Do you know, it’s the damndest thing but three months after regime change in Hungary, my local newsagent is no longer stocking weird conservative political journals (compare image with the one in quote). Did the market dry up, or was it propped up in the first place?

Deep Dorset. Pre-decimalisation shorthand on the signs.

4) For international authors and publishers watching this, there will be some déjà vu from Bartz v. Anthropic in terms of class eligibility: your book(s) will need to have been registered for US copyright to be eligible for class participation. The exclusion of international books...

All of which were in one terrifying volume designed to traumatise Gen X children (also Jack the Ripper, Spring Heeled Jack, Black Shuck, etc). My brother found me a copy for Christmas a few years ago.

Great evening at Parliament celebrating British Intellectual Property Day with my @independentpublishersguild.com hat on. Thanks to hosts Sir John Whittingdale, the Alliance for IP, @alcs.co.uk and @plslicensing.bsky.social.

Excellent piece by @ciaranm.bsky.social on X remaining a government comms channel. There's also a really important lesson here for media and publishing companies—including many of the largest—that continue to use it. Perceived lock-in is the same, as is the remedy. www.thetimes.com/article/e895...

There’s the publishing/technology thing and then, in my case, the relationship between wilful anachronism and niche stationery…

Downing Street strategy discussions rn

Writing something for my newsletter about how @semafor.com used AI to develop a wrap-up of its recent conference and was reminded of this: an artefact from the Palaeolithic era of digital publishing, produced by the organisers of Bookcamp (2009). Lots of familiar names and faces…

I am generally a fan of James Marriott's writing, but this section of his column today is extraordinary. What is utterly abnormal is the hold X continues to have over the mainstream media and politics. There is a very simple solution to his problem.

“Open the pod bay doors, Hal.”

A lovely reunion with the @bayesbschool.bsky.social Exec MBA Class of 2016 this evening. Where did the last ten years go?

Ahem

Wonder what bearing last night’s news from Hungary will have on funding for political publishing: knowing a little about production and distribution costs, I always wondered what possible commercial rationale existed for journals like this on sale at, e.g. my local WHSmith in Wiltshire.

This, via @kellifb.bsky.social, might be the best newspaper correction I've seen this decade.

Let me get this right. 2020—Viacom CBS: books "not core asset... [no] significant connection for our broader business", tries to sell S&S to PRH 2023—What is now Paramount Global sells S&S to KKR 2026—Paramount Global launches new book publisher and says...

Decommissioning day for my old MacBook Air: a snapshot before I remove old stickers, which evoke many happy memories of travel, projects and clients.

Weekend reading: finished @ldfreedman.bsky.social’s On Strategists & Strategy, a delightfully eclectic collection of essays ranging from first person reminiscences to reflections on the implementation of strategy, Iraq, Ukraine and, with deadpan effect, the Barbie Movie.

Also, this venue (the Spine building in the university quarter)... great facilities, greenery, an amazing view of the city, the River Mersey and (I think) the Clwydian Hills in the distance.

Sad to read the news of Len Deighton's death. A little piece of digital publishing trivia: he was the first author to write a book with a word processor, an IBM MT/ST loaned to him in 1968.

LBF 2026 done. Three very full days, some great conversations, social battery 🪫, and my liver is hoisting a white flag.

Agreed. I'd love to see more people making bolder design decisions for books: love this example from @iandouglas.bsky.social @thamesandhudson.bsky.social where hierarchy of font sizes acts as an affordance for different reading pathways. Not for everyone, but more of this experimentation!

Checks out.

Whoever is responsible for the auto-generated transcripts in the Apple Podcast app should have a word with themself. Today, “Sir Keir Starmer” = “Sakyas Dhamma”. Say what you like about Steve Jobs, but you cannot imagine a product this sloppy shipping on his watch.

Never expected to see the aurora borealis over Wiltshire—these pictures taken this evening looking north from Old Sarum.

First book of 2026: Jeremie Gallon’s book on Kissinger (pub. @profilebooks.bsky.social)—not a traditional, chronological biography and the better for it: there are plenty of those already and they tend to be as prolix as the man himself. This is a short collection of essays on aspects of his life.

Games night: my friend Steve came round for first go at Undaunted: Stalingrad, my Christmas present from the girls—great design, very fast playing, superb production values from @ospreygames.bsky.social. Then a few rounds of Carcassonne and Hand of the King.

Last dog walk of the year, fog like a John Carpenter film.

Just remembered that the paperback cover included @cstross.bsky.social himself…