Leicestershire, my home, was the home of Thomas Cook, founder of the package holiday. In honour of this I have put together a package for you. A week in a luxury hotel and many seaside attractions. Book now to avoid disappointment. tinyurl.com/74b93u8a renardpress.com/books/saltbu...

Happy 5th Birthday Fergus. Rocking it. ❤️❤️❤️

Interview went well. We did 5 videos. One for each Gummerson book and one with questions from others. It was serious stuff. I had on my POET glasses.

And today’s book post is Simon Crump’s Post-it Notes from the Underground @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social books. I’ve read the opening and I already love and, as I am myself engaged in a hotdog sequence of stories, I can already declare this a hotdog novel. The highest accolade.

Brilliant new review of Saltburn. “this is the gayest book I've ever read…a beautiful treatise on love and acceptance that will make you see the world in a different, more humane way.” ☺️🙏🌈 Still half price for #Pride renardpress.com/books/saltbu... @renardpress.com

Cycling to work 630 Sunday morning. The sky is full of balloons. You can read my balloon story here. revolutionjohnjournal.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/a...

Friday afternoon, finished work, first one in Phoenix Leicester for #DisclosureDay. Red wine at the ready.

Sat in bed photographing my story Teeth - which appeared on Radio 4 and which I don’t have a digital copy of - so I can grab the text and paste it into a Word document. I want to include it in my Hotdog short story collection. Teeth also won the Leicestershire Short Story Competition.

This is the last pic we took of Walt. I was going to write about him but I can’t just yet. He made it to his 14th birthday but not much more. Absolutely loved and will be always.

My fifth book Saltburn was published last year by Haywood Books, @renardpress.com - Saltburn is a celebration with its queer cast of characters across the spectrum of sexualities. It’s currently half price for Pride - renardpress.com/books/saltbu... - Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

My 4th book, You; From Pissed to Publication came just a year after Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel. A chapbook, 28 pages long, featuring the protagonist from Flamingo Hotel talking about his path to publication. TLS called it ‘indecently Bukowskian’. Happy #Pride 🏳️‍🌈 tinyurl.com/2p86ehd7

My 3rd book, Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel, came out 6 years ago, 12 years after my previous one. I’d given up on being published. Then I saw a new local publisher was setting up, Bearded Badger Books. Flamingo Hotel was finished so I thought, why not? Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈. tinyurl.com/74b93u8a

My second book, Me and Mickie James came out 18 years ago. I had an agent. It was sold to an imprint of a Big Five publisher, Jonathan Cape. It got reviewed in The Guardian, Time Out, the gay press. Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

My first book, The Lodger, came out 24 years ago. It was published by Gay Mens Press. A sampler of it was given away with Gay Times. It was a Lambda Award finalist and No. 1 on Amazon’s Gay and Lesbian chart. Happy Pride everyone! #Pride

“Chapbooks are small, printed booklets that originate from the sixteenth century, reaching a height of popularity in the eighteenth century and so called because they were sold by wandering salespeople known as Chapmen. And we think it's time for their revival.” @sunburntsaints.bsky.social

Leaving space for the characters to breath. It’s about the distance between us as families, what we don’t know, what goes unsaid. It has Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits. But it’s the 3rd part I loved the most. The coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

And there’s an extract of Saltburn - it’s 50% off for Pride - over on Instagram if you want to read. It’s an extract. But also a very long list of everything for sale in Saltburn’s 24 hour gift shop, Delicious Gifts. www.instagram.com/p/DZNcxTtjdB...

Renard Press are having a Pride sale. Saltburn and other queer delights are currently 50% off. So head over to @renardpress.com and fill your boots, your rainbow bags, and get yourself some lovely LGBTQ+ books. renardpress.com/books/saltbu...

Thank you to The Lovely Eggs book club for this review of Saltburn. ‘A humourous book of interlinked short stories, aligned, perhaps with Vonnegut and Brautigan but British.’ Vonnegut and Brautigan ☺️ renardpress.com/books/saltbu...

And so it starts. I wrote about the visibility of LGBTQ+ books yesterday in my Pride post and already today Reform are banning shit.

Happy #WorldBicycleDay everyone. I’ve never had a car / learnt to drive. So this has always been my mode of transport.

Walt’s 14 now, can hardly walk, but still has a go at playing with Ferg. ❤️❤️

And the day finishes, as all days do, drinking tea in the grounds of a castle, surrounded by Americans who resemble a young Rufus Wainwright. Gummerson is a Yorkshire name. This was probably my home once. I feel at home.

And of course Scarborough has everything. I walked 5 hours to Filey yesterday. Scarborough was the first ever seaside resort dating from the spa and still remains the best.

I have travelled far - across the bridge - to the top of Mount Peasholm where the mighty pagoda stands. Unfortunately Tripitaka is absent. Having gone across the road to the open air venue where Leicester homeboys Showaddywaddy are playing later in the summer.

Scarborough also boasts the largest Oriental garden outside, well, the Orient. But do those Oriental forbears boast pedalos in the shape of dragons?

And behind me the miniature train goes past taking willing golfers to their next miniature golf experience.

Sat at the North Bay Adventure Golf cafe. Scarborough is the miniature golf capital of the world.

And right opposite is the Grand Hotel. Stories from here ended up in my Flamingo Hotel.

Stood outside where I used to live in Scarborough. My parents ran this when it was a Bernie Inn. Got a pic of my mum and Bob Monkhouse sat in here. Memories.