Sam Jordison

132. Álvaro Enrigue, "Now I Surrender" - Across the Pond We talk to author Álvaro Enrigue about his latest novel in English, Now I Surrender, an account of the mythlogized Apache warrior, Geronimo, and the contemporary narrator's reflections on colonization...

This week, a fantastic interview with the vivacious, fierce, fantastic Álvaro Enrigue. (Also some heartfelt words about Sam's beloved dog Sirius and the aid dogs have given to literature over the years.)

www.buzzsprout.com/1728150/epis...

Thanks Erica!

Thank you! (I see your point too. I hate and love them, I think…)

Thank you!

"The bigger issue is that even before I saw the list I knew that no prominent positions would be given to writers, publishers or - heaven forbid - critics. After all, why would their opinions count? It’s not like books are as important as baking."

Come for the broad-based book world critique, stay for the Hamnet takedown.

Hey thank you!

A terrific rant about the importance of books. It is at times funny, at times poignant, at times introspective. Plus at times political, nostalgic, raging, a bit desperate, and absolutely interesting. Also 100% correct!

oh jesus I am so tired of literature being dumbed down for the masses instead of being lifted up for the people who actually want to read and is interested in literature.

gahhhh

Great stuff.

I now demand to be a judge on the cake programme. Which I don't watch.

(Not arsed about the dancing one though.)

The decline and fall of the book world? Three more harbingers of doom...

I wrote about the decline of the book world on my substack: open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/t...

Sirius the dog. Literary superstar. Friend. Bringer of joy.

A sad newsletter this time, in memory of our best boy, and literary superstar, Sirius:

www.galleybeggar.co.uk/campaigns/vi...

Photo of Sirius the dog communing mystically with his friend Anaximander the dog.

always in the weft

Thank you. RIP Cliff too. They are such a good influence.

With apologies again for the IT meltdown, hoping that people will be receiving our newsletter right now, and with links to all stories to follow - we're delighted to announce the 2025/26 GBP Short Story Prize longlist:

The 2025/26 Short Story Prize Longlist - with links:

The Pharmakon | Sam Leith | Substack Sam Leith on Reading, Writing, Re-Reading, Rhetoric and Recovery. Click to read The Pharmakon, by Sam Leith, a Substack publication. Launched a few seconds ago.

I've started a Substack for bits and pieces. First post asks the pressing question of our times: What Would You Do Alone In A Cage With Nothing But Cocaine?

Kindred by Octavia Butler – Galley Beggar Critical Reading Class #2 It was our second session at the Galley Beggars Critical Reading Class moving from contemporary Belfast in Wendy Erskine’s The Benefactors to a modern classic of timeslip fiction, Kindred by …

On my blog, my thoughts on Kindred by Octavia Butler and the 2nd @galleybeggars.bsky.social Critical Reading Class session on it, chaired by @samjordison.bsky.social annabookbel.net/kindred-by-o...

Thank you! Delighted you enjoyed the book and the class. (And thanks for bringing some very useful extra Butler knowledge too!!)

Wuthering slights: why are film-makers afraid of casting Yorkshire actors as Cathy Earnshaw? Wuthering Heights is inseparable from its landscape – but northern actors seldom get the lead role, instead are pigeonholed as stereotypical or supporting characters. This Bradford-born actor objects

As someone from the north of Bradford I find this journalist’s co-opting of my pain deeply offensive and isolating: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe... When will they have the decency to make it all about me instead? I also find this Yorkshire-centrism so troubling. I’m so tired!

Wuthering Heights is also ace. It’s fierce. The more it’s out there, the better.

😂 I shan’t let that put me off!

Haven’t seen it yet, but I can’t wait. Hoping it will be entirely preposterous and I will love it.

Wuthering slights: why are film-makers afraid of casting Yorkshire actors as Cathy Earnshaw? Wuthering Heights is inseparable from its landscape – but northern actors seldom get the lead role, instead are pigeonholed as stereotypical or supporting characters. This Bradford-born actor objects

As someone from the north of Bradford I find this journalist’s co-opting of my pain deeply offensive and isolating: www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe... When will they have the decency to make it all about me instead? I also find this Yorkshire-centrism so troubling. I’m so tired!

White washing Wuthering Heights and the narcissism of now Who cares who plays Heathcliff?

On the 'white-washing' of Wuthering Heights - and the imposition of contemporary problems on a book from another time. "... a shame to impose one narrow and divisive way of looking at the world on this complicated, expansive, terrifying and big-hearted work of art"
open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/w...

Reading Double, Writing Double: The Fiction of Iain (M.) Banks - The Bottle Imp Iain Banks’ writing can be located within a context of contemporary British fiction, namely the period after 1970. The rationale for the provision of a context wider than Scottish fiction is determine...

Iain M. Banks (1954–2013) was born #OTD, 16 Feb: a 🎂 🧵
1/13

“Iain Banks… is a novelist who has his own ‘double’, an author for whom the idea of a split writing persona is emphatically not out of place”

—A 2010 article on Banks’s genre-busting career
💙📚
www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2010/11/read...

White washing Wuthering Heights and the narcissism of now Who cares who plays Heathcliff?

On the 'white-washing' of Wuthering Heights - and the imposition of contemporary problems on a book from another time. "... a shame to impose one narrow and divisive way of looking at the world on this complicated, expansive, terrifying and big-hearted work of art"
open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/w...

People enjoying Brett Anderson of Suede at UEA in Norwich.

Seeing @suedehq.bsky.social at UEA last night made everything feel better.

Thank you for all the fine recommendations, for all the priceless support you've given to writers and to presses like Galley Beggar, and for all the listening pleasure. You'll be missed (but the backlist will be treasured.)

Links, tips and suggestions The place to discuss literary news and the books you're reading. Featuring a real hero, comically evil AI,

open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/l...