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

@danc.bsky.social sorry Dan

Before playtime let us consider the possibilities/ of getting stoned on milk.

Where are you now, Batman? Don’t tell me Alan Moore didn’t read this before League and Watchmen.

Mad mangled crocodile of love

Ahh man Brian Patten. Really one of the most important poets from my adolescence- Little Johnny’s Confession was a permanent companion - I literally could recite loads off by heart. A beautifully tender hearted bard.

The Picasso at the Tate Modern is wonderfully curated - playful and thoughtful - wide ranging yet overwhelming.

They’ve sent me on a course - I think mainly to remind me how lucky I am not to have spent the last 25 years commuting. I have suitable @backlisted.bsky.social Reading material with me.

Barnstorming episode. Something’s (everything) rotten in the county of Kent

Readers of Inventory via @backlisted.bsky.social may recall I mentioned Danny Thompson in passing a few weeks ago. This is him playing double bass on Jimmy Campbell’s Another Vincent Van Gogh. RIP youtu.be/vysYMymiDrQ?...

Loads of Danny Thompson tracks I could link to but I’ve picked this cos it shows both how he kept everything together yet you never doubt for one moment it’s him on the double bass. youtu.be/CXa_YZUA1_A?...

#Kigali2025 🌈 The top five of the ITT WOMEN U23 with a crushing win for 🇬🇧 Zoë Backstadt

Great to see Maureen Duffy acknowledged. Unfairly unread these days - among all her other achievements, I think her London trilogy is remarkable observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Just finished the @grantabooks.bsky.social Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn. There’s some remarkable stories in there but the final one - Daisy Hill - will stay etched in my memory. Proper gut punch brilliance.

I loved the latest by Olga Tokarczuk from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social among her very best. A return to the freewheeling compendium of Flights. This time it’s a Lonely Planet guide that swerves from magic realism, local saints, divination, mushrooms, werewolves, comets and everyday village life.

The invincible Andy Miller. Providing a reason to check your social media every Wednesday. These Neko Case entries are lightning in a bottle.

This was very good indeed. @quantick.bsky.social a perfect guest to discuss a book that deserves a larger readership.

This is what she’s like…

Well that was a lot of fun. Read, and in many cases re-read, all of Muriel Spark’s fiction over the last few months. I do wonder if there’s ever been any writer quite so peculiar to be as popular as her. Odd, experimental, sharp, witty all while questioning the nature of good and evil. Brilliant

I can think of no greater compliment than to say that the @backlisted.bsky.social recommendation The Short End Of Sonnenallee sits squarely next to Skvorecky’s Danny Smiricky stories. A great fun read reminding us all of the indomitable power of the individual under totalitarian pressure

Reading Spark’s short stories which are, like many, mixed in quality but every so often a real gem shines through. Playhouse Called Remarkable is maybe her most peculiar - like a proto McCabe Pogue Mahone. If you can find R E Grant’s audio it’s a real treat. literaryreview.co.uk/the-playhous...

Book post is the best post. It’s always a great day when a new Olga arrives from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

What I read in August. Thanks to Muriel and @iammilliam.bsky.social @backlisted.bsky.social @judecook.bsky.social @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social @andotherstories.bsky.social @grantabooks.bsky.social @versobooks.bsky.social @reaktionbooks.bsky.social @faberbooks.bsky.social @thamesandhudson.bsky.social

I’ll get in early and say I am loving the way @iammilliam.bsky.social Inventory is building his own personal cathedral brick by brick.

Another lovely jacket from Macmillan for Spark’s early sixties work. These are some short stories and radio plays. Four novels into her career and Brodie about to be let loose on the world.