Some weekend reading from me. First up, a terrific edition of the Writer’s Bookshelf with @jwikeley.bsky.social. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-writer...

My Dad died ten years ago today, so I'm sharing again an essay I wrote a few years ago for New Humanist about Alzheimer's and his last months. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/walking-in...

Ann Wroe's obituaries are reliably the best thing in the Economist. And anywhere else for that matter.

Strangely overshadowed by Hughes and Larkin, possibly because of her intense interiority and faith, there are many who are finding her work resonates today. This one expresses both the shape of spiritualism and her sympathetic feel for art. Nature coming up next. @mathewlyons.bsky.social

ZOMG! first sight of a finished copy of Phantom at the Feast, published 18 June by No Exit Press. The return of London cop DS Rex King… I hope you enjoy it!🫡🙏✊@bedsqpublishers.bsky.social — (Check out the cover image from London photographer Chris Dorley-Brown!) #writinglife #books #detectivenovels

I’ve written more about statistics of the Guardian’s 100 best novels list, including: – Books that just missed out – Two errors in the data (Cather and Camus lost out) – Best novelists – Alternative rankings – Weirdest and least-weird ballots mpaldridge.github.io/blog/guardia...

I went on the Uncanny Landscapes podcast to discuss the complex natural and social history of Epping Forest, the problems of rewilding and nature cure orthodoxy, sex, and instinctual fear of woodland at night. Images from Epping Forest, earlier. uncannylandscapes.podbean.com

A clip from my interview on Times Radio yesterday, talking about The Umbrella Man and Other Stories

Dear All, I've started a Substack for the lesser travelled corners of music, books, food and booze. Here I am on master crime writer Nicolas Freeling's lesser known - but equally brilliant - food writing... harrysword.substack.com/p/freeling-o...

The Quietus is 90% funded by subscribers, and we need another 500 this spring to help us fight the AI-pocalypse – with this in mind, there's a huge sale on our top tier subscriptions. If you like what we do, here's how you can help: thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

Really enjoyed this and, as a regular Writer's Bookshelf reader, was very flattered to be asked! Thank you @mathewlyons.bsky.social.

The recent interview of Melissa Harrison by @mathewlyons.bsky.social in which she said that Elizabeth Jennings is undervalued as a poet has inspired me to read some of my favourites. I will try to give a sense of her unique talent and range over the next few days. Let me know what you think?

Some lunchtime reading!

This is just superb.

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf this morning: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the great @jwikeley.bsky.social. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-writer...

One of the things that strikes me about the Guardian 100 novels thing. Outside of the top ten there really isn't much consensus – you're already down below 20 votes. In the 90s you're down to three votes.

Some weekend reading from me. First up, a fabulous edition of the Writer's Bookshelf with Melissa Harrison, whose new novel The Given World is out this week. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-writer...

Some weekend reading from me. First up, a fabulous edition of the Writer's Bookshelf with Melissa Harrison, whose new novel The Given World is out this week. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-writer...

Burton was an explorer, colonial administrator, and object of horrified fascination to the Victorian public. His widow buried him in a mausoleum in the shape of a tent in suburban London - beautifully described and photographed by @mathewlyons.bsky.social here: bsky.app/profile/math...

Some lunchtime reading from me!

Particularly enthused by the praise for ‘BB’, a writer I loved as a kid, and seems now to be somewhat forgotten. There’s a ‘Little Grey Men’ trail in the Brixworth Country Park, he was, essentially, a rural Northamptonshire writer.

🔊Latest pod drop - a chat with Professor Lucy Munro about The Malone Society, our wonderful sponsors who produce beautiful editions of pre-modern plays, and more. #theatre #drama #history #MaloneSociety audioboom.com/posts/890164...

I wrote about the Catholic-Sufi mausoleum in Mortlake that houses the bodies of Sir Richard Burton and his wife – newly reopened to the public after seventy years. Link in next post.

