I just saw this on Reddit, and now Monday feels better. "I just realized I've been mixing up Doja Cat and Dua Lipa for years now because of their names."

Rest in paradise, Ms Roberta Flack. I wrote this about her. theguardian.com/music/2025/feb…

Diplomat Starmer cannot neglect crises on the home front open.substack.com/pub/jackkessle…

On Jeremy Vine | Here, on Tiktok, Insta & Facebook's Radio 2 show just now, after the studio was evacuated because of a fire alarm going off: "Because there was no fire, we are going to cancel the item we were doing on cremation." My favorite broadcaster by a long way.

Out on Thursday, I’ve edited an in-depth mag on Dua Lipa for Record Collector Mag ‘s publishers. Helped by Annie Zaleski Caroline Sullivan Emma Harrison Ian Wade Jordan Bassett there are deep dives on every album and the TV special, Dua’s background AND the dressage horse named after Dua.

If you only buy one Dua Lipa magazine, make it this one - it's full of features (including some by me), wit and gorgeous pictures. It's out on Thursday.

I've spent the past 45 years singing "I'm a prima donna, standing in the dark" whenever I've heard UB40's Food for Thought. Yesterday I looked up the lyric for the first time: "Ivory madonna, dying in the dust..." What?!

I'm very happy to say that Taylor: Era by Era is out in paperback today, with a new chapter and new pink cover.

Well, this is exciting (to me, anyway). I've spent the last 10 months gloomily eyeing Sainsbury's book aisle, wondering why they didn't stock my lovely Taylor Swift book, Taylor: Era by Era. But it's just been released in paperback, and here it is! Thank you to Michael O'Mara Books.

Wow! Taylor's got her songs back! The Taylor's Version of Debut has already been done, and is incoming, but she hasn't remade Reputation yet. Will she, now that, strictly speaking, she doesn't have to? theguardian.com/music/2025/may…

Taylor: Era by Era: The Unauthorized Biography audiobooks.co.uk/promotions/pro…

Taylor has just been published in India, and I've also received a copy of the French edition of Dua Lipa, which I hadn't known existed. If the publisher can just do Arabic and Mandarin ones, I'll have the whole world covered.

I'm not sure this has ever been remarked on, but the intro to Madonna's Lucky Star youtube.com/watch?v=ThHz9w… is more or less identical to the intro to Wheels's on Fire by Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll. youtube.com/watch?v=FkCBVZ…

Swifties, there's somewhere you need to be on Friday Oct 10: at Waterstones in Piccadilly where three Swift authors are convening to talk about the new LP and more. Join Kat McKenna (Look What You Made Me Do), Satu Hameenaho-Fox (Into the Taylorverse)and me (Era by Era). Join us!

Swifties, this best-selling unauthorised biography of Taylor Swift , written by me, is now 50% off. Indulge, it's Friday 😍 audiobooks.com/promotions/pro…

I hadn't heard Northern Lites by Super Furry Animals in at least 25 years, when it suddenly popped up on the radio the other day, as eccentric and mad as it was in 1999, when "Cool Cymru" was a thing. Listen to it and feel better. youtube.com/watch?v=dv1h3V…

Taylor: Era by Era: The Unauthorized Biography audiobooks.co.uk/promotions/pro…

Oh my God. Shocker.

Taylor: Era by Era: The Unauthorized Biography Pop gazelles, this is for you: Get 50% off the audiobook if you buy this beautiful best-seller before March 12. Happy Valetine's Day! audiobooks.co.uk/promotions/pro…