Mark Liam Piggott

Delighted to announce that at long last my comic novel JAM GENERATION (pub. Provoco) is on sale! Get it while it’s HOT… (the weather, that is!)

It’s been a long, long wait, but it’s finally here – the cover for my new comedy novel, Jam Generation, which is being published by Provoco very soon. As a cover I love it – ambiguous, mysterious, with just enough hints about the themes of the book itself, which will be out soon. As for the synopsis – watch this space!

Delighted to be able to announce that my comic novel “Jam Generation” is to be published by Provoco Publishing, hopefully in 2025. This warm-hearted comedy is unlike anything I’ve ever written, and was influenced by my membership of that undervalued group, “Generation Sandwich”, with caring responsibilities for children and parents. More details soon!

A few months after my debut novel, Fire Horses, was published, a small literary magazine called “The View From Here” asked me to write how the book came about. This unflinching, but hopefully inspiring, piece is the result. “This is the Fierce Last Stand of all I Am” View from Here Magazine March 2009 One day last summer someone texted to say they’d just seen my novel in a bookshop. Leaving work early I tubed it to Camden and walked slowly into Waterstones. I’d fantasised abo

“The call from the district nurse came out of the blue, and not at a good time. Rushing from the busy office, I parked myself on a sterile stairwell and made a series of life and death decisions about my mum, 76, who has advanced Alzheimer’s. Should carers intervene if she chokes? What would I want if she acquires an infection? Would mum wish to be resuscitated if her heart stopped?” Read the rest of my latest piece for The Critic here.

“I knew Mum had it tough. I knew because I remembered some of it, though being young at the time these memories were fragmented, confused, unreliable and often influenced by stories recounted by interested parties with their own agendas…” One of the most personal pieces I’ve written, published in today’s Times.

“I received wonderful news recently: the care home to which my mother was moved against my wishes two months ago is being investigated by the Care Quality Commission because of safeguarding issues and may have to close its doors. In which case Mum might have to be transferred again, despite the fact this will be deeply traumatic (as it was last time) due to her advancing Alzheimer’s…” Read the rest of my latest Times Thunderer here.

“I’m sitting in a small, cramped room with 20 other people staring at a stick. Not just any stick, mind: it’s been customised with gaffer tape and paint so it looks like a punk shillelagh. The stick has a range of purposes, says the young black woman giving the presentation: comfort, protection, and its primary purpose, support. She recounts how, disembarking from a bus one night she forgot her crutches, and plucked the stick from a garden. It’s been a source of support ever

“My mother, aged 75, has advanced Alzheimer’s. This is heart-breaking enough – she is now at a stage where she has terrifying visions, and keeps asking me, her only son, where her son Mark is. But twice in the past five years we have been denied justice in cases where people were suspected of taking advantage of mum because of her vulnerable state…” Read the rest of my latest Spectator column here.

“Households in which women are the sole breadwinner are less happy, according to fascinating research published in The Conversation. UK couples find it particularly difficult (second only after German participants). According to researchers, women’s breadwinning affects men so much psychologically that they would prefer their partners were unemployed. In fact, men seem to be happier when both partners are jobless. These notions might seem outdated in these enlightened times,

“Unlike President Biden I have never knowingly mistaken the All Blacks for the Black and Tans (a dangerous mistake if, like me, you frequent Irish pubs), but like him, I once considered myself descended from the Emerald Isle. I had an Irish grandmother and shared a middle name with Uncle Liam, but mostly it was about belonging. When your father comes from Cheshunt, that Tesco fiefdom just beyond the M25, it’s perhaps natural to claim allegiance to somewhere more romantic. Pre

“In 2022 nine people, including four children, were mauled to death by dogs in England and Wales, the highest annual figure on record. Every year about 9,000 more suffer serious injuries, often life-changing, as a result of dog attacks…” Read my latest Times Thunderer here (paywall).

“Tonight, after work, I’ll drive 200 miles to Yorkshire to empty Mum’s flat. It’s just three years since she moved in: we had hoped she might enjoy a few more years in her cosy new home. However, as John Lennon once said: life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans…” Read the rest of my latest piece for the Indie here.

“It’s probably fair to say that Ángel Di María wouldn’t be welcome back at Old Trafford even if his first term at the club had gone a lot better than it did (Mark Piggott writes). Not following comments made by his wife, Jorgelina Cardoso, who apparently took an instant dislike to the city of my birth…” Read my riposte to Jorgelina Cardoso’s comments about Manchester here.

“At a recent discussion on climate change, a famous feminist author listed activities we need to end right now to ensure the planet doesn’t explode like a frog in a microwave. One of these activities, she suggested, was the package holiday to Lanzarote. Perhaps due to the fact my chair was front row centre, the famous author’s eyes seemed to X-ray my mind: as if she could somehow sense that a week later, I would be downing pints in an Irish pub on the Av. de las Playas on the

“One of the few rules to which I adhere is to distrust anyone over the age of 18 who reads Harry Potter books. My own kids outgrew this interminable series in their early teens and on discovering that some adults read books about public school wizards beneath “grown-up” covers I felt the same distaste I feel for any adult who watches Marvel films or plays computer games. For me the phenomenon is yet another example of the infantilism which appears to have gripped society…” Re

“Sweden is often overlooked as a holiday destination by Brits due to lazy misconceptions about the Scandinavian weather and prices. Yet Swedish summers are arguably more predictable than our own, with average temperatures in the low 20s throughout June, July and August and the food, whether dining at a seaside café or grand hotel, is almost invariably of excellent quality, using local produce, and at prices similar to those back home…” Read my latest travel piece in The Spect

“Wazzocks. That was my first reaction on reading that my fellow Brits are likely to think of me as less intelligent than southerners due to my strong Yorkshire accent. Researchers at Northumbria University say that “accentism” is doing serious social, economic and educational harm to people like me…” Read my latest Times Thunderer here (paywall)

“A question for those backing Priti Patel’s proposals to fly migrants 4,000 miles to Rwanda: do you think Britain has a manpower problem? My experience over the past week suggests it does, which is why I find it strange that when young, fit adults arrive on our shores, rather than set them to work doing all the jobs we no longer wish to do, we offload them on to a country with no such shortages…” Read the rest of my latest Times Thunderer here (paywall).

“We should have been packing for our Easter trip to Mallorca about now. Having had a number of foreign holidays cancelled in 2020 and 2021, this was supposed to be the year that things began returning to normal…” Read the rest of my latest Independent comment here.