I think Melissa Harrison writes so beautifully here about Philip Larkin and the complicated thoughts and feelings he evokes, and perhaps embodies. (I second her recommendation of Elizabeth Jennings, fwiw!) Link in next post.

Partly self-interested as I have guest spoken at the University of Hertfordshire now and again, but it is a place of excellence in all forms of the humanities, and the threat to the departments is ridiculous. Do sign if you can: c.org/s8B55BPkdH

I think Melissa Harrison writes so beautifully here about Philip Larkin and the complicated thoughts and feelings he evokes, and perhaps embodies. (I second her recommendation of Elizabeth Jennings, fwiw!) Link in next post.

My brilliant friend David Barraclough has launched a new literary agency in partnership with Nigel Proktor. If you write about music, film or other aspects of popular culture, drop them a line! hellfirebooks.co.uk

Heather O’Donoghue’s brilliant introduction to Beowulf is out in paperback this week from Bloomsbury. Here’s my review, written for Engelsberg Ideas when it was first published. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/review-beo...

Melissa's edition of the Writer's Bookshelf is well worth spending some time with. Put the kettle on. Pull up a chair.

After three years of work, The Bigger Picture: Connected Worlds of Bruges 900–1550 has opened at BRUSK in Bruges. A short 🧵

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf this morning: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the peerless Melissa Harrison.

Some weekend reading from me. First up, my regular round-up of new history and non-fiction. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/medieval-h...

Really sorry to be missing the London launch of @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social's exquisitely moving debut collection Little Griefs this evening.

Really enjoyed this. Someone's put together all of Elvis Costello's various thoughts and memories of Bob Dylan. substack.com/home/post/p-...

This is a great review of this enjoyable and illuminating new biography by a writer who has a great gift for concise summary, extracting key themes, and making you want to read the book being recommended. Fortunately I am immune this time as I have my own copy .😊

“I hate living in squalor – I detest it! – but I can’t do the work I want to do and live in any other way.”

Some lunchtime reading.

I’ve written about Peter Ackroyd’s remarkable new biography of Auden. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/auden-by-p...

Tuesday #morningread Norman MacCaig’s ‘Greenshank’

For anyone who missed this yesterday - archive.ph/GGQJL

1/ 🧵 The Festival of Britain opened this day in 1951 - according to its official guide a 'united act of national reassessment, and [a] corporate reaffirmation of faith in the nation’s future’.

New on the Writer's Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant Anton Howes.

✉️ Explore 145,000 medieval merchant letters as a live map: the correspondence network of Francesco di Marco Datini (c.1363–1412), spanning Florence to Barcelona to North Africa. Visualise routes, travel times & seasonality. docuracy.github.io/datini/ #DigitalHumanities #MedievalHistory

My latest round-up of recent history and non-fiction books mathewlyons.substack.com/p/medieval-h...

One final (for now) preorder exhortation, until I can think of another good reason to remind you. 👇🏻

🥳Cover reveal for 'Gladiators in the Greek World: How a Roman Bloodsport Took Ancient Greece by Storm'🥳 Now officially available to pre-order with an early bird discount (though I'm not sure the release date on the website is 100% set in stone yet) www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Gladiators-i...

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf this morning: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the wonderful Henry Eliot.

New #HardStreets @profilebooks.bsky.social event! Join me @ Fleet Street Quarter Festival of Words 12-1pm Fri 15 May. The fest theme is “The Age of Wisdom & Foolishness” so I’ll be talking about the Dickensian childhood of #CharlieChaplin & his family. Tix here! www.ticketsource.com/festival-of-...

It was an enormous pleasure to interview @peteralanross.bsky.social about his work. His latest book, Upon a White Horse, is out in paperback today. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/memory-pla...

It was an enormous pleasure to interview @peteralanross.bsky.social about his work. His latest book, Upon a White Horse, is out in paperback today. mathewlyons.substack.com/p/memory-pla...