Neil Appleby
@theboyonabike.bsky.social
Books, bands, bicycles and tofu
Book 3 of ‘26
The Sisters is a terrifically readable account of a sibling trio of Swedish and Tunisian heritage across a couple of decades. Its complex structure holds together beautifully amid unreliable (or is it?) narration, large time leaps and shifting perspectives. Hard to put down.
#booksky
The Sisters is a terrifically readable account of a sibling trio of Swedish and Tunisian heritage across a couple of decades. Its complex structure holds together beautifully amid unreliable (or is it?) narration, large time leaps and shifting perspectives. Hard to put down.
#booksky
February 11, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Book 3 of ‘26
The Sisters is a terrifically readable account of a sibling trio of Swedish and Tunisian heritage across a couple of decades. Its complex structure holds together beautifully amid unreliable (or is it?) narration, large time leaps and shifting perspectives. Hard to put down.
#booksky
The Sisters is a terrifically readable account of a sibling trio of Swedish and Tunisian heritage across a couple of decades. Its complex structure holds together beautifully amid unreliable (or is it?) narration, large time leaps and shifting perspectives. Hard to put down.
#booksky
Standing between Ziggy and Iggy, Scott Lavene once again kept us richly entertained in the Just Dropped In record shop in Coventry with tales of love, cars, bedsits and colossal misadventure.
February 8, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Standing between Ziggy and Iggy, Scott Lavene once again kept us richly entertained in the Just Dropped In record shop in Coventry with tales of love, cars, bedsits and colossal misadventure.
Tonight I was inducted into the weird world of Stealing Sheep at Tin Arts Coventry. Performance art met electro-pop on a tiny prop-strewn health and safety nightmare of a stage but some strong tunes protected us from disaster,
February 6, 2026 at 11:39 PM
Tonight I was inducted into the weird world of Stealing Sheep at Tin Arts Coventry. Performance art met electro-pop on a tiny prop-strewn health and safety nightmare of a stage but some strong tunes protected us from disaster,
Despite being wedged into Nottingham’s bijou Bodega venue amid a lost race of East Midlands giants, I enjoyed my fleeting glances of girls and boys with guitars, the delightful seventies-echoing Pict supporting the thrillingly ascendant high energy quiet loud slow fast Westside Cowboy.
February 4, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Despite being wedged into Nottingham’s bijou Bodega venue amid a lost race of East Midlands giants, I enjoyed my fleeting glances of girls and boys with guitars, the delightful seventies-echoing Pict supporting the thrillingly ascendant high energy quiet loud slow fast Westside Cowboy.
Delighted to be in Sidcup yesterday for the opening performance of the Bird College production of Alice By Heart. Effervescent, beautifully choreographed, in turn madcap then deeply touching, we had the bonus of an intimate over-dinner Q&A with its brilliant director, Priya Patel Appleby.
January 30, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Delighted to be in Sidcup yesterday for the opening performance of the Bird College production of Alice By Heart. Effervescent, beautifully choreographed, in turn madcap then deeply touching, we had the bonus of an intimate over-dinner Q&A with its brilliant director, Priya Patel Appleby.
Crushingly disappointing RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch including total goldfinch boycott. Next year I’ll be dressing up as Tippi Hedren and prostrating myself on the lawn.
January 25, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Crushingly disappointing RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch including total goldfinch boycott. Next year I’ll be dressing up as Tippi Hedren and prostrating myself on the lawn.
Book 2 of ‘26
A geopolitical thriller covering ecological conflict, nationalism and the concept of heritage, Saraswati risks collapsing beneath the weight of its structural complexities. Best consumed with the assistance of a police incident room-style whiteboard, but worth the effort.
#Booksky
A geopolitical thriller covering ecological conflict, nationalism and the concept of heritage, Saraswati risks collapsing beneath the weight of its structural complexities. Best consumed with the assistance of a police incident room-style whiteboard, but worth the effort.
