Pneumonia art: Combining my own lung X-rays and delirium diaries with Midjourney AI
I’ve had pneumonia again. Odd thing about it – and maybe why so many people die of it each year without seeking timely help – is how it creeps up. As it does, it can be painful, and at the same time make you floaty & detached. It’s… quite moreish. A bit like nitrogen narcosis,…
Doors of the mind: Ghosts and thresholds in Bowie, Dickens, and the Generation Game
I’ve never been able to pass a door in an ancient wall without wondering what’s behind it. I know the truth is overwhelmingly likely to be mundane, but my subconscious mind can’t help picking out the details: the old ivy growth across it; the absence of any mechanism on the outside; the permanent silence…
Camus, Wim Wenders and a philosophy of table football
About to throw this broken table football game out, I took one last look – this time, from the players’ point of view. Everything can look confused, urgent, overwhelming and dramatic if you get sucked in too close to the action. Existentialist writer and philosopher Albert Camus once said, “Everything I know about…
Lucky: What happened when I decided to throw away money
What follows is a true story. It seems so bizarre to me, even now, that I find it hard to reconcile with myself. Was that really me? Surely I didn’t do anything quite this crazy? But it was. And I did. Though whether it was really crazy or not, you’ll have to judge for…
Zombies, punks & immigrants: What J.G. Ballard’s ‘High Rise’ says about Britain in 2015
It’s there if you look for it, snaking like mist around the tower blocks of West London, from Acton to Ladbroke Grove. An atmosphere. A message for us, maybe. This part of London was the inspiration and setting for JG Ballard as he wrote his 1975 dystopian novel High Rise. In…
Resignations as historical force: Jurassic Park, grunge, capitalism and the story of the 1990s
There’s a lot of noise about Jurassic World cleaning up in cinemas right now. But what about the real back story? Back in the 1990s, Jurassic Park was – unlikely as it might seem – part of the same global breakdown as grunge and the Berlin Wall. Sound weird? In this short extract…
The real reason I write: In praise of ‘threshold apprehension’
The cover for my next book arrived today. Any writer will tell you: the arrival of their new book’s cover is an exciting moment. Me, I’ve always found it a little bit poignant too. Up to this point, it’s all about the making. There are routes to take; ways to turn things. The…
DOWNLOAD: Cool fabricator: The strange and beautiful case of Tom Kummer
In the course of researching my new book on resignations, I’ve been wading through a lot of parting shots from journalists. Well, they have the public forum. Most of us pass through our careers without leaving a trace. We speak as representatives. We curtail our language. We stick to the script. This makes workplaces…
News: A bit of Fry and Ronson… ‘Outlaws Inc.’ back up the WH Smith Bestseller chart
Short post this time, just to say thank you to everyone who helped to send Outlaws Inc. haring back up the bestseller chart. This was sent to me by motoring journo Will Dron, and I had to make sure he wasn’t messing with my head. Nestled between Stephen Fry and Jon Ronson is somewhere…
News: New book, ‘Parting Shots’ out June 2013
I can finally share some details on the next book. ‘Parting Shots’ is going to be the secret history of our times and society, as revealed through resignations. And I’d like your recommendations! Mostly, we’re talking Rebekah Brookses and Thatcher cabinet ministers, but I’d love to quote some unknown examples, too – and…