'Howlingly funny coming-of-age diary' I am contemplating printing multiple copies of this lovely review and using it to paper my bathroom.... www.pressreader.com/ireland/sund...

Hard agree, as we must say these days. It’s hilarious and brilliant and really touching.

John Self@john-self.bsky.social · 6d ago

“Page by page, it has more good jokes than any novel I’ve read in years.” Me - and my 14-year-old son! - on Lissa Evans’s new comic novel for adults and younger readers alike, My Name is MacKenzie Bly:

Good Lord!! Have just caught up with this, and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

John Self@john-self.bsky.social · 6d ago

“Page by page, it has more good jokes than any novel I’ve read in years.” Me - and my 14-year-old son! - on Lissa Evans’s new comic novel for adults and younger readers alike, My Name is MacKenzie Bly:

“Page by page, it has more good jokes than any novel I’ve read in years.” Me - and my 14-year-old son! - on Lissa Evans’s new comic novel for adults and younger readers alike, My Name is MacKenzie Bly:

Could this comic novel be Gen Z’s answer to Adrian Mole?

Lissa Evans’s entertaining novel for older children and adults, about the travails of a nerd aged ‘fourteen and a bit’, has an impressive laugh count

thetimes.com

Well this is the best book I’ve read all year. I need more from this characters. Please tell me you’re working on a sequel @lissakevans.bsky.social

Yes, suffragettes did hug the limelight in Edwardian films and lantern shows. Their antics were the stuff of a film maker’s dream. As discussed in Objects 75 -Suffrage Films - in my new book pub by @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social For details see link in bio. #womenshistory #suffragettes #votesforwomen

The 14 year old protagonist of ‘My Name is Mackenzie Bly’ reflecting on Billson’s, his local pet-food warehouse. (Book is out on Aug 27th)

Blimey!!! Didn’t expect *that* ending. A jewelled stiletto of a book. Incidentally, the cover is hopelessly wrong; I imagine someone said ‘the author’s called Beryl, so why don’t we have a cover by someone called Beryl?’ and everyone nodded and it was a bad, bad idea…

Saw an article on the ‘ten best Beryl Bainbridge novels’ and realised I hadn’t read the one that came in first, The Dressmaker. Enjoying it now; It’s a claustrophobic little number with some savagely funny descriptions:

It's 19 days until the publication of 'My Name is MacKenzie Bly'. There's enough misery in the world, so I wanted to write something purely funny, for the 14 year old who lives in your grown-up heart (or in your actual house). The cover & end-papers are by the incomparable Jim Kay....

I can never resist the fabulous and improbable names that always seem to crop up in a list of incumbents (these are from st Alban’s Cathedral) - but I think I may have hit the jackpot. Have a look at the fourth from the bottom..,

Fennel growing in a pot on the roof terrace:

I find it difficult to read a sequel if the ending is perfect but but 3 where I think the sequel is even better than the first book! #KidsBookFriday Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan Big Change for Stuart by @lissakevans.bsky.social The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell

Oh my God, yes…

Did you know that there are 64 full episodes on our YouTube channel? And video extras. And curated playlists so you can explore rain, sea or sleep safe listens. Like and subscribe. 👍❤️ Share. 🔁 Comment. 🗨️

297 Sonorous rural woodland before an approaching storm

YouTube video by Radio Lento

youtube.com

I've just received the finished copy of this, which includes the acknowledgements - and I wish to share one of the most unlikely and truly fabulous coincidences of my life: @tomshakespeare.bsky.social

I just saw this in a rather good museum.

And now having read the book, it gives me great pride to say my friend Lissa Evans has created a character in Mackenzie Bly who will take his place as a classic, to rival Just William and Adrian Mole.

Lovely anecdote, what a coincidence... I'm a little sad that Longpigs are now deemed obscure. That makes me feel old 😆. Reasonably big band in the 90s and Richard Hawley went on to have great critical success. I do love this Longpigs' song open.spotify.com/track/2AVRiq...

On & On

Longpigs · The Sun Is Often Out · Song · 1996

open.spotify.com

I've just received the finished copy of this, which includes the acknowledgements - and I wish to share one of the most unlikely and truly fabulous coincidences of my life: @tomshakespeare.bsky.social

It's 39 days until the publication of this. There's enough misery in the world, so I wanted to write something purely funny, for the 11/12/13 year old that lives in your house or in your grown-up heart....

Good to see them getting serious flak for this. "Amnesty International UK has referred itself to the charity regulator over a report it published that described a sexual violence support centre founded by JK Rowling as “anti-rights”." www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Amnesty UK self-reports to watchdog after calling JK Rowling women’s centre ‘anti-rights’

Beira’s Place in Edinburgh, founded by the author, says claim was ‘deeply offensive’ as it considers legal action

theguardian.com

Tiger moth sampling an echinacea. A good year, seemingly…

We don't have many episodes featuring the sound of cows. So, for #CowAppreciationDay.... Episode 71 - Wading cows + a passing cuckoo (30 mins) A track on the Chatsworth Estate between meadows and woodland. Cows cool off in the water. Insects hum. > radiolento.podbean.com/e/wallowing-... <

Last year at Hastings' Stables Theatre, I saw a really terrific adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, written and directed by Tim Blackwell. This year, (in September) he's going Full Horror with a portmanteau of scary tales... www.gethastings.com/post/screams...

SCREAMS FROM THE ATTIC: How Two Dead Cats Inspired Hastings’ New Horror Show

What writer hasn’t been asked: ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ It’s a cliché perhaps, and a notoriously difficult question to answer. But for the writer of SCREAMS FROM THE ATTIC, a chilling new...

gethastings.com

Last year at Hastings' Stables Theatre, I saw a really terrific adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, written and directed by Tim Blackwell. This year, (in September) he's going Full Horror with a portmanteau of scary tales... www.gethastings.com/post/screams...

SCREAMS FROM THE ATTIC: How Two Dead Cats Inspired Hastings’ New Horror Show

What writer hasn’t been asked: ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ It’s a cliché perhaps, and a notoriously difficult question to answer. But for the writer of SCREAMS FROM THE ATTIC, a chilling new...

gethastings.com

Wild carrot. Masses of it on Hampstead Heath at the moment, looking fantastically sculptural. I really love it - buds, flowers and seedheads on the same plant at the same time.

Just read a disappointed review of this - the reviewer only gave it three stars, because: "Without any warning that I could see, it turns out to be a children’s book. Okay if I were decades younger." Oh, if *only* there had been some clue on the cover....

Reading ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ for the 1st time since school, I can still hear laughter and our teacher wailing ‘no, this is a *different* meaning of the word ‘pathetic’’. Interestingly, I recall no reaction to the clause after it - I guess we didn’t know the connotations of the word ‘climax’…

Who’s this handsome fellow?