Back to the Booker longlist one week before shortlist announce. To be updated over the coming week.

September 14, 2026

Do Booker winners become so for a reason? The 2026 Longlist came out on 28 July. Update. Daily writing prompt Do you think everything happens for a reason? View all responses Do Booker winners become so for a reason? The 2026 Longlist came out on 28 July The question is open. Each year I set out … More Back to the Booker longlist one week before shortlist announce. To be updated over the coming week.

‘Don’t get me into some philosophical bullshit about lie versus fiction. Fiction is creation. Lie is distortion. One don’t have a fucking thing to do with the other’. Words from Marlon James ‘The Disappearers’ (2026).

September 13, 2026

Sometimes our prompts invite us to validate a proposition that, to say the lest, is questionable and is, at the most a deliberate untruth. Look at this question, for instance: ‘If you had to switch lives with a fictional character for a week, who would you choose?’. It starts with a conditional phrase, ‘If you … More ‘Don’t get me into some philosophical bullshit about lie versus fiction. Fiction is creation. Lie is distortion. One don’t have a fucking thing to do with the other’. Words from Marlon James ‘The Disappearers’ (2026).

Without Satan, Milton’s poetry would be bereft of the means of a story and even more bereft of the nuanced glance of life turned into a kind of song where contraries separate and come together in conflict and eternal bondage that poetry is, and is ever condemned and blessed to be at its best.

September 12, 2026

To like the ‘villain more than the hero’ is not an eccentric thing at all, neither is it a thing to be confessed, for without this trope of literature and literary readings it is doubtful story-telling or even the more numinous concept poetry as means of artistic and humane expression could exist at all. Usually … More Without Satan, Milton’s poetry would be bereft of the means of a story and even more bereft of the nuanced glance of life turned into a kind of song where contraries separate and come together in conflict and eternal bondage that poetry is, and is ever condemned and blessed to be at its best.

Who is paying for your cheap air travel?

September 11, 2026

The ‘best tip’ idiomatic phrase is usually a shorthand for allowing people who can afford to spend more of their private income to spend considerably less. Out of this fascination for cheapness for the relatively well endowed financially comes the fact that the true costs of environmentally polluting practices are not paid by those who … More Who is paying for your cheap air travel?

Stories that stay mainly in one place can often travel further imaginatively – dimensions in space, time and the imagination of mobility in the storytelling. This is a blog on the film ‘Pressure’ directed and edited by Anthony Maras and written by Maras and David Haig, based on Haig’s 2014 stage play.

September 10, 2026

What’s the longest trip you’ve ever taken? View all responses Stories that stay mainly in one place can often travel further imaginatively – using  dimensions in outward and inward space, time and the motility of focal choice in the  the storytelling. This is a blog on the film Pressure directed and edited by Anthony Maras … More Stories that stay mainly in one place can often travel further imaginatively – dimensions in space, time and the imagination of mobility in the storytelling. This is a blog on the film ‘Pressure’ directed and edited by Anthony Maras and written by Maras and David Haig, based on Haig’s 2014 stage play.

Should I choose a week of his life which offered no return to a present in which I had no faith in myself? Being Sydney Carton being …?

September 9, 2026

Should I choose a week of his life which offered no return to a present in which I had no faith in myself? Being Sydney Carton being …? Much lies behind my answer: many liesIndeed!Lies informed my life till that timeWhen weeks could not be spent in hearing criesI’d rather leave unheard: in fact that … More Should I choose a week of his life which offered no return to a present in which I had no faith in myself? Being Sydney Carton being …?

Although you never ever regret reading Colm Tóibín’s books, you may regret ‘The Bridge’ for raising the hope that ‘A Long Winter’ for his queer hero, Miquel (the finest of them all) never ends.

