’t think I’ve been quite so content in weeks.

A bit early ducked into a pub on Roman Rd. Guinness £4:30 a pint. As I walked in a bloke said to another “wash your hands you c***!” Apros po of nothink as they say round here. It reminds me of my Uncles Del and Richie, Hammers both. I might not leave especially if they stick the darts on

Stepping out of Mile End tube and I was reminded of this minor Pulp classic that I haven’t thought about for years youtu.be/MEaKNNboFiE?...

Of all the WN songs I love, I probably love this one the most. youtu.be/TVwkS6AcszY?...

Treated myself to this beauty - Sylvian at his finest

Anyone checked in on @danc.bsky.social what a week for Leeds.

Couldn’t be happier to see this finally arrive today. Big yrself up @stuhennigan.bsky.social It’s a beautiful beast.

November reading. Thanks to: @judecook.bsky.social @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social @versobooks.bsky.social Alma Classics Stephanie la Cava @grantabooks.bsky.social @jonathancape.bsky.social @benpester.bsky.social @stuhennigan.bsky.social @backlisted.bsky.social

Quite simply the biggest influence on my reading over the past ten years. Like us all, they’ve been through a lot this past decade but they’re still out there swinging for the stars. Thank you to A, N and J

I don’t think I’ve had to stop and ask myself what’s going on in a book quite so often as I have with this. Not an annoyed querying but a curious questioning of what he’s doing and how fucking clever it is - without being arch and pomo po faced. Sometimes you need to be puzzled.

Struck by this passage today re-reading Brideshead. This weekend I’ve been digging up gold buried over the last 45 years

Here’s my review of @andrewgallix.bsky.social’s wonderfully irreverent debut novel, Loren Ipsum, in the print edition of today’s @theguardian.com

Such a sad piece of news - one of those writers I’ve been reading seemingly forever. She could write so well about so much. It was great to hear her and Carmen Callil discussing The Soul of Kindness on @backlisted.bsky.social - it’s one of my favourite episodes.

The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day's last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night. F. Scott Fitzgerald

Great review of @andrewgallix.bsky.social Loren Ipsum from @judecook.bsky.social He captures the utter fun that comes from reading this novel. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Just finished the freewheelin, non stop, rollercoaster ride that is Shadow Ticket - noir with enough red herrings to start a fishmongers. I think this review was fair, thoughtful and considered. Definitely worth a read. Pynchon’s midlist is better than most writer’s best.

“There’s a vulnerability in these songs, because everything we’ve been through has brought us to this moment, to this album, honoring what we’ve lost and lifting up what still remains. That duality. That’s life, and that’s De La,” - Posdnuos youtu.be/u9N994FmnxU?...

Better than even I could have expected. Cale continues to astonish, as does Charli - zfg as the kids say.

Fuck! That was good. My first Manchette - I doubt it’ll be my last.

Salute to the writer/poet the great Guillaume Apollinaire who died #otd 9th November 1918 having suffered injury in the Great War & then contracting Spanish Flu. Ginsberg’s ‘At Apollinaire’s Grave’ was put to music by Kramer, released by Shimmy Disc in 2021 youtu.be/Xj4l46-QSXo It's a beauty...

Delighted to have a new short story published by @fictivedream.bsky.social. Read my take on Gogol's How the Two Ivans Quarrelled here 👇

Reading this half term. Thanks to @backlisted.bsky.social @judecook.bsky.social @stuhennigan.bsky.social @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social @andrewgallix.bsky.social @andrewmale.bsky.social @grantabooks.bsky.social @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social @joannapocock.bsky.social among others.

A poet is born and not mad(e) I AM echoing in the indifferent air, Clare rose from his maddened fog and must have wept to see the mirror. How long would it be before he was To be toss'd into nothingness once more, The cloud smothering him in his shroud? 1/2

Just seen Kerry James Marshall’s The Histories in Royal Academy. Brilliant stuff. If in the smoke check it out

Great show! And I guessed which Gene Kelly movie @andrewmale.bsky.social would pick. So many many interesting observations about a novel many think they know from a vague reading as a teen. Deffo hope it provokes people to re-read one of the oddest books in the canon.

I know to live is to face an unending litany of death but now of Jack DeJohnette! I saw him play a while back in London and he was just a force behind that kit. He made everyone better - including Miles and certainly Keith but plenty others too. Just listen to this youtu.be/JzbJMReL9yQ?...

I’ve read so many of Bellos’ translations. For me, he is my Perec. But also don’t forget his Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything which totally made me rethink work in translation.

Been re-reading Demons (or whatever your preferred translation calls it) and again I’m amazed by how it holds together, but only just. Always on the edge of collapse and the incomprehensible. I recognised the same experience listening to Blackout by Bowie today - it shouldn’t work but it does - just

So many Soft Cell moments. For those of us tuning into TOTP in the early eighties, we weren’t to realise how lucky were to have these geniuses in our living rooms - luring disco Dollie’s to a life of vice, saying hello waving goodbye and making bedsitter life sound impossibly romantic.

Woke up with Outlaw Blues rattling round my head this morning. I’m now working my way through a bunch of cover versions rather than mark some essays. My favourite so far is Grace Slick’s spirited version with the Great Society. youtu.be/eMPZrSgMbgQ?...

Lots of others but this is what I first thought of when thinking about D’Angelo - no finer voice to go with Ms Hill youtu.be/g3a__bcJeW8?...

Blackout by Yann Chateigné Tytelman a remarkable little book - a meditation on grief, silences, solitude, the solaces (or otherwise) of art. Taking in Charles Ray’s Ink Box, Celmin’s sea pictures, David Toop, Judy Nylon along the way. It’s another fantastic work from @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social

Croydon gets everywhere @backlisted.bsky.social - one for Andy in @andrewgallix.bsky.social novel Loren Ipsum - a playful English novel in the French tradition.

Rare event. I got to race with my son today. He’s the second best all rounder in the country - I’m not in the top thousand. A two-up fifteen mile time trial where he very efficiently almost killed me. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Things I didn’t expect… a Big Star fan doing the NY Connections compiling today.

Krasznahorkai is a return to bleak difficult European winners of the Nobel. Whilst I like him, I don’t think I’ll be encouraging many of my mates to read him.

“I’d rather have my mind expanded than my taste confirmed.” Well, I took @iammilliam.bsky.social at his word and plunged into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen multiverse - I’m glad I did - I didn’t love everything but it was a rich reading experience which I’d recommend