What a brilliant start to 2026. One in the eye for Trump.

Wonderful organisation with first rate platform and resources. I've had a great experience teaching and mentoring upcoming writers with them.

This handsome volume arrived by post today. Congratulations @juliahbell.bsky.social - I think this may be destined to become a classic.

Today Aeon Magazine publishes the last of 3 essays by Afghan women writers (smuggled out of the country in secret) that we've worked on for the past year in partnership with Untold Narratives. It ends the series on a note of hope. aeon.co/essays/i-am-...

Green Catholicism is no oxymoron, but an extension of the Church's age-old radical tradition and commitment to environmental justice. aeon.co/essays/the-c...

Now here's a list what is a list. lithub.com/100-notable-...

Went to Daunts to stock up my shelves for December. Came home with treasures by Katie Kitamura @laurenelkin.bsky.social @alicejolly.bsky.social

Pioneering first person pieces on Psyche magazine focus on insights that are hard won and, often, hard to swallow. This is a fantastic example of what the form can do. Firefighting on all fronts. psyche.co/turning-poin...

We anthropomorphise AI all the time. So why haven't we twigged how narcissistic it is? psyche.co/ideas/why-ai...

Georgia O'Keeffe claimed New Mexico as her own. And painted it as thought is was empty. It wasn't. Native populations have always lived there. This is a lovely piece of revisionism from an indigenous writer. aeon.co/essays/some-...

Updating my LEGO White House

You do hsve to wonder sometimes if the world can roll back from Trump when he's gone.

Palace gossip from pal w connections in Police: Andrew would smuggle girls into palace (circumventing sign-in book all guests are required to sign). Also Andrew Lownie let on that A took massive cash bribes when he was special trade envoy - and still paid no rent. He should be in fucking prison.

Writers please spread far and wide. Six of my books were scraped by Meta (and the situation is much worse for many others). This cannot put right the past but it does enable readers to support publishers who value the work of actual writers. Thanks so much to those who have worked on this.

Untold Narratives does amazing work helping writers who are censored at home find outlets in the English-language press. Excited to dive into this one.

I am happy about the ceasefire that prevents Israel from killing any more Palestinians, but the lovefest around preening Western leaders who've actively armed the IDF for the past two years in nauseating. This goes beyond hypocricy. It is rewriting of events.

Very excited to get my hands on an early copy of @gavinmevans.bsky.social latest book.

Ooh, I see a Kate Briggs book there 👀

Normally our turnings points are about overcoming difficult experiences of one kind or another, but this one is light, funny and profound. I'm in the market for pitches for these btw. psyche.co/turning-poin...

Desperate? Or joyful... either way, slightly disturbing

The future of UK Independent presses hang by a thread. Supporting the sector is vital: this is where ALL the bravery lies. The big houses are risk averse, but copycat small press successes to revitalise their lists. Small presses are the motor! www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...

Priceless

Before we were aware of neurodiversity - mediccal men were confounded by the the coexistence of 'genius' and disability. aeon.co/essays/histo...

Emotional abuse hides. You can exist in an abusive relationship for years and explain it away. Until the penny drops. Then you can no longer stay. psyche.co/turning-poin...

London people interested in memoir, the craft of non-fiction, and how we shape lives into words on a page, this is for you! I will be in conversation at Daunt Books in Notting Hill with @lilydunn.bsky.social and @marinabenjamin.bsky.social ... See you there! #nonfiction #writing #memoir

A different kind of coming out story - profound and funny at once psyche.co/turning-poin...

Jenny Potter is crowdfunding a new book about the artist Kurt Schwitters, but she explains it far better than I can in this video ⬇️. @littletollerbooks.bsky.social will be publishing. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/looking-fo...

Smuggled out of Afghanistan — a chronicle of the last four years of living under Taliban rule as a woman. It was a rare privilege to work on this essay, and I am proud to have had some small part, alongside Untold Narratives and the Bagri Foundation is making it happen. aeon.co/essays/one-w...

Morning. Turns out that 3 of my books are eligible for the Anthropic Copyright Settlement class action claim. It's easy to file. See here for more info. www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

I'm endlessly fascinated by the subject of women and money, and this first person story I commissioned for Psyche is a classic gaslight swindle. Why are so many women pushovers for money-grabs dressed as courtship? psyche.co/turning-poin...

The fiction flagged up here looks to be the best crop of new books in a long while. I want to read them all (butt how - given I've got 30+ books to read now for the Queen Mary Small Press Prize) Lord give me more hours! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

This event has all the feels. I'll be chairing, asking what memoir can do that other forms can't, and how each of them was changed by writing theirs @lilydunn.bsky.social and @joannapocock.bsky.social dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/...

Always a joy to work with Jay Griffiths. Her unique understanding of our relationship to nature shines through this essay. @aeon.co aeon.co/essays/why-w...

Why Ai can't write my book. It's sycophantic, can't break with pattern recognition, flat, sad, it can't simulate emotional acuity, personality or experience on the ground. on.ft.com/47k2y5v

In politics, you never get fired for fucking up, you only get recycled.

This is a terrific piece. Timely and barbed. Brava @pollyrowena.bsky.social lithub.com/nature-is-no...

Mariam Abu Dagga, a Palestinian journalist whose photos captured the destruction in Gaza, died in an Israeli strike on Gaza's Nasser Hospital, the one she regularly documented. Here are some of the scenes Dagga captured during the war:

the far right also claim authority over British identity (whiteness), British symbols (flags), and history (colonialism as civilisation), myth-making around them, and making those symbols and discourses unpalatable to the Left.

What the screaming fuck is it going to take before western governments do more than furrowed eyebrows www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Morning inspo

Just donated to @unicef.org . Not virtue signalling just sharing utter despair over #GazaFAMINE. My grim believe is that Israel is deliberately killing children - so it won't have to face the righteous vengeance that will befall it tomorrow & tomorrow & tomorrow. Disgusted, disconsolate, beyond sad

Dogs can blow up families just as easily as they can glue them together. So says @lilydunn.bsky.social in this terrific piece psyche.co/stories-of-c...

The teaching season is upon us. I'm thrilled to be running at @arvonfoundation.bsky.social course - it's life writing with a focus on change/transformation. Co-teaching with the brilliant Miranda France. Guest is Ben Masters. www.arvon.org/writing-cour...

The quasi-dream states of night-waking and how they relate to creativity are so fascinating, as @lauracummingart.bsky.social shows observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

Virginia Woolf bemoaned her cotton-wool days when she couldn't distinguish one ordinary moment from the next, but in her fiction she celebrated just those moments! Diana Saverin considers Woolf in relation to her own cotton-wool days aeon.co/essays/like-...

What can I say? I have strong tastes when it comes to the #personalessay. Here's a preview of what you'll get if you sign up for my @faberacademy.bsky.social. @lilydunn.bsky.social I wonder if any of your mentees might be interested in this? faberacademy.com/reading-room...

I loved working on this piece on the doodle's place in modernism. Of esp interest to @andrewgallix.bsky.social @willrees.bsky.social aeon.co/essays/doodl...

Writer and publisher @richardnskinner.bsky.social invited 16 writers (me included) to pen an essay about cinema. Write on anything you want, he said. So we did. Many of the essays are personal, all of them are fascinating. Follow the link below to purchase your copy of The Carbon Arc.

Who can resist a half-price book?

Authors were misled, their sales figures low-balled, royalties delayed or unpaid, and reprints and marketing costs deducted from their profits. Authors are already last in line for profit - and least in line, typically receiving just 10%. Robbing them is scandalous. observer.co.uk/news/busines...