I wrote about the Booker Prize, Samantha Harvey's triumphant 2024 win, as well as The Bee Sting, Prophet Song and pain and pleasure-principle novels. Read The Wrong Paul on Substack for free here

I reviewed Andrew Miller's excellent new novel The Land in Winter, set during the Big Freeze of 1962-3, in the TLS

I wrote about the strange dream that was 1970s TV, and falling for James Bond when ITV screened Goldfinger for the first time. Read my latest Substack, I Must Be Dreaming, here

I reviewed The Catchers, Xan Brooks's immersive tale of music-biz exploitation set in the 1920s Mississippi Delta, in the Literary Review

'Julia was my first love. It happened in the autumn of 1984'. I wasn't planning on posting any fiction on Substack, but here's the opening of a novella set forty years ago this month. Read The Angel's Reply (for free) here

I wrote about Entitlement, Rumaan Alam's (far superior) follow-up to his 2020 hit Leave the World Behind, in the Spectator

Here's my Substack essay for August. Doubling Up: The Treatment of Twins in Literature, Film & TV (first published in the TLS Jan 2022). Read it for free here