Open letter to reinstate Jodrell Bank Observatory’s funding

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Last week, the government’s UK Research and Innovation department (UKRI) announced it was withdrawing annual funding for the Jodrell Bank Observatory which includes the iconic Lovell Telescope. This caused a predictable public outcry. Aside from historic status of the 70-year old site which grew out of the vision and determination of Sir Bernard Lovell in the post-war years, it continues to carry out ground-breaking research to this day, forming an important part of the pan-European e-Merlin network of radio telescopes. It also continues to inspire scientific curiosity and wonder in countless school children who flock to the visitor centre every day. It’s a designated World Heritage Site for heaven’s sake!

I understand that financial resources are finite and that budgets sometimes need to be cut. Those decisions are never easy. But Jodrell Bank’s annual funding of a paltry £2.8 million is, on the grand scale of UKRI funding, miniscule. It amounts to small change down the back of the government sofa. The savings contribution is vanishingly small and yet the damage done by withdrawing funding and the potential closure of the site is incalculable. This is flawed reasoning and a serious misjudgement. It’s hard to imagine that there aren’t better alternatives, ones that won’t be destroying something that is a quintessential part of our legacy of astronomical discovery and scientific understanding. What better example than Jodrell Bank is there that demonstrates the UK’s pioneering advances in radio astronomy and is recognised the world over? The Jodrell Bank Observatory continues to this day to make invaluable contributions to our understanding of the universe. Do we really want to sacrifice this?

So – pauses for breath, determined not to rant any more – when I was made aware of an open letter being sent to 10 Downing Street protesting against this funding decision and given a chance to add my signature, I did so without hesitation. The letter has gained a lot of attention in the media, and a lot of public support, helped no doubt by co-signatories such as Professor Brian Cox, Sir Brian May, Tim Peake and a whole host of scientists, writers, musicians and artists who stand behind this “foolish and shortsighted decision.”

For those who feel so inclined, there are a number of public petitions protesting the removal of Jodrell Bank’s funding. The Manchester Evening News has been covering the story assiduously and has organised its own petition here. Change.org has multiple petitions open, the one with the greatest number of signatures being this one.

Sadly, this is far from the only damaging funding cut that is coming down the line. The UK is cutting its contribution to the Rubin Observatory in Chile (which only began work last month) by 20%. Its planned work includes conducting the largest astronomical survey in history and it is undoubtedly going to generate some astonishing results for the participating astronomy groups. UK funding for the Next Generation Transit Survey (which is looking for solar systems similar to ours) is being cut by 45%. And the UK is withdrawing completely from the Event Horizon Telescope which is imaging the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Funding for all these projects, while not insignificant, is a tiny percentage of money routinely wasted or misappropriated across government (think of the billions lost in the various PPE scandals). This new UK government needs to get a grip on how it makes these judgement calls over funding and set its priorities straight.

Best of British SF 2025

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I meant to post something on this several weeks ago when the latest anthology in the Best of British Science Fiction series was published. I’m delighted that editor Donna Scott has selected one of my stories (Going Out on a Limb) for inclusion amongst this stellar list of British authors. It’s my third time making it into this anthology but the joy is as strong as ever!

You can get hold of a copy direct from the publisher’s website at NewCon Press or from any of the usual online or physical bookstores. (Support your local independent bookshop, if you can!)

There are some cracking stories in there so it’s well worth getting hold of.

2025 in books

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As is customary, I’m posting the stack of physical books I consumed in 2025, purely as a personal record. (As is also customary, I’m about four weeks late in doing so). I say ‘consumed’ because some of these I didn’t finish, so it wouldn’t be true to say I’ve read all these books, at least not start to finish. I used to be very iffy about starting a book and then not finishing it. It felt as though I’d failed or let down the author in some undefinable way. But as I’ve got older, I’ve realised that the list of books I would like to read is near inexhaustible and yet time is most definitely finite, so maybe I shouldn’t feel any shame about abandoning a book that just isn’t holding my interest.

To be clear, I didn’t hate any of these books. They were all good. Some spoke to them more directly than others, that’s all. Some of them I absolutely loved – the Adrian Tchaikovsky (of course!), the Mick Herron, the Gareth Powell. The Best Science Fiction of the Year anthologies are always excellent and a worthy successor to the Gardner Dozois series I used to cherish. I also genuinely thought the various anthologies I was published in (Journeys Beyond the Fantastic Horizon, The Year’s Top Hard SF and Vivid Worlds) all contained an excellent variety of stories that I really enjoyed, It was an honour to be a part of them.

