Gail Wylie

Incredible stuff. And it’s great to see something not entirely CGI created these days! 🔥⛸️

My fundamental thoughts on the BBC. I am not (yet?) British, but when I lived abroad, the BBC was everything to me: informative, engaging, indispensable. It was also everything for the older members of my family when they listened to Radio Londra and its wonderful "Colonnello Buonasera" as they tried to get rid of fascism and nazism and found hope and solace in the BBC. Italy is now a free country, thanks also to the BBC. Everything can make mistakes, and those must be seriously addressed. But from a foreigner's point of view, having lived in several countries, the BBC is the most excellent and impactful media in the world and also the best British asset of soft power. Therefore, I am stunned by how much the BBC is criticised in this country, with many people treating it like an average broadcaster. To make an easy comparison, in Italy, for instance, public TV Rai is, in fact, state TV, and political parties directly choose its directors. This would never happen to the BBC. My advice to British people is: the BBC can be improved— like everything — but do take care of it. It's something that billions of people in the world envy you for. Good night.

BREAKING: trump is having a temper tantrum, ending ALL trade negotiations with Canada. He's butthurt that they aired an ad of President Reagan that shows how dumb trump's tariffs are. It's VERY effective. Be a shame if it went viral. 🇺🇲🇨🇦

@MrAndrewCotter @bookmarkblair was so delighted that Mabel came with you on your final sold-out world tour stop in Blairgowrie! Thank you for that trip north and hope you’re all enjoying well-deserved rest.

Back from a month around the world and thought about the welcome home for much of it. They never disappoint.

@FaetheRye @RuthDavidsonPC Yes but he was MP for North East Fife for many years.

@RuthDavidsonPC Did he not grow up in Glasgow?

Growing up in the East Neuk, Ming Campbell was my local MP and was held in respect and affection across the political divide. Getting to know him as an adult, I learned why. Always courteous, dignified, principled & hard working - smart and talented too. A real class act.

A huge loss. Ming was courteous, as many have noted, but he was also immensely kind. I had the same cancer as him & he called me the day of every treatment, cycle after cycle, sharing advice, gossip & reassurance.

Two weeks today I’ll be at the wonderful @bookmarkblair festival in Blairgowrie talking about my books, travels, memoir and language with my friend @gewylie who does so much to support Scottish culture in Perthshire. A great session and a great day out guaranteed.

@billykayscot @bookmarkblair Thank you @billykayscot! It will be a great start to an excellent day of conversation (with Flora Johnston, Lin Anderson, Alistair Moffat and Andrew Cotter talking to their first class Chair people) bookmarkblair.com or perthshireboxoffice.com

@e_chatterji @stephenkeeler Move back to Scotland! No heatwave here!

@stephenkeeler We are just coming out of a heat wave. The rest of the week will be nice but then it is back to well, hot. I am in Switzerland, in what is called the midlands.

Looks like we’re heading for a third heatwave in five weeks and the fourth time temperatures have risen above 30° here (N. Yorks) this year.

@AmandaPCraig Sounds like an interesting book and I’ll give it a read. Thanks for the tip!

@gewylie I might be wrong about that one actually.

To me, the single best novel of the part year is Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, which has won multiple prizes inc the Orwell. A must-read, comic, propulsive, brilliantly original and gives a portrait of 4th centuiry Sicily some may find hauinting.

@stephenkeeler Maybe 3 of us (all girls!) were driving on the same short piece of road in France when we drove from Dundee to Rome - and back - in my pale blue Renault 4!

Hard to believe three of us motored from Oxford to Marseille - and back! - in one of these, in 1972. Smaller than the postcards we sent and with perhaps less structural integrity than a ‘cornetto’, it ran on espressi and hope. Time-of-our-lives stuff. Where are you now J and S!

To celebrate the publication of my new book, THE ART OF A LIE, I'm doing a giveaway of one of my signed author hardbacks, together with signed paperbacks of my first three novels, BLOOD & SUGAR, DAUGHTERS OF NIGHT, and THE SQUARE OF SEVENS. Follow and retweet to enter. UK only 🍍

@waltscottprize @SceptreBooks Congratulations! This is also on the shortlist for @bookmarblair’s 2025 Book of the Year 2025 (announced in October at our Festival) bookmarkblair.com

Andrew Miller has won the 2025 #WalterScottPrize for Historical Fiction with THE LAND IN WINTER ( @SceptreBooks ) his novel set in a remote English community during the long, hard winter of 1962/63. Learn more: loom.ly/4XrXLTI #TheLandinWinter #AndrewMiller

@Rainmaker1973 18

A considerable number of people get it wrong. Can you solve it?

@seanlusk1 @bookmarkblair @DoubledayUK @DHHlitagency @DavidHHeadley @KirstyDunseath @sarabethsbooks We loved having you both with us. Adding to @bookmarkblair exceptional events! Looking forward to having you back in 2026

Such a fun event @bookmarkblair yesterday. Full hall, great audience, lovely booksellers and always a joy to hang out with the brilliant #vickymackenzie #forthygreatpain #awomanofopinion

Great @bookmarkblair event with @forthygreatpain and Sean Lusk discussing their protagonists Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. And thanks to Chair @gewylie for giving a namecheck to my latest, "Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Uncharted Island."

Out TOMORROW! And you can catch the brilliant #vickymackenzie and I talking about #awomanofopinion and her superb #forthygreatpain @bookmarkblair this Saturday. #HistoricalFiction #Paperback

@james_j_bailey Have you let the Muriel Spark Society know about this?

The cat’s out of the bag! 🐈‍⬛ LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD, my weird, slippery biography of Muriel Spark, will be out in April next year. A huge thank you to the team at Sceptre for helping me bring it to life. Please tell your libraries and favourite bookshops!