Best birthday socks from @hannahcem.bsky.social and a beautiful pile of books from my Mum. I'm particularly excited to get cracking on the @stephmerritt.bsky.social ones!
Stephanie Merritt/SJ Parris
@stephmerritt.bsky.social
Author & journalist. Sunday Times #1 best-selling Giordano Bruno series. Reviews for The Observer. Sometimes on the radio. Rep’d by Jonny Geller/Curtis Brown 📚🗞️🎙️✍🏼
Even during genocide, two brothers in Gaza bring reading to their community.
A book stall in central Gaza is keeping literature alive amidst genocide.
Photo by Esraa Abo Qamar A small bookstall in the central Gaza Strip is keeping reading alive amidst Israel’s unrelenting chaos and violence, The Electronic Intifada reports. The stall, called Eqra…
buff.ly
The Art of a Lie is one of my books of the year, and it was a treat to interview Laura in this beautiful venue 🤩
Laura Shepherd-Robinson@laurasrobinson.bsky.social · last yr.Wonderful event at York’s STUNNING Merchant Venturer’s Hall last night with the brilliant @stephmerritt.bsky.social 😍
“Since AFP was founded in 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, some have been injured, others taken prisoner. But none of us remember witnessing colleagues die of hunger"
Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · last yr.A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency. "Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die" Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:
For the love of humanity, stop asking this scam machine questions! Stop asking it for advice! I get it, it was an entertaining novelty for a hot second. But it's bad. Stop stop stop.
Amy Diehl, Ph.D.@amydiehl.bsky.social · last yr.Study finds A.I. LLMs advise women to ask for lower salaries than men. When prompted w/ a user profile of same education, experience & job role, differing only by gender, ChatGPT advised the female applicant to request $280K salary; Male applicant=$400K. thenextweb.com/news/chatgpt...
Women seeking asylum in Britain are sisters, not strangers. If the government is serious about tackling violence against women, it should do more to protect refugee women. Glad to sign this letter & grateful to all who signed @4refugeewomen.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Influential women urge Labour to include asylum seekers in plan to tackle violence
Exclusive: Letter warns of ‘two-tier’ system if asylum seekers are excluded from promise to halve violence against women and girls
theguardian.com
Not the actual London Library as I first thought, which would have been amazing, but still a great story 🦊
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · last yr.Fantastic
A Borges story about a guy who gets AI to summarize all the world’s information for him, and then summarize the summary, until the AI has the whole world summarized into a single word. He sits alone at his desk, staring at the word, repeating it endlessly, certain he is experiencing everything
I bought an ice lolly this morning after swimming and it was so cold it froze to my lip and ripped off a big chunk of skin, and suddenly there was all this blood dripping down my lolly stick and my hand, and it just goes to show that summer is extremely dangerous, look after yourselves out there ⚠️
My son just ran into the kitchen, skidded to a halt and said, ‘Raynor LOSE, am I right?’
Hollow laugh from every woman who dates left-leaning men
Think this might become my equivalent of the Obama speech in Fleabag...
Best for Britain@bestforbritain.org · last yr.🇫🇷 President Macron: "But I have to say the European Union was stronger with you and you were stronger with the European Union."
Well worth a read (you can get it free but have to register) ⬇️
Nic Wilson@nicwilson.bsky.social · last yr.I've been writing in @thebookseller.com about how questions on the veracity of elements of The Salt Path highlight some of the serious issues associated with the prevalence of the 'nature cure' narrative. #booksky #naturewriting #lifewriting #memoir #chronicillness
Thousands meet their MPs to show huge demand for climate action - Mass lobby in Westminster is kicked off with giant image on cliffs of Dover stating ‘89% of people want climate action’ #climatecrisis Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Thousands meet their MPs to show huge demand for climate action
Mass lobby in Westminster kicked off with giant image on white cliffs of Dover stating ‘89% of people want climate action’
theguardian.com
This morning, once again, there’ll be a bunch of people and organisations wrestling with the issue of deleting their X accounts. “But what about our follower counts?” Doesn’t matter. “But the reach they represent?” It really doesn’t matter. You think it matters, it really doesn’t. 1/
Sam has it bang to rights (excellent last line too, nicely done 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻)
Sam Leith@questingvole.bsky.social · last yr.On The Salt Path
I've made a new list on @bookshop.org of books that explore nature / walking / the outdoors by disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill writers - Nature Beyond Cure - aka our own narratives are messy and complex. Do share! #BookSky #DisabledWriters uk.bookshop.org/lists/nature...?
