In today’s Guardian 💙

Perfectly put review of an excellent novel - do grab a copy! #BookSky 📚💙

It's publication day! The Drowning Place is my tenth novel and, I think, my best. I can't wait for readers to discover Joe and Laurie. Links to buy in my bio 💙

Trump comparing himself to Jesus while Vance tries to lecture the actual Pope on matters theological proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the ‘Christian’ element of their support is, morally & doctrinally, about as Christian as a hula hoop. Their conduct is literally unconscionable.

Always nice to see things I’ve contributed to out in the wild.

I watched this last night. Stuart Hall and Maggie Steed’s Open Door about unchallenged racism on TV. It’s from 1979 but the parallels with today (esp in current affairs) are striking. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7C...

Driven insane by thoughts of his father's profession... WANTED FOR MURDER (1946) 10:50am #EricPortman #DulcieGray #DerekFarr #RolandCulver drama #TPTVsubtitles

Great explanation and not one I’ve heard put so succinctly before

from Tit-Bits magazine (1892)

Time to drop this line. It's clear there are NO rules for the rich.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since watching on Saturday night. A sort-of documentary on Don DeLillo, featuring him talking but not being interviewed, it is utterly hypnotizing. But the key thing for me was that this was broadcast on BBC1. BBC1! www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_dH...

I’m old enough to remember him doing this on Wogan in June 1988, protesting against the government’s homophobia. The targets change, the speech stays relevant…

I can't stop listening to this wistful demo of Next Time Round, which Costello recorded in (I deduce) April '85. By the time the song appeared on Blood & Chocolate a year later, it had curdled into something nastier. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGWv...

When I interviewed Steve Van Zandt a few years ago, he memorably said the only way to defeat Trump and his henchmen would be for “the tough good guys” to make a stand. I put it to you that Springsteen is doing that right now. 🫡

"The (Unforgettable) Meryl Streep" ...none of us had seen the text of her speech before, was that with her speech in defense of foreigners, journalists, the arts & human dignity, Meryl was going to electrify the ballroom at the Beverly Hilton, the entire country & the rest of the world... In 2017

Nothing says Christmas more to a 56-year-old man than a book about crime writing by @nicktriplow.bsky.social & pairs of Deltic and Brian Clough socks from @sockcouncil.bsky.social

Sadly, none of the albums I reissued in 2025 made any Best Of lists. So I’ve made my own list: The Best Three Albums Reissued by Unspun Heroes in 2025 - Drink Ring Jesus by Stephen Simmons, The Tracksuit Trilogy by The Experimental Pop Band, and Living And Growing by The Felt Tips. You’re welcome.

Day 5 of the BBC1 Christmas movies advent calendar gets us to 1974. A scheduling trend emerges: a family-friendly afternoon movie, then something a little more adult in the evening. Plus a Laurel and Hardy! 12.25pm: Way Out West 4.05pm: True Grit 8.45pm: The Bridge on the River Kwai

Watching Jane Pollard & Iain Forsyth's forthcoming Marianne Faithfull doc, Broken English and I love that they choose this as the first track to represent early Marianne. It's such a perfect cover. Donovan is the observer but MP is completely inside the song. youtu.be/3fp0wo3qA1c?...

We're thrilled our final guest of 2025 will be @nicolaupson.bsky.social. Nicola will be talking about 'The Christmas Clue', 10th December (7pm). It's free to attend at @hulllibraries.bsky.social (Central) or via the online stream. We'll bring the mince pies!🎄 Please reserve via the links below.

You need to see this… Just so we’re all clear on the gravity and historical significance of what Trump has done to the East Wing of the People’s House.

Best British Short Stories 2025, edited by Nicholas Royle, reviewed by Paul Anthony Knowles and Sam Cassells www.themanchesterreview.co.uk?p=13063 @saltpublishing.com

If you're wondering why so many of my generation ended up with the eyes and ears and minds that we did it's because we could watch stuff like this on schools programme. This is simply astounding. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gED...

Unfortunately, Neil Broadfoot can no longer join us this Wednesday evening. However, our @nickquantrill.bsky.social and @nicktriplow.bsky.social will present 'Three Book Wednesday'. We hope you can still join us for what will be a lively evening of book chat at @hulllibraries.bsky.social 📚

More #authorevents posting, as later in the month (the 13th tae be exact) I'll be in Hull (You could say I'll be going to Hull and Back...) talking all things THE FRIDAY GIRL @hullnoir.bsky.social & trying not make any puns that could ruin my noirish reputation* *this is almost guaranteed to happen

The new Hal Hartley trailer has dropped! youtu.be/VNw6Su_TeDA?...

This is perfect.

Jürgen Vollmer's extrordinarily portenteous portrait of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe, taken in early 1962 about three months before Sutcliffe's death. He would have been 85 today. In Hamburg last year a friend took me walking around Beatles-related places including the door.

