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My favourite textual form may well be the list of hyper-specific categories organised alphabetically.

Jun 17 •

May 2025

With my friend Chloë Houston, I’ve written a novel and it’s about to be published.

May 17 •

April 2025

5.35pm (continued)

I like Philippe Lejeune on the tricky task of defining the diary: ‘a series of dated traces [série de traces datées] … Discontinuous.

Apr 21 •

Repeating Names

A little while ago I was reading about the late 18th-century English clergyman, biographer and antiquary, Mark Noble (1754-1827), author of several…

Apr 3 •

March 2025

The Book Makers - paperback

The Book Makers: A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives is out in UK paperback in April.

Mar 28 •

February 2025

In a post last week, I recorded what I doing at 5.35pm on each day of January 2025 — one sentence per day.

Feb 2 •

January 2025

There are many ways to track experience in writing, and I’m a fan of the various forms that diaries, or proto-diaries, or sort-of-diaries, can take…

Jan 31 •

December 2024

Categories (filing cabinets; book shelves)

On my way to the reading room in the National Archives in Kew, I see a set of filing cabinets that carry headings of implausible exactness.

Dec 17, 2024 •

Diaries: 1922-1959

From an auction house in Nottingham, I buy a series of 18 diaries running across the early to mid-20th century, kept by a man called Samuel who lived in…

Dec 3, 2024 •

November 2024

Open up a modern edition of Shakespeare’s Pericles to the chorus at the start of act 3, and you’ll find the narrator Gower alone on stage, standing (as…

Nov 15, 2024 •

October 2024

In about 2004, I moved from London to Houston, Texas.

Oct 19, 2024 •

September 2024

Boxes! I’ve been opening lots of boxes recently, and finding surprising things inside.

Sep 26, 2024 •

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