“The Steep Approach to Garbadale” by Iain Banks
I particularly liked that although most of the story is told from Alban's point of view, he is described at first from the outside, first from his cousin…
Night Bus published
My short story Night Bus was recently published in issue 13 of Smoke: A London Peculiar. Among all the young, drunk people…
“The Politics of Experience” by R.D. Laing
What if the "delusions" reported by patients during psychotic episodes were not symptoms of a disease, but valid descriptions of their experiences?
House style
The editing is finished. The book is at the printers. An enthusiastic blurb appeared on the Legend Press website, so presumably they’re…
The Triumph of Triviality
We are the people of tomorrow, we have more stuff than anybody's ever had before, and we are so stupid and self-absorbed that we can't even bring ourselves…
Americans in the gulag
Just caught a fascinating piece in the Times Literary Supplement about the thousands of Americans who, either out of idealism or to…
Proofing
Have been immersed in reading the proof copy of my novel for the last few days. I hate this part. Not reading…
RIP Pick More Daisies
My favourite cafe in Crouch End, the cafe where I wrote most of my novel On the Holloway Road, has just put…