iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 14/09/2026

Another Spybrary podcast interview of mine is unleashed on the world. It’s with David McCloskey-recommended writer Robert McCaw, about his Washington molehunt book Traitors. Get it from your usual podcast source, or the link’s here. #readingcommunity #books #BookSky

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 12/09/2026

Read: The Predicament by William Boyd 📚I’ve loved Boyd’s standalones for years and this Greene-ish spy series either Gabriel Drax isn’t hitting the spot for me. Thin characters, clunky prose, sluggish pace. #BookSky #books #readingcommunity

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 11/09/2026

The courts would have a different opinion.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 10/09/2026

Also, you’re sounding pretty AI, tbh.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 10/09/2026

Calling them a gang is assuming a conspiracy, which is libellous and if they did get arrested, potentially prejudicial. Other than that, you’re saying the same thing. I don’t see the difference.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 10/09/2026

They did, in the headline and intro. And neutral is good. They're legally obliged not to have a point of view, just report facts they can stand up in a court if necessary. What would you prefer them to say?

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 10/09/2026

Thing is, legally, you cannot label that group as whatever you think they are based on no evidence, however much you'd like to. As an individual it would be libellous, and as a BBC reporter, it would be unprofessional.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 09/09/2026

I mean, do they have to say so explicitly? To non-cultists, it's bloody obvious, and cultists would never accept it anyhow.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 08/09/2026

Read: Let it bleed by n/a 📚Rebus investigates high level corruption in Edinburgh. Again. It would be easy to dismiss it as just more Rankin content, except Rankin content is consistently very very very good. I’ll even forgive the Stones reference. #BookSky #books #readingcommunity

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 08/09/2026

One of my genuine all time writing idols, who came up with lines that will survive in my brain long into dementia, has followed me on Substack. I am, as the kids say, legit stunned.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 08/09/2026

Honestly, to me, washing up and podcasts sounds incomparably better than leading thought.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 07/09/2026

Some of us would argue that if someone needs a ghostwriter, they're not, themselves, in fact, a writer.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 06/09/2026

Exactly. And he got criticised by the next generation for being too Uncle Tom, while all the time he was using his position to support and push what he could.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 06/09/2026

Great doc. Also from those tapes, he was also a far swearier motherf***er than is generally appreciated.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 06/09/2026

It's true for writing too, with the addition that pretty much everyone can put words into a meaningful order so they're even more sure they're capable of creating meaningful written work, and they don't see there's a craft to hone at all.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 06/09/2026

Probably a bit slow on the uptake here, but in Facebook, pretty much everything other than posts to groups is AI shit now.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 04/09/2026

The reports I heard sourced the claim to Reform UK. A journalist can't then say 'but it's probably a lie' based on nothing at all except their own prejudice.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 04/09/2026

'We will declare a national emergency' if we don't get our way... not fascism-y at all. No hint of authoritarianism there. Nothing to be worried about. #ReformUK

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 04/09/2026

The people of Clacton answered his by election call with 'an emphatic win'. Yes Nigel. An emphatic win against a bin. Against. A. Bin. #ReformUK

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 04/09/2026

Enjoying the audience involvement at Farrage's #ReformUK 's speech. It's helping undermine any chance of gravitas.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 04/09/2026

All the better to hear what an odious little rabble rousing mini-Trump they have for a leader.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 04/09/2026

Nigel Farrage has really cracked the 'mwahahahaha' evil dictator laugh, judging by Reform's conference coverage.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 03/09/2026

Read: The alienist by Caleb Carr 📚Cracking atmospheric period NYC serial killer procedural with a walk on part for Theodore Roosevelt. #BookSky #readingcommunity #books

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 03/09/2026

Read: The Absinthe Forger by Evan Rail 📚One of those niche histories about something obscure. In this case, fake absinthe from pre-1915 when most of Europe banned it in a moral panic. Happily quirky, slight, and a bit hazy, like an afternoon drinking in the sun. #BookSky #books #readingcommunity

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 03/09/2026

Maybe it’s because I’m old, but I will never understand why so many people on social media are convinced other internet strangers should give a single flying fuck about their opinions. It’s like scrolling a town centre full of lunatic street preachers, and censorious sanctimonious ones at that.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 01/09/2026

