There wasn't any autism when I was growing up but there was a TV show where members of the public sat in a big black chair and answered questions about their "special subject"

Maybe my maths is off here, but If Kiran Desai wins the Booker, her bibliography will have the highest percentage of Booker winners for any author who did *not* win for their debut. (Any debut winner has a 100% Booker-winning bibliog, but Desai will have won for 66% of 3 novels, excluding debut.)

The most successful novelist of her generation can't actually enter this country to accept an award for fear of arrest, someone tell the BBC

Before we have dinner with my parents, you should know they're a little unconventional

The number of legal safeguards you'd have to remove to achieve this make it an assault on everyone's citizenship. And the quoted post is absolutely right, economic and practical arguments don't work - this is a formula for mass fear and misery and must be opposed on moral grounds.

There's still time to sign up to today's Personal Anthology. Hitting inboxes in 30 minutes! All your weekend reading needs covered!

Horror folks, it's the middle of September, and the Stoker Recommended Reading List is looking extremely small. If you're a member of the HWA, go recommend something you've read that you loved! horror.org/awards/curre...

Eero Saarinen’s US embassy building in Mayfair is one of the very few examples of American modernist architecture in London. So why isn’t it more appreciated?

"the reformers of the 11th century", meaning... the Normans? Interesting to see the harrowing of the north etc presented as "reform" but it gives a clue as to the meaning of the party name

Hat salesman says you look taller and more handsome

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Eero Saarinen’s US embassy building in Mayfair is one of the very few examples of American modernist architecture in London. So why isn’t it more appreciated?

Surprisingly late deaths are perennially interesting to me. Salvador Dalí could have watched Die Hard.

Ok fine but they have to shower first

SHELFIES is just 15 followers short of 3000 on Instagram! www.instagram.com/shelfiesplea... A nice little milestone for us on the first anniversary

While switching over from Twitter to here, I realised that an awful lot of the feverish "tone" of what I saw back there emanated from a quite small number of big-following turbo-tweeters and I took pains to avoid that here. And it works!

American friends: Barnes & Noble is having another pre-order sale on forthcoming books including "The Dead Man's Empire", sequel to the award-winning "The Last Blade Priest". But you must act today, because I have been very lazy about sharing this information!

American friends: Barnes & Noble is having another pre-order sale on forthcoming books including "The Dead Man's Empire", sequel to the award-winning "The Last Blade Priest". But you must act today, because I have been very lazy about sharing this information!

I see they're finished with pretence and euphemism and it's safe for the mask-off atavistic fear and loathing to be shelved on the same level as the Beano

‘The QR code was a way of making the world more machine-readable; now that the machines are pretty good at reading the world as we see it, might it be on the way out?’ – Will Wiles asks if the QR code has had its day

Very sad to hear of the death of Jonathan Main of Bookseller Crow. He was a wonderful man and created a very special bookshop. My deepest sympathy to the Crow family. x

Flag patrol approves

Current UK political discourse made me wonder: what flags do I have in the house? Not counting Lego, this is what I was able to find: the pirate flag we have flying in our garden and a little UN flag from the 50th anniversary celebrations in 1995 (almost an antique). Pretty solid.

The decision to demolish Grenfell Tower – where 72 people died in a fire in 2017 – has understandably divided opinion and angered some of the victims and survivors, but the manner of its taking down will be a carefully considered ritual, writes @willwiles.bsky.social

Your last chance to buy ALL my books for less than you would otherwise have to pay. Please make an old man very happy

Final days! 🌊 20% off all Salt books until 31 Aug. Shop now 👉 www.saltpublishing.com/discount/CWS... Code: CWS6ED0C7KCX

For @apollo-magazine.com, I wrote about the proposed procedure for the demolition of Grenfell Tower, and its moving ritual nature

Badger necromancy in Hastings

i am never not thinking about this post

30% discount for preorder for ECO24: The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction on this link direct from Apex Books. Digital or paperback. Containing one (1) of my favourite ever stories I've ever written! www.apexbookcompany.com/products/eco...

The decision to demolish Grenfell Tower – where 72 people died in the fire of 2017 – has understandably divided opinion and angered some of the victims and survivors, but the manner of its taking down will be a carefully considered ritual, writes @willwiles.bsky.social

A while back I was really burned out so I bought a run-down cottage in a quirky village to do it up but we found a colony of rare bats in the attic and in learning to live alongside these elusive creatures I rediscovered my humanity and creative soul. Anyway my next book is about a rogue CIA agent

Nice.

Thank you @watsoncomedian.bsky.social for this lovely mention in the "i" newspaper! inews.co.uk/culture/book...

"‘Ego’ can hardly be a dirty word when discussing writing, any more than ‘fuel-tank’ could be when discussing cars." Adam Mars-Jones.

Me, sternly, to the 8 year old: Can you do that without playing with your food please. 8 year old: I'm not going to play. (pause) I'm going to LARP.

I mean, why wouldn’t you want to buy a book that includes the line of dialogue: “I do not think you should eat anything that came out of the television.”

Buy this excellent book for less money than I paid for it. A lovely sized paperback, perfect for public transport.

not impressed by ai images. my pack of 1830s myriorama playing cards can create 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000 possible different landscapes

It's the last days of the @saltpublishing.com summer sale: 20% off every book in their amazing catalogue, including my own "The Anechoic Chamber". www.saltpublishing.com/products/the...

Perhaps, one day, schoolkids will study this squalid little chapter in British terror-panic history. When they do, I hope these two headlines from today are printed side by side, with clear annotation of which individual faced more outrage and condemnation.

Just back from a week in York, which I can thoroughly recommend as a summer holiday destination - we had a wonderful time and there's so much to see and do.

Climbed the tower of York Minster with the boy and was rewarded with the rather eerie sight of a landscape shrouded in wildfire smoke

Me composing my high impact social media content

"Plume" (2019)

I've been sitting on this news for a while, but I am chuffed to bits to say that I have a story in this year's Best British Short Stories anthology from @saltpublishing.com. See below for pre-order details with 25% discount 👇

Amazingly, one of my short stories made it into this anthology — thanks to @saltpublishing.com and the editor @nicholasroyle.bsky.social for picking it up. You can preorder at discount of 25% to the end of July