Broke out in a new direction bsky.app/profile/guyw...

It never ceases to amaze me how hard I find the GCSE English Lit questions about Jane Austen that my 14yo likes to lob my way.

ACT TWO The tree has four or five leaves WS: Let’s go, let’s go! KS: (wearily) There’s a process, Wes WS: LET’S GO!!!!! They do not go

Newsroom colleagues currently discussing this article 👀 www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lif...

It’s mortifying to be scrambling to fill a bookstore event but that’s the reality. I’m in Scotland and England next week. There are tix left for these events. The London one will be cancelled if I don’t sell some tickets soon so all pre-bookings and help with getting the word out is appreciated.

Yes, Starmer, Farage, Streeting, etc etc etc BUT pause a while: what I want to know, this Thursday lunchtime, is if the sight of a table laden with cli-fi books sets your heart aflutter? Or... not?

'As the educator Michael Strong says: “If your child becomes a reader, about 80 per cent of the education job is already done . . . Reading is the meta-skill that enables all other skills. History requires reading. Science requires reading. Even math increasingly requires reading.”'

This is all just vile www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Our latest issue is out now! Here’s a peek at what’s inside (all of which you can READ FOR FREE until 11th May) 🧵 For our cover story, @ethanz.bsky.social argues that it has not been proven that social media causes harm—or that banning it is the answer: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

I would love to hear this.

Toying with stirring up the street WA by admitting I haven't a clue how to vote tomorrow.

Am hunting Barbara Pym fans to tell me their faves of her novels. If anyone wants to play....

Having been to A&E at least 15 times in the last two and a half years I am never, ever watching The Pitt.

Am hunting Barbara Pym fans to tell me their faves of her novels. If anyone wants to play....

Predicting the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (and How to Watch It Live!) electricliterature.com/predicting-t...

Does anyone have any strong views on Barbara Pym, please? I'm curious about favourite Pyms and why...

This is superlative on death and friendship by Ann Patchett, (whose new book, Whistler, I am re-reading today to write about...) www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Reposting this question because I, too, would love to hear any thoughts?

Campaign for Zadie Smith to #GetKeshed pls 🙏

Best climate fiction novels, anyone?

I've been lax on my short story collection reading lately but Lucy Caldwell's Devotions, out today, is something special. And my review gets a special illustration! www.ft.com/content/eaf4...

Bit late now for 2027, but if this could come in one of those Family Organiser multiple column versions, you'd really be onto something.

I fixed my Pages from crashing! By asking someone at Apple. Here is the fix if anyone wants it. 1. Quit Pages application. 2. Open Finder > hold option key > choose Go > Go To Folder > ~/Library/Containers/ 3. Delete the app container for affected Pages app

Cool, and I say this only partly because I was interviewed for the first issue, new mag about cryptic crosswords. (Yes, really.)

This, except replace partner with cat. www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

Goldchocolatefinger

I mean, I'm delighted I posted on Instagram (@definitelynotabookclub) only yesterday that The Benefactors was a Dead Cert.

Well, I'm amazed Wendy Erskine's The Benefactors isn't on the Women's Prize shortlist. It's just out in PB so I'd recommend reading it if you haven't already.

Excellent, illuminating interview about Stu Hennigan's Keshed.

Am hunting best Agatha Christie books for 11yos if anyone has any insight... I read them all then, but remember nothing!

I'm making one last push to let people know about this online talk -- sponsored by the British Library in conjunction with their current exhibition on fairy tales. The live stream starts at 7:30 tonight, but if you buy a ticket *before* the event you can watch it any time over the next 7 days.

This Is Just To Say I have turned off the AI features that were in the update and which you were probably hoping to monetize Fuck you they were stupid so unnecessary and so annoying

I'd urge anyone to squeeze into Into the Woods before its West End transfer. There were seats free last night. (And four people next to us left at the interval! Before it really gets going!)

not to mention the phone use by parents.

Day 508 of uninterrupted protests in 8+ cities in Georgia.

between its lines Tove Ditlevsen, ‘Girlfriends’, tr Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell

I can hardly believe this, but this is Day 500 of protests in Georgia! For 500 days, protesters have gathered every day in 8+ cities despite heavy fines, mass arrests, and abuse. The pro-Russian Georgian Dream regime must end.

Reading Deb Olin Unferth's forthcoming Earth 7 and watching Interstellar for the first time and the Artemis splashdown = killer, mess-with-this-your-head combo.

Incredible and painful background from Helen DeWitt on being awarded and then turning down the $175,000 Windham-Campbell prize. paperpools.blogspot.com/2026/04/we-l...

Has anyone had Pages crash repeatedly - I can't open it without it crashing - even after a software update?

Please, please can *you* pre-order my good and talented friend Sonoko Obuchi's debut short story, which she is self-publishing. It's only 99p and I think it's very good. Would love to hear what *you* think when you've read it. Arigato. www.amazon.co.uk/Hibi-Crack-S...

Who'd a thunk it?

I remember Sarah Hall telling me to read James Salter and Andrew Miller when I interviewed her, many moons ago, for The Pool (RIP). So I did. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Finally persuaded the 11yo to watch Gilmour Girls with me having never seen it. Three eps in. Life is good.

Go to Glasgow for the best ramen I've ever had. That's it, that's all.

Go to Glasgow for the best ramen I've ever had. That's it, that's all.

Read Orbital if you haven't, people.

"The writer might safely assume that when we’re publishing a review that surmises their book’s successes and failings against its ambition, we have, at the very least, taken the time to read and carefully consider their work, and our own response to it." theconversation.com/a-new-york-t...

with the #ArtemisII launch imminent I feel obliged to give a shoutout to the fabulously-named estate in Coolock that draws most of its road and street names from the Apollo 11 mission #speirgorm

if you don’t like the process of writing then don’t be a fucking writer, it’s not that complicated