This And That

Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. Summer is starting to pass quickly now: it’s a little nippy in the mornings and temperate during the day. I’m sorting out autumn clothes and clearing space in the kitchen and back room. Other people do spring cleaning. I prep for autumn, which is my favourite season. The good figs are arriving from the organics supplier, apples are growing in the garden, and I have plenty to do. In fact, it’s been such a chaotic week that this will have to be a quick note just to say that I’m still alive and here are some things I’ve seen and heard this week:

I received this in the post from my literary agency, Inkwell, this week.

Why?

I don’t often accept requests to do book blurbs these days, but this felt like a special case.

It’s out on September 2, (UK) (US) (publisher page for additional US options) and your favourite bookstore.

I remember when Aron Weisenfeld exploded into the comics scene in the Nineties: his DEATHBLOW VS WOLVERINE looked like peak Barry Windsor Smith fused with Moebius and Frank Miller, it was astonishing to look at.

And then, as quickly as he arrived, he left and became a successful galleried fine artist. The other day, I saw this:

He's nearly finished a new graphic novel, scheduled for publication by Éditions Gallimard early next year. It will come out first in France, titled “La Fuite,” which means "Runoff." I’m really interested to see it.

That image faintly reminded me, for some reason, by this image by forgotten British master David Jackson, from issue 19 of WARRIOR back in the Eighties:

For the old comics heads: Joe Pruett is kickstarting a large and handsome volume of the art of Joe Jusko. With twenty-odd days still to run, it got funded in seven and a half hours.

Make “portfolio chaos” a thing of the past

Authory saves you hours with a portfolio that's always up-to-date, without you having to lift a finger.

Plus, Authory securely backs up all your articles, protecting you if the original site goes down.

Be ready to impress potential clients and employers, anytime.

Get your free portfolio today

CURRENTLY READING:

Liz Truss' chief of staff, Mark Fullbrook, had contacted me about my work on how to characterize and optimize successful premierships. Here, after forty years of writing about Prime Ministers, was my first opportunity actually to shape a premiership. To my dismay and discomfort, she took almost all of my advice on board, by design or, almost certainly, by accident.

HOW NOT TO BE PRIME MINISTER, Anthony Seldon. Sir Anthony Seldon, be warned, comes off as something of an arrogant prick in the foreword. He has a long and storied reputation as a historian, educator and author, and can be forgiven some of that due to his achievements, which include several best-selling books about successive British Prime Ministers. This is his book on Liz Truss’ time in Number 10, and I find this book’s title delicious.

At the conclusion of one meeting, towards the end of August, Hope passed a note to a senior Cabinet Office official: ‘No way you can do this politically. It would mean not hitting the 20k increase to the police force, massive real terms cuts to the NHS, breaking the “triple lock” on pensions, not delivering on the AUKUS pact [trilateral security agreement with the USA and Australia], schools falling in, the Defence Secretary and Home Secretary resigning.’ For good measure, he added, ‘It’s f**king mental.’

It is a mildly venal and painfully hard look at Liz Truss’ forty-odd days as a disaster of a Prime Minister and all the things she could have done differently. In many ways, she was hobbled from the start, by events and, in common with Rishi Sunak, all the charisma and political acumen of a lumpfish. But it’s not unfair to say she made the worst possible fist of it, and this little knife of a book probes into all the ways she fucked it up.

HOW NOT TO BE PRIME MINISTER, (UK) (US)

CURRENTLY LISTENING:

• I was gifted Angela Winter’s new record, FORBIDDEN QUESTIONS IN SPACE, which is beautiful. You can stream it at the link.

• Гільдеґарда (Hildergard) by Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko. Track three is a killer - I may have mentioned it here before, but it finally came available on CD.

Now: THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast, DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM. 2025: FELL: FERAL CITY new printing, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition, the LIGHTS OUT Anthology.

And I’m off to do all the things. See you next week, I hope.

W