Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word. IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it. Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

World’s oldest tortoise caught in viral crypto death scam www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

John Keane - 'Peace Giant' (1989). Army observation tower in South Armagh (National Army Museum, London)

1825: I had a very odd dream last night & I take it as an ill omen for I dont expect that the book will meet a better fate - I thought I had one of the proofs of the new poems from London & after looking at it awhile it shrank thro my hands like sand & crumbled into dust - the birds were singing...

'There’s a short story by Scott Alexander called “The Whispering Earring,” in which he describes a mystical piece of jewelry. The whispering earring speaks to you. Its advice always begins with the words “Better for you if you . . . ,” and its advice is never wrong' 1/3 harpers.org/archive/2026...

Imagine being like this. Maybe we actually were all once like this. Be more like this guy!

I’m doing some short & sweet online poetry workshops over the coming weeks, first ones are this Friday. Would be lovely to have your company if anyone would like to join! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poems-that...

Who would play Nick Belsey in a TV adaptation?

This is a delightful listen, if your ears have a few minutes spare.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

'A guide told the Guardian he had spotted a “strange” gathering outside the David Hume mausoleum on 16 January at 10pm when the cemetery gates were locked. He claimed four men in long white robes were kneeling by the mausoleum and lighting candles.' www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Forgive me for tootling a small trumpet - stuff from the past, reappearing on your radio ...

Kim Jong-un inspected parts of the future monument and museum dedicated to the memory of DPRK soldiers who died fighting against Ukraine.

Excited to be chatting all things espionage and fiction with bestselling former CIA analyst David McCloskey later this month - Waterstones Deansgate, Manchester, January 28 - focussing on his new novel THE PERSIAN - www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

I'm enjoying this 'pubs that changed me' series in @theguardian.com Feels a good angle on life and lives www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

When I was a teenager out and about in central London there used to be a man selling poems in the middle of Hungerford Bridge. They were in coloured envelopes, laid out on a blanket. Always bought some, seemed too magical not to. Anyway, a few days ago I came across him by Tate Modern (1/2)

Slide from a lecture on post-colonialism. It's never less than mind-boggling

Thinking a lot about this moment from literally the first chapter of "1984."

Want to understand what actually went wrong at the BBC? Read Daniel Trilling’s in-depth report in the corporations’s spectacular failure over the war in Gaza. www.equator.org/articles/ins...

Exciting opportunity for writers from working-class backgrounds

I got the idea for The Shame Archive when a friend started telling me about Epstein's potential links to intelligence services. The novel's gone down to 99p on Kindle this month. www.amazon.co.uk/Shame-Archiv...

Leonora Carrington, British-Mexican (1917-2011), The Saints of Hampstead Heath, 1997, oil and gold leaf on canvasboard, 45.7 x 35.6 cm, private collection

Got to say, Polanski understands how you bring the fight

One irony of all this is that South Korea (until now) had a lot of pro-Trump love, central to its big pro-US right wing

This podcast makes a strong case for how central AI is to both ICE and Gaza - predictive models giving authority to arrests and killings therealnews.com/trump-silico...

Sharing this on the occasion of Constance Martens and Mark Gordon's sentencing - a brilliant, very deep, very long read on the couple and their trials from Clair Wills in the LRB (which may be accessible without a subscription) - www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Was surprised to find a section of the Berlin Wall currently on display in Lewisham Shopping Centre

The Eulogy I did not Give by Bob Hicok, from the New Yorker

If I had money to invest, I'd invest in the past

Re the Rooney row: How would someone donate money to Palestine Action if they wanted to?

Enjoyed learning about the history of the Salvation Army while using their cafe in Denmark Hill, but my attention was very much stolen by The Skeleton Army, their hedonistic 19th c foes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleto...

@primitiveknot.bsky.social Saw this in Camberwell. Zine called Weird Walk.

Saturday reading

Enjoying this picture of me at work by the 5-year-old. Medieval scriptorium vibes.

This was amazing

Next week - This new event features Centre for Place Writing associates @oliharris.bsky.social (crime writer & Snr Lecturer in Creative Writing) and Rachel Genn (novelist & Snr Lecturer in Creative Writing) as well as Leone Betts & Emma Bradley. #AI #event #BookSky #Writers #Writing

We don’t know how lucky we are to have a country with so much immigration. Just spent 2 years in South Korea, which is great but relatively homogenous – often narrow, culturally, in a way that S Koreans themselves find oppressive. Immigration means freedom; it creates a deep diversity... 1/2

FICTION WRITERS RESPOND TO AI The Centre for Fiction research group - online panel discussion on the implications of AI for writers & readers of fiction. Threat or opportunity? Can AI write our books, or is there something humans can do that AI never can? Join them online on Thursday 22 May 5-6pm

It's amazing how much of the world you can come to understand through the prism of male pattern hair loss.

Interesting. So some of those sent to El Salvador without due process were about to stand trial in the US where they may have revealed dirty secrets about... the authorities in El Salvador. Convenient. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

That's a thought-provoking potential scenario: area of DMZ becomes unsecured because of wildfire

May be offline for a while

🔑 under-discussed point — why they were on signal:

Found this map for a talk I gave yesterday to students - all the US military/intel facilities in the UK. Courtesy of good old CND cnduk.org/wp-content/u...