September 8, 2026

Colm Tóibín is a true writer of the heart but not from it, except in as much as hearts seem to beat on when there reasons for doing so, in the myth that the heart is the centre of emotional attachments or longing for such have not yet been initiated or have long gone. Later … More Although you never ever regret reading Colm Tóibín’s books, you may regret ‘The Bridge’ for raising the hope that ‘A Long Winter’ for his queer hero, Miquel (the finest of them all) never ends.

‘Be ready for the duplicity of adulthood and adults’ is my advice and it continues thus; ‘and if you can, learn how not to collude whilst you learn, as you must, to survive’. This blog is a reflection on the film ‘Bad Apples’ (2025) directed by Jonatan Etzler and starring the very wondrous Saoirse Ronan.

September 7, 2026

‘Be ready for the duplicity of adulthood and adults’ is my advice and it continues thus; ‘and if you can, learn how not to collude whilst you learn, as you must, to survive’. This blog is a reflection on the film ‘Bad Apples’ (2025) directed by Jonatan Etzler and starring the very wondrous Saoirse Ronan. … More ‘Be ready for the duplicity of adulthood and adults’ is my advice and it continues thus; ‘and if you can, learn how not to collude whilst you learn, as you must, to survive’. This blog is a reflection on the film ‘Bad Apples’ (2025) directed by Jonatan Etzler and starring the very wondrous Saoirse Ronan.

In Dean Atta’s first novel intended for adults, ‘Big Man’, the protagonist, Big, explains to new entrants to his profession of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) workers and consultants why he is doing the ‘job he is doing right now and why’, without mentioning salary: ‘Big told the twenty somethings he enjoyed being freelance because he was neither a boss nor an employee’. This blog is really about Dean Atta (2026) ‘Big Man’ London, Cipher Press.

September 5, 2026

If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why? In Dean Atta’s first novel intended for adults, ‘Big Man’, the protagonist, Big, explains to new entrants to his profession of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) workers and consultants why he is doing the ‘job he is doing right … More In Dean Atta’s first novel intended for adults, ‘Big Man’, the protagonist, Big, explains to new entrants to his profession of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) workers and consultants why he is doing the ‘job he is doing right now and why’, without mentioning salary: ‘Big told the twenty somethings he enjoyed being freelance because he was neither a boss nor an employee’. This blog is really about Dean Atta (2026) ‘Big Man’ London, Cipher Press.

Can an action be brave if it is done in secret, unseen, Lady Godiva?

September 4, 2026

What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done when no one was watching? Can an action be brave if it is done in secret, unseen? Perhaps it can but only if you in some way also share the fact that you did it with others, as this prompt asks us so to do. Is it true … More Can an action be brave if it is done in secret, unseen, Lady Godiva?

Let’s concentrate on the word ‘raised’ and its rather frightening semantic history, to unpack the assumptions behind answering about how any actions of mine or their mode of occurrence differ from those I was supposedly ‘raised’ to do or not do them.

September 3, 2026

I am turning to the Online Etymological Dictionary today again for this prompt question, although the issues behind any use of the verb ‘raise’ are largely about its implication that the subject of a the transitive verb (see below) ‘raise’ is always in all the examples I can think of (but I’d love to be … More Let’s concentrate on the word ‘raised’ and its rather frightening semantic history, to unpack the assumptions behind answering about how any actions of mine or their mode of occurrence differ from those I was supposedly ‘raised’ to do or not do them.

This is a blog on seeing the Gwen John exhibition in Edinburgh in 2026, using the catalogue edited by Rachel Stratton and Lucy Wood, ‘Gwen John: Strange Beauties’.

September 2, 2026

In looking at drawings and perhaps even serial paintings whether explicitly named versions of a concept, or ‘studies’ or whatever, something the brilliant Lauren Elkin says about the relationship of found drawings of an artist *speaking of those Gwen John made of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and Her Sister and the ultimate form they might … More This is a blog on seeing the Gwen John exhibition in Edinburgh in 2026, using the catalogue edited by Rachel Stratton and Lucy Wood, ‘Gwen John: Strange Beauties’.