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If in need of post-Easter energy after devoting the last few days to digestion, I hugely recommend White King by Juan Gómez-Jurado, as discussed in the new SW. Doesn't matter that it's bk. 3 of 3 – it's a mad thriller for people who begin their trilogies where they want.

Probably not going to get much work done for an hour or two, thanks to Strong Words Magazine

Boxing chronicler extraordinaire Donald McRae spoke to the new Strong Words about his superb new book The Last Bell – a must-read for anyone interested in the tightrope lives of professional athletes and corruption's dark grip on pro boxing. Simon & Schuster UK

Always a pleasure to see one of Strong Words' most dearly held principles stated again. It appears here as the epigraph to New York restaurant emperor Keith McNally's forthcoming memoir, I Regret Almost Everything. With you disgracefully on May 8. Simon & Schuster UK

For a big feature on travel books in the new Strong Words I spoke to Mr Travel Writing and absolute gent Barnaby Rogerson, guiding light of the superlative Eland (home of one of the greatest books ever, Norman Lewis' The Honoured Society, on the Sicilian Mafia)

One of AI's side effects is how it causes you to suspect AI everywhere. AppleTV looks like it is entirely a creation of AI – slick, expensive and empty. If you'd like to throw your support behind something resolutely human and analogue, please subscribe to Strong Words

A great issue #travelbybook 👇

Just spoke to excellent person and magnificent writer David Whitehouse about his forthcoming Saltwater Mansions for the next Strong Words. Book is due June 12. Start queueing for it now – few people will put ink to better use all year. Phoenix Books

Went to v. good event last night at the reborn Colony Room (carpet yet to be stained), for Stephen May's excellent post-WWI conspiracy novel Green Ink, about the former Labour MP Victor Grayson who DISAPPEARED in 1920, whereabouts still unknown. Also in the new SW

As a grand dame, hard agree

If in need of freshly exhumed true crime, I recommend John Cornwell's Earth to Earth, first published in 1982 and back for forensic consideration. Book of the week in the Strong Words Sunday Book Club weekly email communiqué – sign up at the website. It's free!

I've been obliged to submit to a Victorian corset of an NDA and so am unable to share any of the magic that this memoir is full of, but if you have even the slightest appetite for all things New York, this by dinner lord Keith McNally is ESSENTIAL. Out May 8. Simon & Schuster UK

Also featured in our latest newsletter, Slightly Foxed | Magazine, Small Press, Podcast's new podcast on #DervlaMurphy, Patrick Galbraith's ‘Uncommon Ground’, news from the Sherborne Travel Writing Fest on their new travel-writing prize & Strong Words Magazine on the 60 best travel books mailchi.mp/74e9a22bc7ae/e…

I wish I'd invented the hi-viz sleeveless garment. That stuff is everywhere. Someone must have made a fortune out of it and I'd like to see the palace that hi-viz built. I bet I know what colour it isn't.

Quality pedantry – proposed and seconded – at the London Library today. Disrespect the language at your peril! #thephantomeditor

Desperate for inside intel on how to dominate the ultra-fickle restaurant business? Read this OUTSTANDING memoir by Keith McNally NOW, a Strong Words Sunday Book Club bk of the wk. For more such quality recommendations, sign up at the website. It's free! Simon & Schuster UK

Don't forget that we are about to head into the trickiest section of the year shortly: the period when you have to decide which books to take on holiday. Tons of help in the current Strong Words, even more in issue 57 out mid-June. For your own sake, subscribe

Ready for your next paperback? It's got to be Miranda July's unforgettable All Fours, also coincidentally the Strong Words Sunday Book Club book of the week. Contains vital information! Canongate (has left)

If you think the book inside you is a travel book, you must read the thoughts of Barnaby Rogerson, principle guide of the exquisite Eland Books, on what a great travel book looks like. From the current issue of Strong Words Magazine.

Here is the poet Baudelaire looking very crabby about the popularity of daguerrotype photography – what would he have made of social media? From the brilliant new graphic novel Muybridge, by Guy DeLisle Drawn & Quarterly