Good luck to everyone getting their A levels today and remember, if you don’t get the grades you’d hoped for, all is not lost. For example, Prince Edward got a C and 2 Ds and was immediately accepted by Cambridge University.

Bindependence Day

Oh Lordy, just realised I've a book out next month. If you've ever been a fan of Malory Towers, or you know a young person who is, you can pre-order it. I'm pretty darn proud of it! #ukkidlit www.waterstones.com/book/malory-...

Malory Towers Mystery Club: Kidnap at Midnight by Fleur Hitchcock | Waterstones

Buy Malory Towers Mystery Club: Kidnap at Midnight by Fleur Hitchcock from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

waterstones.com

This is nightmarish twice over. Both in actual policy terms, and in 'I dreamed last night that I went on national news in a high wind without doing any basic prep' way.

Channel 4 News@channel4news.bsky.social · last wk.

EHRC chair challenged on how to enforce single-sex toilet rules www.channel4.com/news/ehrc-ch...

On this shameful day for equality and human rights in the UK, please add safe-to-access toilets this list, and share widely. openlavs.com

So. I first (to my knowledge) met a trans woman in a bathroom in 1997. I had a very part-time job at a theatre in Birmingham. I clocked her and I went to ask my boss what I should do. My boss, a female cloakroom attendant, pushing 70, who could remember when people left actual cloaks with us... 1/

Said while looking at someone's outfit: "Pretty agricultural looking." New chefs-kiss insult just dropped, courtesy of Patrick Grant.

'On Writing for Young People' Conference returns with a stellar line-up. The Call for Papers is open, and tickets are on sale now. 100% online, 5-6 Nov. For children's and YA writers to come together and share insights. ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/conference

What if Charlton Heston started an amateur dramatics society in a 1970s brothel, Grok?

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 3w ago

This is the video Musk is quote-tweeting when he says he'll deliver a feature length version of The Odyssey, just in case you were curious how dogshit it is

I have written a piece on nurturing lifelong readers inspired by the wonderful Aidan Chambers (pages 4-5) booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/u... @booksforkeeps.bsky.social

Our 2026 Conference, 'On Writing for Young People' is on sale! Join us, 5-6 Nov to hear a keynote from the Carnegie-award winning Beth O'Brien on disability in literature, and many other panels and workshops. 100% online. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/on-writing...

On Writing for Young People: Conference 2026

On Writing for Young People: a 2-day online conference. Ideas & insights in the academic field of creative writing for kids & YA. 5-6 Nov.

eventbrite.co.uk

No science fiction could have prepared us for just how stupid the end of the world can be. "The environment was on the brink of collapse, and so, rather than deal with that, we burned what fuel we had left getting computers to scam each other for money."

As Volume 4 of 'Leaf Journal' is out, we now get to shout about the articles! Noah Weisz reflects on the ‘literary magic’ of re-readability with particular focus on Frances Hardinge’s ‘Cuckoo Song’. ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/article/v...

Do you want to help produce outstanding experiences for our readers in person and online? We're advertising for a new Events and Website Assistant. Apply by 26 July. www.faber.co.uk/careers/even...

As Vol 4 of 'Leaf Journal' is out, we now get to shout about the articles! Inc the thoughtful analysis of 'Crossing the Line: Considering the Dual Accessibility of the Verse Narrative...' by Edward Davies ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/article/v...

As Volume 4 of 'Leaf Journal' is out, we now get to shout about the articles! Writer and emetophobia sufferer George Purves offers creative techniques to produce realistic and transformative depictions of the condition in this wonderfully helpful article: ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/article/v...

As Volume 4 of 'Leaf Journal' is out, we now get to shout about the articles! Including the thoughtful 'How to Write Queer Antagonists in YA Fiction Without Making Queerness a Signifier for Evil' by Jo Baker. ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/article/v...

As Volume 4 of 'Leaf Journal' is out, we now get to shout about the articles! Including the sharp insight of 'Time-Play: Slipping the Bounds of a Classic Children’s Genre' by @ruthmoore.bsky.social Read it here: ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/article/v...

Our annual online conference 'On Writing for Young People' returns 5-6 Nov 2026. At this point, we warmly invite proposals from our wider community for topics they would like to present on at the conference, or a writing workshop they would like to run. Details: ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/conference

I am going to sit in the soft heat of my inner city courtyard and let the sound of the neighborhood pubs tell me when someone scores. And you guys, of course. Vicarious sport is the best kind of sport.

New Fantasy Book Swap episode with @elencaldecott.bsky.social! www.podbean.com/eas/pb-anamc...

What's the daftest thing you know that's older than America? I'll start: The word 'Earthling'. It's a medieval name for the peasantry.

Gargarin@gargarin.bsky.social · last mo.

Barnsley Market got its first charter in 1249 and has been selling the best pies in the world ever since.

Other half's birthday. He got to choose the evening film to go with champagne. Jaws. What an excellent choice. Not a shot or a line that isn't superb. Wonderful game deciding if Hooper is 28 or 47. Farewell and adieu to those fair Spanish ladies...

This makes me happy because Washington has finally embraced Balkan aesthetics. Every resident of Skopje sheds tears of joy at this abomination. Total North Macedonian cultural victory.

Boosting this again - today's your last full day of updating your PLR so you're not doing it in a panic on the deadline day!

Louie Stowell@louiestowell.bsky.social · 2mo ago

UK authors! If you haven't done it yet (I haven't) it's time to update your PLR account! The deadline is June 30th!

As someone who works at both a 'top ten uni' and a 'post-92' uni, I am *certain* that excellent work happens at both types. And that a healthy ecosystem is one that allows students to find a choice that suits their circumstance. Every day, that ecosystem is dwindling.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo ago

‘I’m missing out’: the cash-strapped UK university students forced to live at home

Certainly describes my situation: facing redundancy from a humanities job in weeks, no chance of another academic role, and at a university that went from teaching 15-20 languages to none.

Stephen Shapiro@stephenshapiro.bsky.social · 2mo ago

zeitung.faz.net/data/863/rea...

The dog has discovered that sitting outside in the shade on a rug is her favorite thing to do. When thwarted, and told to come inside for the good of her health, she strops like a teenager, stomping and pacing until let back out again. We have created a monster.

In case you didn’t know, Exeter uni, where I work, has announced a plan to make 25% of staff in my English department redundant. Left-over staff will do double the teaching while their research time will be shrunk to 1%. Meanwhile admissions for English at Exeter are HIGH, and on the rise this year

Today, every meeting in England starts with an obligatory 5 minute agenda item: Does freezing a hot water bottle actually work? And: Does drawing the curtains in daytime do anything but make it dark and humid? Only once this has been thoroughly covered can the actual business begin.