This isn’t as big a stack as in previous years, I think. I haven’t counted and can’t be bothered to check because it’s really not about the numbers but in my defence I did buy a Kobo Libre in the first part of the year which I absolutely love. I don’t see myself ever abandoning physical books but I can’t deny the undeniable convenience of an eReader and Kobo’s range feels superior. It’s great for late night reading after lights-out, and solves the angst of what books to take with me when I’m travelling somewhere. On the down side, I think I might be developing an addiction to buying the 99p editions. If I see something I know I’m going to be interested in reading at some point in the future, I buy it because… why not? I’m steadily building a sizeable library on my Kobo based on the mentality of buying when it’s cheap and hoping to read later when I’ve got more time. (Hah!)

All this is on top of my monthly Clarkesworld reading and bi-monthly Asimov’s and Analog, quarterly Interzone and ParSec and once-in-god-knows-when F&SF reading. It’s also been good to see Andy Cox’s new venture ‘Remains’ coming regularly – as expected, stunning production values for a hard copy magazine, which is increasingly rare these days.

All in all, a great year for reading. I trust 2026 will bring more of the same!

Attending the World Fantasy Convention

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A couple of weekends ago I was fortunate to attend the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, UK which is an hour or so’s train ride from where I live. A fine time was had! Although I’ve got two World SF Conventions under my belt (Dublin in 2019 and Glasgow in 2024), this was my first World Fantasy Con. It was very cool with lots of great guests in attendance, and had the advantage of not being too crowded, yet well-attended. (And also superbly run by the organisers).

There was a great mix of panels and events, and a chance to catch up with some friends I hadn’t seen for a while. The convention hotel was very spacious and accommodating, with a good mix of rooms catering to different audience capacities, laid out across multiple floors – and connected by suitably maze-like corridors, connecting doors and ‘secret’ entrances. (There were rumours that the people we passed in the corridors who looked particularly harried were guests from the 2013 World Fantasy Con still trying to find their way out – but might just have been late night revellers).

One of my personal highlights was getting to chat with author (and editor!) James Logan after a panel he was part of. He was full of sage advice and general publishing wisdom. He very kindly signed a copy of his fantasy novel The Silverblood Promise which I started reading back in my hotel room, and I have to say it is a most excellent book. The second in the series (The Blackfire Blade) has just been published and it’s going straight on my TBR list.

Another highlight was seeing science fiction magazine ParSec win the 2025 British Fantasy Award for Best Magazine/Periodical. ParSec is a great SF/F magazine edited by the incomparable Ian Whates and I don’t think it gets enough mention. Obviously I am a little biased, having published my story Pennies in the Meme Jar back in ParSec issue 8, but the quality has always been very high, and in an era where high-quality SF/F outputs seem to be disappearing, ParSec has an important role to play. Let’s hope the BFA win brings in new readers and new subscriptions. (Subscriptions are available here).

One other thing that took my fancy was just along the sea front from the convention hotel. Brighton has a panoramic viewing tower called i360 which has a large viewing capsule that ascends a tall concrete pillar. Even though I’m not a great lover of heights, I quite fancied having a trip up – but alas, whenever I had free time away from the convention, the weather conditions weren’t right. (Brighton at the end of October is windy!). But I could see it from my hotel window and even in the middle of the night the capsule seemed to roost two thirds of the way up the tower. What I particularly liked was that if you got up close and tilted your head just so, without quite taking in the top of the column, it was possible to imagine it as an orbital tower with the capsule transporting passengers up to geostationary orbit.

Locus Poll – Read “Places You Have Never Been” for free!

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I was thrilled when my Analog story “Places You Have Never Been” made the Locus Recommended Reading List (which you can find here). I’ve never made the Locus Reading List before, so this is a new experience for me. It also means my story automatically appears on the listings for the Locus Award Poll – which I’m preserving for posterity here. (See? I said I was excited, didn’t I?):

However, If you missed it first time round, you can now read “Places You Have Never Been” for free! The publishers of Analog have kindly put their award-eligible 2024 stories up on their website for all to read. If you go here, you’ll find not only my story (eligible in the Best Novelette category) but also the wonderful “The Handmaiden-Alchemist” by Marie Vibbert (eligible in the Best Short Story category) which, coincidentally, was published in the same Jan-Feb 2024 issue of Analog as my story.

