Looking forward to reading in Sweden next week at the English Bookshop, at both its Stockholm and Uppsala branches, on the 18th and 20th respectively. I have good memories of doing an event there for The Casualties all the way back in… 2017.

Thanks to Ali Braidwood for a stimulating and enjoyable conversation about Quarantine that you can listen to here.

You can read the start of Quarantine here.

You can hear me on the BBC Radio Scotland Afternoon Show talking about Quarantine.

Segment starts at 1.10.21.

One epigraph for a novel is plenty – and perhaps already too much – but in an attempt to have it both ways, here are some of the big-eyed darlings I had to drown for the new book. First is a quote from Walter Benjamin’s essay on Proust.

From Lispector’s Near to the Wild Heart (tr. Alison Entrekin)

And Goethe’s poem ‘Above the mountaintops’

I wrote about staring out the window for the Royal Literary Fund.

I’ll be launching my new novel Quarantine at Golden Hare Books in Edinburgh on May 5th. Tickets available here.

I reviewed Di Benedetto’s reissued novel for the TLS.

I have a new story at Lunate called ‘Open’.

I picked 3 short fictions for Banshee magazine, all of them challenging, interesting pieces. Lots of other good picks on the list to investigate.

I wrote about Ai Wei Wei’s memoir for Literary Review. Inexplicably, the review makes no mention of this incident:

My second novel will be out from Swift Press next year – you can pre-order here.

I have a story in the new issue of Banshee about the joys of tenement living. You can preorder here.

My piece on Orville Schell’s novel is in the latest TLS.

I wrote about Moscow’s Stalinist skyscrapers for the Financial Times.

Thanks to Aleksandra Kos for an interesting piece which argues that the book explores ‘the experience of embodiment and how this shapes social relations’.

I have a new story on the Short Fiction website about being scared to go outside on a hot day. So not topical at all.

I wrote about the delights of literary ‘success’ for the Royal Literary Fund.

My story, as titled above, is the story of the month at the Willesden Herald. It’s from my first story collection The False River.

I had a very enjoyable conversation with John Siddique about China and writing for the Royal Literary Fund. You can listen here or download as a podcast.