Many thanks to @commapress.bsky.social for the review copy of The BBC National Short Story Award 2025 anthology. I managed to read it before last night's awards announcement and thoroughly enjoyed it (even though my prediction was far wrong!) bookishbeck.com/2025/09/30/t...
Next month we're off to Berlin (and Lübeck) for the first time. I'm sure many of you will have been to the city and loved it, so do share your ideas for what we must see, do and eat!
The end of an era! It will be hard to leave a place you've known so intimately, though you're not going far. When we moved to the next street, I hated the thought of walking past our old garden and seeing changes made. Good luck with the move and settling in. I'm looking forward to your new book!
Amazing to see Peggy Seeger on her farewell tour yesterday. She's one of my heroes, still sharp as a tack at 89. Traditionals, classics ("I'm Gonna Be an Engineer"), and lots from her last album. Also a bawdy anti-Trump ditty! Her new version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" had me in tears.
Post-it note left as a place-marker at p. 38 in a copy of White Teeth donated to the Little Free Library: "Morning gorgeous :) Gone out for a walk -- should be around 40 mins. I love you very much, Ellie ❤️❤️ xxxxxxxxxx" I love these little glimpses into other lives!
We are thrilled to announce the shortlisted authors for the McKitterick Prize, sponsored by Hawthornden Foundation and awarded for a first novel by a writer over 40.
Join us on 18 June at Southwark Cathedral to hear the winner.
We are so happy to announce @beewyld.bsky.social's upcoming book The Apothecary by the Sea, a lyrical, tender story of Victoria’s creation of a wild apothecary garden on the northern Scottish archipelago of Orkney. 🌊
Hmm, I don't think of anything I've read. I looked at @annabookbel.bsky.social's blog in case she'd reviewed anything relevant and the closest I saw was Symphony in C, but sounds like that was frustratingly scant on organic chemistry: annabookbel.net/hacking-darw...
A terrific #bookpost day! Thank you to @canongate.co.uk for a finished copy of NATURE'S GENIUS by David Farrier (out on 8 May), whose Footprints was one of my top reads of 2020. Plus my Bookshop order of STAG DANCE by Torrey Peters @serpents-tail.bsky.social arrived -- solidarity with trans women!
Many thanks to @eandtbooks.bsky.social for a finished copy of CHINESE PARENTS DON'T SAY I LOVE YOU by Candice Chung, coming out on 24 April. I can't resist a food memoir (or "foodoir")! #bookpost
Thank you to @sceptrebooks.bsky.social for a proof copy of Dream State by Eric Puchner. I've been hearing great things about this one since its U.S. release (it's an Oprah's Book Club selection!). It's published in the UK on 8 May. #bookpost
Thank you to @faberbooks.bsky.social for a copy of That Broke into Shining Crystals by Richard Scott. I loved his earlier poetry collection, Soho. This is out on 22 April and I'm looking forward to reading it soon! #bookpost
Thank you to @yalebooks.bsky.social for a review copy of Museum Visits by Éric Chevillard (translated by Daniel Levin Becker). I'm looking forward to catching up on this intriguing collection of micro-essays. #bookpost
Many thanks to @atlanticbooks.bsky.social for a copy of Find Me As the Creature I Am by Emily Jungmin Yoon. I've been hearing great things about this poetry collection (released in the USA last year) and I look forward to reviewing it at its 3 April publication date. #bookpost
Our local Jackdaw roost, quite recently formed on the same island the neighbourhood Magpies use, where 5 Little Egrets also roosted earlier in the winter. With bonus duelling Cetti's warblers.