(Note: at the time of writing, the links to the two stories seemed to have been swapped over but you can still access both stories in full. I’m sure Analog’s web-master will fix this soon.)

And if you are thinking of voting in the Locus Poll you can do so via this link. Obviously, I’d be thrilled if you wanted to add “Places You Have Never Been” to your ballot in the Best Novelette category but there are still lots of great stories and books to vote for even if not. But don’t delay! Voting closes in just over a couple of weeks on April 15th.

The Locus Awards are voted on each year by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine Locus, although you don’t have to be a subscriber in order to vote; it’s open to anyone if you go here. There’s a brief survey to complete and then you’ll be emailed a link to the voting page. You don’t have to vote in all the categories if you don’t want to, and you can nominate up to five choices in order of preference in each category.

It’s a fun thing to do! So what are you waiting for?

Cover reveal – Vivid Worlds anthology

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Today (7th March 2025) is the start of the 5th World Conference on Climate Change and Global Warming in Vienna so it’s an auspicious day for the wonderful folk at The Slab Press to be launching the cover reveal for their latest anthology: a climate-themed solar punk collection of stories entitled Vivid Worlds.

Isn’t this a spectacular book cover?

The cover was designed by Welsh designer Paul Alex Condie. The anthology will be formally launched at Eastercon in Belfast next month, although sadly I won’t be there to see it.

I’m thrilled to have a story included in the anthology and can’t wait to read the other contributors. You’ll find more details of how to order a copy (paperback or ebook) on The Slab Press’s website very shortly. In the meantime, here’s the full list of authors and stories:

Holly Schofield, Oil and Water 

Cécile Cristofari, Tractors in the Mist

R.J.K. Lee, Don’t Blame the Tanuki Temple Thief

Toshiya Kamei, Post-Apocalyptic Survey of the Heart of Hokkaido

Ana Sun, Emily’s Farewell Coat

Rose Maxwell, Echolocation

Caolán Mac An Aircinn, Once More Unto the Breach

Cecil Wilde, The Story Keepers

Sierra Bibi, Blood and Water

Sue Oke, Final Report

Corey Jae White, Solar Strike

David Cleden, Going Out on a Limb

David Mancera, Through the Crimson Forest (translated by Monica Louzon)

Kay Hanifen, A Prayer on Rosary Peas

Liam Hogan, Low Tide at the Green Lagoon

Morgan Melhuish, Finding Armillaria

Nicholas Jay, The Mango Keeper

Rick Danforth, One Step at a Time

C. J. Hooper, The Cymric Sea

Shanna Yetman, Megacity Melancholy

Another year of books

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I few years ago I started the custom of stacking up each physical book I read during the course of the year and then, come New Years’ Day, taking a photo. This is purely for personal reasons, mostly so that I have a record that will be interesting to look back on in years to come. It’s never a big number of books in any given year – which is fine, I’m not competing with anyone. I do also read quite a few ebooks as well – possibly more than physical books although I’ve never counted – and consume a dozen or so audiobooks.

This year I took my New Year’s Day photo and then somehow it became February and I still hadn’t posted the picture. (How did it get to be February already?) Anyway, better late than never, here is last year’s reading:

Which ones did I enjoy? Pretty much all of them, although some a little more than others. I particularly liked ‘Eversion’ by Alastair Reynolds which was a glorious mix of SF, history and mystery. ‘Babel’ was also a standout of course, although I was coming late to it. ‘City of Last Chances’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky was particularly excellent and carries with it the memories of reading while also on holiday in Devon.

But now I have a confession to make. I did the same thing last year. I took my book photo on the first day of the new year, left posting it for a week or two, and then a month or two… and ended up not posting it at all! (What am I like?)

So to remedy that, here was last year’s (2023’s) book stack, to avoid a break in the photographic records!

Next year I promise to do better!

Awards Eligibility Post!

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Well, this is a first!

I’ve never written an awards eligibility post before – not because I haven’t had any eligible stories (I must be pushing on close to fifty publications by now) but mostly because of chronic authorly reticence when it comes to self-promotion. I understand this is something shared by many writers and that it’s simply necessary to push on through and just do it. So I’ve given myself a stern talking to and ordered the brain weasels who are always whispering But who cares? to take a back seat just for once.

