Always a thrill when a reader just gets it. Perfect thumbnail review ⬇️
09.02.2026 09:20
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Always a thrill when a reader just gets it. Perfect thumbnail review ⬇️
yesterday's laptop detox reads: OTHER PEOPLE'S FUN by @harrietlane.bsky.social (sharp, disturbing as hell, a masterclass in writing unlikable but compelling characters that you can't get enough of, had me evaluating my relationship to social media and relationships) and 1/2
Either way the cat is giving it his best Little Match Girl, crying piteously on the front step and escalating into tragic screams if I don’t respond immediately.
This happens at least once a fortnight.
He has a perfectly good cat flap but now pretends it’s haunted.
Doorbell rings and I open the door to the triumphant cat, who strolls in while footsteps hurry away down the cold dark street. Is it always the same person? Do they know they’re being played, or do they believe the cat when he tells them we are horrid?
When Orson Welles gave his one-man show of Shakespearean readings in Phoenix, Arizona, only five people turned up. 'Allow me to introduce myself,' said Mr Welles. 'I am an actor, a writer, a director, of both films and plays, an architect, a painter, a stage designer, a brilliant cook, an expert on the corrida, a conjuror, a collector, a connoisseur, an enfant terrible and an authority on modern art. How come there are so many of me, and so few of you?' Then he walked off.
The Least Successful Theatrical Dinner Party Nicol Williamson was invited to dinner by Kenneth Tynan. He turned up an hour early, catching his hosts unbathed and unchanged. He volunteered to pass the time hoovering the floor. Then he asked, 'Who else is coming?' Tynan told him that one of the guests was Jonathan Miller. 'Biggest phoney in London,' said Williamson crisply. 'Who else?' Tynan told him that there would be a pretty young actress who had been having an affair with Roman Polanski. When the guests arrived, Williamson aborted polite conver-sation by producing an LP of the Mamas and Papas and playing it at full volume. In the dining-room Williamson munched in silence before addressing his first remark to the pretty young actress. Placing his left hand on his right bicep and making a swift upward jab with a clenched right fist, he said, 'So you're the girl who was being fucked by Polanski.' 'Wrong, Mr Williamson,' she said. 'I am being fucked by Polanski.' This exchange seemed to annoy Williamson, and a few minutes later he got up and left the room. There was a deafen-ing five-minute blast of The Mamas and the Papas, then he marched out, slamming the front door. 'I enjoy baboons,' said Dr Miller, 'but preferably in zoos.'
In the early seventies, Sir Richard Attenborough, as he then wasn't, arranged a charity performance in a church hall in aid of the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre. After the show some thirty of our most dependable middle-order mimes Frank Windsor, Stratford Johns, Geoffrey Keen, Rupert Davies, Barry Foster, Gerald Harper, Jon Pertwee, Pat Phoenix, Una Stubbs, etc - much pleased with their efforts and swapping anecdotes, left together by a side-door and walked into a septic tank. Mr George Maguire, who had installed twenty temporary lavatories for the occasion, said: 'That's show business.'
Invited to dinner at Kensington Palace, Michael Holroyd was warned that Princess Margaret liked to set the table on a roar with her skilful impressions. At her first attempt, the celebrated biographer screamed with laughter and banged the table. She had been speaking in her normal voice.
From William Donaldson's GREAT DISASTERS OF THE STAGE:
Managing other people’s loving anxiety can be utterly exhausting. (Really sorry you are going through this.)
Francis Wheen picks OPF for the Spectator’s Book of the Year roundup: My greatest cause for rejoicing was a new novel from Harriet Lane, the laureate of stalking, long after those of us who loved Alys, Always (2012) and Her (2014) had given up hope of any more. Like its predecessors, Other People's Fun (Weidenfeld, £20) has a female narrator who seems at first to be a nondescript mouse but turns out to have sharp little teeth and a scarily observant eye. It's funny, creepy and unputdownable.
