HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's 2026, and here to kick us off is @lucasoakeley.bsky.social, debut novelist, book influencer and food journalist, who'll be speaking to @jackaldane.bsky.social at his favourite restaurant very, very soon. Get this year off to a good-food, good-book start!

Kasim Ali's top book rec for 2026, and the writer he would most like to take out to dinner. #HNY2026

The tensile poise it takes to write a life the way Szalay does in Flesh is the literary equivalent of performing a perfect iron cross. Just know that the author allows no friction between you and the story. Once you make contact, that’s it, you’re gone. A masterful work.

@jackaldane.bsky.social met Kasim Ali at Salim’s on Turnpike Lane. Take a peek , have a listen 👀 🎧 @4thestatebooks.bsky.social 🔗 youtu.be/N7z_Zxtq2EQ?...

@jackaldane.bsky.social met Kasim Ali at Salim’s on Turnpike Lane. Take a peek , have a listen 👀 🎧 @4thestatebooks.bsky.social 🔗 youtu.be/N7z_Zxtq2EQ?...

Author of 📚Who Will Remain📚 Kasim Ali speaks to @jackaldane.bsky.social about growing up in Alum Rock in Birmingham, and the attitude many gang members have towards knife crime and culpability. @4thestatebooks.bsky.social 🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7z_...

I'm biased but if this Christmas you are looking for silly, warm, dark, complex novel about an antique dealer who lives with a hyper-intelligent semi-aquatic folkloric creature who loves knitting, might I recommend this? It's quite weird and not for everyone but some people seem to think it's ok...

Author of 📚Who Will Remain📚 Kasim Ali speaks to @jackaldane.bsky.social about growing up in Alum Rock in Birmingham, and the attitude many gang members have towards knife crime and culpability. @4thestatebooks.bsky.social 🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7z_...

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

🚨 LAST EPISODE of 2025 is UP! @jackaldane.bsky.social & author Kasim Ali meet at Salim’s, the Pakistani restaurant in Turnpike Lane, to discuss his second novel 📚 Who Will Remain 📚, a story about growing up with your back against the wall in Alum Rock in Birmingham. 🔗 youtu.be/N7z_Zxtq2EQ?...

🚨 LAST EPISODE of 2025 is UP! @jackaldane.bsky.social & author Kasim Ali meet at Salim’s, the Pakistani restaurant in Turnpike Lane, to discuss his second novel 📚 Who Will Remain 📚, a story about growing up with your back against the wall in Alum Rock in Birmingham. 🔗 youtu.be/N7z_Zxtq2EQ?...

Last episode of The Booking Club in 2025 brings @jackaldane.bsky.social together with Kasim Ali to discuss Kasim's intense new novel📚Who Will Remain📚 They met at Salim's on Turnpike Lane. @4thestatebooks.bsky.social

No slow start to 2026 for @mymartinamis.bsky.social.

📣IN THE NEW YEAR… David Szalay, winner of the 2025 Booker Prize for his latest novel 🏆📚Flesh📚🏆, tells @jackaldane.bsky.social how #MartinAmis spurred him to deal with sordidness, how it made him a better writer, and the story behind his favourite Amis work. @thebookerprizes.com @thetls.bsky.social

Post a book you love from the 80s. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #BookSky #bookchallenge #readingchallenge #readingcommunity #booktok #bookish #books

🔊 In 2026... Irish novelist Rob Doyle, author of📚Here Are the Young Men, 📚This Is the Ritual, 📚Threshold, + a forthcoming novel 📚Cameo, meets @jackaldane.bsky.social to discuss how #MartinAmis has shaped his life as a writer. Do. Not. Miss. ALL EPISODES 2023-2025: www.youtube.com/@mymartinami...

Join @jackaldane.bsky.social and Kasim Ali on December’s episode of The Booking Club ❄️ @4thestatebooks.bsky.social

Join @jackaldane.bsky.social and Kasim Ali on December’s episode of The Booking Club ❄️ @4thestatebooks.bsky.social

Happy Sunday from Les Deux Magots in Paris

This Podcast series, My Martin Amis, hosted by Jack Aldane, was Vg++. Linked to fave ep (on Spotify) which is about Amis’s arcade games bk, but the whole series acts as a critical assessment, and obituary, and celebration of Martin Amis and his fiction & non-fiction open.spotify.com/episode/2OQR...

‼️ NEW EPISODE from #BattleFest 2025 Celebrate Franz Kafka’s The Trial at 100 with @jackaldane.bsky.social and guests @nickwallis.bsky.social , @johnyorkestory.bsky.social and Maxie Allen 📺 youtu.be/AkOsfe6apwY?...

Maxie Allen and his wife finally received compensation from Hertfordshire Police this week for being wrongly held on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications. @nickwallis.bsky.social gave his thoughts on the ordeal at #battlefest. 🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkOs...

This week, Hertfordshire Police accepted liability for wrongly holding Maxie Allen and his wife for 11 hours on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications. At #battlefest, Maxie told the whole story. @nickwallis.bsky.social @johnyorkestory.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkOs...