#Booksky
January 20, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Book 2 of ‘26
A geopolitical thriller covering ecological conflict, nationalism and the concept of heritage, Saraswati risks collapsing beneath the weight of its structural complexities. Best consumed with the assistance of a police incident room-style whiteboard, but worth the effort.
#Booksky
A geopolitical thriller covering ecological conflict, nationalism and the concept of heritage, Saraswati risks collapsing beneath the weight of its structural complexities. Best consumed with the assistance of a police incident room-style whiteboard, but worth the effort.
#Booksky
Book 1 of ‘26
There’s a stark horror to The Director, a fictionalised account of a real-life art house film maker who finds himself in the clutches of the Third Reich. He’s subversive until the drive for perfection renders him complicit. Dark, twisted, terrifying yet narratively satisfying
#Booksky
There’s a stark horror to The Director, a fictionalised account of a real-life art house film maker who finds himself in the clutches of the Third Reich. He’s subversive until the drive for perfection renders him complicit. Dark, twisted, terrifying yet narratively satisfying
#Booksky
January 7, 2026 at 5:42 PM
Book 1 of ‘26
There’s a stark horror to The Director, a fictionalised account of a real-life art house film maker who finds himself in the clutches of the Third Reich. He’s subversive until the drive for perfection renders him complicit. Dark, twisted, terrifying yet narratively satisfying
#Booksky
There’s a stark horror to The Director, a fictionalised account of a real-life art house film maker who finds himself in the clutches of the Third Reich. He’s subversive until the drive for perfection renders him complicit. Dark, twisted, terrifying yet narratively satisfying
#Booksky
Final culture of the year with the multiple Olivier-winning Fiddler on the Roof at the Birmingham
Alex. Not sure it won my awards but the staging and choreography were terrific and its conclusion quietly beautiful.
Alex. Not sure it won my awards but the staging and choreography were terrific and its conclusion quietly beautiful.
December 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Final culture of the year with the multiple Olivier-winning Fiddler on the Roof at the Birmingham
Alex. Not sure it won my awards but the staging and choreography were terrific and its conclusion quietly beautiful.
Alex. Not sure it won my awards but the staging and choreography were terrific and its conclusion quietly beautiful.
Book 35 of ‘25
The Wren, The Wren felt very ‘writerly’, beautiful prose, a mother-daughter relationship and some awful men. Not huge on linear plot, but cuttingly contemporary, powerful of mood and ultimately optimistic, I hung in and it was worth it.
#booksky
The Wren, The Wren felt very ‘writerly’, beautiful prose, a mother-daughter relationship and some awful men. Not huge on linear plot, but cuttingly contemporary, powerful of mood and ultimately optimistic, I hung in and it was worth it.
#booksky
December 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Book 35 of ‘25
The Wren, The Wren felt very ‘writerly’, beautiful prose, a mother-daughter relationship and some awful men. Not huge on linear plot, but cuttingly contemporary, powerful of mood and ultimately optimistic, I hung in and it was worth it.
#booksky
The Wren, The Wren felt very ‘writerly’, beautiful prose, a mother-daughter relationship and some awful men. Not huge on linear plot, but cuttingly contemporary, powerful of mood and ultimately optimistic, I hung in and it was worth it.
#booksky
I’m damp-eyed and emotionally wrung out after a glorious Christmas Eve matinee of The Sound of Music at the lovely Leicester Curve. We even got to give one of the nuns a lift to Birmingham.
December 24, 2025 at 10:10 PM
I’m damp-eyed and emotionally wrung out after a glorious Christmas Eve matinee of The Sound of Music at the lovely Leicester Curve. We even got to give one of the nuns a lift to Birmingham.
Book 34 of ‘25
The 640 page Caledonian Road requires patience. Initially I found it glib, but gravity seeped through till we were in a state of the nation trek through Russian money, modern slavery, street violence, the value of art, political corruption and Shakespearean falls from grace.
