The New Uncanny book from Comma Press has just won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology. The collection contains my story Tamagotchi, alongside stories by Alison MacLeod, AS Byatt, Hanif Kureishi, Ramsey Campbell, Nicholas Royle and Etgar Keret, among others. The awards are given each year for outstanding achievement in the literature … [Read more...]
Peacock at the window
I have a day job as an editor, and I'm lucky enough to work in the middle of a nature reserve. We get all kinds of wildlife around the office, and sometimes in it. A couple of years ago we had a baby grass snake under one of the desks. On sunny days, lizards bask beside the footpaths. On a lunchtime walk, I once saw an adult grass snake swim across … [Read more...]
Anus vanishing at the Broadway Bookshop
I got drenched running from Bethnall Green tube station to the Broadway Bookshop in Hackney, arrived an hour early for the event, and sat dripping into a plate of quinoa and falafel, earwigging a conversation between two guys who wondered whether the waiter was omniscient or omnipresent (I think surly would have been a more appropriate … [Read more...]