WG Grace played his 870th and final first-class match in the season opener between Surrey and Gentlemen of England at The Oval starting on April 20th 1908. Grace, three months shy of his 60th birthday, captained the Gentlemen, scoring 15 and 25
Close-ups and soft focus flashbacks, no matter how artfully done, are not the same as the sublime interiority of close third person prose.
boxd.it/dMEtYb
Photo of a chess board with models of household goods such as a stove, lamp and chair for chess pieces
Chess Set, 2005 by Rachel Whiteread #WomensArt
That's very good of you to say so, thank you. Plenty more to read! Also have a look at my latest project, a mass participation memoir platform that's growing ... and growing: universalturingmachine.co.uk
Join us on April 20 for an evening at The Jolly Gardeners pub for discussion on cricket and poetry, followed by the legendary Nightwatchman quiz
Book now: eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...
A photo of a copy of the ARC for the Angry Robot 2026 edition of Moon Over Brendle by Jeff Noon. The book is published on the 12th of May. The cover is by Alice Coleman.
"It was that kind of day, when one thing led to another, on and on. The dive of the kestrel had directed me to a long meandering line of pink and silver dust that was creeping across the field ... I walked down to meet it, and then followed alongside. The dust stream was a hand-span across.'
'The unarguable lucidity of genius.' That's what I thought, so that's what I said.
Following Chloe Hadjimatheou’s exposé of The Salt Path in the Observer, I will be in discussion with Chloe and Julian Baggini at Julian's Philosophy salon in Bristol on Sunday 22 Feb at 4:30pm. Does truth matter in this case and others? www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/whats-on/phi...
Aeon publishes hard-won knowledge from real people who have grappled deeply with their subjects. And everything is free to access – a commitment that we can make only because of the small percentage of our readers who donate. Will you join those generous supporters? Donate here: aeon.co/donate
I wrote about the Salt Path – and why it's a problem for authors, and publishing more widely – for the Sunday Times
Forgive me banging on about this story again - but should you wish to download it, today's the last day (from link below, or Spotify, Apple, etc) - then it's only available on BBC Sounds
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
This is a brilliant reading of my piece in @aeon.co - and much more succinct.
'When Turing was deep in thought, according to his biographer Andrew Hodges, he used to scratch his side-parted hair and make a squelching noise with his mouth.'
Some thoughts for @aeon.co on Alan Turing, and other creative artists.
Goldsmiths Prize 2015 shortlistee, @richbeard.bsky.social, on 'the miracle of human artistic selection' and much more in @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/sure-...
"Familiar word combinations are assembled into almost convincing sentences, a tired use of language formerly called out as cliché. LLMs are cliché machines, trained on a resilient human weakness for generating maximum content with minimum effort." aeon.co/essays/sure-...
#llm #writing
@aeon.co asked me to write about the incursion of AI into the creative arts, and why my memoir project The Universal Turing Machine stands up for all that is good and right. I'll do what I can, I said.
aeon.co/essays/sure-...
Can AI be creative? Machine learning mechanisms are based on predictability and following instructions – anathema to making truly great art, which at its core is ‘an affirmation of human existence’, as Richard Beard argues in this passionate Essay
I have a new story on BBC Radio 4 - Friday 23 Jan - and then on catchup
Elevator pitch - a comedy about love, entropy and a ceremonial badger
I’d love for you to give it a listen www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
'Eton Avenue from a Window' Belsize Park by William Ratcliffe (1870-1955)
(Private collection)
Thanks so much to library book borrowers for borrowing my books especially Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths (taken out 2000 times) and Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu (1000 times). PLR public lending rights is amazing! Please use your local libraries!
Looking to write a memoir in 2026?
Look no further than 'Into being' by @lilydunn.bsky.social, a new book that shares the secrets of writing a new, transformative kind of memoir.
Available from all good bookshops, and currently 40% off in our January Sale!
#amwriting #writing #booksky
Or not on the flyer. RSVP: hello@themewscoachworks.com
London, next Wednesday, will be discussing and demonstrating the Universal Turing Machine, then inventing a bingo/literary quiz using the squares. Unmissable. RSVP details on flyer.
The works of Keith Ridgway: Dooneen, A Shock, Hawthorn & Child, Animals, The Parts, Standard Time, Horses, The Long Falling
Keith Ridgway’s ‘Dooneen’ is an engrossing queer-in-all-ways thriller, an insurgent near-future haunting of our present, a vivid reimagining of Dublin, and a love and a loss story. Published @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social and @ndbooks.bsky.social June 2026.
Catherine Fox on Ian Marchant.
A misty dawn at Diggers
keeping warm in the boat
I started reading _George Perec’s Geographies: Material, Performative and Textual Spaces_ — and it’s not working out right, I am highlighting or bookmarking every page.
Pig by Andrew Cowan
Thirty years ago, in December 1995, I was reading Pig by Andrew Cowan which I remember being quite impressed by. I went on to read Common Ground but nothing since.