#booksky
The 640 page Caledonian Road requires patience. Initially I found it glib, but gravity seeped through till we were in a state of the nation trek through Russian money, modern slavery, street violence, the value of art, political corruption and Shakespearean falls from grace.
#booksky
December 20, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Book 34 of ‘25
The 640 page Caledonian Road requires patience. Initially I found it glib, but gravity seeped through till we were in a state of the nation trek through Russian money, modern slavery, street violence, the value of art, political corruption and Shakespearean falls from grace.
#booksky
The 640 page Caledonian Road requires patience. Initially I found it glib, but gravity seeped through till we were in a state of the nation trek through Russian money, modern slavery, street violence, the value of art, political corruption and Shakespearean falls from grace.
#booksky
Horror as a random check on my £140 self-scan shop implies I had failed to register a £1 loaf. Temptation to leg it was subdued by fear a 5 year sentence would then become 19.
#24601inTesco
#24601inTesco
December 12, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Horror as a random check on my £140 self-scan shop implies I had failed to register a £1 loaf. Temptation to leg it was subdued by fear a 5 year sentence would then become 19.
#24601inTesco
#24601inTesco
The only thing more bourgeois than descaling the coffee machine would have been getting the housekeeper to do it for me.
December 3, 2025 at 5:43 PM
The only thing more bourgeois than descaling the coffee machine would have been getting the housekeeper to do it for me.
Last gig of the year and a brilliant evening of song and anecdotes with Thea Gilmore At Kings Heath Hare and Hounds. We even got to sit down! Born like a tsunami, a one woman army, took a pharmacy to calm me… and a new gorgeousness breathed into Echo and the Bunnymen’s Killing Moon.
December 1, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Last gig of the year and a brilliant evening of song and anecdotes with Thea Gilmore At Kings Heath Hare and Hounds. We even got to sit down! Born like a tsunami, a one woman army, took a pharmacy to calm me… and a new gorgeousness breathed into Echo and the Bunnymen’s Killing Moon.
CMAT at the Brum O2 Academy, a mesmerising performance from a brilliantly literate megastar, but a venue so jampacked, had I fainted I would’ve remained upright. While I started crazymad for it, I have to conclude it’s no Eurocountry for old men… unless in the balcony.
November 29, 2025 at 11:58 PM
CMAT at the Brum O2 Academy, a mesmerising performance from a brilliantly literate megastar, but a venue so jampacked, had I fainted I would’ve remained upright. While I started crazymad for it, I have to conclude it’s no Eurocountry for old men… unless in the balcony.
Book 33 of ‘25
Dream Count charts the aspirations, actions and disappointments of three middle class, worldly Nigerian women hitting middle age coupled with the troubling story of a Guinean woman of poorer background. Huge in ideas if modest on plot, the writing is gorgeous and engrossing.
#Booksky
Dream Count charts the aspirations, actions and disappointments of three middle class, worldly Nigerian women hitting middle age coupled with the troubling story of a Guinean woman of poorer background. Huge in ideas if modest on plot, the writing is gorgeous and engrossing.
#Booksky
November 23, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Book 33 of ‘25
Dream Count charts the aspirations, actions and disappointments of three middle class, worldly Nigerian women hitting middle age coupled with the troubling story of a Guinean woman of poorer background. Huge in ideas if modest on plot, the writing is gorgeous and engrossing.
#Booksky
Dream Count charts the aspirations, actions and disappointments of three middle class, worldly Nigerian women hitting middle age coupled with the troubling story of a Guinean woman of poorer background. Huge in ideas if modest on plot, the writing is gorgeous and engrossing.
#Booksky
Our date, after the frenetic yet fabulous National Theatre production of Hamlet, was fortunately with Horatio, beautifully played by the brilliant Tessa Wong, as pretty much everyone else had pegged it.