I’m proud of all my stories. I think anyone who gets anything published in this day and age should feel proud. But pick of the bunch this year has to be Places You Have Never Been published right back at the start of the year in the Jan/Feb issue of Analog. Placing a novelette-length story with Analog felt special (and was a first for me). Reader reviews that I happened across were all positive which was nice. (Confession time: turns out it’s not hard to ‘happen across’ reader reviews if you google your name and story title. I know I shouldn’t but…) Places You Have Never Been also got a very positive review mention by A. C. Wise and made the Locus recommended reading list for that month. Here’s what she said:

I’m also sitting on some exciting anthology news regarding this story which I’ll share just as soon as I get the green light.

What else? What Remains of the Rainbow was a little short story published in Offshoots: Humanity Twigged, one of the Third Flatiron anthologies which are always fun collections full of stories which span the whole SF/F genre and loosely centred around a particular theme. This one amuses me because it has its genesis in a running joke with my wife. She came up with the title years ago while we were on holiday driving and saw a beautiful rainbow in the distance. Ever since, she likes to claim she has ‘basically written the story for me having gifted me the title – and please, why have I not finished it off and published it?’ Ideas swirled around for a year or two before I finally came up with something that worked and the editors at Third Flatiron took it for this anthology. So now I have ‘finished it off.’ So this one is for you, Vanessa!

In passing, I’ll note that this year also saw a couple of anthology reprints: Blue Shift, Passing By in the Best of British SF 2023, edited by Donna Bond and How Does My Garden Grow reprinted in Journeys Beyond the Fantastical Horizon (a Galaxy’s Edge Anthology). The latter counts as my most successful story so far, having been picked up for two best-of anthologies in addition to the original publication. However, neither of the above stories saw first publication in 2024 so are unlikely to be eligible for any award other than an anthology-related one.

So there it is. If you happen to have read Places You Have Never Been or What Remains of the Rainbow (details of where to find them are on my Fiction page) and like them enough to consider nominating them for an end of year award, I would be most honoured. (E.g. the Nebula Award ballet is open until Feb 28th 2025 here: https://www.sfwa.org/forum/ballots/)

There. Did it! Now I need to go lie down in a darkened room and recover.

The Astounding Analog Companion

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The very wonderful Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine has a section of its website called ‘The Astounding Analog Companion.’ Here you can find a vast archive of short pieces written by Analog authors going back many years. (The archive, not the authors – although both may be true in my case). These are an eclectic mix of essays on science fictional subjects. I wrote one back in August 2022 called ‘The Humble Book Reimagined.’

Sometimes the essays explore a particular theme or idea in a published story. For instance, I’ve just enjoyed Sean McMullen’s thought piece on building a planet-sized space telescope, an idea which is the centrepiece to his story “Mirrorstar” in the Nov/Dec 2024 issue of Analog which I enjoyed very much.

Anyway, to coincide with the publication of my own novelette ‘The Touchstone of Ouroboros’ in the Nov/Dec 2024 issue, you can find my musings on this piece’s origin story, called (unsurprisingly) ‘Origin Stories’ up on the site which is free to read. Here’s the odd thing. At no point in ‘The Touchstone of Ouroboros’ do any rats feature. Not a single one. Yet I can trace the origin of this story back more than ten years to something that involved a LOT of rats! A whole man-sized ball of rats, in fact.

If you’re curious, please buy a copy of Analog and read ‘The Touchstone of Ouroboros’. Then read ‘Origin Stories’ and all will become clear. Let me know what you think!

New story in Analog!

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It’s always a delight to receive a new printed issue of Analog through the letterbox – but even more so when it includes a story of mine! Mostly I read e-versions of the various SF magazines I subscribe to but it’s a special treat to buy extra printed copies to give away to friends and family (whether they want one or not!)

The Touchstone of Ouroboros is a novelette-length story. It’s centred on an alien artefact, discovered long ago by a cult which has built an entire religion around its curious existence. Maintaining the cult’s authoritarian rule within the cave-like city of Ouroboros means preserving the mysteries of the Touchstone’s existence, bringing it into conflict with visiting scientists trying to understand its strange properties. Anything that comes into physical contact with the Touchstone for more than a few seconds is irrevocably bound to it. A senior cleric, losing his faith and weary of the in-fighting amongst the ruling elite, becomes tormented in more ways than one by the Touchstone. He’s driven to desperate lengths to find a way to break free – and even then he may fail.

I hope you get a chance to read the story! If you do, let me know what you think.