Two years ago.
19 April 2026
In this issue: [to come once we have the full set]
But first:
Speccy Breakdown: the proofs are out
Paperback proof copies arrived from the printer this week, and I’ve spent some time putting them into padded envelopes, addressed to the handful of people who might possibly give me a quote for the dust jacket.
The book sliding into its envelope. Spectacles alongside, as seems fitting.
The figure on the book’s cover is, in the original drawing, standing in a yoga sun salute – arms raised, eyes cast down. I like the way he looks here, caught halfway into the envelope, as if flinging hands up in alarm as he drops inside.
The first edition of A Speccy Man Has a Breakdown is available to buy – a limited run of 250 numbered, signed copies – and it’s not too late to be listed as a patron inside the book.
The other thing worth saying is this. I wrote and laid out the interior in thirty days, from material I already had. That’s precisely what I teach on my Micro-Memoir course, which I’ve been updating on the website over the last few days – ready to run again soon, even better than it was in the autumn. More on that soon.
***
Dogs of Hampstead
Location: the fiction department, Waterstones, Hampstead.
A small dog, looking as though it rather wished it were not in the fiction department at Waterstones. From an illustrated series of doggy reportage.
Recommending the zoo
Someone I like and admire, who publishes on Substack, recently sent out an email recommending some other great Substacks. Generous of her, no doubt – but it made me slightly depressed, and I had to write something down to work out why.
It’s about walled gardens, magnificent beasts, and an old bit of web plumbing called RSS.
Other world news in brief
Dazed magazine reports a snail mail revival led largely by young women in their mid-20s to 30s, who are setting up monthly subscription clubs sending out hand-picked printed material – stickers, zines, postcards, illustrations – as an antidote to digital content.
Austin Kleon writes about the joy of sending and receiving things through the post – including postcards from a friend that become collages, and the particular pleasure of subscribing to a quarterly magazine, The Idler, because you actually have time to read it.
And for those who mourn what we have already lost: The Museum of Obsolete Media, founded in 2006 by Jason Curtis, celebrates physical formats – video tapes, music cassettes, floppy disks and hundreds more – that carried our culture before the internet swallowed everything.
Housekeeping notes
I sometimes hear from people looking for advice on a writing project. This would be a great thing to bring along to the Writers Support Group, which takes place on the second Thursday of every month, once at 12.30pm UK and again at 6pm. Come to either or both.
Unoffice Hours runs every Wednesday lunchtime – half an hour, one to one, just the two of us. Not a group thing. I’ve had such a good time talking to individuals who have come along, with or without any kind of agenda. At least one visitor has said he plans to start doing his own Unoffice Hours drop-in. Book your slot
My website now has a Guestbook. Please sign! Say hello!