A simple idea to help the pro-democracy movement in #Egypt: Publish
Tahrir Square – “The biggest think-tank in the Middle East” In the Western world, there is much hand-wringing over just how our people and governments can help the people of Egypt get a better...
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Radio Litopia: A Town Named Sue
The Litopia online writers colony broadcasts several weekly podcasts on various aspects of writing and literature. I was invited onto the Debriefer show, presented by Donna Ballman, to discuss the...
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Niall Ferguson threatens to sue Mishra
Author Niall Ferguson, who says he has been smeared by Pankaj Mishra. Photo by the Aspen Institute - Creative Commons Licence. Oh dear. A couple of weeks ago this blog praised the historian Niall...
View ArticleGingrich, Bin Laden, and Issac Asimov
Apparently, the megalomaniac tendencies that many perceive in Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich are inspired by Iassac Asimov: If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, Newt Gingrich is from the...
View ArticleOn The Censorship of Cricket
The thing that caught my ear this morning was the cricket scores. England are on tour, playing Pakistan… in Abu Dhabi. The English cricketers cannot travel to play in actual Pakistan due to security...
View ArticleAll Over Bar The Shouting?
A few days ago I tweeted the following: I know I should be glued to #Leveson analysis, just have the feeling that it will all play out as it should without me. Passive politics. A few people asked me...
View ArticleThe World of An Insignificant Woman
Over the past year, I’ve been working on a creative publishing challenge I set myself. It’s time to blog about it here and draw a line under the project. A few years ago, my parents showed me a faded...
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Lost Souls and Crossroads
Back in 2006 or so, when blogging was The Next Big Thing That Everyone Was Doing, there was much discussion over whether a blog could kickstart a literary or journalistic career. Writers News even...
View ArticleOn Borrowing and Buying e-Books
More on the trend towards the digitisation of books and what that means for culture, politics and society… this time, from George Orwell. Given a good pitch and the right amount of capital, any...
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The Kitschies and Progressive Fiction
Nick Harkaway with his Red Tentacle. Photo by Sarah McIntyre This week I was at The Kitschies, a set of awards for “progressive, intelligent and entertaining genre literature.” Its creators, Jared and...
View ArticleIs publishing the true cultural engine of our time?
The release today of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, based on Mohsin Hamed’s brilliant novel, reminded me to post this article I wrote for InPrint, the magazine of the Society of Young Publishers. It...
View ArticleThe Defamation Act 2013: Complete & Unabridged
As is my wont, I made a book to illustrate this. Physical objects are useful props in debates like this: immediately illustrative, and useful to hang an argument and peoples’ attention on. James Bridle...
View ArticleSoderberg on Creativity, Movies, and Cinema
Something I have always found inspiring is the short acceptance speech made by Steven Soderberg in 2001, when he collected an Oscar for directing Traffic. What I want to say is, I want to thank anyone...
View ArticleTalking Free Speech and ‘The Good Shabti’ on the Bookworm Podcast
Ed Fortune, the presenter of Starburst Magazine’s wonderful Bookworm Podcast, invited me onto the show to discuss the work of English PEN and my own creative writing endeavours. Download Season 2,...
View ArticleFour reasons why I probably won’t win the Shirley Jackson Award
I gatecrashed the Hugo-nominated Pornokitsch blog to post this review of my competitor novellas. I also put this on Medium, just because. I’m delighted and honoured to have been nominated for the...
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We Need To Talk launched for The Eve Appeal
I’m delighted to have a story featured in the anthology We Need to Talk, launched yesterday. The publisher is Jurassic London—here’s the blurb from their website: All of us, at some point, are...
View ArticleFor Books’ Sake: Supporting Nigerian LGBTQ writers
I’m pleased to be quoted in an article by Ellie Broughton on the For Books’ Sake website, When Gay Characters Attract Death Threats. Robert Sharp, comms manager at English PEN, warns that threats...
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Three Science Fiction and Fantasy Books I’ve Been Thinking About A Lot During...
So, voluntary self-isolation becomes a mandatory lock-down. Plenty of people have been discussing relevant films, TV shows and literature that deal with pandemics, deadly diseases and the like. GIFs...
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