Is ‘Monocle’ just Tatler for tech bros? It’s quite odd and everything is badly lit

The Rapture is tomorrow, apparently, so you know, extra sandwiches for us godless fucks or whatever. I didn’t read to the end of the email they sent about it. Sorry.

We don’t say enough in praise of spite!

It would be funny if there was an author who *only* published blurbs, just thousands and thousands of blurbs over an entire life. Everyone just sees the name on blurbs everywhere and assumes they're a very well-known author but no, it's all blurbs

‘The Good Liar’ is about the perils of speaking the truth in a world full of cowards and liars. Or it’s just a big dumb mystery. You chose.

I always love chatting with thee legend @damedenisemina.bsky.social, and I'm delighted she'll join me at The Stand in Glasgow, Oct 9, 2.30pm - discussing her brilliant thriller, The Good Liar, and also some of her favourite Scottish LPs, films & books. Join us! www.akickupthearts.org/live-events/...

Old Soldier Syndrome: Klein got abuse for saying Biden should step down and was proved right. He talks about it often. Now he runs towards opprobrium, less and less able to gauge what is and isn’t worth dying on the wire for. See JK Rowling. It’s addictive.

Look at my new Thermos flask tho

Why is South Park not airing this week? 🤔

‘Nazi parties always splinter because everyone wants to be Hitler’

Luckily, Sinclair has a helpful database of all their stations, so you can see if they're operating in your area and respond accordingly. sbgi.net/tv-stations/

“This isn’t the America I know” Black People:

Jimmy Kimmel being censored has sent shockwaves throughout the antifa extremist leftist community, who were relying on his show for instructions on how to make chemical weapons

It wasn’t ‘Disney’, it was someone at Disney acting on the orders of someone in government. This is McCarthyism #2, operated by faceless chief execs hiding behind the veil of incorporation.

When the news is overwhelmingly grim I tell myself that something miraculously glamorous is just about to happen. You’ll see, I tell myself, any minute now. But it never does.

A Black man and a homeless man were found hanging from trees in Mississippi yesterday, for those who haven’t seen yet because it’s barely made it out of local news.

Watched ‘The Natural’ in honour of himself. Hot take: he’s good at rounders.

This is most of us (Tariq Ashkanani excepted) loosing the McIlvanny Prize at the #BloodyScotland festival. What a brilliant weekend!

The fantastic David Stirling Monument near Dunblane. He founded the SAS, was air dropped behind enemy lines and did it all in duffle coat.

Loved talking to Ian McEwan (& @damedenisemina.bsky.social!) on BBCRadio4 #TakeFourBooks about climate, memory & the way the past haunts the present in his new @jonathancape.bsky.social novel WHAT WE CAN KNOW with 3 influences incl the epic Footsteps by Richard Holmes www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Charlie Kirk was a vile human being who monetised hate and social division.

This was such good fun to record

Let’s honor Charlie Kirk’s death by demanding the release of the Epstein files.

This pod is fabulously listenable and fun

What a week! First evidence of you raping children is published by the WSJ and then, distractingly, a close associate is murdered in public by a shooter no one can find. Fucking hell.

Anyone else’s email randomly block addresses like Dropbox?

They're calling it the easiest to lose iPhone of all time

But her stamp duty www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Epstein’s birthday book is so sickening it’s making me hate friendship groups

The Good Liar by @damedenisemina.bsky.social is a bargain 99p on Kindle today #affiliatelink amzn.to/4mRcSXp

Strathclyde University honoured me with a DLit this year. Here, I’m flanked by Prof Neil Hutton, my academic supervisor I let down by dropping out of my PhD when Garnethill was published, and Prof Pete Robson, genius and aerobics class buddy.

This time last week we al thought he was dead. Good times.

The answer to ‘Why is true crime big rn’?

Announcing our McIlvanney Prize finalists: @tariqashkanani.bsky.social - The Midnight King @liammcilvanney.bsky.social - The Good Father @callummcsorley.bsky.social - Paperboy @damedenisemina.bsky.social - The Good Liar @ianrankin1.bsky.social - Midnight and Blue Winner revealed next Friday! 👏👏👏

Yeah, Baby!! Delighted to see The Good Liar on such a prestigious shortlist! www.thebookseller.com/news/ian-ran...

Timeline cleanse

FYI: Fortnum’s unwilling to print ‘fuck you’ on a gift card. Tell the kids.

luke i am your lawyer

Just seen someone confidently assert that ‘Jews planted dinosaur bones to test your faith.’ If that was true I would have planted some cooler ones in Aotearoa- at the moment we just have a single ankylosaur specimen and we all have to share it.

This makes me wish I still smoked

Lovely interview with the inestimable Scott Montgomery about the origins of ‘The Good Liar’. (Scott, a gentleman, signs off his emails ‘thank you kindly’) www.thehardword.org/single-post/...

Book signing are torture for this very reason

I can see his mitochondrial challenges from my house.

Just finished The Good Liar by @damedenisemina.bsky.social — a fab read!!

Evergreen

Spot of lunch

You’ll know when you see orange smoke coming out of The White House chimney.

The glorious ‘Sultana Cinema’ in Zanzibar, renamed ‘Cine Afrique’ after the 1964 Revolution, currently being used as a tourist office

Off the Shelf podcast is interviewing all 13 authors longlisted for this year's McIlvanney Prize (Phoebe's talk with @damedenisemina.bsky.social is ace), listen to them here: creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/... My interview goes live next week @bloodyscotland.bsky.social @panmacmillan.bsky.social

I will remind folks those images of Nazi book burnings aren't burning just any books. They're burning the library of Magnus Hirschfeld; a gay, Jewish doctor who created an institute dedicated to LGBTQ sex education and healthcare. And a man who pioneered gender affirming care surgeries.