Bench in Wigtown, Scotland's Book Town. I strongly believe this - that a book remains part of an ongoing creative process once it has come into the hands of its reader.

😅 Yes!

The state of the world begins to make sense ...

I couldn't even get into Breaking Bad.

I've read through this 3 times, and can't find 'Derry Girls', 'The Killing' (Danish version) or 'Borgen'; also, 'Happy Valley' is only no.45, so clearly this list is nonsense.

Her statement is one of the maddest things I've read. I wonder when she believes 'Englishness' came into being, and why, presumably from that point, it has been utterly immutable. It is also mind-blowingly racist.

One of our teachers led a whole assembly while standing in a waste paper bin. He concluded: ‘You may not understand why I’m doing this. But one day you’ll realise and see why it was important.’ He was wrong.

I have nearly got over it.

Started the day full of joy and enthusiasm to get on with my writing where I left off yesterday. Thought, "I'd better attend to that pile of admin that has piled up, first though." And so, I have done the admin and it has eaten my soul.

Marisa and I will be at Oxfam bookshop on Byres Rd this Friday evening as part of the Byres Rd Book Festival. We'll be chatting about Quite Ugly One Evening, The Death of Shame and what's next for Ambrose Parry.

(I used to be on Threads, but long ago, in the world of social media Long Ago)

Just a reminder to anyone being targeted by the latest Facebook scammer claiming to be me: I AM NOT ON FACEBOOK. Obviously, it's flattering that they've used a photo of Stephanie Merritt/S J Parris, but still, I AM NOT ON FACEBOOK, or X or THREADS.

She was great on the radio, too, in the comedyc Cabin Pressure along with John Finnemore, Benedict Cumberbatch and Roger Allam.

Only yesterday, I finished reading Bram Stoker's 'The Judge's House', and this is really not helping.

Oh yes.

The Last Night of the Proms. Nicky Spence. What a showman. What a voice.