Pinned
‘You’re a genius, obviously, Salman, but you’re also driving everyone nuts’
Salman Rushdie’s new short story collection, The Eleventh Hour, is exuberant, funny and sometimes just too much …
www.thetimes.com
“To ask Rushdie to restrain himself would be to lose the good parts too.”
Me on Salman Rushdie’s new story collection, where he cripples some of his best effects by not knowing when to turn it down. In other words it’s often brilliant, sometimes maddening, and always 100% Rushdie.
Me on Salman Rushdie’s new story collection, where he cripples some of his best effects by not knowing when to turn it down. In other words it’s often brilliant, sometimes maddening, and always 100% Rushdie.
Reposted by John Self
Joyce Carol Oates owned Elon so hard he's spent the last day posting about movies he hasn't seen in 15 years
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Joyce Carol Oates owned Elon so hard he's spent the last day posting about movies he hasn't seen in 15 years
Reposted by John Self
Hot off the press release. My second book is a collection of interviews with Irish writers from Alice Taylor in 1991 to Sebastian Barry, Wendy Erskine, Colum McCann, Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, John Banville, Emma Donoghue and Anna Burns in 2025. Out April from the Lilliput Press
November 10, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Hot off the press release. My second book is a collection of interviews with Irish writers from Alice Taylor in 1991 to Sebastian Barry, Wendy Erskine, Colum McCann, Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, John Banville, Emma Donoghue and Anna Burns in 2025. Out April from the Lilliput Press
Reposted by John Self
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Reposted by John Self
Tom Gauld continues to document my life
November 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Tom Gauld continues to document my life
Congratulations to Ferdia Lennon - first the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction, and now the Rooney Prize for Literature, for his excellent novel Glorious Exploits. Here’s my review from Jan 2024:
“Far-fetched? Sure, but then so are ancient Syracusans who say things like ‘Gobshite’ and ‘bollix’.”
Me on Ferdia Lennon’s GLORIOUS EXPLOITS, which follows the capers of two lads caught up in the Peloponnesian War:
Me on Ferdia Lennon’s GLORIOUS EXPLOITS, which follows the capers of two lads caught up in the Peloponnesian War:
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon review — lads go wild in 412BC
In this madcap romp set in ancient Sicily two foul-mouthed friends put on the play Medea
www.thetimes.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Congratulations to Ferdia Lennon - first the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction, and now the Rooney Prize for Literature, for his excellent novel Glorious Exploits. Here’s my review from Jan 2024:
Reposted by John Self
@john-self.bsky.social thanks for including Iris Wolff’s BLURRED in your roundup from August. Just finished reading it, what a beautiful little gem of a novel. Hope it gets released in the US at some point.
November 9, 2025 at 10:49 PM
@john-self.bsky.social thanks for including Iris Wolff’s BLURRED in your roundup from August. Just finished reading it, what a beautiful little gem of a novel. Hope it gets released in the US at some point.
Reposted by John Self
November 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by John Self
Exactly, so the BBC didn't need to shoot themselves in the reputation by editing it that way. But they did, and here we are
November 9, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Exactly, so the BBC didn't need to shoot themselves in the reputation by editing it that way. But they did, and here we are
Reposted by John Self
☝️Includes Jules Renard trying a banana for the first time, Ivan Turgenev not being able to get it up, Oswald Mosley “stretching the cock over three generations” and Samuel Pepys shitting in a chimney (twice). Yes I am a man of simple appetites.
November 9, 2025 at 9:53 AM
☝️Includes Jules Renard trying a banana for the first time, Ivan Turgenev not being able to get it up, Oswald Mosley “stretching the cock over three generations” and Samuel Pepys shitting in a chimney (twice). Yes I am a man of simple appetites.
Anyone remember The Hogarth Shakespeare, a hugely ambitious project announced in 2013 where contemporary authors wrote versions of all of Shakespeare plays, inc Atwood, St Aubyn, Winterson etc - and then it fizzled out after half a dozen?
Well, it’s back! This time as ‘Shakespeare Retold’.
Well, it’s back! This time as ‘Shakespeare Retold’.
