The Ukrainian government has a list of places where you can donate to the war effort here. I personally just donated $100: war.ukraine.ua/donate/ Slava Ukraini.

To paraphrase Zelensky, 'I don't need reposts, I need bullets'. Please join me in donating to Ukraine. Please give any amount that you can. There are multiple options for which specific cause to support at the link below. war.ukraine.ua/donate/

I can't stand bullies. President Zelensky is now trying to stand up against two of them. We should have his back. #SlavaUkraïni

A guy who used to be a comedian & is good at improv and dealing with hecklers and who has also spent the last 3 years in a war zone turns out to be a guy you can’t out-alpha, imagine that

Slava Ukraini.

My wife just got Marie Curie and Marie Celeste confused, which let me tell you made for a baffling conversation about the charity collectors who just called round.

Happy pub day to @jamesbluecat.bsky.social for the magnificent PAGANS. Set in an alternative 2025 London where the Norman Conquest never happened, it combines grisly crime with fantasy in the greatest way possible. Imagine The Bridge meets Vikings. JUST SO GOOD. www.waterstones.com/book/pagans/...

Oh, man, not Gene Hackman. 2025 can just fuck right off. Okay. Let me tell you a little bit about Gene Hackman...

This is unbelievably sad.

I mean obviously that's going to be part of your assessment, but it has been very thoroughly covered. It is not the main story here. And yet the old rule applies: No matter who wins, we act like the far-right are either triumphant today or inevitable tomorrow.

Merz v.firm on European independence from US. Dovish Scholz not going to be part of coalition talks, opening space for more hawkish Pistorius. Stable grand coalition possible. Europe is much stronger today. And yet most reporters are unable to see beyond their pre-written 'AfD triumphant' headline.

This is glorious.

A French way of saying something is tip-top, especially a fine wine, is c’est le petit Jésus en culotte de velours. It means “it’s the baby Jesus in velvet underpants.”

I have literally been having this conversation with my husband for the last two weeks Life turned into a Jerry Bruckheimer movie and that is making spy novels seem suddenly unbelievably tame. What to do, what to do… www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

The NY Times article on the Murdoch family succession battle is simply fascinating. It's long but worth it. Get yourself a cup of coffee and read the whole thing. And the Nevada commissioner in the case ends his decision with this very pleasing flourish. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/m...

With regards to that thread I RT'd (?) just now, I have to say the one thing I kept reading was how little the publishers would invest in yr debut novel, but @moonflowerbooks.bsky.social have been AMAZING getting word out there, interviews and everything, I am in grateful awe.

A 'foible' is something coughed up by cats in New York.

just saw someone in the FT comments section referring to Tesla as the swasticar

“the collapse of twitter, but make it the US government” was supposed to be a warning not a playbook

"If you miss #TheTraitors, don't worry, The Apprentice is back next week" yeah alright, if you miss Christmas don't worry, it's Ash Wednesday next week. Fuck are you on about.

The Traitors a good example of how despite the many strengths of Netflix and co they can’t come close to creating the national discourse moments, the WhatsApp group chats, next day in the office discussions that live TV, and in particular the BBC, do so well.

This is a tiny reminder that you are not required to read every news story all day long. Our parents were exposed to news twice a day – in the morning paper and at 6 o'clock on the TV. Our grandparents absorbed even less news. You can turn it off any time you want.

The generation which thought media studies was some snowflaky fad is persistently conned by the media it consumes, weird

I've always loved the fact that the word 'sneeze' is the result of a historical accident. The original form, in the Middle Ages, was 'fnese', but someone mistook the 'f' for the long medieval 's' and wrote down 'sn-' instead. Fneezing sounds much more like a proper, nasal sneeze.

This puts it well & it’s a point I keep making about why using AI to write is so flattening. Writing is the process of working out & refining what you think. If I write an article, I’m not just generating 1000 plausible words. I’m trying to articulate ideas with precision, & challenging myself.

Ah damn. David Lynch's films were so unsettling and strange. When it first ran, I would never watch Twin Peaks alone. My friends and I would get together to watch it. We pretended we did it for fun, but it was really because we were afraid. The visionaries scare us.

The surrealist master departs David Lynch (1946-2025) #davidlynch

Wife and I both v tired and wanted to unwind in front of something fun but couldn’t face either comedy or big shouty TV. Anyway TLDR we’re watching Columbo and I am very happy.

'Modelling the Marlene Dietrich style trouser suit above Regent Street, 1933.' Fred Morley

So glad to have discovered this. It's a cartoon depicting my 8th great grandmother hosting a literary salon in Paris. Drawn in 1843 by Louis Lurine. (About a hundred years after she died so one assumes it's not from memory.)

Here I am on Sky News with Anthony Blunt and the Queen. Just another Tuesday morning! Thanks @news.sky.com for having me on to talk about double-agents, and how truth is stranger than fiction in the world of espionage.

These are extraordinary. Thinking of friends in LA.

Writing tip: After you finish, go back & cut all the adverbs. Then all the adjectives. Then all the other words. Eat the paper. Now you're free.

I can’t stop thinking about this page of allegations from Blake Lively’s lawsuit. If this could happen to an A-list actress on a set for a movie that made $350 million, it could happen to anyone on any kind of set.

Re-posting this particularly for anyone who's stressed about cooking Christmas dinner. This is hands down the greatest Christmas cooking tip I know. Gives turkey a delicious, Christmassy flavour and stops it drying out. SO easy and takes away so much pressure. This is why we love Nigella.

🤦🙃

Oh ffs Why is everyone in thrall to this AI grift? It's shoddy and always will be, people don't like using it, and it won't make or save money in a way that compensates for all the bad stuff that it produces. It is a bad investment as well as trashing individuals' rights over their own data.

Helen Viola Jackson died today in 2020. She was 101 years old. In September 1936, aged 17, she had married James Bolin who was then 93. Bolin had served in the 14th Missouri cavalry during the Civil War. Ms Jackson was therefore the last widow of a Civil War soldier.

Let's face it – Dads are hard to buy for. But panic no longer... here's the perfect gift. The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys has something for everyone – pirates, shenanigans at sea, murders in the navy yard, secret societies, AND MORE. Still time to order for Christmas! www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Diary-S...

'Monopoly contactless' just doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Looked up the French actor Michel Simon on Wikipedia and this paragraph is... Quite something.

The secret to enjoying Christmas is to create your own traditions, otherwise easy to become trapped in the husk of something you used to enjoy as a child, but it’s not always easy.

This is sort of fascinating because if you were to turn on pretty much any talk radio station or pick up any tabloid, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the inverse.

During research for my new book I was reminded of a few rather grim facts about the Great Fire of London. I think it's fairly well-known now that the traditional idea that only a small handful of people died is a total canard. Only a few were *recorded* but the truth is somewhat different.

I can only assume that these lunatics who voted for the Central Line have never taken it east of Liverpool Street in the summer. Fairly sure I saw actual Satan on there once looking sweaty as he fanned himself with a copy of the Metro.

Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no