The joy of knowing our marketing, PR and social media department for Solaris is two wonderful people who can't stand AI and lovingly compose every email that goes out themselves ❤️

And I was terribly pleased that their pronouns were respected and used naturally by other contestants on UK Celebrity Traitors, fab to see.

I promise I am not using AI in any part of the process: not the reading (which is why it takes so long), not the rejection emails, not the cover copy or the taglines. The sense of pride I feel when I finally nail cover copy will not be taken from me, even if the process feels like blood from a stone

11 very good to excellent debut fantasies in this thread that I read as part of my 3rd & final year as a Crawford Award judge (no necessary relationship with what ends up on the shortlist - still more to read, and other judges don't necessarily have the same tastes).

But... I don't know my preferences. I have picked up books at random that became my new favourites; I have ended up disliking books that I *should* love because they contain things I've liked before. This is just a wild take, because the very act of trying new and fresh stuff is learning your prefs!

I found it an odd move for him to leave Saints, to be honest, although Saints have a deluge of super talented backs so whether he thought he would start to get shuffled out? Or maybe needed a new challenge after winning a lot with them? Money? Quins are a tough watch at the mo.

Nationalise water immediately. My water bill has just gone up again, even though we're using the same or less water than before, and I need water to, y'know, live, so why the fuck am I being charged for the privilege? Oh yeah, so some wanker CEO can ensure he has enough for his new Mercedes...

I am not. I hadn't intended to come, but would have had to cancel anyway because I have had a really nasty bout of Covid this week ☹️

no listen i dark laughed so hard i accidentally hung up on a call

Jeffrey Archer's death reminds me of the time he told a really boring story while a guest on Dame Edna's show. "Marvellous" said Edna after it petered out to its conclusion, "and I'm sure that'll make a wonderful anecdote someday".

Escher for autumn.

My goodness, Jeffrey Archer has died.

So, this year of our Lord 2026, the actual Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are in play, with War (everywhere now), Famine (due to environmental collapse), Death (inevitably following the other three) and now Pestilence...

I am delighted that I have signed The Fifth Inflection for the UK - this fantastically indefinable slice of legal speculative fiction is probably closest to The City and the City by China Mieville, but is flavoured with Gautam's unique and brilliant insight.

Have to say, the rise in subscriptions and the price of them, accompanied by the horrific push of AI into everything, makes me want to go back to Nokia brick phones with no Internet and buying all my media in physical form.