November 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Anyone remember The Hogarth Shakespeare, a hugely ambitious project announced in 2013 where contemporary authors wrote versions of all of Shakespeare plays, inc Atwood, St Aubyn, Winterson etc - and then it fizzled out after half a dozen?
Well, it’s back! This time as ‘Shakespeare Retold’.
Well, it’s back! This time as ‘Shakespeare Retold’.
Reposted by John Self
Just remembered that Status Quo are responsible for one of the few LP covers that have ever made me laugh out loud. #GetAGoodGoodDeal
November 9, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Just remembered that Status Quo are responsible for one of the few LP covers that have ever made me laugh out loud. #GetAGoodGoodDeal
Reposted by John Self
Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
November 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Reposted by John Self
lol she got his ass and he knows it
November 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM
lol she got his ass and he knows it
Reposted by John Self
I ran 5km for the second day in a row. Averaging 1,825 kms a year over the past two days.
November 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I ran 5km for the second day in a row. Averaging 1,825 kms a year over the past two days.
Reposted by John Self
“WHY WOULD ANYONE LOOK INSIDE AN ALIEN EGG??” this is why:
November 18, 2024 at 8:35 PM
“WHY WOULD ANYONE LOOK INSIDE AN ALIEN EGG??” this is why:
Reposted by John Self
My recurring thought on reading these frantically libidinous letters is “How the hell did he find the time!”
November 9, 2025 at 1:35 PM
My recurring thought on reading these frantically libidinous letters is “How the hell did he find the time!”
Reposted by John Self
Editing tip:
Best to edit on paper, not screen. Hold a good old fashioned wooden ruler under each line as you read. Amazing how it focuses the eye.
Best to edit on paper, not screen. Hold a good old fashioned wooden ruler under each line as you read. Amazing how it focuses the eye.
November 9, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Editing tip:
Best to edit on paper, not screen. Hold a good old fashioned wooden ruler under each line as you read. Amazing how it focuses the eye.
Best to edit on paper, not screen. Hold a good old fashioned wooden ruler under each line as you read. Amazing how it focuses the eye.
Reposted by John Self
A great point. If you read the UK press, spend time on X and fall prey to elite radicalisation, you can very easily fool yourself into thinking you represent the silent majority when in fact you are an increasingly extreme minority. It's funny when conservatives scold liberals about their "bubbles"
This latest defeat may exemplify a broader ecosystem/bubble problem for the right: so used now to preaching to the converted in media outlets and online that it struggles to understand how this language (the NT as run by or capitulating to "woke terrorists") might be received by the median member
November 9, 2025 at 11:49 AM
A great point. If you read the UK press, spend time on X and fall prey to elite radicalisation, you can very easily fool yourself into thinking you represent the silent majority when in fact you are an increasingly extreme minority. It's funny when conservatives scold liberals about their "bubbles"
Reposted by John Self
"A ring at the door. It was Flaubert."
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
The 10 best writers’ diaries — from Virginia Woolf to Alan Bennett
As Helen Garner’s diaries win the Baillie Gifford prize, John Self picks ten more literary journals brimful of insight and scandal
www.thetimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:50 AM
"A ring at the door. It was Flaubert."
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
Reposted by John Self
Siegfried Sassoon
November 9, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Siegfried Sassoon
Reposted by John Self
Unwittingly proving Gibson's 1st Law of BBC Bias: You only think it's biased against the thing that you believe, otherwise you only hear facts
November 9, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Unwittingly proving Gibson's 1st Law of BBC Bias: You only think it's biased against the thing that you believe, otherwise you only hear facts
"A ring at the door. It was Flaubert."
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
The 10 best writers’ diaries — from Virginia Woolf to Alan Bennett
As Helen Garner’s diaries win the Baillie Gifford prize, John Self picks ten more literary journals brimful of insight and scandal
www.thetimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:50 AM
"A ring at the door. It was Flaubert."
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
In tribute to Helen Garner winning the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, I put together a list of some of the best writers' diaries, from the Goncourt brothers to John Cheever ("Every time I read a review of Saul Bellow, I get the heaves"):
Reposted by John Self
Terry Griffiths vs Cliff Thorburn. The Crucible, 1983.
November 9, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Terry Griffiths vs Cliff Thorburn. The Crucible, 1983.
Reposted by John Self
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:21 AM
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by John Self
