Deirdre Shanahan

‘Her amazing smile was undimmed, and I would try anything to summon it’ | The Observer

observer.co.uk/style/featur...

Utterly beautiful tribute.

completely agree
And never understood
why it's sung in England??

So glad @irishbookawards.bsky.social agree with me
'The Benefactors' @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social
is colourful, rollicking journey- such memorable characters
Congratulations Wendy - what a ride- really enjoyed it

I learnt a lot about this ever expanding area
from participating in a focus group

delighted to hear about the fruits of your research

yes - it is odd at lack of media interest
i keep getting updates from the library and they don't seem to have fully recovered from cyber attack

Enormously proud to be the new UK home of Beryl Bainbridge. In March 2026, we kick things off in earnest by publishing AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE, with an intro by Yiyun Li, and THE BOTTLE FACTORY OUTING, with an intro by A. K. Blakemore. Ruthlessly smart, darkly comic, her novels are sharp-edged gems

French Cooking for Two: Seasons of Friendship — Les Fugitives cookery french cookbook michele roberts les fugitives cooking for one cooking for two

In case you missed it, French Cooking for Two: Seasons of Frienship by Michèle Roberts will be out next month! For charming, witty anecdotes and recipes to share with a loved one along the year, you can preorder here www.lesfugitives.com/cookbooks/fr...

2 lovely people here

terrific that Michele Roberts
is back with this gorgeous array of recipes
from enterprising @lesfugitivespress.bsky.social

25kg braced on my back. 10kg strapped to my chest. A plastic bag in each hand. One by one, the rucksacks and carriers are shucked to the floor of the foyer and I step into the hall, it is early, still, not yet 9.30am, the tables almost bare, only the names are visible, the artists and presses, the plan printed out on plain white paper. The rows recede and the signs recede and I turn back for the inventory. It's my seventh Small Publishers Fair. As the hall starts to fill with boxes and backpacks and trolleys, the aisles narrowing, the stalls taking shape, I look up from the hardwood floor, my bags half-stowed under the tablecloth, and adjust my perspective, my sense of scale. The fair has yet to open to the public and already it's busy. Stallholders squeeze through vanishing gaps or wait for a break in a queue. It's a major event in a minor space. Over the years, the fair has grown, and the hall is at capacity within an hour of the doors opening. On the one hand, the fair needs more space. On the other hand, the fair needs this space. Perhaps it's the architecture, or the ethos of its humanist founders, but Conway Hall has been critical to the development of the fair as an even-handed, open-minded gathering. Sixty stalls at street level. Uniform tables on a uniform plan. No hierarchies. No roller banners. A conversation in the heart of the city. A conversation that has been happening for years. In 2023, I was asked to host the book launches in The Library. It was a privilege, and I enjoyed the readings, but I found that I missed being at the stall, not from any concern for sales, it wasn't that, I missed the encounters that take place across a table, the new and familiar faces, the informality and surprise. The exchange. This year, I'm stepping into a vacancy, with a short reading in The Green Room, following the withdrawal of the advertised speaker. I read an excerpt from Local Distribution, an account of delivering books on foot in the city of Sheffield.

If you missed the limited print edition of The Minute Review's special issue on the Small Publishers Fair, here's a free download:
drive.google.com/file/d/1lfb7...
Previous issues are also available here:
derekbeaulieu.ca/pdfs/
Here's a screenshot of my piece on the 2024 Fair.

Book mail! Very grateful to my lovely editor at @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social for this, it's quoted extensively in Laure Murat's Proust: A Family Affair, which I recently finished translating.

I can barely believe this
She was a great journalist
Beloved in our house for all her work
Especially latterly,
on food and cooking
Very sad news.

Just discovered Olan Monk
so glad

Agree, Nicholas.
Wonderful novel
with quiet penetrating humour

Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.

love this series
a relief to have focus on one book and its origins
poking behind the scenes is great

Writer Hanif Kureishi mourns his loss of mobility by choreographing a ballet | The Observer

v moving to see the ballet on BBC 4 last night
reminder of what the BBC does so well
rbo.org.uk

observer.co.uk/news/national/article/i-envy-people-who-can-walk-writer-kureishi-mourns-loss-of-movement-through-ballet
#ballet

So excited 2 c this on menu
frenchhousesoho.com
achilloysters.com
#fish
#seafood
#shellfish

Even Holloway Road tube station
looks good in Autumn sun
#Autumn
#Londontube

Thank you Special Archives
for taking on some journals
produced in Kerry
londonmet.ac.uk

Good to see you keep
@chalk-magazine.bsky.social

and you keep contemporary journals

Paul Evans, British (1950- ), The Golden Moon, ink and acrylic on canvas, 61 x 57 cm, private collection

hi there
any Marketing Comms jobs in London?
Not for me - (asking for a friend)

Oíche Shamhna shona duit! 🐈‍⬛

Here's a short moment captured at the entrance to Oweynagat, Uaimh na gCat (Cave of the Cats) in the ancient landscape of Rathcroghan, Roscommon.

There are many tales about the dark depths of the cave, once described as the 'Gateway to Hell' in the Book of Leinster.

the music chosen is wondrous
what a relief from the rest of the world

ICE violently detained a 16 year old US citizen & sent him to the hospital with severe injuries to his back and neck.

The kid was screaming “I’m underage! I was just going to school!”

That didn’t stop ICE from putting a knee on his neck.

Arnoldo Bazan didn’t deserve this.

No one deserves this.

Ghost Mountain is being published in French (in France, Switzerland and Belgium) on 9th January 2026.

I'd really chuffed about this. First time my writing has appeared in French.

Published by Les Grands Vents and translated by Charles Roux

www.editionslesgrandsvents.com/montagne-fan...

Treasury minister leading budget plans spent £900 on desk Torsten Bell, who is working with Rachel Reeves to fill a £30 billion hole in finances, also used his parliamentary expenses to claim £600 for three chairs

Totally untrue garbage from @thetimes.com & @dailymail.co.uk today - smear dressed up as journalism. Some facts:
- There is no “£900 desk”
- my constituency office has Ikea desks/chairs
- we significantly underspent the new MPs allowance to set up an office
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...