Octannual Update
The 2026 Midsummer Annual
I’ve spent most of this month putting together the first Midsummer Annual, my forthcoming collection of new, rare and random pieces of writing. Everyone who has a paid subscription to my New Moon Letters will receive a copy of this in the post.
I am pleased to announce that this year’s edition is called The Bees Are On Our Side: Midsummer Annual 2026 and the cover looks like this:
This is, of course, entirely wrong on every level. The cover of a Midsummer Annual should be bright, warm, and probably blue and yellow. It should not be an overcast sky or the frankly disturbing black windmill of Rottingdean. Yet I’ve been weirdly haunted by this image ever since my friend Chris posted it on his Instagram last summer, and given the current state of the world, I felt it captured the mood of 2026 far better than a more sensible design. I’m also really enjoying the freedom to make unwise decisions which a project like this gives. I’m still debating about leaving the image clean or adding text - we shall see.
I’m pleased with the variety of articles I’ve put together. It starts with a new essay on the English radical tradition and then goes on to cover Agatha Christie’s disappearance, Banksy’s Dismaland, Lynch’s The Straight Story, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Secret of Monkey Island, the Cosmic Trigger play and much more. It ends with my play H.G. Wells & the Spiders From Mars.
I realise that it would be far easier and cheaper for me to just email these pieces of writing to subscribers, rather than go to the trouble of designing, printing and mailing physical books. But I like the fact that this will not exist online, and that the likes of Amazon will never know of its existence. The cover image and this mailing list platform aside, the only people involved in this are me, my wife who copy-edited, a local Sussex printer and the post office. There will be no digital versions - so no ebooks or audiobooks. It won’t be available in online or offline shops. It’ll just drop through your letterbox at midsummer, and that’s that.
For those of you with a paid subscription to the New Moon Letters - look out for an email from me around the start of June, asking for the mailing address you wish your copy to be sent to. Once you’ve replied to that, there is nothing else that you need to do and your book will arrive a few weeks later.
And for those without a paid subscription - if you do decide to upgrade your subscription, there’s still time for me to add an extra copy to the printer’s order!
Hope you enjoy it!
EXTERMINATE/REGENERATE EVENTS
I’ve got a few events coming up in May where I’ll be talking about my Doctor Who book, now that it has materialised in paperback.
The first is the Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival on 4 May, Bank Holiday Monday. Beatle-people should note that I will be interviewed by Chris Shaw of of the much missed podcast I Am The Eggpod. Even better, Chris is finally launching his new podcast on Sunday, Eggpod Express, in which he and his guests delve into copies of the 1960s music press - look out for that!
Next Thursday, 6 May, I’ll be at the Books on the Rise book shop in Richmond Hill, London, and on 23 May I’ll be at the Chesham Fringe, where me and Robin Ince will be in conversation with Sean Hannam, which promises to be a lot of fun. These will be my last public events for a good long while, so if you can make them, please come along.
ELSEWHERE
I’m a big fan of the novels of David Keenan and his latest, Boyhood, is no exception. A very male exploration of memory and loss, it’s a great place to start if you are new to his work. I’d particularly recommend the audiobook, which he reads himself. Keenan often talks about his writing as if it was something he encounters rather than creates, and this reading is at times so startled and reverential that it is as if it is being revealed to him in real time. An extraordinary listen.
Meanwhile the cursed art-goth Shardcore aka Drass has released On The Hill, a reassuringly unsettling album about telepathy, technology and aliens. The Quietus review by Chris Thorpe-Tracey describes it well. It’s a bracing listen and you should definitely give it a go.
And finally - The KLF Recreation Society have been performing chilled sets in village halls, and it naturally pleases me greatly that in July they will be performing on Watling Street. More details here.
That’s all from me. See you next time - if the Six O’Clock Picker doesn’t get you first.
jhx
Do it clean !
Cover looks great clean. Perfect, just like that.