Linda Grant

@lindasgrant.bsky.social

Writer Latest novel The Story of the Forest

Franco used it as a base for his revolt and they still have a fascist obelisk in the town. There’s another exclave down the coast. Another problem waiting to happen.

Never mind The Odyssey, Ann Droid on BBC iPlayer is the best comedy since The Detectorists. Sue Johnstone as a widow whose son takes out a 24 month contract on a second hand robot carer called Linda, a kind of mobile chatbot. Which I dare say is the future for all of us.

four years into government, Blair’s team had declared mission accomplished, with a count of 532 people on the streets, a reduction of two-thirds. Compare that to now: in London alone, 11,993 people were seen sleeping rough in 2023/24, a number up 58% in a decade. share.google/v4K3o3TsnP4g...

The inside story of how Tony Blair's New Labour all-but ended rough sleeping

This article by Greg Barradale, Senior Report for The Big Issue has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness. Greg speaks to the key players in the last Labour government to fi...

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I watch football once in a blue moon. The result is always the same. Goalless draw. Goes to penalties which the team I’m supporting lose. I’m very careful never to watch Liverpool.

Reading the forthcoming biography of Anita Brookner. During the Six Day War she volunteered to fight for Israel and passed the medical but it was over before she could see action. She was also a council tenant who brought her flat under right to buy.

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I feel like a cracked record but what’s holding back the adaptation of existing housing stock to climate change is local authority planning departments which ban any alteration to street facing walls such as shutters.

Wow, politics is brutal. I still feel a huge sense of gratitude to Keir Starmer for getting that huge majority (albeit on a moderate vote share) and ending the corrupt Tory chaos that had consumed our politics for so long.

Reform have now lost six by-elections in a row in England, Scotland and Wales. Their national poll rating is 26% – below Labour in 1983 – and Farage’s approval rating is -37. They’re very far from the voice of the people and need to stop being treated as such.

There's probably never been a better time to remind you that when David Hockney first took his Mum to California she remarked 'all this lovely weather and nobody puts their washing out'.

What kind of idiots are wasting their time and energy into trying to scam *authors*? Do they think more than 5% of authors have enormous royalty checks piling up in their bank accounts? Can't get blood from a stone.

I get one or two of these scam emails a day. A new twist is emails purporting to be from the presenter of R4 arts programmes inviting you to appear. Then charging you a fee. They’ve got it back to front. The BBC is supposed to pay us.

The Society of Authors@societyofauthors.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We've joined forces with the Writers' Guild of Great Britain to issue urgent new guidance outlining measures authors can take to protect themselves against scams. Download the guide on our website. buff.ly/qOhFz8q