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

So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.

'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

Take this sinking boat And point it home We've still got time Raise your hopeful voice You have a choice You've made it now Falling slowly Sing your melody I'll sing it loud Take it all I played the cards too late Now you're gone 🥲

A.R. Moxon@juliusgoat.bsky.social · 2w ago

youtu.be/k8mtXwtapX4?...

Five autistics walk into an autism support group - before immediately realising what a stupid fucking idea that was. And that’s before the mysterious earthquake and useless magic powers. It’s a Superpower?? Chapter One is out!! allmylinks.com/itsasuperpower

I’m not saying all Tesla drivers are knobs but today I saw one parked in a disabled bay with no blue badge (but thankfully with a ticket) and another driving over Pulteney Bridge (which is a no-car zone).

This is going to turn into a handy list of transphobic MPs to campaign against isn't it? edm.parliament.uk/early-day-mo...

Amnesty International UK report on the anti-rights movement in the UK - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament

That this House expresses extreme concern at Amnesty International UK's report entitled A Growing Threat: the Anti-Rights Movement in the UK, published on 8 July; condemns its depiction and listing of...

edm.parliament.uk

Cardigans are but a distant memory now.

Does that include universities?

Jessica Elgot@jessicaelgot.bsky.social · last mo.

New - Andy Burnham will undertake a summer tour as prime minister to Labour “danger zones” across the country where the party has been losing support, particularly areas hit by controversial government policies. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Goodbye to all that. I'm not the Children's Laureate any more. I hope people will be as supportive of @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social as they were of me ...

Every so often, when I’m worried I’m not doing great at my job, I like to remind myself of the time the casting director at Frasier thought it would be convincing to have Richard E Grant, Robbie Coltrane and Anthony LaPaglia play Mancunian Daphne’s brothers.

I have a poem in this, alongside many excellent poets...

Fly the angel sleeves of your hostess dress at half mast, dim the standard lamps of all suburbia and please be seated at the telephone table to make the gossipiest call you can from a landline in memoriam💙

Kirkdale Bookshop@kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · last mo.

Unsuspecting lone man on late night Metropolitan line train as pleasantly empty carriage is suddenly flooded with women and teens in sequins and Stetsons (whispers): Um. What is happening? Me and child: Harry. Man: Figures.

Unhinged thoughts in the heatwave: No one: Me: what if I ran a cold bath and just maybe went to sleep in that… Also me: wait…

It’s so hot I don’t even want to drink tea. This only ever happens when I am proper ill.

What's happening at the University of Exeter is a disaster for both the region and the country. The way the sector is set up, it is *inevitable* and *unstoppable* that this will continuously happen everywhere. We need to stop, get out a blank sheet of paper and start again.

I am once again begging universities to realise that staff - academic, professional services, estates, all of them - are the product they are trying to sell. Without staff there is nothing to sell. No amount of flashy buildings will replace staff in universities. UKHE is in freefall.

It’s so funny to me that even shitty, cobbled together media outlets with zero legacy like LBC still think their readership is basically Horatio P. Moneybags. Like oh no a wealth tax heavens to betsy what would we do

And I don't know which first-time / indie authors need to hear this, but you NEVER need to pay a book club to read your book.

Does no-one in America draw their curtains at night or is this some weird TV/film aesthetic thing? I mean, what about moths? And monsters?

Tiramisu. Insubstantial coffee flim-flam.

Patrick Ness@patricknessbooks.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Coffee, which I choose to believe is just mass peer pressure about something actually terrible. Like conservatism. Or Frank Sinatra.

"I'm texting Mark Carney"...

"The council insisted its decision was not just about Pride, but that the timing coinciding with Pride month meant those communications were among the first to be paused." Be a REAL shame if whoever does the socials made it wall to wall drag queen story time promo... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reform tells Essex library staff to scale back support for events like Pride

Workers will not be able to promote events, including Pride, on the council's social media channels.

bbc.co.uk

Had a meeting with a senior editor at a Big Five publisher recently who, when asked if she wanted a piece in first or third person said, ‘if it’s happening now it’s more pacey’. I assumed she’d misheard so repeated, with clues. But no, this editor genuinely thinks first person means present tense

1 Trans women are women 2 The Labour Party is dead to me

Crowsa Luxemburg@quendergeer.bsky.social · 2mo ago

hope you enjoyed the equality act 2010 while it lasted folks

I love this ‘this is what London / French / wherever girls are wearing’ posts. No they’re not. This is what one fashion student / nepo baby is wearing. Everyone else is in last season’s Zara and some random top they borrowed off a flatmate.

Bluesky Lit Crit pals, some inspiration please! Most interesting scenes set in book-shops or in circulating libraries in #18thc and #19thc British literature?

Every time a tech bro rocket blows up a fairy gets its wings.