Matt Haig

I hate to be THAT DAD but Pearl has just this second set up an Instagram for her music. It is @pearl_is_a_singer (give her a follow if you want). This is her first ever post anywhere after 17 years on earth so she is nervous about it. She is music obsessed and has been working SO HARD. She has even taught herself bass and guitar. Learning music has helped her with her confidence. She has loved Bruno Mars from a very young age so decided to start with this. If you could go to @pearl_is_a_singer and check it out that would mean a lot. She is the only person in the world who genuinely finds my jokes funny so I have to do this. Thank you!!

The third and FINAL book in the Midnight World will be the sequel to The Midnight Library. Make sense? Nora and Mrs Elm think so.

This has annoyed a few people in my stories so I will post it here as I am in an annoying mood. There is nothing less human, less romantic, less poetic, less tactile, less caring, less beautiful than a QR code menu.

We are opening a bookshop and coffee place. It will be called GOLDEN. It will be in Brighton. It will be for everyone because even if not everyone is a coffee drinker everyone, deep down, is a reader. Even if they don’t know it. We have the place. It was possibly going to be an extension of a supermarket chain but now it will be a bookshop in a part of Brighton - Seven Dials - that currently doesn’t have a bookshop. My belief, as someone who grew up in a town without a bookshop, is that all communities should have a bookshop because bookshops save civilisation and make life interesting. This bookshop will be about freedom. We won’t be pushing things we don’t want to push. Just good books. Curated by me and people I trust. Mind-bending books. Tearful books. Banned books. Fun books. Graphic novels. Kids books. Grownup books. Really cool music and art books. Books with words. Books that have no words but are really gorgeous to flick through. Books that are actually vinyl records. The best dead and living writers. It will also have some comfy places to sit and drink some really good coffee. The occasional evening event. No stuffy vibes. No genre snobbery. No high/low book classism. You are welcome here. And so is your dog. We are aiming to open by Christmas. Follow @thegoldenbookshop for updates. Stay gold.

I am grateful for Andrea and my family. I am grateful to be surrounded by care. I am grateful for so much actually. I am happy more than I ever am. But this year has been intense in my head. Yet as Lewis Capaldi said I will survive even if it kills me. And I love being honest about it because that means I am not scared of it. Meet it in the eye when it comes into view. Autistic burnout is real.