Are the figures who stoke the fires of bureaucracy in Franz Kafka's The Trial the novel's true victims? @jackaldane.bsky.social @nickwallis.bsky.social @johnyorkestory.bsky.social FULL EPISODE🔗https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkOsfe6apwY

I wrote a review of Anika Jade Levy's excellent debut novel Flat Earth. jackaldane.substack.com/p/flat-earth...

‼️ NEW EPISODE from #BattleFest 2025 Celebrate Franz Kafka’s The Trial at 100 with @jackaldane.bsky.social and guests @nickwallis.bsky.social , @johnyorkestory.bsky.social and Maxie Allen 📺 youtu.be/AkOsfe6apwY?...

The world has changed a lot since Lawrence Osborne’s 📚 The Ballad of a Small Player 📚 was published in 2014… @jackaldane.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social 🔗 youtu.be/FmDE-0zeOwk

The world has changed a lot since Lawrence Osborne’s 📚 The Ballad of a Small Player 📚 was published in 2014… @jackaldane.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social 🔗 youtu.be/FmDE-0zeOwk

Check out Lawrence Osborne’s top book rec of 2025, plus the author he would ideally take to dinner. FULL EPISODE OUT NOW: youtu.be/FmDE-0zeOwk?...

Check out Lawrence Osborne’s top book rec of 2025, plus the author he would ideally take to dinner. FULL EPISODE OUT NOW: youtu.be/FmDE-0zeOwk?...

In which York Underwood asks whether novels can ever be successfully adapted into movies and gives a very flattering take on @bookingclubpod.bsky.social by way of @theresthistory.bsky.social. 🔗 substack.com/home/post/p-...

If you think America is a materialistic culture, you don't know China, says the novelist Lawrence Osborne on the latest episode with @jackaldane.bsky.social. FULL EPISODE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmDE...

If you think America is a materialistic culture, you don't know China, says the novelist Lawrence Osborne on the latest episode with @jackaldane.bsky.social. FULL EPISODE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmDE...

This is Defune, London's longest-standing Japanese restaurant, where @jackaldane.bsky.social met novelist Lawrence Osborne on the latest episode to discuss The Ballad of a Small Player. 🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmDE...

⏰ NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! @jackaldane.bsky.social meets Lawrence Osborne, author of acclaimed novel 📚The Ballad of a Small Player 📚, now an adapted screenplay on @netflix.com #balladofasmallplayer. 🔗 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... 🔗 spotify.link/Onwph4u8QXb 🔗 shows.acast.com/5eb2ec99ca79...

⏰ NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! @jackaldane.bsky.social meets Lawrence Osborne, author of acclaimed novel 📚The Ballad of a Small Player 📚, now an adapted screenplay on @netflix.com #balladofasmallplayer. 🔗 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... 🔗 spotify.link/Onwph4u8QXb 🔗 shows.acast.com/5eb2ec99ca79...

🗓️ IN NOVEMBER… …you can watch our full live show from #battlefest 2025, in which we marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of Franz Kafka’s The Trial @jackaldane.bsky.social @nickwallis.bsky.social @johnyorkestory.bsky.social

🗓️ IN NOVEMBER… …you can watch our full live show from #battlefest 2025, in which we marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of Franz Kafka’s The Trial @jackaldane.bsky.social @nickwallis.bsky.social @johnyorkestory.bsky.social

Happy Birthday Josef K. 🎂 😬 Thanks to Maxie Allen @nickwallis.bsky.social and @johnyorkestory.bsky.social for a superbly compressed conversation about The Trial and it’s dark resonance 100 years after publication. Full episode to come!

@drmatthewsweet.bsky.social's Top Book recommendation of 2025, and the writer he would most like to join for dinner.

Happening tomorrow! Come along!

👀 UP NEXT! Author of The Ballad of a Small Player Lawrence Osborne meets @jackaldane.bsky.social at #Defune, London's longest-standing Japanese restaurant to discuss the novel and its dazzling adaptation now available on @netflix.com!

@drmatthewsweet.bsky.social and @jackaldane.bsky.social got talking about Barbara Cartland on the latest episode - the third best-selling author in history behind William Shakespeare and Agatha Christie😲 NOW FEATURING THE REAL BARBARA! FULL EPIOSDE🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOs...

out there living my best performative female life* *sitting on the tube, reading a WWI book

@drmatthewsweet.bsky.social and @jackaldane.bsky.social got talking about Barbara Cartland on the latest episode - the third best-selling author in history behind William Shakespeare and Agatha Christie😲 FULL EPISODE🔗https://t.co/Yv5lr0T0Ko

At #BattleFest on 18th Oct @jackaldane.bsky.social will be hosting The Booking Club LIVE AND joining a panel to discuss #JaneAusten at 250. See who'll be there: www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/jane... Use code ‘BOOKCLUB’ for 20% off TICKETS: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/battle-of-...

A message from Lawrence Osborne, author of The Ballad of a Small Player 👀

I also listened to this which has a shout out to @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social books

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