A chance stroll through Norwich Cathedral and this - (happy new year)!

Thank you so much @galleybeggars.bsky.social. Great to read this about @benjaminmyers76.bsky.social and so touched - and delighted! - by what you say, Sam, about The Benefactors. samj.substack.com/p/three-books

Loving the tone of @noemikissdeaki.bsky.social’s ‘Mary and the Rabbit Dream’ from @galleybeggars.bsky.social

Christmas dinner soup - and tomato and coconut for the vegetarian…

NORAD Santa tracker is Woke

Galley Beggars Die Hard Christmas bonanza!

“For us to co-exist with AI we must engage with it.” Is pure AI regardless of who/ what wrote it!!

My pick for @review31.bsky.social's Books of the Year 2025 is Alex Pheby's Waterblack, the third volume in the Cities of the Weft trilogy. Superb, strange fantasy that has reinvigorated the genre. @alexpheby.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social review31.co.uk/essay/view/1...

Cake!

64. Telenovela, Gonzalo C Garcia Funny, sad, and very thoughtful novel set in the Pinochet dictatorship. It's primarily a brilliant slice of life novel, but that allows it to subtly explore the creeping, deadening effects of authoritarianism on everyday life. Great stuff.

This doesn't sound good: www.thebookseller.com/news/waterst... (And it's already terrifying that such an important asset to the UK economy, cultural soft power and to generally making life better is owned by a US hedge-fund.)

Fab to be nudging shoulders in this spotlight series with the brilliant @papillotepress.bsky.social @prototypepubs.bsky.social Peirene Press @roughtradebooks.bsky.social @deadinkbooks.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social, brilliant publishers flourishing in difficult times. 📚 🙌

“Married women living with their husbands need not be included…” Amazing scenes for women in the 1910 governmental report on national health insurance (introduced in 1911):

Thank you @galleybeggars.bsky.social samj.substack.com/p/three-books

Our latest conversation is with Gonzalo C Garcia about his incredible novel Telenovela, Chile, Pinochet, and much more. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

On today’s Advent Calendar, Gonzalo C. Garcia gives us a Xmas song he cannot stand. Listen podfollow.com/hellish Gonzalo’s excellent ‘Telenovela’ is out now on @galleybeggars.bsky.social - to hear more about it from Gonzalo himself listen to the latest @acrossthepondbooks.bsky.social!

Sirius takes keeping warm and comfortable very, very seriously

If you are still looking for a "stocking filler" please bear in mind that "The Anechoic Chamber" is a slimline A-format paperback, so it fits snugly in a standard men's sock or the pocket of a winter coat. This also means savings on wrapping paper, postage, etc. and it's only £9.99.

'No human being is just one way, then. And Telenovela also suggests, quietly but boldly, that no political side is wholly virtuous either.' Lorna Scott Fox on politics, art and authenticity in Pinochet-era Chile

Loved reading this: www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...

This morning / this evening (… Christmas!)

Overjoyed to see this in @foylesforbooks.bsky.social ! (and thanks to @markabowles.bsky.social for sending the picture.)

“Consistently funny - and unexpectedly sympathetic.” —The Guardian Happy publication day to TELENOVELA! One of the 2025 highlights in @theguardian.com, it is a deeply personal yet universal story of human frailty and the power of resistance. From @galleybeggars.bsky.social buff.ly/gLLGu6X

Another splendid thoughtful and positive review of Gonzalo C Garcia's Telenovela - this time in the Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t... "A novel with all the drama of a soap opera" 😀

Here's our Telenovela publication day newsletter - full of glad tidings! www.galleybeggar.co.uk/campaigns/vi...

Here's our Telenovela publication day newsletter - full of glad tidings! www.galleybeggar.co.uk/campaigns/vi...

Overjoyed to see this in @foylesforbooks.bsky.social ! (and thanks to @markabowles.bsky.social for sending the picture.)

