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Pilate’s Magician – Michael Wade

Fascinating. I’ve just finished Execupundit Michael Wade’s new novel, Pilate’s Magician.

Julian Fabius is a prominent Roman lawyer living in self-imposed exile from the Emperor Tiberius. The novel explores the dilemma he faces when summoned to support the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. How do you make sense of an unlikely local tale? And, how do you tell the powerful prefect an unpalatable truth? A lawyerly mind strips away the impossible to arrive at an unlikely truth.

I suspect the book draws as heavily on Michael’s experience as an adviser on sensitive issues as it does on his extensive research. A fresh and entertaining perspective on a familiar tale.

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Just Stop – 2026 resolutions from @DailyStoic

Happy New Year!

Many of us are scrabbling around assembling and confirming our good intentions for the year; all the things we’re going to do in 2026.

An alternative is to adopt Daily Stoic’s list of eight things to STOP doing (from Instagram, here):

  • Stop complaining
  • Stop taking things personally
  • Stop avoiding discomfort
  • Stop hanging out with the wrong people
  • Stop wasting the morning
  • Stop allowing distractions
  • Stop doing the inessential
  • Stop comparing yourself to others.

Simple, sound advice for the year ahead.

Photo by Daniel on Unsplash

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Beauty and style, a visual blog

I discovered this blog, Infatuateur, via Cultural Offering. It’s a curated feast of beauty and style that includes nature & animals, architecture & interiors, food & drink, men’s style and beautiful women.

In the words of its keeper, “I am a man who is bewitched by beauty and smitten with infatuation.”

Worth checking out over an idle hour.

Image: https://infatuateur.tumblr.com/post/802742838748200960

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Uncertain Stories for Christmas Eve

I may be a little late to recommend this as Christmas Eve reading (hopefully not), but Broken Ground, the inaugural collection of short fiction from Uncertain Stories, is superb.

I’ve only read the first two stories so far and they are original, thought-provoking and definitely “uncertain” – as the website promises: “new short stories with a supernatural or speculative edge”.

Also, and always a bonus, the book comes beautifully wrapped.

Along with the single-sheet, super short story, Mark, you can see above, the volume comes a 16-page Little Uncertainty, “small books that we give away for free to help spread the love of short stories.”

What’s not to love?

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Blogs to make you smarter – Cultural Offering

Kurt at Cultural Offering updates his list of 25 Blogs Guaranteed to Make You Smarter.

Really not sure I’m worthy, but I am deeply honoured and flattered to be included. Cultural Offering was one of the first blogs I followed and it is a never-ending source of perspective, information and inspiration.

Add it to your list and check out the others.

Thank you, Kurt.

Photo by Ioana Trandafir on Unsplash

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Lines to live by?

Action is the antidote to anxiety.

I found this list via (I think) The Hammock Papers. Apologies if I’ve misattributed. The full list of “20 Sentences I Wish I’d Read Sooner in Life” is here on a blog called Born Too Late.

The most dangerous addiction is the approval of other people.

…

Your habits are the silent architects of your life.

Worth pondering the full list.

Photo by Dani on Unsplash

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The blogs that keep on giving

Blogs come and go, but some stalwarts remain.

Here are a few that I’ve read daily for years and which still provide valuable insight:

  • Cultural Offering – Music, literature, humanity, perspective and more.
  • Execupundit.com – Michael Wade’s thoughts on leadership, ethics, management and life. Michael also writes long-form essays on his Substack channel (also highly recommended).
  • Hunter Gatherer 21C – Nicholas Bate’s new home: reflections on business, life, balance, The Beatles and his own fiction.

These three are the cornerstone of my morning reading. Also highly recommended are:

And two essentials that I follow on email:

  • Steven Pressfield – a writer’s writer with much to say about Resistance, the War of Art and “Putting your ass where your heart wants to be.”
  • The Daily Stoic – Ryan Holiday on Stoicism for modern, daily life.

Check them all out. Your lives will be richer for a few minutes’ reading each morning.

Image: Andrew Munro

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What I read on my vacation

I’ve been away. I’ve been neglectful. I have been busy, but I’ve also been distracted.

However, I did manage to read some great books. Here’s a selection of loosely relevant books I enjoyed over the past couple of years.

Stoicism

  • Marcus Aurelius, The Stoic Emperor by Donald J. Robertson – a fascinating and accessible biography from cognitive-behaviour therapist, writer and Stoic, Donald Robertson.
  • The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday – A well-deserved modern classic that’s (apparenty) sold over two million copies and which I should have read years ago. It’s packed with practical insight, quotes and examples. I’ve been lending out my copy ever since I finished it.
  • Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman – I had a big birthday. Friends bought me book-related vouchers and I bought books. This is fascinating if you’re interested in where Stoicism came from. It covers the philosophy from its founding by Zeno of Citium up to the time of Marcus, and explores the lives of famous and lesser-known Stoics and near-Stoics including Cicero, Cato the Younger, Seneca and Epictetus.
  • Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar – Not altogether Stoic, but a beautifully written fiction purporting to be the memoir that a dying Hadrian wrote for his adoptive heir Marcus Aurelius. It’s both visceral and delicately sensual. Remarkable.
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