Joyful Sage

The hardback book Augustine the African by Catherine Conyebeare on a cream tiled background with a blue tiled border, and the Profile Books logo in the bottom right-hand corner.

'Beautifully written, thoroughly engaging and highly recommended'

#AugustineTheAfrican by Catherine Conybeare reviewed in the Literary Review. A groundbreaking reassessment of one of Christianity's foundational thinkers, out 21st August.

Read the full review: literaryreview.co.uk/out-of-algeria

Did you know? Supermassive black holes give out no light yet are the brightest objects in the universe. I’m giving away 5 signed copies of my paperback A CRACK IN EVERYTHING to a UK person chosen at random from those re-posting this blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro... @headofzeus.bsky.social

Can anyone recommend any favourite resources that touch on daily life in West Berlin around 1967 - 1969? Works of history, archives, novels, films, music all welcome. In English or German. Anything to do with left/anti-war/student politics extra useful. Thanks!

Background pic shows an open notebook and pen on a wooden table with a coral-coloured filter applied to the image. Text overlay reads: Publishing Your Work - August 2025; Poetry & Writing Submissions - Journals, Competitions, Bursaries, Residencies.

It's here! Over 150 calls for literary competitions & submissions incl. poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, photography & more - contests, literary journals, residencies, bursaries etc - open or with deadlines in August 2025. Good luck & pls share.

www.thisiswordbox.com/wordbox-blog...

Love this podcast and looking forward to this episode

"Everything I know, everything I put in my fiction, will hurt someone somewhere as surely as it will comfort and enlighten someone else. What then is my responsibility? What am I to restrain? What am I to fear and alter— my own nakedness or the grief of the reader? I want my stories to be so good they are unforgettable; to make my ideas live and my own terrors real for people I will never meet. It is a completely amoral writer's lust. If we begin to agree that some ideas are too dangerous, too bad to invite inside our heads, then we stop the storyteller completely. We silence everyone who would tell us something that might be painful in our vulnerable moments."

Everything I know, everything I put in my fiction, will hurt someone somewhere as surely as it will comfort and enlighten someone else. What then is my responsibility?What am I to restrain? What am I to fear and alter . . .

- Dorothy Allison

This sounds fascinating. Looking forward. I’m particularly interested in the German far right’s attitude to wolves, and if/how this interacts with the eco/off-grid commune far right groups that also (I believe) exist there…

Stupidly cannot now remember if I went over the skin-coloured lip tissue or just where I had colour 🤦‍♀️. Will try that another day and lyk. I have wonderskin all-day lip stain in whimsical. Colour I think still there and nice. But v v subtle. I would use again

Trying now. Lips felt weird taking it off but there is a definite difference to colour and I think they look healthier. Colour calmed down a lot since I took it off 10 mins ago but in a good way. I don’t do lipstick at all and really like this so far so maybe too subtle for some. Will update later!

Also GB News. I know of several previously normal people who now have it on all day every day and talk about how ‘scary what’s going on in this country these days’ is etc

Came here to recommend Sam Freedman and Ian Dunt but many others have done so already, so I will mention this report, as recommended by Eliot Higgins

demos.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Is she looking to live centrally or interested in commutable suburbs too? If the latter, Altrincham is great, lots of walkable green space around, lovely little market, on the tram and near the airport

Ok I’ll take your word for it 🙏

I’m not an academic, but isn’t ‘setting out to debunk claims’ a questionable starting point in the first place?

Amazing! Well done ✍️💪🏻

Ooohhh I think someone gave me one of those recently, will dig it out and report back!

No idea but am intrigued… what are they?!?

There could at least be a clause in the contract that the author represents that the events described are factually accurate except as disclosed to the publisher, with penalties for breach of this clause? A bit like the duty of utmost good faith in an insurance contract

My jaw is on the floor. And the reply 😱. Only one so far but there will be more…

"I suddenly realized I didn't know anyone here who isn't Jewish" Rabbi Hanan Schlessinger, an Orthodox rabbi, on his work with Palestinians who live right alongside him, and how that work has shaped his senses of being a Jew and of being an Israeli

Absolutely. I work with holocaust survivors - it’s striking how similar their messages are to Keret’s parents.

See also podcast here: open.substack.com/pub/danielgo... which is v powerful on the need for people to sit and really listen to each other’s experiences without rushing to debate/respond

Oh, also I haven’t read but on my list and sound v interesting are HHhH and The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet

I rarely post on this stuff because well… but this is an incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking interview. Among many other things, the comments about fiction humanising and resisting pervasive reductive narratives are so relevant today. (NB though it is probably relevant that it is >1yr old)

Wow. Thanks for sharing

This line: ‘the dismissal prompted Hemingway’s own internal ChatGPT to write A Farewell to Arms’👌

Brilliant article which made me both smile and think… sending to a friend who genuinely couldn’t understand why I was horrified - when I asked for her advice on an awkward what’s app - that she put my first attempt through ChatGPT and enthusiastically came back with its (horrific) suggested text

2569 Online: Moniack in a Month – Historical Fiction with Victoria MacKenzie - Moniack Mhor Join historical novelist Victoria Mackenzie for a lively 4-week online course exploring the art of writing compelling and vivid historical fiction. Aimed at anyone interested in writing a historical n...

What’s your favourite historical novel? I’m creating a lovely long reading list for my #HistFic participants to take away after our ‘Moniack in a Month’ course in September, and I’d love to have a really wide selection of suggestions. 📚✒️😍
www.moniackmhor.org.uk/courses/2569...

Well, present company excepted….
Hilary Mantel obvs.
Patrick O’Brian Aubrey-Maturin series
The English Patient
Tessa Hadley The Party (but IS it a historical novel really…?)
Looking forward to reading Lonesome Dove and Glorious Exploits (Ferdia Lennon)

Thank you!

🙏 will read. It’s so important for these concepts to be widely and easily accessible to the public. I once thought about making a kids political philosophy podcast but sadly don’t have the skills. But this needs to be taught. Even the teachers don’t understand so they can’t and aren’t teaching it

🧵 @jcbslide.bsky.social 's reply reflects a common but crucial misunderstanding: that democracy simply is civil liberties and fair procedures. But rights alone don’t guarantee democratic legitimacy. What matters is whether the public can meaningfully participate in truth, power, and accountability.