Also, here's me chuffed as fuck to be in STUDIO 2 IN ABBEY ROAD!!!

By the way, if youse are in London Town this is ace! Bloody marvellous.

5?!? Door Into Summer As We Go Along Mary, Mary Nine Times Blue Lady's Baby

Amazing!

It's Paul McCartney's birthday. You've probably noticed. So here's your semi-regular reminder that We All Stand Together is an utterly charming and lovely piece of music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVfa...

i wrote myself about Scotland’s rich heritage of translating modernist big hitters last year: open.substack.com/pub/sigmapor...

😁😁😁

This is a lovely piece by Pete Paphides and like all the best writing it manages to put its finger on something that you realise you’ve been trying to explain yourself.

Love rules. Love laughs. Love marches. Love is the wolf that guards the gate… —Edwin Morgan, “Love” published in A BOOK OF LIVES, @carcanet.bsky.social 2011 #BookWormSat #poem #poetry #PrideMonth 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ www.carcanet.co.uk/978185754918...

Are you an emerging writer of colour based in Scotland? The Kavya Prize could be for you. Part of our New Writers Awards, the Kavya Prize supports you with a bursary, mentoring, a writing retreat and the chance to showcase your work to the industry. www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-...

Oh god, I've been infected by all the Tartan Army videos in Boston on Instagram. I'm bloody staying up to watch the game now. 🎶 Na na na na na na na na na na na na... 🎶

🙌🙌

The folks at @literaryhub.bsky.social were kind enough to publish an extract from LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, all about Spark's idea of the 'intellectual monster' (a woman who, horror of horrors, isn't all that fussed about men and marriage) lithub.com/an-intellect...

With by-elections on the horizon in Makerfield and North-East Scotland, @tippermuirbooks.bsky.social's @mcinrob.bsky.social looks back at Scotland's most extraordinary electoral contest in the latest BfS feature. Click the link below! booksfromscotland.com/2026/06/an-o...

Interesting article on using LLMs to aid fearless creativity.

Oh hi there! Just me, casually appearing from a behind a big stack of US editions of LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, because the book's out in America today! A huge thank you to @princetonupress.bsky.social 🐈‍⬛ Buy it here! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

New EggPod Express online! Available anywhere you pod! This, then, is part 1 of @petepaphides.bsky.social discussing the 8 April 1967 issue of Record Mirror with Chris Shaw

Still can’t quite believe this happened. Pinching myself. On Radio 4 at 4pm today: James Naughtie and a studio audience interviewing me about Scabby Queen. Some of the audience responses went really deep: really interested to see what makes the cut! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

'A thoroughly disquieting depiction of voyeurism, mania and deadly self-estrangement, on which Spark worked intensely over a few short weeks and finished from a hospital bed. “I frightened myself writing it”, she later recalled.' James Bailey on The Driver’s Seat by #MurielSpark buff.ly/JtnRonc

REMINDER: scammers are targeting translators using my name, pretending to be "head of talent" at Charco Press to get work. Some have fallen for the scams so to reiterate: - I do not approach translators on behalf of Charco. I am Operations Manager at Charco only. - Do not reply to such approaches!

We're delighted to celebrate the publication of a new scholarly edition of 'A Green Tree in Gedde (1965)', co-edited by Dr Paul Malgrati of UHI Institute for Northern Studies and Colin McIlroy of the National Library of Scotland. asls.org.uk/publications...

Douglas Stuart talks about his new novel, JOHN OF JOHN. He discusses the novel’s origins, the communities & landscapes that shape his characters, & why he continues to write about the kind of people mainstream British fiction so often overlooks 💙📚 www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOP1...

We are pleased to announce the Translation Fund is open for a new round until the end of August. This fund, supported by @creativescots.bsky.social offers financial support to international publishers seeking to translate Scottish writers. www.publishingscotland.org/what-we-do/s...

New EggPod Express online! Available anywhere you pod! This, then, is part 2 of @quantick.bsky.social discussing the 14 May 1966 issue of DISC and Music Echo with Chris Shaw

Very first review of #Raveheart is out and it’s a belter 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🕶️ Thanks to @bookyvikki.bsky.social and @scotsman.com for checking out the new novel 🙌 #GraemeArmstrong

same concert rehearsal with Bowie returning the favor youtu.be/46YZ8evUfKk?...

