"A bittersweet love letter to the unexpected, fleeting, and fragile wonders of this life; a deeply profound memoir that should not be missed." —Shannon Alden, Literati Bookstore TELL ME GOOD THINGS by James Runcie arrives February 21st: geni.us/tellmegoodthin…

I recommended five love stories for Valentine’s Day in The Wall Street Journal. The link is here wsj.com/articles/five-… – but it’s behind a paywall, so I will provide a quick list now. It’s to tie in with the US publication of my memoir, Tell Me Good Things.

5 love stories #WSJ The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith Written in a deceptively simple declarative style, in which the art of falling in love, when one is both elated and afraid, appears both natural and inevitable. “Whatever happened, they would meet it without running.”

5 love stories #WSJ 2. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Florentino Ariza, a telegraph operator adores the radiant Fermina Daza. Forced apart by the girl’s father, the couple are separated for 51 years, 9 months and 4 days. They get there in the end.

5 love stories #WSJ 3. Erec et Enide by Chrétien de Troyes This twelfth century Arthurian romance is one of the earliest portraits of a marriage. It also contains one of my favourite lines in all literature: ‘Flee, flee, here comes the corpse!’

5 love stories #WSJ 4. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion For anyone who needs to understand what it feels like to be bereaved, this book is the gold standard. For those who are struggling to accept loss, it provides the consolation that you are not alone.

5 love stories #WSJ 5. The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro Munro writes as if she is gently reminding you that love can be both intensely complex and refreshingly straightforward. When you know, you know. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, love is a fact.

Publication day in USA...thank-you to everyone at Bloomsbury for making this happen.

Your Good Friday reading, now in paperback

Just back from this quite amazing show - just a few performances- it’s wonderful…

17th c May Day celebrations in Rome included climbing the greasy pole (origin of the phrase?) on Capitoline Hill - painting by Agostino Tassi

CALLING ALL AUTHORS! Find out precisely how many of your books have been stolen to train AI right here: full-stack-search-prod.vercel.app

I saw a preview of this last night - some of the finest emsemble acting i have ever seen - sensational show …

Stunning Cathy Marston ballet, The Cellist The Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson in the title role, as Jacqueline du Pré alongside Principal dancers Matthew Ball and Marcelino Sambé - so moving and beautiful and exhilarating

Slightly odd timing but the paperback of my Memoir of Marilyn is published today….

Here we go... tonight... hurrah!

It’s typical of the unspoken duties constantly being loaded on the clergy that this advert says nothing about the expectation to solve crimes

At Princes Risborough this Sunday night to talk all things Bach as Fenella Humphreys plays some wonderful solo pieces - details here chilternarts.com/events/the-gre…

People of America! Escape the world with Grantchester! Series 9 starts tonight! Heres a lovely little thing from PBS pbs.org/wgbh/masterpie…

Today at the Edinburgh Book Festival - 5pm…