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*DRUM ROLL* – cover reveal! My new novel Phantom at the Feast, the follow-up to The Fountain in the Forest, is out from No Exit Press on 18 June ’26. It has a stunning cover designed by Mark Ecob, with image by the great London photographer Chris Dorley-Brown... www.waterstones.com/book/phantom...

[explaining to a child why they are living in poverty] for every hundredth pint i drink i can get one free pint

fantastic, i will check them out!

oh, ha, i didn’t realise you were an editor of some of them, apologies! which ones did you work on?

it was really cool! the british library have a whole series of these themed “weird” short stories: Tales of the Insect Weird, the Polar weird, the Gastronomic weird… i keep meaning to read more!

shop.bl.uk/collections/...

i have Berlin Alexanderplatz on my bedside table, waiting to be read!

i have FINALLY started reading Midnight’s Children. Call myself a reader without having ticked this one off the list? pah!

i think there might be something in here? i read it last year and can’t remember specifically but it feels a likely candidate!

www.google.com/search?q=tal...

ElectroSoul

my first new music discovery of 2026 - really enjoying this album by DJ Harrison, a tantalising combination of funk, hip hop, jazz, and electronic-tinged soul

open.spotify.com/album/0KwGUL...

100 lines for you!

now that pitchfork is putting stuff behind a paywall, i’m wanting to know where you keep up with what music is coming out - any tips? i do not want to rely on algorithms

it’s so good!!

i’ve never blocked an account faster in my life

mainly indie rock and jazz tbh

@nottopgearrh.swifties.social at last! 😁

my favourite 15 albums of 2025: 1) Viagra Boys - viagr aboys 2) Close Counters - LOVERS DANCE ACADEMY 3) Okonski - Entrance Music 4) Greg Foat - 6 Days in Leysin 5) Annie & The Caldwells - Can't Lose My Soul 6) Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power 7) Kokoroko - Tuff Times Never Last 8) Richard Russell Is Temporary - Everything Is Recorded 9) The Circling Sun - Orbits 10) Turnstile - Never Enough 11) Dar Williams - Hummingbird Highway 12) Emma-Jean Thackray - Weirdo 13) Surprise Chef - Superb 14) Sam Fender - People Watching 15) Guided By Voices - Universe Room

here are my favourite 15 albums of 2025 🎶 (titles in alt text)

funnily enough i was thinking about this today! only a few days ago i heard a 2025 album which immediately was one of my favourites of the year - i’ll work on it!

Bob Pollard of Guided By Voices

my brain:

a favourite band: the Beatles with their effortless melodicism and life-affirming choruses

another: The Fall with their snotty, lo-fi, post-punk weirdness.

What if somehow those two could be combined into one band?!? IMAGINE.

enter….

listen, I’m TRYING to listen to music other than the Beatles, but it’s hard when they are the best at it

I think in this day and age they shouldn't have separate competitions based on your sexuality.

i have contracted a Lurg and my throat feels like if you rubbed a scourer on the small holes on a cheese grater

my first read of 2026 🕵️‍♂️ by @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social

“i do not require middle management” 🤣🤣 #TheTraitors

i loved it too!

‘I’m not going to tell them I’m a police officer’ says the woman who looks more like a police officer than any other person in the entire world #Traitors

i’ve read enough murder mystery books to know that the affable barrister is ONE HUNDRED PER CENT A MURDERER #TheTraitors

In Agadoo did Kubla Khan
Push pineapples, shake the tree

(i loved it btw)

reading online ~takes about Stranger Things and it’s just reminding me that thinking about these things solely in terms of verisimilitude is boring and joyless

what a book!!!