AI coming for John Crace

I can tell you what Blink cuts out: Everything that makes a book worth reading. A plot synopsis isn't a novel-- and a plot synopsis has never made anyone Feel anything. Carry on, world. Wonder why there's no meaning in your life. I'll continue reading whole books written by people.

This week in The Book Bag it's a warm welcome back to Chris Campbell with his new collection 'Why I Wear My Past To Work' published by Parlyaree Press. Playlist, news and shoutouts as standard. These are poems to return to time and again, it feels like having a conversation with a friend ...

This film takes us deeper into its world of disreputable book scouts. We meet - still alive and thoroughly respectable - Michael Moorcock and Alan Moore. Then there's David Seabrook (dead), Michael Stone (dead) and Driffield (disappeared, though see the recent court case).

Some lovely news! ❤️❤️❤️

Child me would love that grown up me is reading this - Literary Hauntings Tartarus Press. Like one of those old Peter Underwood Gazetteers of British & Irish Ghosts but fictional: from Victorian & Edwardian classics to contemporary folk horror. Inc Blurry B&W location shots & postcode refs too 👻 📕

Tonight! Join us at The Bridge Inn in Bristol for the launch of ‘Why I Wear My Past to Work’. With six top Bristol poets followed by open mic! 🎉 From 7pm! 🎙️ @tomsastry.bsky.social @basementofmybrain.bsky.social @sophiedumont.bsky.social @parlyareepress.bsky.social

Please read this piece by @patrickbarkham.bsky.social about his daughter Milly and Lyme Disease. It's important and impacts so many more people than most of us realise. Get well soon Milly ♥️ ·

This is a piece I wrote about what England increasingly feels like, and how a kind of social humidity - stifling, uneasy - sweeps in from the South Coast www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... if only the actual leadership spoke like this and acted on it.

www.theguardian.com/environment/... And for his next trick, running scared of right wing climate deniers… “Starmer [urged] to attend the crucial Cop30 climate summit this November, after aides advised him not to attend for fear of attracting the ire of the Reform party.”

**OPEN AUDITIONS CLOSE SEPT 27TH** So far, 71 poets have auditioned to feature in @iambapoet.com in either 2026 or 2027. Of those, 53 have secured places. Another 50+ spaces are waiting to be taken by talented poets – poets like YOU! Don't let this opportunity pass you by. iambapoet.com/audition

www.theguardian.com/environment/... “This is nature’s emergency recovery mechanism. We’ve buggered almost everything up but this will still bring them back.”

www.theguardian.com/society/2025... ““Little progress has been made in opening up positions of power, with those from private schools maintaining a vice-like grip on the most important roles.”

I wrote something about feeling like a guest in a country that is my home. bestforbritain.substack.com/p/my-place-o...

When I grew up in London it was a different place - not better. It was less vibrant, more divided, more rundown, unhealthier, more casually violent. It's not perfect now - no place is - but it's broadly a success story. If you don't like it, fine, your choice. Leave it to the rest of us to enjoy it.

1/2 A couple of weeks ago I was expecting a parcel. When I clicked on tracked delivery, it had been taken to a completely different address & signed for with a scrawl, by someone I’d never heard of. I contacted the sender, who chased Royal Mail, who said they’d made a mistake…

The discredited Washington Post just fired its last black full-time opinion writer for being insufficiently grief-stricken at the murder of Charlie Kirk. Please read her full post.

Excellent to see Labour MPs call on the government to leave Elon Musk's hate-filled X. Doing so would spark an exodus of journalists & public bodies. Thank you @bengoldsborough.bsky.social @sarahowen.org.uk @alexballingermp.bsky.social www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Reposting because it seems like a good time to remember how to deal with the politics of racism and how politicians and newspapers can draw red lines if they want to

Labour MPs today call for new legislation to extend a right of responsible access to more English landscapes, and for the right to swim and wild camp to be enshrined in law @righttoroam.bsky.social inputted to this new report from the APPG for access to nature: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

It's here! 🥳 Time to get lost in the everything-always of poetry.

