It was great fun to interview novelist Moses McKenzie on stage at Hay Festival. We ran perfectly to time, the incredibly heavy rain chiming it right as we closed making it impossible for anyone to hear any bonus content we might have had! Moses was my first in person interviewee for a while but the whole thing went very smoothly, with the conversation mostly focussed around his recently released…
I spent 6 days at Hay Literature Festival with the TikTok UK team. We were on duty each day with TikTok, grabbing content here and there, going book shopping and interacting with authors and artists at the festival. The content we made has racked up millions of views and given the younger viewership on TikTok, we’ve showcased Hay to a new generation of potential festival goers. I also participated…
This trip was an ideal fit for me. FX adapted James Clavell’s classic novel Shogun for a 10 part series on the Disney+ streaming service. The book has been adapted before so this version aimed to be different by bringing a level of authenticity and detail with regards to its Japanese representation than was previously possible. A mix of creators and journalists embarked on a trip to Japan where we…
Look on my works ye might and despair! Here lies a list of my favourite books I read in 2023. This is absolutely not comprehensive and I’ve probably forgotten something. Nevertheless, here it is. my best books of 2023 The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis An amazing return to form from a modern great, Bret Easton Ellis’s metafictional coming of age murder mystery was probably my favourites of the year.…
In 2023 I was one of the judges for the inaugural TikTok Book Awards. Not only that but I ended up presenting 4 awards in a row in front of a fairly raucous crowd in central London. The award winners ended up victorious over their long and shortlisted contemporaries after being whittled down using app data, the BookTok users and judges’ opinions. The winners were an eclectic mix of debut authors…
Working with PlayStation was a bit of a dream come true. The campaign, highlighting the sophisticated storytelling at the heart of PlayStation’s titles, was a great fit for me. Some of my favourite narratives growing up were games and specifically those on PlayStation with Final Fantasy 7 and Metal Gear Solid being two obvious examples. For this campaign I focused on The Last of Us, a title that…
My friend Callum asked me to contribute to a day-long men’s retreat he was planning. The group of high-achieving guys, coming from disciplines as diverse as Olympic sport to green tech entrepreneurship, set off from Callum’s residence in Poole for a 25km there and back walk. Our journey took us through scenic routes, on a ferry to Studland, along the beach, culminating in an invigorating swim and…
It was fun to be dressed for a day out at Hay Festival by Barbour. After selecting some pieces, I wore the getup for my second day at the festival and captured some images for my Instagram story. Barbour used them for their own Instagram post and will also use them in other marketing material over the next few months. I was delighted to be asked to model by the brand and was pleased with how the…
It was a joy to go back to Berlin and do one of my favourite jobs of the year. The Fashion X Craft Project, an initiative from the German Fashion Council and the Prince’s Foundation, gives a cohort of young sustainable fashion designers a year of learning experiences. They get exposed to crafts of all different types and stripes outside their usual frame of reference, exploring disciplines like…
notes on the process
I partnered with the BBC to create 2 pieces of content for the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel "Conversations With Friends". Having previously introduced his audience to the book via my nightly lives, this partnership further connected book-lovers with the show's 800,000+ viewers in the UK. I love the book so it was really fun to be asked to join in on this one. See the content below.
I linked up with Amazon's "Your Reading Feeling" campaign for a sponsored post. Tying in with the TikTok Book Club, this content encouraged audiences to try books for themselves; driving sales and social engagement across Amazon's channels. See the post here: click to see the content
I didn’t appreciate how great a tie up this would be! One day, I received a fantastic invite to visit the Aesop library above their Bath store in my hometown. I spent a couple of hours meeting the staff, testing the products and shooting some content in their beautifully designed library space. We drove impressions for the brand, showcased their literary influences and featured a few of their…
summary of the official TikTok Book Club experience
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to speak at a men's wellness retreat. I took the train to the West Country to Campwell Farm, a glamping destination just outside of Bath. I met the guys, a mixed group of men ranging from their fifties to their early twenties, late on Saturday afternoon, speaking to them before dinner before staying overnight and joining in with the rest of their…
non-fiction by Nassim Nicholas Taleb “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” amazon | independent | pre-loved
a memoir by Matthew McConaughey, narrated by himself “We all have scars, we gonna have more. Rather than struggle against time and waste it, let’s dance with time and redeem it. Cause we don’t live longer when we try not to die. We live longer when we are too busy living.” get it on audible
series by J. K. Rowling, narrated by Stephen Fry “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” get it on audible
a memoir by Anthony Bourdain, narrated by himself “Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” get it on audible
mock autobiography by Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Rob and Neil Gibbons; narrated by Coogan “Snowflakes fell from the sky like tiny pieces of a snowman who had stood on a landmine.” get it on audible