This and King of America in the same year!!

Cameo — metafictional mischief is at the heart of Rob Doyle’s novel The Irish author’s playful satire conjures up a canon of fictional novels by a fictional novelist, all to dizzying effect

My mixed thoughts on Rob Doyle's latest novel, 'Cameo', for the FT.
www.ft.com/content/792c...

This darkly funny Swedish novel presents a bleak vision of masculinity Our critics review July’s latest fiction, from a sprawling family epic to an ambitious apocalyptic novel

Two reviews of mine in the Telegraph's fiction round-up for July: of Thomas McMullan's second novel and Andrev Walden's first.

www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t...

Drayton and Mackenzie — a moving tale of male friendship in the 21st century Alexander Starritt’s best novel yet follows the lives of two entrepreneurial graduates against a backdrop of the 2008 crash to Covid and beyond

Great book alert: my review of Alexander Starritt's 'Drayton and Mackenzie' for the FT.
www.ft.com/content/cb54...

An ill wind: Poppyland, by D.J. Taylor, reviewed As the term refers to the stretch of the north Norfolk coastline between Sheringham and Mundesley, only one of the stories in D.J. Taylor’s engrossing new collection strictly takes place in ‘Poppyland...

An ill wind: Poppyland, by @djtaylorwriter.bsky.social , reviewed in The Spectator by George Cochrane

‘Norfolk life looks quietly bleak in these carefully worked short stories of broken homes, precarious employment, dwindling expectations and torpor’

More reviews of @djtaylorwriter.bsky.social’s sensational Poppyland – here's Harry Cochrane in The Tablet. #Booksky

Sceptre triumphs in four-way auction for 'distinctive and gripping' new biography of Muriel Spark Sceptre has triumphed in a four-way auction for Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, James Bailey's biography of Muriel Spark. Editorial director Charlotte Humphery bought British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from John Ash at CAA. Sceptre will publish the book in physical, e-book and audio formats in April 2026, to mark the 20th anniversary of Spark's death.

"As sly, nimble and elegant as Spark's own work, Like a Cat Loves a Bird is a thrilling new perspective on a remarkable life and career of one of Britain's greatest writers," the synopsis says. "From her childhood in Edinburgh to her final years in Tuscany - via South Africa, London, New York and Rome - it traces a light-footed journey around the world and through her strange and magnificent bibliography. It tells an irresistible story of transformation, wit and fierce determination and makes a passionate case for this vital modern artist." Humphery said: "As a keen reader, I thought I knew and admired Muriel Spark. But Like a Cat Loves a Bird has shown me how much more there is to understand and adore about this fierce, spiky and incomparable writer. I am obsessed and it is all thanks to James Bailey, who has written the kind of biography that I most love - one that is both deeply researched and knowledgeable but also vibrant, distinctive and gripping."

Bailey added: "For a long time, I've thought of Muriel Spark as modern literature's finest shapeshifter. Over the course of her 88 years, and in the 20 years since her death, she has remained elusive, contradictory and endlessly fascinating; just when you think you have the measure of her, she slips out of sight before reinventing herself anew. Getting to tell the story - or rather the many stories - of her life and work has been a writing experience like no other."

A photograph of Muriel Spark holding a black cat and smiling at the camera

The cat’s out of the bag! 🐈‍⬛

LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD, my weird, slippery biography of Muriel Spark, will be out in April next year.

A huge thank you to the team at @sceptrebooks.bsky.social for helping me bring it to life.

Please tell your libraries and favourite bookshops!

And so my 'The Annotated Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road' project begins... (from Ross Macdonald's The Drowning Pool).

*Exciting news alert!* So I've started a small press called CONDUIT BOOKS, publishing literary fiction and memoir, focussing (initially) on male authors. You can find us at @conduitbooks.co.uk on Instagram. Submissions open 1st -31st May. @thebookseller.com www.thebookseller.com/news/new-ind...

Went to post a birthday card on behalf of (and lovingly handmade by) my partner this morning and inadvertently posted it in the letterbox-adjacent bin, from which it was irretrievable... I honestly don't know how Gen Z-ers are supposed to tell the difference, in my defence.

Tired of your marriage? Take this novel’s advice The Rest of Our Lives, Benjamin Markovits’s superb 12th novel, follows one man’s ‘crisis’ road trip with touches of humour and devastation

Benjamin Markovits's excellent new novel 'The Rest of Our Lives' is out today. My review in the Telegraph:
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t...

Just reviewed this (very positively) for the Telegraph. His Byron trilogy is marvellous, though not very characteristic of what he has gone on to write, which is more in the mould of Richard Ford/Richard Yates. Playing Days is an excellent book.

Honoured to appear in the third and (sadly) final edition of Backstory magazine. It's a beautiful publication, so well worth getting hold of a copy (at their website or in store).

A magnificent murder mystery set in Michelangelo’s Florence Perspectives, a thrilling epistolary novel by Laurent Binet, sees Giorgio Vasari investigate the murder of a controversial artist

The full five stars from me for Laurent Binet's epistolary murder mystery set in Renaissance Florence.
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t...

The strangest Japanese novel you’ll ever read In her novel Under the Eye of the Big Bird, Hiromi Kawakami has ludic fun with clones and hovercraft – but the writing could be sharper

My thoughts on the new Hiromi Kawakami, 'Under the Eye of the Big Bird.'
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t...

And Everybody Knows This is Nowhere before After the Gold Rush!

They could at least put it between the 'e' and the 's' to make an apostrophe. That would be a real Christmas treat.

Got it in one.

There's some lovely stuff about Amis and Money in a major forthcoming novel...

Ah thank you! You should definitely give him a go. Fireflies is one of the great twentieth century novels imho. And I didn't get to mention them, but the short stories are also brilliant.

I've been surprised by its reception, too. Lots of goodwill leftover from his last book, perhaps (though I thought that might have evaporated after the execrable film adaptation).

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam — the dark side of the American dream A young woman’s noble ambitions are compromised by the corrupting influence of money

Great review, John! I was similarly unimpressed...
www.ft.com/content/2f95...

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam — the dark side of the American dream A young woman’s noble ambitions are compromised by the corrupting influence of money

I reviewed Rumaan Alam's frustrating novel 'Entitlement' for the FT.
www.ft.com/content/2f95...

The Material — wisecracks from the edge Camille Bordas’s ensemble piece, set at a stand-up comedy school, has much to say about how we live now

My FT review of Camille Bordas's brilliant novel 'The Material'.
www.ft.com/content/a6a9...

Isn't it wonderful!

Great review, John. I really liked 'Berlin', so I'm pleased to hear this one measured up.

If this is Anita Desai’s swansong, it’s a magnificent way to go In Anita Desai’s entrancing novella, Rosarita, a student living in San Miguel uncovers her mother’s secret past life

My Telegraph review of Anita Desai's beguiling new novella.
www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-t...

No acknowledgements in Joseph O'Neill's latest. I do agree about that perfect blank silence (lovely phrase!) when you turn the last page. It's also one of the pleasures of old films, where the credits invariably last about fifteen seconds rather than fifteen minutes.

And a biography imminent, I see

Henry Miller prefacing H. E. Bates surely has to be one of the unlikelier literary collaborations.