We're thrilled to be working with @hulllibraries.bsky.social to present a special screening of 'Brighton Rock', 5th July (7pm). Our guide for the evening will be Cathi Unsworth. She'll be in conversation with @nicktriplow.bsky.social before we show the film. Tickets £5 (link in the comments) 🎬👇

One of these days I'll make the Hull pilgrimage I've wanted to since reading Getting Carter by @nicktriplow.bsky.social - til then, there's always the livestream of the @hullnoir.bsky.social @hulllibraries.bsky.social crime fiction sessions hosted by Nick T & @nickquantrill.bsky.social #BookSky 📚💙

Bowker's going to nail Crawford... unless Crawford can nail Bowker first! 🚓 Z CARS (1977) 🚓 7pm featuring #RayLonnen #DouglasFielding #BrianGrellis #NormanRossington 'Rip Off' #TPTVsubtitles

New piece: been working on this for the best part of a year. But really it's trying to draw on everything I've seen and thought about since I first started reporting on far right politics in the late 2000s. Online now and in tomorrow's LRB. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

From the day I first played it out 35 years ago to the last DJ gig I did a few weeks ago, this tune’s guaranteed to hit the spot. Goes brilliantly with Kris Ife’s “Hush”, Alan Hawkshsw’s “Studio 69”, “She Lives In A Big House” by Offspring and Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger’s “Indian Rope Man”.

"However significant Johnny Rotten has been, it’s worth remembering that he nicked much of his shtick from the greatest of all the pub rockers." Today we shall also be remembering Ian Dury, born 12 May 1942, the greatest artist to emerge from the pub-rock scene of the 1970s. wp.me/p6lzJb-6ZF

Good morning. Lottie walked. Shirt ironed and shoes polished. Off to The British Book Awards tonight at The Grosvenor Hotel in London. Time for a proper brew. #Nibbies @thebookseller.com

The metaphor of a country whose fresh and coastal water is choked with pollutants and excrement by a privatised industry that is apparently financially incontinent eludes everyone in Labour HQ.

This is very special. @hullnoir.bsky.social @hulllibraries.bsky.social

London in 1975, a glimpse into a lost world by David Granick. If you are a young photographer remember to photograph the ordinary things around you, the people, places and events we all take for granted. Eventually time will make those photographs extraordinary.

We're thrilled our next guest will be AA Dhand. Amit will be talking about his thrillers, 11th June (7pm). It's free to attend at @hulllibraries.bsky.social (Central) or via the online stream. Please reserve your space on the link: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hull-noir-...

Really classy Daily Mirror front page on the 80th anniversary of VE Day. This Philip Zec celebrated cartoon was in the paper on this day in 1945

We're underway! Our May guest is the brilliant Charlotte Philby talking about 'Dirty Money' 📚

@rorywaterman.bsky.social & @nicktriplow.bsky.social are venturing to merry Scunthorpe for a Lincolnshire Folk Tales Reimagined anthology event. Book your spot here: www.opac.northlincs.gov.uk/events#/even...

‘A drug friend could really be anybody.’ Fiction by Gary Indiana. granta.com/remission-in...

‘Gary intended “Remission” to be similar, on the surface, to the books in his great “American crime” trilogy, at least in the sense that the story would revolve around a real, high-profile case.’ Jesse Barron introduces ‘Remission’ by Gary Indiana. granta.com/los-angeles-...

‘A friend of this magazine died while the issue was in production.’ Today we publish Granta 171: Dead Friends, which includes an excerpt from the final book from Gary Indiana (1950 - 2024). We have collected his contributions to Granta below. granta.com/dead-friends...

Wise words from Alexander Chee We may be conditioned to think of moving against fascism as a big all or nothing Hollywood style battle and it is also about showing up for people in ways that might make for a boring story but bring much love and satisfaction

...nearly a decade after the gibbet-post had blown down in storm. See lincolnshirefolktalesproject.com/2024/02/20/t.... Anne Zouroudi's story in Lincolnshire Folk Tales Reimagined, published recently by @fiveleavesbooks.bsky.social, asks whether Otter was framed: fiveleaves.co.uk/product/linc....

Been reading or rereading some biographies in the last couple of weeks as i'm trying to write one. Been rereading Getting Carter by @nicktriplow.bsky.social. Blimey it's good! Forgot how good it was.

As well as examining the new season of Daredevil on the Mean Streets podcast, Matthew Booth is a writer to whom attention must be paid...

Very proud to say that The Serpent's Fang, the latest in my Everett Carr crime series, is OUT NOW! If you like Poirot, Wimsey, and the Golden Age, you'll love Carr. Published by Level Best Books and available on Amazon and elsewhere. Be sure to catch the first three books, too!