Paul McAuley
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unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Paul McAuley
@unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
3.6K followers 300 following 940 posts
Scribble scribble scribble

Latest novel: Beyond the Burn Line
Incoming (12th Feb 2026): Loss Protocol
Working on: Heaven's Grand Design

Website: https://www.unlikelyworlds.co.uk
Agent: Oliver Cheetham at Mic Cheetham Agency
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unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Currently reading
A copy of C. D. Rose’s novel We Live Here Now
November 10, 2025 at 11:43 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 08:08
A clump of trees is silhouetted against early morning sunlight, which casts shafts of shadow and light through a layer of ground mist.
November 9, 2025 at 9:52 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
If you see this post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
The cover of Kevin Devine’s album Bulldozer Bubblegum. Napoleon (or maybe George Washington) stands astride a yellow bulldozer.
November 8, 2025 at 6:12 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Currently reading
Hardback copy of E.J. Swift’s When There Are Wolves Again
November 3, 2025 at 9:08 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 10:09 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Bonus crow
A crow foraging in the rain pauses to look directly at the photographer.
November 2, 2025 at 9:45 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 08:05.
Tree trunks and wet ground covered in fallen leaves in the foreground; trees in autumn colours beyond, under a sky that's beginning to lighten after the rain.
November 2, 2025 at 9:43 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 07:43
A view of of a cluster of birch trees rising into the early morning sunlight.
October 26, 2025 at 9:19 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Currently reading (an odd feeling, reading a historical novel set in yr childhood).
Paperback of Andrew Miller’s novel The Land in Winter
October 25, 2025 at 10:51 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 08:14
Past brambles and autumn foliage, crows settle towards a solitary tree, its leaves golden-brown, that stands on a gentle slope of dry grasses, with a sweep of trees beyond.
October 19, 2025 at 8:31 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 07:23
A pair of rose briars bearing bright red hips arch against a misty sky.
October 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
The season when vast underground empires extend fruiting bodies into the upper world.
A shaggy parasol mushroom growing amongst nettles. A trio of Coprinus species of mushroom growing in leaf litter. Unidentified mushroom growing in leaf litter. Mushroom, possibly Agaricus vaporarius, amongst grass and leaf litter.
October 9, 2025 at 9:29 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
So I went for a walk today
View across slopes of trees taking on autumn colours towards the brow of Beacon Hill, Buckinghamshire.
October 9, 2025 at 8:38 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath: 08:02
Trees in autumn colours reflected in the dark water of Viaduct Pond under a cloudless blue sky.
October 5, 2025 at 8:36 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Currently reading: a variation on the Brazen Head myth that grows ever larger and stranger as it unfolds.
A copy of Alastair Reynolds’ novella The Dagger in Vichy.
October 3, 2025 at 9:57 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 07:16
Under a cloud-wracked sky, grassy slopes stretch towards trees and the sun rising above the towers of London.
September 28, 2025 at 8:16 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
I mostly collect books, having given up on expanding my robot hord, so I'm sure I'm fine.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
In 2004, neuroscientists found that some of the study participants showed what they called pathological collecting behaviour, and proposed that this behaviour was associated with damage to the mesial prefrontal cortex, a brain area involved in decision-making and the regulation of emotions and social behaviours (S. W. Anderson et al. Brain 128, 201–212; 2005). In 2019, however, Shirley Mueller — a neuroscientist and collector of Chinese porcelain — argued against such impacts of brain damage in her book Inside the Head of a Collector. Instead, she suggested, the mesial prefrontal cortex was involved in the collectors’ perception of beauty. Regardless of what underlies this compulsion, in 2013, the American Psychiatric Association added hoarding disorder to its comprehensive medical textbook Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In 2018, the World Health Organization included the disorder in its International Classification of Diseases — although neither institution explains why people have the condition.
September 26, 2025 at 9:57 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Curently reading @ghostspecies.bsky.social 's latest, set in a sea-changed Sydney. A near future police procedural thriller enlivened by sympathetic sub-plots involving two very different refugees.
The hardcover edition of James Bradley's Landfall.
September 24, 2025 at 12:28 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 07:41
A bright red spray of Hawthorn berries overhang a view of water reflecting trees rising at the far end and a glimpse of blue sky.
September 21, 2025 at 8:14 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Spotted in the Museum of Brands — a rare example of an official David Lynch tie-in.
Amongst TV tie-in merchandise, a jigsaw puzzle of a scene from David Lynch’s Dune.
September 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Anway here's the cover proof for the forthcoming (november I think) Italian edition of Austral, a novel about a short walk through the fields and forests of Antarctica.
Image of the cover of the forthcoming Italian edition of my novel Austral. On the left, a summary of the novel and a brief bio of the author, in Italian. On the right, an image of a woman in coldweather gear studying a crashed aircraft in light snow.
September 18, 2025 at 9:52 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 07:42
In a wood, early morning light infiltrates the canopy and casts long lanes of light across the leaf-littered floor.
September 14, 2025 at 8:14 AM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
NB defiant logo in bottom left hand corner
Bottom left hand corner of the dustjacket of Sarah Hall’s novel Helm, the slogan HUMAN WRITTEN curved around a circle.
September 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Currently reading
Hardback copy of Sarah Hall’s novel Helm.
September 7, 2025 at 4:14 PM
unlikelyworlds.bsky.social
Hampstead Heath, 07:38
Amongst trees still in green, the last leaves of an old oak tree have turned to autumn colours, silhouetted against a pale bule near-cloudless sky.
September 7, 2025 at 8:18 AM