I reviewed Michael Deagler's consistently wise and funny debut novel, Early Sobrieties, in the Spectator

Here's my Substack essay for flaming June. How I discovered the peerless fiction of Yasunari Kawabata in the most unlikely of places. Read it for free here

Tom Lamont's debut novel, Going Home, is a moving investigation into what it means to be a father and a son. Here's my review in the TLS

This month's Substack is an essay about discovering (being saved by) Prince as a lonely teenager in the late 80s. Read Sometimes It Snows In May for free here

Here's my Substack piece for April, a personal essay about my parents' divorce and growing up in the 1970s: The Art of Escapism - How James Bond Can Help you Survive a Parental Divorce. Read it for free here

I reviewed Whale Fall, Elizabeth O' Connor's visceral, politically-engaged novel set on a remote island off the Welsh coast in 1938, for the Guardian

My Substack essay for March is a piece about the pleasures and perils of having a favourite writer, through the prism of Hanif Kureishi's novella, The Nothing. Read Épater La Bourgeoisie for free here