In news that will come as a shattering blow to my enemies, I’m still in the game. For starters, Sour Grapes has just come out in paperback. I expect you’ve already read it, but if not you’re running out of excuses: buy it from your favourite bookshop today. [And I don’t know exactly how these things work, but I would like to think that international shipping costs will be slightly less terrifying now it’s smaller. Who knows?]

And what’s the green one on the right? Give yourself a prize if you identified it as being the North Macedonian edition of Anthropology. Needless to say I’m very chuffed about this – it’s my first time ever in Macedonian, and the first time I’ve sorted out a foreign deal by myself. It’s published by Antolog Books, and they’ve been a dream to work with. I would love to give the translator a shout-out, but to be honest I can’t work out what they’re called. I’ll get back to you on that. That’s the thing about translations. I always pass my details on to the translator – sometimes you never hear a word from them, and sometimes you get a good amount of back-and-forth. My Finnish translator even turned up on my doorstep with a bundle of Moomins memorabilia. Nice.

Whenever a new edition of Anthropology comes in, I amuse myself by trying to work out which story is which. This is definitely one of the trickier translations…

In other news… there isn’t much. I’m struggling to find the time to write, what with work and other things, so my plan to get a book out in 2025 is looking less and less likely. But you never know.

I should probably leave it there, while I’m still relatively upbeat. If I stay here any longer the wheels will come off.

Happy reading.