"No human being is just one way, then. And Telenovela also suggests, quietly but boldly, that no political side is wholly virtuous either." Heart pounding. Not just a glowing review, but a real insight into the complexities of the "ambitious, unsettling" Telenovela: www.the-tls.com/literature/f...

"No human being is just one way, then. And Telenovela also suggests, quietly but boldly, that no political side is wholly virtuous either." Heart pounding. Not just a glowing review, but a real insight into the complexities of the "ambitious, unsettling" Telenovela: www.the-tls.com/literature/f...

This is a cracking book

The splendid @spiracleaudiobooks.bsky.social have reduced the price of the AWARD WINNING audiobook of All My Precious Madness on their site, for a short while, to celebrate winning the best fiction Speakie on Monday: www.spiracleaudiobooks.com/audiobooks/a...

It’s a great book! (And Gonzalo was a great guest, in case you haven’t heard our chat with him yet)

A special episode! An interview with Sarah Hall about her splendid new novel Helm: www.buzzsprout.com/1728150/epis... Amazing facts about this unique - hurricane force! - wind and the inspiration it provided for Sarah.

The first - splendid! - reviews of Telenovela by Gonzalo C Garcia have started arriving:

Did AI write this?

🌟 WINNER 🌟 Congrats to @markabowles.bsky.social @spiracleaudiobooks.bsky.social @galleybeggars.bsky.social & reader Paul Hinton for winning the best #audiobook of the year! Great to have an independent in this space. Soooo excited for Mark's class on Wed & our reading @saloneurope.bsky.social

All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles JUST WON best audiobook fiction at The Speakies! This is delightful! So pleased for @markabowles.bsky.social , @spiracleaudiobooks.bsky.social , wonderful reader Paul Hilton. And for us! www.thebookseller.com/british-audi...

👇🏻!!

All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles JUST WON best audiobook fiction at The Speakies! This is delightful! So pleased for @markabowles.bsky.social , @spiracleaudiobooks.bsky.social , wonderful reader Paul Hilton. And for us! www.thebookseller.com/british-audi...

'[...] the foam of past sorrows folds into itself like a flat mirror.' Very excited to receive (amid other goodies) Telenovela by Gonzalo C. Garcia, the latest from @galleybeggars.bsky.social - available now to order!

The joy of coming home to a parcel from the relentlessly brilliant @galleybeggars.bsky.social. I'd actually forgotten I'd pre-ordered this so it's like a lovely surprise present from myself. A little slice of joy at the end of a gloomy week.

Bookmail 💌 from the lovely people @galleybeggars.bsky.social

Wonderful book post today. Telenovela- Gonzalo C. Garcia from @galleybeggars.bsky.social (you should all subscribe as Book Buddies) and a proof copy of Freezing Point - Anders Bodelsen. Thank you, @faberbooks.bsky.social #booksky #freezingpoint #telenovela

A very generous and flattering profile of our press from the excellent Will Dady at @renardpress.com and in association with the splendid @spiracleaudiobooks.bsky.social : www.spiracleaudiobooks.com/articles/sam... I spoke - at great length! - and he very kindly and patiently took it all down...

A very generous and flattering profile of our press from the excellent Will Dady at @renardpress.com and in association with the splendid @spiracleaudiobooks.bsky.social : www.spiracleaudiobooks.com/articles/sam... I spoke - at great length! - and he very kindly and patiently took it all down...

www.spiracleaudiobooks.com/articles/sam... Nice interview with my esteemed publisher @galleybeggars.bsky.social

Nothing like a bit of book post. @galleybeggars.bsky.social

Book 83: Gonzalo C. Garcia's Telenovela (from @galleybeggars.bsky.social).

This is wonderful!

Today’s damned soul is author Gonzalo C. Garcia! As well as the 5 tracks he will meet in Hell, Gonzalo told us about his @galleybeggars.bsky.social book ‘Telenovela’, set in Chile during the last days of dictatorship. Listen podfollow.com/hellish Pre-order Telenovela tinyurl.com/galleynovela