an incredible window from the Church of St John in Whitbourne, Herefordshire

We asked Aliya Whiteley for her best books of 2025, a book she'd love for Xmas & her anticipated reads of 2026. Read the full article https://geni.us/SolarisBks2025 to find out why she picked @vajra.me @bentufnell.bsky.social & @annecharnock.bsky.social ! https://geni.us/misheardw

For 2026 let’s remind ourselves what really matters: weird fiction

Great piece by @chuckwendig.bsky.social

PARADISE by @bentufnell.bsky.social is published March 2026 www.influxpress.com/paradise

Many thanks to @charlieratpig.bsky.social for these words…..

Avoid Amazon. Shop Small! Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday. We hope you can get down to a brilliant local indie bookshop. If not, snap up a book and support indie booksellers with us - and you're in with the chance of winning a £250 Bookshop.org gift card. Support bookshops, not billionaires.

For an act of resistance to the tyranny of algorithms, try the Marginalian newsletter—undistracted notes on the search for meaning, free, ad-free, AI-free, fully human since 2006: themarginalian.org/newsletter

Salvador Dali, ‘Portrait of Luis Bunuel’ (1924), Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid

Royal Natural History, Richard Lydekker, originally published in 1893. #OwlishMonday

Excellent book post thanks to @undertow.bsky.social and @uncertainstories.com. Looking forward to these. And ‘Broken Ground’ came with a free single story booklet by @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social!!

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

I’ve got a new story in The Brussels Review. It’s about an academic called Ben Tufnell, writing a paper on ‘that bastard, Kant’, haunted by ‘BenTufnell’, his namesake who is doing research on doubles and doppelgängers…. @thebrusselsreview.bsky.social

Very happy to have a new story in the ever-brilliant Interzone... shop.interzone.press/b/E76yw

Now open. Featuring major artists alongside new talent, the show offers a timely exploration of the ways in which artists are looking at and thinking about nature in the 21st century. Visit www.closeltd.com for more info. Thurs & Fri 11am-4pm | Sat 11am-3pm | Or by appointment

Many thanks to @seanbirnie.bsky.social for the kind words….

*Very* mixed feelings about Alien: Earth but wtf, this guy is definitely the most terrifying ‘herbivore’ since Black Philip….

I’m really very happy to be working with the brilliant Influx Press!

'Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.' One of the great opening lines.....

Many thanks to the tree that grew the apples! Last year’s cider is drinking very nicely…

Peanut butter is the crack cocaine of spreads….

Anselm Kiefer, ‘Sweet golden clime (for William Blake)’ (2023-25), Emulsion, oil, acrylic, gold leaf and ash on canvas, 280 x 190 cm. At White Cube, Mason’s Yard….

Mike Perry’s ‘Reverse Sod Swap’ exchanges a circle of turf from a field in Wales with a circle of turf from a wildflower meadow in Springfield Park, Hackney. There are 39 species of flora in the turf that went to Wales and only 4 species in the sheep grazed turf that now resides in London. 1/2

Heading for the beach this summer and after some holiday reading? May I suggest my wintery, Gothic, melancholy, storm-lashed book, variously described as 'weird, astonishing' and 'Folk horror at its most intelligent and beautiful.' The perfect holiday companion!

If you want to stop funding everything Amazon does and stands for, you’ve come to the right place. We’re Bookshop.org, an ethical alternative for buying books online. Every single purchase financially supports independent bookstores, allowing them to continue serving their communities.

‘Understood and expertly exploited the connection between exterior and interior landscapes like no other.’ – Paul Tremblay All Joel Lane titles currently 30% off in our sale! A perfect time to get acquainted with this master of the weird. Discount code: INFLUXSUMMER25 www.influxpress.com/sale

Not normally a big fan of Kenneth Branagh but his reading of ‘Heart of Darkness’ (for audible) is absolutely brilliant….. 🖤

Tiny horses with 80s hairdos on the South Downs…

An old friend. Modigliani’s ‘Head of a Woman (Anna Zborowska)’ (1918-19) in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich…..

Walrus, wolf, man. Three masks from Alaska in the Sainsbury Centre for Visusl Arts, Norwich…..

Sometime around 2000, when I worked at the Tate, I gave Daryl Hannah a tour of the Turner Prize exhibition. She was nice but wasn’t particularly impressed by the show….

Need a little good news for your Friday? We’ve officially raised over $39 million for independent bookstores 🎉

If you see a bee of any description on the floor or not flying other than on a flowering plant, it is STARVING! You can help by mixing two parts sugar to one part water and offering the syrup to the bee. It will take about 10 minutes for her to convert the syrup to energy and fly away. 🐝

prize fees continue to blow my mind: eg for the Women's Prize, any longlisted title's publisher has to pay £1,250; for a shortlisted title it's £6k! Prizes do require a huge amount of admin, & marketing ££, but while a long/shortlisting can (*can*) really boost sales, that's a BIG dent in your P&L

Happy and honoured to have a new story in The Los Angeles Review. Thanks to KK Fox for editing… #thelosangelesreview

Recent Influx releases: ENGINES BENEATH US – Malcolm Devlin COMMEDIA MORTALE – Wayne Holloway DELIVERYWOMAN – Eva wyles LOCAL HAUNTS – Adam Scovell LANDSCAPES – Christine Lai I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IT'S KILLING US BOTH – Mariah Stovall All available now! influxpress.com/shop

Happy May Day to one and all!!! 🌼🌷🌿🌻

Grim but essential reading.... www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

On April 10, 1925, a young writer published his 3rd novel – a commercial & critical disappointment about a man passing for white 100 years later, Pulitzer Prize-winner Wesley Lowery reveals the secret hidden inside a piece of America's literary canon... And how "The Great Gatsby" became white

I'm going to start sending (very) occasional newsletters detailing new publications, exhibitions, events and so on. Possibly free content and giveaways too... If you would like to receive them please DM me with your email address or drop a line to knappedflint (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

Today is Day One of humanity’s Idiolithic Era.

Some local graffiti that always makes me chuckle…

I love this little sculpture, 'Who Comes Out Of Me', in the fantastic Orhan Pamuk show at DOX in Prague. The parade of Pamuk's influences is led by Tolstoy, with his mother in second place, and Woolf, Borges, Dostoevsky and many others following on.....