THE DAVID COATES STAMP OF APPROVAL!! The Owl Bookshop's Gary last week, now David?! cock-a-hoop for Jean.

DAVUD, HOORAY, THANK YOU

I LOVE INDEXERS!! A brilliant index is a thing of beauty. I don't really get to commission them anymore but I think the one for the Francis Bacon biog at William Collins was one of my faves. Exquisite, thoughtful, comprehensive.

cannot wait to gab* with Fatima Bhutto and Sarah Dennis

*be intensely professional and illuminating

Beryl Bainbridge!

Grammarly's presentation of something they call Expert Review, including my name (plus Stephen King's, plus Mary Norris's), though to be sure I've never been contacted by Grammarly, much less compensated.

What in the absolute fuck is this.

omni-Booker-shortlisted. Rushdie WISHES.

there we go, lovely stuff, YES

I'm losing all sense of up & down. 'From the five-time Booker-shortlisted author' - why does that somehow look right? Surely it should be 'five-TIMES Booker-shortlisted author'?? But when I make it plural, I then feel the urge to make it 'the five times' Booker-shortlisted' (surely deranged). Help?

yoweee!! I'm *very* excited (and psyching myself up - 8.45 at the bfi?! What kind of likely bedtime do you call THAT, Marigold?!)

I'm such a fan of a 90-min film but this one not a second dragged DESPITE its, yes, beautiful, measured pace. I'm obsessed (and entirely smitten by Wagner Moura). I could write essays on all that I loved about it. CINÉMA!! Sirat next for me...

a well-rounded and nutritious diet

alternating every other thought with a thought about The Secret Agent

Daunt Books Publishing appoints Ben Oldfield as editor Ben Oldfield has been appointed to the role of editor at Daunt Books Publishing.

Thrilled to announce we have a new editor heading our way, to replace the wonderful Dredhëza: Ben Oldfield, currently at the Wylie Agency, will be joining us at the end of this month. We're so excited to see how he helps shape the list: www.thebookseller.com/news/daunt-b...

Over the (nearly full) moon to announce a new Amina Cain is on the way. This exquisite, enigmatic novel will slip under your skin and into your dreams. Forever grateful to Amina (and Devon at FSG) for trusting us with her brilliance.

the inchworm!! I love this. Strength to you and her.

I'm so excited that you have the Forbidden Notebook ahead of you - I'd be astonished if you didn't love...

I feel sure you must have read Alba de Céspedes' THE FORBIDDEN NOTEBOOK (tr. Ann Goldstein) but just in case you haven't got round it yet, I would hard hard rec. For a new book, Rebecca Perry's MAY WE FEED THE KING is exquisite. Big love, Alex, I'm so sorry about your mother.

Booker International contender of the future nb

Cannot wait. LOVED the sample, not to mention the sound of the book itself. What a killer duo of publishers!! Congratulations.

This is genuinely insane, I clicked to see the years expecting the low part to be 70s or maybe 90s but its 2015!!!!! The entire anti trans panic is a decade old

deliberate swerve and crash, on a completely deserted street, both times.Apparently it's a big problem in Japan. V strange. And also: not at all. PLUS CA CHANGE EH.

Requesting from libraries helps tell them what readers want, too, so helps them spend their budget more accurately. And, my librarians tell me, requests helps them advocate for a higher budget. Because 'look at all these books we didn't have that people wanted!'

A man pushed me in the street, he wanted to teach me a lesson. Is that OK now? | Lucy Pasha-Robinson Many women reading this will have experienced something similar: a warning that sharing public space isn’t a man’s job, it’s a woman’s, says Lucy Pasha-Robinson, a Guardian assistant Opinion editor

the pushing-women thing is SO ODD. I've had it happen to me twice (& I'm white, middle-aged & not pretty, so am usually fairly invisible): both times it was so startling & aggressive. It's a mild form of what's in this piece but it's worrying to extrapolate from: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Dave vs Bacon

magnificent

whoops, missed the title but maybe that was a cunning tactic to get you to click into AND READ this most fabulous of reviews?! Couldn't ask for a better one, tbh:

Nigel Farage wants to cut price of beer by reinstating two-child benefit cap Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has pledged to reinstate the two-child limit on benefits to pay for a 5p cut off pints of beer to boost pubs.

How can the other parties not beat this? I mean, seriously? These people should be shouted down in roars of laughter the minute they say this. Just toxic. www.bigissue.com/news/politic...

Fatima Bhutto on secrets, lies and surviving coercive control – podcast The Pakistani writer on enduring an abusive relationship in the public eye, and how she broke free

oh nooo Fatima is talking about a really heartbreaking moment in THE HOUR OF THE WOLF, a small, lovely moment of kindness from a stranger providing such a contrast to the man's persistent cruelty: www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

wowza, this month's Debut Nights line-up at Bàrd Books is SO GOOD!! Our own beloved Madeleine Dunnigan, author of JEAN, joins Rebecca Perry (MAY WE FEED THE KING - adore, adore), Madeline Cash (LOST LAMBS - apparently HUGE fun) and Tobi Coventry (HE'S THE DEVIL - killer title, killer cover): Feb 18!