25 years on, Stephen King’s memoir is still the best guide for writers

Kanpai

TIL the collective noun for ladybirds is a loveliness

Good.

This looks like a great gig for an aspiring reporter

I’m part of a team whose job is to keep The Times and The Sunday Times true to their principles. Check out this video from our new campaign:

The Times paywall is down this weekend. Visit thetimes.com 📰

Just finished reading the Times style guide from cover to cover … five stars

It’s true what they’re saying. Conclave is a great film

This is a must-read

No verification system is perfect but Bluesky’s domains as usernames is pretty good. MPs could use their own websites or parliament.uk could verify them eg @/kemibadenoch.parliament.uk

Want to nobble lobby brain? It’s here now. There’s going to be a big influx of names/institutions on Tuesday afternoon once every comms team has had their start-of-week Monday morning catch-up and taken a day to get sign-off.

Welcome to Bluesky, @theguardian.com 🦋

I've created a starter pack of brilliant data journalists worth a follow I'll add to it when I see / think of more, but feel free to suggest additions! go.bsky.app/KTYrwk3

From @thetimes.com: the rise of Bluesky and what it could mean for Elon Musk’s X

Going to do a quick thread of my fellow @thetimes.com reporters who are on BlueSky and why you should follow them 👇

You know Bluesky is booming when #FPL (that’s Fantasy Premier League) accounts start joining

Bluesky has the edge where X once dominated: news and live events.

In the week since the U.S. presidential election, Elon Musk has used X, the social media platform he owns, to reiterate his support for President-elect Donald Trump. Some of X’s users have decided they want to post elsewhere. Among the largest beneficiaries of that desire is Bluesky. nyti.ms/48JtYAt

Wordwork 👌

As someone who loves and works with words, the idea of losing them is terrifying. I was moved by this story

My migration to Bluesky is complete and it feels great. Tip for people who still need to use X sometimes for work etc: hide it from your Home Screen and put Bluesky where it was. I haven’t even opened X in ages 🦋

“Audiences vote with their attention”

🚨 The Times will be free to read this Wednesday and Thursday. Get your US election news and analysis at thetimes.com

Saw this advert on Instagram so it must be true — free access to @thetimes.com for the US election 📰✨

Revealed: the property empires that make Charles and William millions

My first visit to New York

Our reporter’s life in Gaza — and how she fled with her children (no paywall, in @thetimes.com) www.thetimes.com/article/6ff0...

The DJ booth at the Lexington, Islington

The Worker’s Maypole by Andrea Bowers. Seen at the Tate Modern, London

The Times and The Sunday Times are free to read this weekend. thetimes.com

This features the perfect line: “Plato would have been built like a brick shithouse, if such a thing had existed in ancient Greece.”

Visited the reopened National Portrait Gallery in London. Seeing this never gets old

Story of the day

Oppenheimer (2023)

In 1985 The Times marked its 200th birthday with a book. This advert from its pages makes for interesting reading … bring on the holograms

It’s been 100 days since Evan Gershkovich, of The Wall Street Journal, was detained by Russia during a reporting trip and falsely accused of espionage. Journalism is not a crime. He must be released immediately

Thinking about all the insufferable brands on Threads … I’m concerned that one day they’ll make their way on to Bluesky. We’ll need a custom feed that blocks them

Every now and then, I revisit AA Gill’s column arguing for the UK to remain in the EU in The Sunday Times from June 2016. Later that month, the UK voted to leave the EU in a referendum. I wonder what he would write about Brexit today. He died six months later

Does anyone else still own DVDs? For me, they’re nice to look at and there’s a sense of ownership that’s been lost in the age of digital downloads 📀

This building is 400 years old. It’s the only building on the Strand that still survives from the time of the Great Fire of London … which is slightly different to what’s claimed on the plaque! (The fire didn’t spread as far as the Strand)

I’m ready for the Succession finale … are you?

“Do all lovers feel they’re inventing something?” Céline Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

🌅 The view from Times headquarters this evening

I’ve been touring “ghost stations” on the London Underground, or abandoned sections of stations still in use, for several years. Here are some photos from Aldwych, London Euston and Charing Cross

In January I was confronted with the opening lines to Jazz by Toni Morrison and they’ve been ricocheting in my head ever since. I could write a 10,000-word dissertation on this extract. Every word fights for its place. Wow

My word of the day is dey, an archaic term for a maidservant. From the same root as dairy. A deyery is the place where deys are, just as a nunnery is where nuns are. I'm out here being the best dey I can be.

This is my word of the day ✍️