“Picture of Nobody” follows a young poet navigating the literary scene of interwar London. It’d be a simple autofictional exercise, except the “nobody” in question has a very familiar namesake: William Shakespeare.
Philip Owens' Picture of Nobody, published first by Jonathan Cape in 1936 & second, with foreword by myself, by McNally Editions today - an intricate modernist black comedy in which protag Will Shakespere struggles to write as another modern war approaches.
www.mcnallyeditions.com/books/p/pict...
@allenbratton.bsky.social considers the timelessness of Philip Owens’ Picture of Nobody and the artistic pursuit of genius.
Got the postcard, dm and let me know where to send it?
My introduction to the @mcnallyeditions.com reissue of Picture of Nobody -- Philip Owens's clever, chaotic re-envisioning of Shakespeare in interwar London -- is now online via @literaryhub.bsky.social. The book is out tomorrow, 14th April.
lithub.com/in-pursuit-o...
I live in dublin and can send you one if you like!
So excited that this is so close to coming out -- hope you enjoy
There's a scene in Hamnet of William Shakespeare contemplating suicide and I was like please don't start reciting 'to be or not to be' and then he did
Not surprised that A Month in the Country is first on the list. Good luck, Gayle!
Get 20% off all titles at unnamedpress.com until 1/1!
Chuffed for all the people who are posting saying they outsold Nuzzi but even Nuzzi numbers are all but unimaginable for small press poetry, buy my and Harry's new book, help us dream: veer2.org/Kit-Fryatt-H...
I had a dream last night that I made a post telling everyone to stop rating books on a numerical scale
Henry Henry's US publisher @unnamedpress.bsky.social is currently running their big holiday sale -- if you want a discounted copy of HH, hardback or paperback, without ordering from Am*z*n, now's your chance.
unnamedpress.com
Yes!!! Yes!!!
Page from the IWU newsletter with notices of Rob Kiely's book Psalms and Kit Fryatt and Harry Gilonis's Book of Inversions. Psalms | Robert Kiely | Distance No Object, Oct 2025 Psalms reimagines the biblical psalm form through palaeontology. Language is treated as a fossil record: bones, sediments and trace impressions through which violence, extinction and memory can be inferred but never fully recovered. In poems that move between Gaza, deep time, Irish poetic marginalia and our mediadrenched everyday life, the work offers a haunting meditation on what remains, what erodes, and what refuses to be preserved. Book of Inversions | Kit Fryatt & Harry Gilonis | Veer2, Nov 2025 Book of Inversions is a daring poetic collaboration rooted in medieval and earlymodern Irish originals, yet boldly inverted. Fryatt and Gilonis reinterpret original Irish poems, flipping and recomposing them in contemporary registers. Satirical, irreverent, and formally adventurous, the book transforms inherited tradition into a site of play, tension, and renewal. Meanings slip sideways, rhythms unfold against expectation, and the ancient becomes startlingly new in this inventive re-imagining of our poetic past. For readers of books such as Geoffrey Squires' My News For You: Irish Poetry 600-1200, it is a must-have!
Black and white cat on blue and grey sofa cushions with copy of Book of Inversions
A must-have! Dulcibella agrees. First print run (which admittedly was not on the scale of, like, Byron's Don Juan) is nearly sold out, get your copy here: veer2.org/Kit-Fryatt-H...
There's so much to work with in Henry IV Pts 1 and 2 especially -- Poins' peach-coloured stockings and Hal's bloody favours and the horse that frets like a gummed velvet. Excited to see all of the Henriad stuff in your book.
Congratulations! 🥳
This French website will only let me choose Connacht, Leinster, Munster or Ulster as the region for my shipping address
Yeah I've really been getting into Richard Nixon. Has anyone heard of him. Crazy guy
Massively enjoyed my evening with the DCU book club -- thanks so much for the warm welcome and the insightful questions. I was very touched that at least one person liked Hal and wanted him to be happy.
Sick of having to be in someone's vlog every time I go to Trinity
This is my hypothesis
Allen Bratton @allenbratton.bsky.social will join us for a Book Club event to discuss his novel 'Henry, Henry' on Thursday, the 16th of October. To register, please go to: launch.dcu.ie/3J0qZLg
Dubliners: on 16 October I'll be joining the Dublin City University book club to talk about Henry Henry with a very special interlocutor, Dr Kit Fryatt -- professor, husband, & indispensable literary collaborator.
Free and open to all, but please register ahead of time: www.dcu.ie/dcuartsandcu...
!! Hope you have fun! I enjoyed following your slow Shakespeare Richard II a while back.
Thank you!
Truly shocked, but so happy to be able to share the honour with my agent, Martha, my editor, Brandon, and everyone at Unnamed Press and Jonathan Cape -- and my husband & constant collaborator, Kit, who's been helping me to create this world and these characters from the very beginning.
Last day to submit!
Judged by Gurnaik Johal, Ben Pester and CAA’s Erika Price, the winning stories will receive cash prizes and publication in The London Magazine.
Submissions close at midnight. More details here: thelondonmagazine.org/short-story-...
Signed a few copies of Henry Henry in Heffers and Waterstones Cambridge
Putting HBCUs and Hispanic Serving institutions at the beginning of the list and Asian Americans at the end of it thinking people will just skim and be like ah yes very progressive and miss the 'make x x again' stuff in the middle lol like why even try at this point we all know the score