Christmas is a lovely time to watch a tv program all about books. In fact, the only tv program all about books. Enjoy!

You’re buying someone you love a book for Christmas. Or maybe you’re telling yourself you’ll give it to them but really you know it’s for you. I’m not judging. I am telling you that indie bookshops love you and Jeff Bezos doesn’t. Shop @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

My Christmas gift to you is permission to close every open browser tab.

Photographer Christopher Anderson on the Vanity Fair photoshoot

One of my earliest crushes. I added his theme tune to the playlist for writing Maggie & Me because it instantly transported me to 1980s/gay awakening/21st century future times.

This is one of my favourite poems for this time of year. I hope it brings you joy. Thank you Bluesky lovelies for all the support this, hardest of years. See you on the other side. www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/trio/

It is so hard right now to imagine any light ever shining brightly enough again after this year. I have never been more fearful about the future. But every year I sit with this photo for all of Hanukkah as I try and remember all those before who thought the night would never end.

When 97% is 'no clear consensus', and 52% is 'the will of the people', it's time to face facts that Governments do what Governments want to do regardless of what their people actually want.

this is not behavior becoming of a FIFA Peace Prize recipient.

While Amazon is investing billions of dollars to expand AI, independent bookstores are hosting community events, personally recommending books to readers, and providing a space that is safe and welcoming during a time when we need them most. Never underestimate the power of a local bookstore.

If you read one U.S. president's remembrance of Rob Reiner today...

"He draws his power not from the sheer force of his arguments and personality, but increasingly just how recklessly the immigration issue has been handled by the political establishment." Nesrine Malik would have been my columnist of the year. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

@hugorifkind.bsky.social Christmas can now begin, with my annual reshare of this Christmas classic, captured en route to festive drinks @sathnam.bsky.social

I have amassed a drawer full of specs over the years: prescription changes, ill-advised flirtation with frameless, all that. They feel more personal than clothes, harder to part with. Is that just me? I’ve finally decided to give them all to charity.

I love the barn at Charleston and remember when cows would interrupt your event. I'm delighted to be returning there next year and hope the cows and you can join me. Tickets on sale today! www.charleston.org.uk/event/an-eve...

If handing someone their arse, was a video clip

Au revoir Stanley Baxter. One of the cleverest and funniest comedians of my childhood. He was a better queen than the Queen and came out at 94. www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Lk...

Was in my local library earlier. Newspaper crumpled by a day of telling everyone what’s going on. Kids lost in picture books. The cafe full. A table with a jigsaw that anybody can add a piece too. A display of titles for World AIDS Day. A whole shelf of NEW BOOKS JUST IN. Perfect, just perfect.

A lovely thing! If I win I get a nice globe which I plan to try and convert into a drinks cabinet.

We’ve had a tiny zhush of my exhibition at Charleston in Lewes with the addition of this still life by Bobby MacBryde from the Fry Gallery. Artists, Lovers, Outsiders runs until April 2026

A reminder: books are very easy to wrap (and you can, controversially, sneak a wee taste as you wrap and nobody will know - unlike taking a bit of their cheese).

‘Ranting in a shoebox on the internet, like the first person to die in a disaster film. It’d be tragic if it wasn’t so deeply stupid.’

‘Tablet puts all thoughts to rest’

A wee bit I wrote about the hammerblow of watching people from the country that gave us the Glasgow girls and Kenmure Street turn to the right. And about the opportunism of Farage as he heads north. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fuel Poverty is a euphemism. I grew up in a cold house - gas still costs more on a meter. It is exhausting and dispiriting - cold floors and walls. Getting into a bed that feels damp then being unable to sleep. Clothes that don’t dry after rain or snow. Seeing your breath indoors. It is shaming.

Everything I ever wear from now on, will be made exclusively with gay wool from gay sheep. ❤️ 🐑 🌈 🧶 www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025...

This gave me a right good laugh this morning. ❤️ @patrickfreyne.bsky.social

Today I went for a fancy lunch and at the neighbouring table sat two immaculate older gentleman and, on her own chair, an immaculately well-behaved little chihuahua. Perfect.

Support this appeal, if you can.

First the Guides and now the WI - two institutions with a history of welcoming trans folk. Each of them forced to now exclude people they have welcomed. This is bullying, pure and simple. Well-funded, systematic and relentless bullying. It is disgusting. Who is next?

Someone asking ‘what are you writing next?’ ON THE DAY YOUR NEW BOOK COMES OUT.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

In the Waiting Room for Transmission tickets and feeling a new solidarity with Oasis fans.

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

When the day-birds have settled in their creaking trees, the doors of the forest open for the flitting drift of deer among the bright croziers of new ferns and the legible stars… —Robin Robertson, “What the Horses See at Night” SAILING THE FOREST: Selected Poems www.panmacmillan.com/authors/robi...

You’re buying someone you love a book for Christmas. Or maybe you’re telling yourself you’ll give it to them but really you know it’s for you. I’m not judging. I am telling you that indie bookshops love you and Jeff Bezos doesn’t. Shop @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Today is World AIDS Day.

This episode of R4’s Guide Books, featuring Sarah Perry and @sineadgleeson.bsky.social, is a really interesting discussion on health and how a writer’s feelings about their body feed into their work. Thanks @damianbarr.bsky.social for the link. #BookSky 💙📚

If you can’t make it to an independent bookshop to buy books for Christmas presents and have to buy online, buy them from @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social. Free shipping ends tomorrow. uk.bookshop.org

It is Pay What You Can Day at Charleston in Lewes. The gallery is open from 10am. Support Scottish artists and Scottish storytellers. Happy St Andrew’s Day.

Latha Naomh Anndra sona dhuibh! Happy Saint Andrew’s Day to you! We’re open from 10.00 and brimming full of Scottish books and all manner of good things! Thanks to everyone who stopped by on #foodbankfriday - your purchases and donations will help us donate £150 to the local food bank. Thank you!

'A night of solidarity for a lifetime of change' This is going to be incredible and do incredible things. Well done all! www.transmissionlive.uk

Tickets for my final event of this here year. Sharing the stage @standrewsbookfest.bsky.social in London with the lovely @michaelpedersen.bsky.social Join us this wknd! www.ticketsource.co.uk/standrewsboo...

'What if the protagonist of a novel was not a single person but a couple?' A gay working-class couple of genius artists (who also happen to be Very Handsome). Grateful to Lara Feigel for this thoughtful review of the Two Roberts. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

1. A landmark study was just published in The Journal of Pediatrics. It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT. It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse. Transgender care saves lives.

Tickets for my final event of this here year. Sharing the stage @standrewsbookfest.bsky.social in London with the lovely @michaelpedersen.bsky.social Join us this wknd! www.ticketsource.co.uk/standrewsboo...

We're seeking committee members for #CILIP's new Intellectual Freedom Committee. The Committee will work towards everyone's right to read, think, and speak freely, and lead discussions on issues of censorship and access to information. Join us: https://ow.ly/k3I250XwXKR#CILIP Apply now!

I have always been terrified and mesmerised by Udo Kier. 🧛‍♀️ Once, in a gay bar in Palm Springs, I turned around and he was just standing there, holding a drink. I checked in the bar mirror to see if he had a reflection. He saw me checking and smiled. It was perfect.

Dearest Writer Pals, have we all now had an email promising us up to 150 in-depth reviews from 'dedicated readers'? It reads: 'My mission isn’t commercial; there’s no formal service or hidden agenda. It’s simply to ensure that stories worthy of attention find it.' Feels....scammy?