iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Reading these excellent reviews of Hermione Lee’s biography of Anita Brookner by Lucy Atkins and @lauracummingart.bsky.social makes me wish I’d liked Hotel du Lac more than I did.

160

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I do indeed love John Holmes’s covers, so much so, I got permission to use a couple for @nightjarpress.bsky.social

020

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Andy Burnham: ‘I love you, Manchester.’

030

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Don’t mind admitting I’m excited about this, but two things: as the motorcade drove down the Mall it passed out of view under trees; leaving the Palace, Marie-France van Heel had a handbag. On arrival at Downing Street she did not. It’s possible the couple have been abducted & replaced by imposters.

251

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Nice to see Ron Mael of Sparks on VAR last night.

150

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Standards dropping at the BBC. No, at best, it’s a picture of the real face of Anne Boleyn.

1120

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Somehow missed this when it came out. Found this copy today in Oxfam Bookshop Herne Hill. Already up to p85. Partly about how the narrator, a writer, struggles to find the money to write. Not a concern for Gwendoline Riley since she bagged the £130,000 Windham-Campbell Prize. Good for her.

2251

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

How can I take University Challenge seriously if its makers think hyphens and en-dashes are interchangeable?

47911

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

For more info & to book linktr.ee/thunkpresents

082

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

It’s good that I don’t have to change the battery in my Mini key fob too often.

150

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Tesco Clubcard don’t know me as well as they think they do.

050

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Heartening sight on London Overground today.

1121

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

I said hello to him once when he was at the far end of this… this what? I don’t know what to call it. It’s not a counter, or a shelf. But it’s my favourite place to sit in this excellent pub.

110

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Yesterday I read Practice by @rosalindbrown.bsky.social walking into town & back (ten miles total) & was surprised by this line, p89: ‘Be damned the series of historical moves which created reading as a stationary activity. She wants to be walking all day.’

3163

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Andrew Windsor to star in remake of Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 in Cyril Cusack role.

160

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

I’ve finished my new book-about-books. These can go in the recycling.

5271

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

I watched this in November 2022, followed by a rather dull 1993 remake directed by David Jones with Kyle MacLachlan as Josef K.

010

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

The term ‘aga saga’ caused Joanna Trollope ‘some irritation’, so @theguardian.com subs put it in obituary standfirst

1163

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Thanks @newstatesman1913.bsky.social for celebrating & supporting the rich culture of the short story in the UK today by publishing a story by… Anton Chekhov.

1101

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

2025 & 2026 Booker Prize judging panels. Can we look forward to novelists & short story writers being invited to join judging panels for Golden Globes & Mercury Prize?

0170

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

It was twenty years ago today. I can’t remember how it happened.

260

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

More of their crap going in the recycling. Might as well get some good out of it.

030

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Whenever I come across child-killers’ literature in book exchanges, I take it away – and recycle it.

3140

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Every morning, the dustbins would form a semi-circle under her apartment just off the Champs-Elysées & serenade her. Did this image make it into Paris Fantastique? Oui ou non? Pre-order from @confingopublishing.bsky.social for free b&w photo postcards.

1101

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

What a difference a single word can make.

4221

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Paris Fantastique, follow-up to London Gothic & Manchester Uncanny, announced for 6 Nov, now available to pre-order from @confingopublishing.bsky.social at special price of £9.50 + p&p & with three free b&w postcard photos taken by the author www.confingopublishing.uk/shop

1306

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Two men in Lycra on racing bikes in Salford. Man 1: two of the best things I ever did. Man 2: yeah? Man 1: one, giving up fags. Man 2: yeah, me too. Man 1: two, giving up gear.

0130

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

At a Mike Nelson show, you never know if a programme dropped on the floor is part of the work or just a programme dropped on the floor. Great new installation, Humpty Dumpty, at @fruitmarket.bsky.social

161

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

My wife wanted to go, but I wasn’t having any of it.

280

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

I was on this Avanti train the other day.

160

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

If brevity is the soul of wit, can we agree this is a joke? @thetls.bsky.social

2180

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Films watched in May. The Audition new to me & v good. Others all as good as I remembered from decades ago except Bunny Lake is Missing, which I probably wouldn’t see again.

260

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

They look pleasingly alike on the back.

040

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Two splendid anthologies from Paladin, from 1987 (left, cover by Neil Breedon) & 1989 (design by Ted Bernstein).

2110

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

New Boy (1996, left), New Boy (2017, right).

130

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Short story writers, do not fall into the trap of thinking that your short story collection is a full-length book. No blame for this absurdity lies with Lucy Scholes. Standfirsts are traditionally written by sub-editors. Assuming they employ them at new Tortoise-owned @observeruk.bsky.social

1131

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Until AI learns to distinguish between different people with the same name, I’m not sure I can take it seriously.

0110

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Foreign Body? I came to Stirling at my namesake’s invitation in 1999. Were you perhaps present?

110

Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

So much for Graham Greene having nothing suitable for Darklands in 1989 🤔 www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

2212