China's solar power capacity (887 gigawatts) is almost double Europe's and America's combined total, but at what cost?

If you are reporting China news, this is the tried and tested formula:

Bad News: China struggles [blank]

Good News: China [good news], but at what cost?

Oof. 'for being uninterested'. Omit Not.

I like to expand my interests or find something new but I really can't be spending my time reading articles about stuff that doesn't pique me, so I'm fine skipping even a good half of some issues if a few good reviews/articles make up for it.

I forgive myself for not being uninterested in various subjects. I skim through and if after reading the first few paragraphs I am really not moved by some article about something personally uninteresting I skip, without qualms. Forgivable philistinism. I'm adept at fishing for the good stuff.

I've had a Private Eye subscription for over 15 years. I subscribed to the TLS in 2020 and despite various criticisms I have come across good, new books I otherwise would never have heard of, and I occasionally read a very good review/commentary. So despite any misgivings it is worth it

When I was a child at school there were a pair of oystercatchers who returned annually to nest near the humanities department, and their chicks would follow them around somehow avoiding all the students. I used to watch them out the window instead of listening to lessons

Tesla isn’t a real company. It’s a cult. Its valuation isn’t based on tangible evidence like utility, outgoings, profit, etc. Everything is hype and delusion. Genuinely the most over-valued company in history.

Just don’t praise me too much; people will suspect things, have notions…

When I see too many famous and flashy recommendations for a book (and especially on a book cover) it does the opposite of what the marketing wants: I grow suspicious. There is so much mutual connection and often veering into cynical logrolling. The Private Eye segment isn’t just being mean

So I could authentically recommend you and some cynic could say I’m doing so just because of our various mutual connections, and that might be true, even, in some universe, but so many writers know each other anyway

The thing with recommending friends though is sometimes it is genuine, or one is friends partly because they really like your work and recommend it without guile, but this works better when one isn’t already successful or rich/famous

Private Eye have a segment each year in the Literary Review when this time comes round called ‘logrolling’, which can seem a little cynical but shows writer’s recommending their friends and connections all the time. Nepotism isn’t a rash explanation…

For weeks I have been trying to come up with some sort of joke about the Goldsmiths Prize having something to do with me and how I would put a good word in for C D Rose, but I couldn’t get it right. Alas, he didn’t need my assistance anyway

Let's Goooooo!!!!

I’ll be there too! I will try to not decrease the intellectual calibre of the room

I explained this to my sister recently. Origins, chronology, the whole bag