You know what we don't talk enough about? Queen & Annie Lennox/David Bowie rehearsing 'Under Pressure' in 1992. So much going on! Everyone's clothes, Bowie with a lit cig throughout, where Annie PROPER GOES FOR IT, George Michael singing along in the background. The amazing vocals. Yes, please!

And we are live! Massive thanks to everyone who contributed to this. Reading your posts made me so much madder than I ever knew was possible

The tears of Gene Hackman, the sparkle of Jeanne Moreau, Jessica Lange talking about De Niro, and so much more. Plus Lipton's Paris revelations will blow your mind! davehaslam.substack.com/p/the-king-o...

ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO Don’t miss it on Sky Documentaries at 9pm, Thursday 28th May! Also available on the Sky Store: www.skystore.com/product/one-... Set in 1972 New York, explore John and Yoko's world as well as restored footage from John’s only post-Beatles concert. Set your reminders!

Ach, they're so godamned cute! 😁

Behind on my podcast listening, but a delight to listen to this while I fail at DIY. I do have a soft spot for Cilla, but I agree on her 'loud' voice! 😁

Agnes Owens: Out of the Margins Agnes Owens (1926–2014) was born 100 years ago #OTD, 24 May. This short film presents Owens as a writer shaped by working-class life, whose fiction exposed power, resisted sentimentality, & centred overlooked voices. A 🎂🧵 💙📚 1/7 www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkYR...

It's the centenary of the wonderful Agnes Owens' birth today, so here's the longread I wrote on her life/work. It has interviews with her son; her 1st publisher, @peterkravitz.bsky.social; @sorchadallas.bsky.social; some of those who wrote introductions to the new edition & @damianbarr.bsky.social.

New on the blog today, I've written about A WORKING MOTHER by Agnes Owens. A prickly, slightly surreal portrait of the frustrations of marriage, work & motherhood, oscillating between barbed humour & dismal tragedy, all narrated by a woman on the edge. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/05/24/a...

Thanks John! #LongLongRoad

I know I should think of the Beach Boys at the beginning of Long Long Road, but I was listening to Kylie earlier on and it reminds me of the beginning of Especially for You! 😆 #LongLongRoad

Magical Mystery Tour vibes in Choose Love. #LongLongRoad

Returning Without Tears is a lovely opener. He really suits singing with Molly. #LongLongRoad

The last sentence in this article is most crucial "They also need to recognise that some people might not be able to work". What we're likely to see with this change is an increase in sanctions. Fit notes are already increasingly not being accepted by DWP leading to sanctions. I honestly despair.

It’s Agnes Owens’s centenary on Sunday. I was thrilled to be able to write about her life and her bitterly funny books for @theobserveruk.bsky.social, talking to her family, her first readers (“What the fuck is this?!”), her first publisher, and fans like Douglas Stuart:

Kathleen Jamie’s new book of poems, Cairn, is, writes David Wheatley (@nemoloris.bsky.social), “a luminous fragment, communing powerfully with lost unities beyond our ken.”

The audio version of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. This week: Depression, Curtis Mayfield, and why - IMIO - we are better off listening to him than to Fearne Cotton. Keep on keeping on at www.patreon.com/backlisted.

With a lovely paragraph about the good folks at Birlinn! 😁

This is all so depressing. If we want a strong cultural life then we have to provide and support it. This continuing watering down is not the answer. Sigh.

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs can only be brought to you by the generosity of loyal Patreon supporters. Join a community of over 14,000, support the podcast and gain access to a back catalogue of bonus episodes! For as little as $1!

Pre-orders are now open for The Kirk, the Deil and the Grue Atween by Orkadian scholar Barbara Stevenson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 What defines Scottish Gothic, specifically, what separates it from traditional Gothic fiction yet keeps it in that mould? @booksfromscotland.bsky.social

A lovely day for Belle Media Scotland at the the Scottish Book Trade Fair in #Edinburgh. So many great conversations & plenty of excitement about stories, books & what’s still to come. A lovely reminder of how special the Scottish book community really is 📖. @publishingscotland.bsky.social

Dive into David Robinson's interview with John Lister-Kaye as they discusses his new book, Osprey! 🪶 🔗 Click the link below! booksfromscotland.com/2026/05/davi...