November 19, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Our date, after the frenetic yet fabulous National Theatre production of Hamlet, was fortunately with Horatio, beautifully played by the brilliant Tessa Wong, as pretty much everyone else had pegged it.
Reeling from my first experience of Afternoon Tea, served on something like what we bought our mum in 1972 to house her Whimsies collection. I’ve had to check myself in to rehab from sugar overload while the lack of crusts has caused my curls to straighten. What fresh hell of Englishness is this?
November 17, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reeling from my first experience of Afternoon Tea, served on something like what we bought our mum in 1972 to house her Whimsies collection. I’ve had to check myself in to rehab from sugar overload while the lack of crusts has caused my curls to straighten. What fresh hell of Englishness is this?
Terrific gig from English Teacher at Nottingham’s Rock City, moving from gorgeous chamber music to thrashing, chanty roof raisers. Lily Fontaine is at the centre of everything, literate, mesmeric, rabble-rousing, melodic. A lean 75 minutes left me thoroughly nourished.
November 13, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Terrific gig from English Teacher at Nottingham’s Rock City, moving from gorgeous chamber music to thrashing, chanty roof raisers. Lily Fontaine is at the centre of everything, literate, mesmeric, rabble-rousing, melodic. A lean 75 minutes left me thoroughly nourished.
Sitting in bed, awaiting the delayed Booker Prize ceremony livestream, impatient because I’ve got some serious reading to get on with.
#Booksky
#Booksky
November 10, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Sitting in bed, awaiting the delayed Booker Prize ceremony livestream, impatient because I’ve got some serious reading to get on with.
#Booksky
#Booksky
Just back from the premier (really!) of our debut big screen appearance. We had gone in as emergency ‘extras’ but emerged fully credited ‘background artists’. Currently googling “weather Cannes May”.
#ThePause
#ThePause
November 6, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Just back from the premier (really!) of our debut big screen appearance. We had gone in as emergency ‘extras’ but emerged fully credited ‘background artists’. Currently googling “weather Cannes May”.
#ThePause
#ThePause
10 minutes I’ll never get back, trying to decide between Asda’s ‘Extra Special’ and ‘Exceptional’ caramelised onion chutneys.
#sweatingthesmallstuff
#bringoutthebranston
#sweatingthesmallstuff
#bringoutthebranston
November 6, 2025 at 3:52 PM
10 minutes I’ll never get back, trying to decide between Asda’s ‘Extra Special’ and ‘Exceptional’ caramelised onion chutneys.
#sweatingthesmallstuff
#bringoutthebranston
#sweatingthesmallstuff
#bringoutthebranston
During the last 3 months I’ve roamed extensively through Albania, China, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, North Korea,Trinidad and Tobago, UK, Ukraine, USA and Venezuela. Pick up a book and experience the world.
#BookerPrize long list
#booksky
#BookerPrize long list
#booksky
November 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
During the last 3 months I’ve roamed extensively through Albania, China, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, North Korea,Trinidad and Tobago, UK, Ukraine, USA and Venezuela. Pick up a book and experience the world.
#BookerPrize long list
#booksky
#BookerPrize long list
#booksky
For once I’ve read the entire Booker Prize long list before the judges pronounce. For the record:
Should win - The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Next best - The Land in Winter
Should’ve made the short list - Seascraper
Weirdest read - Audition
Left me coldest - Universality
#booksky
Should win - The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Next best - The Land in Winter
Should’ve made the short list - Seascraper
Weirdest read - Audition
Left me coldest - Universality
#booksky
November 5, 2025 at 7:59 PM
For once I’ve read the entire Booker Prize long list before the judges pronounce. For the record:
Should win - The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Next best - The Land in Winter
Should’ve made the short list - Seascraper
Weirdest read - Audition
Left me coldest - Universality
#booksky
Should win - The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Next best - The Land in Winter
Should’ve made the short list - Seascraper
Weirdest read - Audition
Left me coldest - Universality
#booksky