Nature Beyond Cure: Disabled Perspectives
Books that explore nature and living with disability and illness from disability perspectives. No magical cures here!
uk.bookshop.org
Bloody hell. Impressive investigative work here. (Shades of James Frey…)
@chloehadj.bsky.social · last yr.I spent months on this investigation and gathered docs from the UK courts, Land Registry and a French local authority, to show that Raynor and Moth Winn's story is not as they claim. @tortoisemedia.bsky.social @observeruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
"England is heading for national shortfall of five billion litres of water a day by 2055." Next time you hear about an explosion of AI usage, think about how wildly environmentally inefficient it is. #PlanetaryBoundaries #WaterStress www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
Thirsty data centres are sucking up Britain’s scarce water supplies
The tech industry faces scrutiny as secrecy clouds the true cost of cooling servers and the country braces for shortages and hosepipe bans
thetimes.com
🌳 Dame Judi Dench & @wildcard.land are calling for the return of ancient woodlands. Will you sign their petition to help restore the Ghost Woods and protect our green spaces for future generations? you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/br...
Bring back the ancient woodlands smothered beneath your timber plantations
Ancient woodlands are vanishing – and with them, some of our most loved and endangered wildlife. Forestry England manages over 100,000 acres of land that used to be ancient woodland - that’s bigger th...
you.38degrees.org.uk
AS EVER it REALLY helps if you pre-order so that bookshops and places know that there'll be demand If you like reading me on here, trying to say some sensible and sane things about the internet, then you will like this book. I'll be posting about it loads but I'll try to make it interesting!
Naomi Alderman@naomialderman.bsky.social · last yr.RIGHT. Time to make an announcement. I have a new book out in November! It is non-fiction, nice and short, a book about the current information crisis and how to survive it. It's titled with my top piece of advice: Don't Burn Anyone At The Stake Today tinyurl.com/yvt495z7 tinyurl.com/ye773689
Hoping that, comme d’habitude, the first act of the new splitter party is a call for left unity
Don’t forget to gather the family around the wireless tonight at 7.15pm for Front Row with me, @tds153.bsky.social & @katemaltby.bsky.social reviewing the new RSC version of The Constant Wife, Wendy Erskine’s debut The Benefactors & the film adaptation of Hot Milk. (& Glasto stuff 😬) Radio 4 📻
Great speaking to @lizzicollinge.bsky.social about the practical application of humanist principles as an MP. From the daily joys of helping her constituents, to her belief in living the one life we have well, it’s a very uplifting episode! humanists.uk/what-i-belie...
Humanists UK@humanists.uk · last yr.New #WhatIBelieve podcast episode out now with Labour MP & Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group @lizzicollinge.bsky.social. A glimpse into the unique challenges & rewards of being a humanist voice in Westminster. Here's Lizzi talking about her journey to humanism 🎧 bit.ly/45Se9rQ
When I was 18 I lived in Seville for a year & was greatly amused by the way my neighbours all rushed outside with glee whenever there was a tiny rain shower, and now here we are
Joel Morris@gralefrit.bsky.social · last yr.Keep standing outside to enjoy the not hot. Don’t care that it’s raining. Would happily do so today in weather more normally encountered on a North Sea trawler.
This. We complain politicians aren’t human enough then complain and mock when they show human emotion. The welfare bill is a shitshow but she’s allowed to have emotions.
Hannah Fearn@hannahfearn.bsky.social · last yr.I didn’t agree with her position on welfare, but tearing Reeves down for mild tearing up during PMQs is infuriating. She’s absolutely knackered. She’s trying to do this giant job which she cares about while also parenting. And probably being in perimenopuse (🧵- you fucking bet there’s more)