Alastair Horne

The last Tudor reign to end this badly was Lady Jane Grey’s.

Home Office refuses to exempt exceptional students from tough immigration rules Exclusive: Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper concerned about student visa ban on female Chevening scholars from volatile countries such as Afghanistan

The sadistic stupidity of this Labour government, perpetually chasing votes from racists, makes me sick.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Would be very happy to see Liverpool, Spurs, and Arsenal do well. I’d rather City beat Real Madrid, because there’s been more than enough of Real Madrid winning this tournament. Wouldn’t mind Chelsea doing ok, but Blood Money FC can go to hell.

Ended up with an inch-cubed hole in my chest which I so wish I’d taken a photo of while it was purple and clean and bizarrely beautiful.

Still, on the equivalent day of the book fair ten years ago, I had by this time spent almost five hours in A&E. I would spend another five hours there before returning to my hotel. And then going into hospital for surgery the day after.

Not quite seven o’clock on day one of LBF and I am back in my hotel room microwaving an M&S ready meal. I am easily tired, these days.

AI opt-outs are a feeble sop. If it’s so great, why aren’t people choosing to opt in?

I think I may have missed that context during the talk.

Is it me, though? I have no idea what’s going on there.

That’s next year. This Olympia pigeon is seizing its final opportunity to crap on publishing. :-)

Just saw a pigeon fly up to the rafters behind the tech theatre at LBF and then dump in volume from this vantage point.

Just saw a pigeon fly up to the rafters behind the tech theatre at LBF and then dump in volume from this vantage point.

it may just be me, but I don’t understand this slide at all.

Apologies for the lack of alt-text; no time to add it while keeping up with the slides.

Summary.

Nature, gardening, sport. Quizzes, and global cookery.

Tech, politics, and history.

Other top sellers in non fiction.

Some pockets of growth in adult non-fiction.

Colouring books are up.

Backlist still growing in pre-school and picture books.

YA growth driven by new hardbacks.

Growth in children’s driven by graphic novels and YA.

Graphic novels and children’s.

Crime and thrillers, plus horror and translated fiction.

Romance and dark fantasy/romance.

Historical fiction is up, and science fiction (though top five are all backlist; backlist vital for sci-fi).

Fantasy data.

Strong growth in science fiction and fantasy.

UK trends in 2025