Having worked in and out of academia, I'm confident in saying there's nothing uniquely hard about being an academic, and most of it is very pleasant.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 01/09/2026

I interviewed Jinwoo Park about his spy novel, The Oxford Soju Club, for the Spybrary podcast, and it’s finally dropped, or posted or up or whatever it is podcasts do. #readingcommunity #books #BookSky

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 27/08/2026

You wouldn’t want to miss the rock n roll of the abrupt scrolling up and down as the adverts get served to the page in an excitingly random order.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

… I‘ve been trying to figure out how to do a writerly BTS thing too, and one way could be like a ’director’s commentary’, or like those school book classics with a parallel commentary on the facing page. The writer journals their thoughts on each days’ writing and posts it. Needs forethought though.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

So good to have a social media exchange that’s actually sociable… My point was along the lines of: an artist and a writer side by side beside a river. The crowd will look over the artist’s shoulder, not the writer’s. Says nothing about the work itself, just writing is boring to watch. But…

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

I’m curious. Which bit do you actually disagree with?

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

So my half-arsed draft of a scene is an invitation to be stolen in a way that a pencil sketch of a painting isn't. Our words are symbols for ideas, and everyone thinks they can steal the ideas, or the ideas are easy. Plus people enjoy the visuals of art. Words are dull to look at, in themselves. 2/2

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

It would be great to do that. Maybe one of the obstacles is that it's physically easier to copy written work than drawings, both technically, and in the sense that most people can put words on paper or screen, and most people can't draw. 1/2

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

It's a development of everything being ironic if you want it to be, which is a useful tool of bullies: 'it was just a joke, lighten up'. Narcs in particular are adept at deniable viciousness. Add in quantity of people/bots happy to pile-on the victim, and good faith debate is impossible.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

I for one would pay to see the massed Coldstream guards doing the Time Warp.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

Thea Gilmore vs The Algorithm: matthewhurst.micro.blog/2026/08/26/… I’ve loved Thea Gilmore’s music for decades. Now she wants people to pay close attention by making it harder to find, temporary. This one’s about power hiding. It’s here on The Echoline #...

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

Read: [The Cold Cold Ground ](micro.blog/books/978109...) by Adrian McKinty Gripping and atmospheric, Harry's Game-esque, but the realism is undermined by weird solecisms and a largely unnecessary infodump at the end. #books #booksky #readingcommunity

micro.blog

The Cold Cold Ground

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 26/08/2026

The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty: matthewhurst.micro.blog/2026/08/26/… Read: The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty 📚 Gripping and atmospheric, Harry’s Game-esque, but the realism is undermined by weird solecisms and a largely unnecessary infodump at the...

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/08/2026

This is about 80% of social media, from what I can see.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/08/2026

You don’t need an algorithm to create an echo chamber and Bluesky is an echo chamber like all other platforms. It’s not good or bad, it’s just their nature.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/08/2026

Read: Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway 📚Le Carre’s son picks his father’s Smiley/Karla rivalry. Superb. Enough to make me reconsider my proscription on works that fills in holes in the canonical texts. #booksky #sky #readingcommunity

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/08/2026

This season is definitely leaning into the comedy. It's very silly, but entertaining enough when you want to switch your brain off. Different beast to the Lee Child books though.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/08/2026

Pre Adam Smith. They literally don't understand anything involving 'international trade' not being long words for 'theft', apparently.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 24/08/2026

It's a confusing nest of negatives, but to be fair, it is the active voice. Passive would be 'X paused in blocked of Y'.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 24/08/2026

Doug is bad enough, but to be fair, he's also less of a crackhead than his brother was.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 24/08/2026

Want to read: The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin 📚 #litfic

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 23/08/2026

Why does anyone on any social media think anyone else cares about anything they say about anything? It's genuinely puzzled me for years.

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Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 20/08/2026

Review: Rothstein - The Criminal Genius Who Fixed The World Series: matthewhurst.micro.blog/2026/08/20/… Read: Rothstein by David Pietrusza 📚 Another biography with more pages than story. Rothstein was a (very rich) New York grifter in the early 20...

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