Matthew Waterhouse

I'm pleased to say my short story collection Sugar has now been published. The book is available from the publisher whatnoise.co.uk/index.php/eboo…

I will now be on Bluesky @MatthewWaterhouse, where all the usual news and info will be findable! Hope to see you there! I was set up already as @MinettaLane but that's being left to die and I'm using my name instead. 2/2

Farewell! This is my last post on X/Twitter. I'm hardly alone in feeling increasingly uncomfortable with it over the last several years, and now Musk has jumped the final ethical shark it's goodbye from me. 1/2

and the Invisible Girl observes, helpfully: “He seems to have the crowd in a trance. They … they’re agreeing with his un-American sentiments.” Hang on! Was that Fantastic Four Issue 21, 61 years ago, or Sky News last week? 4/4

“We must drive all the foreigners back where they came from. We must show no mercy to those we hate,” he cries, in his purple hood, as his followers agree – “Long live the Hate-Monger. He’ll clean up this country for us!” – 3/4

As someone who loved Marvel comics as a boy, especially the art of Jack Kirby, for whose work I have a lingering affection, here's an amazing observation from the comedian and Guardian columnist Stewart Lee: 1/4

Did they, pulling their levers, know what they were doing? Is he 'the real America'? I don't know but perhaps they did and he is. 3/3

In Philip Jose Farmer's novella Riverworld, the reincarnated Jesus (all the characters in the Riverworld series are dead humans reincarnated) is crucified a second time and says, "Father, they do know what they're doing." 2/3

I'm reminded of the biblical story that Jesus on the cross cried out, "Forgive them, father, for they know not what they do." 1/3

...Usually he fails, leaving disasters worse than those the original sought to remedy." 3/3

...He is like one who enjoys saying 'Mozart' but is bored by music. He seeks increasing despotism, spiritual and practical, for the miracle to ensure his fortunes forever. The most simple and enthralling is that of renewed violence, at home and abroad... 2/3

More from DICTATORS: "He often shirks the drabness of regular administration, so cannot shed repression. Grandiose schemes are not always completed. Histrionics, intuition, intrigue, propaganda, outbid tact, delegation, routine... 1/3

- Quote from DICTATORS by Peter Vansittart. 4/4

...With further miracles breathlessly expected he must continue, robbing people of their identity on pretence of restoring it, so that they need him, the permanent, indispensable rainmaker, as urgently as, drugged by his own glamour, he needs himself"... 3/4

"He is welcomed by the rich as a restorer of order, by the mob for his sensationalism... Promising miracles, he slays the monster - street fights, inflation, political turmoil, demoralisation - takes the kingdom, initiates reforms, through force... 1/4

I have scarcely been within the walls of a school since my teens but I doubt school life is quite like this! These young people are incredibly emotionally literate. But, if the show's theme is centred on varieties of sexuality, it is about something else too: simple human decency

There is something relaxing about a show where Charlie discovering he has a hickey counts as a major cliffhanger! But these small things really are major to a teenager.

At the strong recommendation of a friend we have been watching Heartstopper!! Just finished the second series. It really is a charming show, sweet and warm and generous.