David Hewson

#VeniceNoir 2026 is fast approaching 12-15 November 2026 Details on Instagram www.instagram.com/venicenoirfe... Programme in both ENGLISH and ITALIAN #blueskybooks #booksky

Good morning from Venice! ❤️ Two years ago, I worked on a documentary about #Venice with Channel News Asia. One unforgettable moment? Filming inside the Doge’s Palace at dawn, completely empty. Pure magic! What an incredible experience. Ready for the next adventure!

The C6 #mosaics of S. Vitale in #Ravenna are often read as a transition from classical to #Christian visual language, but they are also highly polemical. The lunette’s Old Testament scenes operate as assertions of theological orthodoxy for #MosaicMonday. #AncientBluesky 🏺🧵

Just a poll in the Times but interesting all the same. People don't think the same way as ten years ago, do they?

How Was Venice Drawn from Above in 1500? But look at this. Jacopo de' Barbari, View of Venice, 1500. Cleveland Museum of Art (CC0), photograph by Howard Agriesti. Click to explore a copy in zoomable detail. Nobody could fly in 1500, yet that year a woodcut appeared showing Venice as a bird would…

This week I will write the 7k or so words needed to finish this first draft. There, I’ve said it so I have to do it.

This is a beautiful, beautiful thing

Scary fountain in the Doges Palace

It’s almost as if Ratcliffe isn’t actually a genius just someone with enough money to screw things up and blame everyone else.

Can empathise with that

Doing the olive harvest in Montisi. Hard work but great scenery & results!

We wanted to know where our favourite drink, the spritz, came from, and it took us on a quest around Italy... but as we found out, the world's favourite cocktail (Aperol, Campari, take your pick) wasn't invented in Italy at all. Full film: youtu.be/0blHrMk8bFg

Arnold Clover 5 is now in its final phase, Microsoft Word, and up to 87k words. I kept thinking this would be a 90k book but I think it will creep up to 95.

"One of the conditions of freedom is that words have an understood meaning. If Putin is a humanitarian, then Dolly Parton was an axe murderer. Who else gets to be filed under humanitarian if Putin makes the cut? Stalin? The iceberg that sunk the Titanic?" Perfect from @petridishes.bsky.social 🎯

What writers should and shouldn’t do on social media There was a tale doing the rounds a few years back about an author, supposedly an established one, who'd submitted a manuscript to a publisher and had it rejected. Hardly something new -- we've all been there. But in this case the publisher…

Arnold Clover 5 has made the jump from Ulysses to Word. Endgame in play.

A VENETIAN tale of murder, witchcraft, and dubious activity The Devil in Dorsoduro by David Hewson @davidhewson.com www.tripfiction.com/a-venetian-t... "..an excellent, immersive read.." #VENICE #blueskybooks #booksky

Less than a month now! www.youtube.com/@VeniceNoir

When in Rome … get the best sandwich ever from Er Buchetto. Doesn’t look flashy at all. It’s just porchetta in a cheap bread roll. Nevertheless it is the finest sandwich I have ever had.

That Jurgen Klopp is a multi talented chap.

For those of you coming to Venice Noir... our cocktail receptions are including incredibly popular. The one with Lucy Worsley is sold out. Ian Rankin and Philip Gwynne Jones has only a few tickets left so if you're interested best snap them up now. www.eventbrite.it/e/venice-noi...

Frothy milk for a dachshund given as a freebie in a coffee bar: doggocino or puppocino? My money is on doggocino but opinions welcome.

How to get around in Venice A while back I was sitting next to an Australian chap on the flight to Venice. We started to chat and I asked him what he was planning to see and do and how he planned to get around. His one must-do thing appears to be a gondola ride and he'd never heard of the Piazza…

For #SpoliaSunday, these fluted C15 #spolia #columns in a courtyard of the S. Spirito hospital survive from the ancient Horti Agrippinae below. In their presence, perhaps, the cruel emperor #Caligula would have unfortunates suffer arbitrary and violent fates. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Hard to work out which is worst. Apple Intelligence or Microsoft Copilot. Or the fact both are being foisted on us whether we want it or not.

S4 Ep.18 - Inside Venice Noir: Crime Writing Comes to Venice www.sentiremedia.com/show/venicet... Talking Venice Noir

I was going to say we know how to live here in Kent and then…

Why is a retired banjo playing, public school nepo-baby on the BBC's flagship Newsnight commenting on the Red Wall? And why no mention that: Winston Marshall only has a political platform because his Dad is billionaire Paul Marshall... owner of GB NEWS and the Spectator.

View from the Devil’s Kneading Trough, May 2017

Coming up to one year ago: Venice Noir authors dinner in the little chapel of the Marriott on its private island. See who you can spot.

Had a haircut today and barber asked, ‘Are you retired or still working?’ With no conscious intervention from me brain instantly replied, ‘Still working. Retirement makes you old.’ Out loud. Naughty brain.

Just had to offer some advice to someone which I thought I’d pass on here… Never assume someone older than you knows what they’re doing. They’re just older. That’s all.

Calling a halt to this week's work on Arnold Clover 5. One more week and this draft will be done. Here's the data including daily word counts since the project was moved from Scrivener to Ulysses at 13k words on Aug 27.

Not sure what purpose the opening 'Before his death...' bit serves here. He wouldn't have written it after.

start your day right

Deadlines Are a Writer’s Friend, Not Your Enemy Here's a famous quote from Douglas Adams... I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. I love deadlines too. But not for the reason he did. Deadlines are, in my view, one of the most powerful tools in the writer's arsenal,…

For #ReliefWednesday, we examine this C2 CE #Roman copy of a C5 BCE #Greek #relief of #Medea and the Peliades. Discovered in 1814 at palazzo De Carolis on via del Corso, its wear pattern suggests it was used upside down as a paver. Now in the #VaticanMuseums. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Jesus needs to tone down the AI a bit

This week’s Guest Recipe from the #CookbookCorner archive is the Potato and Gorgonzola Focaccia from 'Cucina del Veneto: Delicious Recipes from Venice and Northeast Italy' by Ursula Ferrigno! www.nigella.com/recipes/gues...

We’ve been doing this for years now, so we know exactly when to go. Come and see Venice the way we see it. youtu.be/PteA8fJAWr8

Of all the bird species to spot on Hampstead Heath yesterday afternoon, this was quite a colourful surprise 🦜

On poison and ancient terrors We like to do things differently at Venice Noir. Yes, there are plenty of sessions discussing crime and thriller fiction with some top authors. But we also want to delve beneath the surface and investigate some of the things that set the world of dark fiction ticking…

Two red kuri squash for £2 at Morrisons. A bargain!

I’m lucky enough to be chairing this panel so I’ve advance information on what’s coming. Trust me. This will be a festival event you’ll never forget!

Could the algorithm that picked this for me kindly make itself known. We need a word.