Pinned
A "book marketing" scammer has been claiming I'm a client, and using a fake reference. If they approach you let me know. I've never used book marketing services or provided a book marketer with a reference.
November 24, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Ian was my fiction lecturer at BCU. He was a very kind and generous teacher. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
Ian Marchant obituary
Writer, performer and broadcaster with a talent for being interested in everything and a particular fascination with British counterculture
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Ian was my fiction lecturer at BCU. He was a very kind and generous teacher. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
November 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I said "he cannae see, man" to Matt and he didn't get the reference. He has never heard of the paintballing scene in Byker Grove. I am appalled. I don't even know how that's possible for a British 45 year old.
November 17, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I said "he cannae see, man" to Matt and he didn't get the reference. He has never heard of the paintballing scene in Byker Grove. I am appalled. I don't even know how that's possible for a British 45 year old.
What fictional villain traumatised you as a kid?
November 11, 2025 at 6:21 PM
What fictional villain traumatised you as a kid?
Be serious Anthony.
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Be serious Anthony.
November 10, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Kate Mascarenhas
November 2, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Slightly different point, but in the wave of writers responding that writers' block doesn't exist, I'm struck - as I am whenever writers' block discourse comes up - that the denials take very similar forms to denials of mental illness. They're very "pull yourself together."
October 28, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Slightly different point, but in the wave of writers responding that writers' block doesn't exist, I'm struck - as I am whenever writers' block discourse comes up - that the denials take very similar forms to denials of mental illness. They're very "pull yourself together."
Afaics he's not applying the phrase "writer's block" to actual writers; not specifically. He's implying that people who don't write at length or creatively, have never done so, or invested effort in doing so, have a "block" which AI will fix. Which says something about how he sees writers in general
People who aren’t writers think writer’s block is at least as big and real a problem as I thought quicksand would be, as a child.
AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief
Publisher last week reported jump in revenue in academic and professional arm thanks to AI licensing deal
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Afaics he's not applying the phrase "writer's block" to actual writers; not specifically. He's implying that people who don't write at length or creatively, have never done so, or invested effort in doing so, have a "block" which AI will fix. Which says something about how he sees writers in general
There seem to be two basic claims quoted. 1) AI is good for creativity, and 2) People will turn to brand name authors because there's going to be a lot of slop. Seems to be a fundamental contradiction there, but I doubt either claim is driven by clear thinking or even belief necessarily.
Nigel Newton, CEO of Bloomsbury, telling us why AI is good for publishing with this fun caveat: “We are programmed deep in our DNA to be comforted by the authority and the reliability of big brand names, & that applies more than ever to the names of big writers."
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief
Publisher last week reported jump in revenue in academic and professional arm thanks to AI licensing deal
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 1:00 PM
There seem to be two basic claims quoted. 1) AI is good for creativity, and 2) People will turn to brand name authors because there's going to be a lot of slop. Seems to be a fundamental contradiction there, but I doubt either claim is driven by clear thinking or even belief necessarily.
1920s vampiric shenanigans, if you're on the lookout for halloween reading: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hoke...
Hokey Pokey
Check out Hokey Pokey - <p><b>‘Begins as a compelling psychological mystery [and] turns to the supernatural... A well-plotted, original, nightmare blend of madness and monsters.’ <i>Guardian</i></b><b...
uk.bookshop.org
October 26, 2025 at 2:57 PM
1920s vampiric shenanigans, if you're on the lookout for halloween reading: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hoke...
Completed my probation at work.
October 22, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Completed my probation at work.
Maybe we don't go to town on a woman who has just written a book on panic and self harm. Just a thought.
October 22, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Maybe we don't go to town on a woman who has just written a book on panic and self harm. Just a thought.
Fell off a ladder face first into a book trolley. I'm... quite bruised
October 14, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Fell off a ladder face first into a book trolley. I'm... quite bruised
Reposted by Kate Mascarenhas
I wrote this down in around 2007 after having a dream about bowling with Jacques Derrida.
As you can see it’s a visual representation of “The Second Coming” as a gyre composed of two cones and something about a section of a cone being parabola/parable/parole.
As you can see it’s a visual representation of “The Second Coming” as a gyre composed of two cones and something about a section of a cone being parabola/parable/parole.
October 13, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I wrote this down in around 2007 after having a dream about bowling with Jacques Derrida.
As you can see it’s a visual representation of “The Second Coming” as a gyre composed of two cones and something about a section of a cone being parabola/parable/parole.
As you can see it’s a visual representation of “The Second Coming” as a gyre composed of two cones and something about a section of a cone being parabola/parable/parole.
At one time I would have said: I'm not convinced books should be read with any knowledge of the author. No name on the cover. All books published anonymously. But this did depend on me taking for granted that anonymous writers would at minimum be human, so there goes that dream.
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
October 13, 2025 at 8:13 PM
At one time I would have said: I'm not convinced books should be read with any knowledge of the author. No name on the cover. All books published anonymously. But this did depend on me taking for granted that anonymous writers would at minimum be human, so there goes that dream.
Remember that time on twitter when Nigella joined in and the bar moved suddenly and painfully
"Post you from a different era" is middle-aged Bluesky code for "lemme see you when you were hot"
October 13, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Remember that time on twitter when Nigella joined in and the bar moved suddenly and painfully
@silversprite.bsky.social I can't DM (no age verification), but Matt, ofc! He has all household photo responsibilities
October 13, 2025 at 5:56 PM
@silversprite.bsky.social I can't DM (no age verification), but Matt, ofc! He has all household photo responsibilities
Just to flip this on its head, for some reason locals tend to pronounce Birmingham's Alcester Road with three syllables (even though we pronounce the town name as Alster), while visitors assume two.
What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?
October 10, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Just to flip this on its head, for some reason locals tend to pronounce Birmingham's Alcester Road with three syllables (even though we pronounce the town name as Alster), while visitors assume two.
I met my husband on MySpace.
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
October 8, 2025 at 6:50 PM
I met my husband on MySpace.
October 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
September 29, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Kate Mascarenhas
Explore digitised manuscripts, notes & correspondence from the Peter Dickinson Archive on CollectionsCaptured.
Dickinson (1927–2015) was an award-winning poet & novelist, celebrated for his children’s books & crime fiction collectionscaptured.ncl.ac.uk/digital/coll...
Dickinson (1927–2015) was an award-winning poet & novelist, celebrated for his children’s books & crime fiction collectionscaptured.ncl.ac.uk/digital/coll...
September 24, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Explore digitised manuscripts, notes & correspondence from the Peter Dickinson Archive on CollectionsCaptured.
Dickinson (1927–2015) was an award-winning poet & novelist, celebrated for his children’s books & crime fiction collectionscaptured.ncl.ac.uk/digital/coll...
Dickinson (1927–2015) was an award-winning poet & novelist, celebrated for his children’s books & crime fiction collectionscaptured.ncl.ac.uk/digital/coll...
I'm OK with the impending rapture. Why not eh. One way of getting some stuff off my plate
September 23, 2025 at 3:10 PM
I'm OK with the impending rapture. Why not eh. One way of getting some stuff off my plate