Francis Wheen picks OPF as one of his Books of the Year in the Spectator
Hope it goes on working for you…
A Tale of Toxic Friendship, With a Midlife Mean-Girl Twist www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/b...
I adore it when couples message each other about trips to the tip and picking up courgettes not realising they’re actually on the street WhatsApp
OTHER PEOPLE'S FUN HARRIET LANE LITERARY THRILLER Other People's Fun Harriet Lane WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, £20 Ruth's old acquaintance Sookie suddenly wants to reconnect - but something's off. Lane returns with a tense, sharply observed novel of class, social media and manipulation, simmering with quiet dread.
Other People's Fun by Harriet Lane Ruth's marriage has ended, her daughter has left home and her job is ho-hum, so when she meets up with Sookie - the most popular girl in school - at a class reunion, she's keen to reconnect (she's been spying on her social media for years anyway). Sookie's life is Insta-perfect and Ruth is the dutiful friend. Or is she? Funny literary suspense.
Other People's Fun by Harriet Lane (W&N, £20, out 30th October) This deliciously twisted tale is a one-sitting read steeped in tension and unease. Reluctantly divorced and stagnating in her job, Ruth reunites with Sookie, queen bee of their school days, but Sookie's friendship is purely transactional. When Ruth discovers that Sookie is hiding explosive secrets behind her perfect Instagram grid, things take a dark turn.
Very early reviews for Other People’s Fun (the i paper, Grazia, Red)
Thank you. Anne—you were so supportive of my first two books—so happy this one worked for you too
V happy to see Other People’s Fun in the NYT’s fiction preview: 27 Novels Coming This Fall
Happy paperback release day to the wholly delightful Small Bomb at Dimperley. Such a funny, sunny book
Oh go on — pre-order my book. 25% off OTHER PEOPLE’S FUN at Waterstones, until the end of the month!
Pre-order bargain
Link to follow
@rnib.bsky.social Huge thanks to the RNIB Library: I’ve only recently embraced audiobooks—and oh my, your stock is FANTASTIC. Many new books (Maurice and Maralyn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) but also ALL THE ELIZABETH TAYLORS. And no queue. Such riches!
Interior of 210 to Finsbury Park with ‘wooden floor’ laminate
Suddenly many London buses have ‘wooden floors’, as if we are in a country kitchen or an Alpine hut. Was TfL offered a job lot?
‘Unputdownable’ @thebookseller.com on Other People’s Fun by @harrietlane.bsky.social @wnbooks.bsky.social (out in October)
Wonderful book: sailing, catastrophe, the mysteries of a marriage. So well done
‘If someone wants to be seen… then someone has to watch’ - a new book from the author of Alys, Always & Her - OTHER PEOPLE’s FUN by @harrietlane.bsky.social @wnbooks.bsky.social
Your regular reminder that this is a great record, and Sing Street is one of the great movies. youtu.be/fuWTcmjnEGY?...
Loved this show at Kenwood, two rooms filled with story and character. Plus: eyes, hands and, oh my, the FABRICS
Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits
www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-...
I hate this so much. Who benefits? Yesterday I checked in alongside a lady who gave her YOB as 1927. She didn’t deserve to be forcefed Celine Dion and Boyzone
End Oct, I’m not sure where we are with proofs. Hello @wnbooks.bsky.social, please put Clair on the list!
I just had to look up ECU but YES THIS
Few years ago but I’m still recovering.
Bus, Holloway Road, two pensioners catching up.
Him: ‘How’s your sister Cathy?’
Her: ‘I am Cathy, my sister’s Orla.’
Him: ‘Oh—so you’re Cathy are you. We had a little thing didn’t we?’
Thoughts and prayers with the Industry writing team
Today, we'll be joining the @societyofauthors.bsky.social outside Meta's offices to protest the use of pirated works to train their AI models.
Join us if you can! More info: societyofauthors.org/2025/04/03/u...
