Leila Johnston


Hello. I'm Leila - and often Lovemaus or Enemyofchaos or Maus. I've had a couple of books published in the last couple of years and I make things across most media. The things I make are usually counter-cultural or subversive somehow, and often involve humour. My first book, 'How To Worry Friends and Inconvenience People' was essentially a list of subversive behaviours and silly photos. My second book Enemy of Chaos is a choose-your-own-adventure spoof that came out in 2009 on paper and for the iPhone. I also write a regular blog under the same name here, but it doesn't have much to do with the book anymore.

In October 2009 I started a podcast called Shift Run Stop with Roo Reynolds. It is about geeky things we like, featuring interesting guests each week. Since we began, we've been featured by iTunes, recommended in Time Out and sponsored by Audible. We've interviewed everyone from Isy Suttie to Maggie Philbin to the "real Fox Mulder", and fans include Ben Goldacre, Cory Doctorow and Dominik Diamond.

In the last couple of years, I've also made stuff for the BBC comedy website and written some comedy for BBC Radio 4. In an interview I did for Wired UK this year I was described as someone who 'mashes up old and new media'. Which is on the button, I reckon.

I edit a PDF magazine "for people with something a bit wrong with them". All The Rage is a non-commercial response to lifestyle magazines, and was a media partner of the London Games Fringe in 2008. As an 'internet personality' I sometimes do a guest spot on Sky News to spuriously discuss amusing news stories and plug one of my websites and the accompanying book.

I used to be a professional blogger, and before that I was an actual magazine editor on a real-life national glossy. I'm excited to find out what will happen next in my ridiculous career. More immediately, I certainly need to sort out this bloody website.

Here is a picture of me talking at September 2009's "Interesting" conference. I did Playful 09 too, look. I'm on Leila 'at' worryfriends.com, would love to hear from anyone with project ideas etc. Or if you want me to talk about gamebooks or something like that, because apparently I do that now as well.



Just the links: Leila on the web