This does an excellent job of summarising a novel which (in my recent experience at book events) is very hard to summarise.

Kindle edition is £1.99 today until midnight. www.amazon.co.uk/Proof-My-Inn...

The Proof of My Innocence by @jonathancoe.bsky.social is a bargain £1.99 on Kindle today #affiliatelink amzn.to/4oUrfuV

Thank you Apple, but the file I’ve just downloaded is a text file so ideally I’d like you to find a way for me to read it, not ‘use it as my ring tone’.

Unfortunately, 'ideology over sense and pragmatism' has been the credo of the British right since 2016.

10/29/70: Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes Considered his most personal project More: @jonathancoe.bsky.social [AU of Mr. Wilder & Me]: theguardian.com/theobserver/... @cineoutsider.bsky.social: www.cineoutsider.com/reviews/blur... @aadowd.bsky.social: avclub.com/forty-years-...

Finally caught up with One Battle After Another and those have to be 165 of the most enjoyable and exciting minutes I've ever spent in the cinema. Thought it played at times like a mash-up of Running On Empty and Midnight Run, two of my favourite films of the 1980s.

AI “art” is boring because it can do anything, but means nothing. It’s as tedious as other people’s dreams or drug experiences. There’s no art without human connection and shared feeling.

This is a great film, well worth recording. Naunton Wayne (minus Basil Radford) especially good as the laconic detective. Surprised to learn it must be at least twenty years since I've seen it!

I've had a few new followers today so if you're already starting to regret it and looking for an excuse to unfollow, here's some shameless self-promotion to make it easier for you.

Pete Townsend and Prince in this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ show from the great Arthur Jafa at Sadie Coles HQ and Karma Ashadu at Camden Arts Centre...loved these shows @theobserveruk.bsky.social @timadamswrites.bsky.social observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

My 14-year-old self would never have guessed that, in 50 years' time, all the world's music would be available at the click of a button, you'd navigate the globe by carrying a tiny computer around in your pocket, and the US President would post a video of himself shitting over American citizens.

X is incredible these days. We all know social media erases nuance, but X has taken this much further. It's not enough to express a loud opinion there now: to get heard, you have to couch everything in terms of riot, civil war, societal collapse, the end of civilisation, apocalypse. It's exhausting.

I've had a few new followers today so if you're already starting to regret it and looking for an excuse to unfollow, here's some shameless self-promotion to make it easier for you.

I've had the pleasure of being interviewed by Mishal Husain three times. One of the most intelligent and accomplished people I've ever met. Here's Nigel Farage trying to shut her down with the words "Listen, love ..." like it was still the 1970s. I'd say it was unbelievable, only it isn't.

A bleak dystopia where Sharia law predominates, while economic and cultural divisions mean that the different communities live parallel, segregated lives. Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …

A Vintage Obscura track from the Obscure Records label. Beautiful setting of James Joyce (from an artist namechecked in my Rotters’ Club).

a truly amazing song

It's not out until Boxing Day, but last night I was lucky enough to see Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value. An amazingly moving, near-perfect family drama: up there with the best of Bergman. And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, this absolute beauty comes up over the end credits ...

I am once again begging you to boycott Tesla

Very interesting piece on why ‘free speech’ might have become the stick the American right has chosen to beat the British left with.

They also need better subs. Surely ‘European Union’ in this headline is a typo for ‘Daily Telegraph’?

Yes! We need more of this, to show there are more of us than there are of them. Well done Birmingham for leading the way.

All right, Mr Goldberg, two can play at that game. Privileged to spend an afternoon @bewdleyfestival.bsky.social with one of the great broadcasters of our time @goldbergradio.bsky.social

Did a double take when I saw this. Then again, I’ve been called worse.

I was amazed recently to discover an orchestral piece by Vaughan Williams that I'd never heard before. It was performed just once in his lifetime (12/11/1907). It's no Tallis Fantasia (the main influences are still Germanic - folk song and English hymnody hadn't really kicked in) but still ...

This was a while ago now but I remember it as a very enjoyable interview.

This morning I turned on my phone only to find that it had changed my user name to Shirley, and when I tried to enter a simple Google query it came out as "Do you like gladiator movies?" Then I realised it was in Airplane! mode.

I know Handsworth well. I love it. The Soho Road is one of the most vibrant streets in the world. I was attached to the library there for a writing project last year and I wrote a whole chunk about it in my book Hope And Glory. Read it if you get a chance

Thank you! I actually think the missing link is David Lodge. Talking about David at an event in B'ham recently, I realised what a large and direct debt Changing Places owes to BSJ's Travelling People (which he'd definitely read) ... 1/2

Tickets for my event at the Bewdley Festival on Saturday are selling like hot cakes.* *(During the notorious hot cake slump of 1857.)

In which I talk about three of my favourite books - including one by @katebeaton.bsky.social

In which I talk about anxiety as a motivating force, never being considered for the Booker, and an early novel that's become problematic.

To make a very obvious point, this is the second Nigel Farage takeover of the Conservative party. Twice he has made what were once relatively niche and hard-right opinions – leaving the EU and effectively ending asylum in the UK - the default view for Tory MPs.

Encountering the strange mixture of sadness and riotous absurdity at the heart of this show at the age of 15 changed my life. This is a wonderful and nuanced assessment, almost fifty years later.

"Still a handful of tickets left" (I think that's the preferred BlueSky euphemism) for my event here next Friday. www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/book-tickets/

Quelle surprise, @wtfrench76.bsky.social

I can’t believe I’m watching interviews of city mayors talking about how they are coordinating with other mayors to discuss how to protect their residents FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES I know we are “used to it” but it is absolutely insane

'I like the racism, but can I have a less expensive kind please?'

Peaceful morning by the side of Lac d’Annecy, reading Sally Carson’s novel of rising Nazism. What a book! No need to point out the many parallels with today. Thanks to Persephone Books for rediscovering/reissuing it.

Writing fiction in the third person past tense is starting to feel as stubbornly anachronistic as making studio sitcoms with a laughter track.

We’re living in an era of radical subjectivity. Truth has become much less important than what people feel to be true.

Predictable spin on today’s ugly announcement from our fash-hungry media.

There are presents, there are thoughtful presents, and there’s Ian Francis of Birmingham’s Flatpack Festival remembering an article you wrote for @lrb.co.uk three years ago and giving you an original piece of 1970s cinema memorabilia. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Have been waiting for someone to write this piece. This is such a weird and sinister development.

When I was about 8, Pete Murray was who I wanted to be when I grew up. As for @joanarmatrading.bsky.social being on BlueSky and only having 305 followers … Come on, people!

Further proof that @susiedent.com is classy.

Not saying I’m feeling gloomy today but I just boarded a plane and when the guy at the desk asked what my final destination was the temptation to answer ‘the grave’ was almost overwhelming.