I think about this poem by Ian Duhig — about Jo Cox, the Labour MP assassinated by a man shouting ‘Britain first’ — every day at the moment. No other contemporary poet has looked so clearly at the political reality of the far right as a minority who must always be appeased

After making a dumb joke on here about the creative side of academic writing as "unfunded hobbit research", I then wrote a serious post about it

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv... Of all the things a government minister could have said about this. And that’s the take. So piss-weak and craven. Free speech is nationalist thugs being allowed to march. It’s not the “Labour” government encouraging them. FFS.

Ruin a song by adding the word ‘literally’ to the title. I’ll start. Love will literally tear us apart.

‘A suburban mythic, eerie conceit, half-attractive, half-repulsive and near impossible to picture’ Matt Gilbert from ‘Street Sailing’ 🚤 🏙️ @richlyevocative.bsky.social www.blackboughpoetry.com/matt-gilbert #poetry #writing

A massive, dangerous and disgusting scandal, of which far too few people are yet aware. At @fightingdirty.bsky.social we'll keep pushing to stop it. Congrats to @rachelsalvidge.bsky.social for continuing to shine the light: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

NOTHING will prepare you for this 45-second story arc. From "I'm just doing this because I love the flag, it's totally grassroots, and I'm not part of anything political"... to who actually gave him the flags the night before. Anyone who believes it is an innocent movement needs to see this.

The #ClimateEmergency and #NatureCrisis are intimately interlinked. And #Insectageddon really matters: "Insects are necessary for terrestrial and fresh-water ecosystems to function." phys.org/news/2025-09...

It's almost like young people are interested in institutions facing up to their history in a frank and nuanced way www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

My poem ‘A Solar Diversion’ first published in Acumen 112, is now a guest poem up on the site - you can read it here acumen-poetry.co.uk/matt-gilbert/ ☀️🌍

Just a reminder that submissions are OPEN! …And that submissions are free and Dust is free to read and volunteer run. If you are ever able to, we have a kofi page and do so appreciate donations of any amount to cover the cost of keeping Dust running online: ko-fi.com/dustpoetryma... Thank you 💜

As @greenparty.org.uk has always said, the #BadgerCull is unscientific, unjustified, inhumane and disastrous for the #Biodiversity on these battered islands protectthewild.substack.com/p/over-23000...

‘Those glass-eyed blocks of flats and former warehouses – squat-square-silent‘ 🏙️ ‘Canalside nocturne’ by @richlyevocative.bsky.social #poetry #writing #poetic #poet #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

On the same day in the Telegraph:

www.theguardian.com/environment/... “the UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU, despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards.”

I am absolutely thrilled to have five pieces published & beautifully presented on the splendid @lothlorienpoetryj.bsky.social site, edited by that great member of the #poetrycommunity @stridermarcusjones.bsky.social #poetsonbluesky #poetry #writingcommunity #booksky

Boiler plate BBC justification for Farage & Reform’s ubiquity on their outlets. Can’t agree the fact he’s popular merits regular free pass. Op Polls - often driven by media coverage - used to explain why this 4 MP business receives more airtime than Greens with same or Lib Dems with dozens more.

Shocked beyond belief to hear (via the shop’s IG account) of the death of Jonathan Main, the stalwart of Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace. I only met Jon once but we chatted online for years and he was so very funny, interesting, and knowledgable (with apt cynicism) about the book world. RIP Jon.

Peckham Cherries. One of my poems which can be found in the excellent Northern Gravy Anthology of Poetry. Buying one will be a real help, they’ve just had ACE funding cut. More details at northerngravy.com #poetry #northerngravy

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... “According to the bizarre rules of the rightwing press, she cannot participate in cultural events without betraying her roots, she cannot have a personal life without insinuation, she cannot eat without censure…”