Been using a couple of days leave to do some research for the museum I volunteer in. The diarist I was reading this morning was besotted with their children and drew this gorgeous picture of their son.

Anyone want to send me book recommendations? This month I’ve read The Scapegoat, Queer Georgians, The Silver Book, The Fifth Elephant and The Paper Eater. I also read books that don’t begin with “The”.

I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!

Day 1 of #mini1000 / #1000daysofsummer and I’m drafting a new short story, 1020 words in and haven’t quite hit the kernel of it yet, but it’s forming, it’s finding its way.

How to improve publishing: Publish fancy hardbacks and affordable paperbacks on the same day (instead of a year apart). Don't sign authors for what they represent, but what they write. Sign 20 debuts for £10k each instead of one for £200,000. Ban celebs from kid's lit. De-emphasise the Booker.

After nearly 25 years of saying I’m going to do it, I think 2026 is the year I apply for my PhD. Why yes, planning on doing it alongside the day job and writing fiction. Never not over-committed. Now to finish the proposal I started that was thrown off by covid…

One day, I’d like to live on this street

Having been reminded of this yesterday, I’ve listened to the whole album while taking my decorations down and had forgotten how great it is.

2025: between 75 and 80 books read; more than 1,000 km walked; one new nibling met on day one; one new (to me) car; at least 18,000 miles travelled by public transport; three new skills learned.

Sitting down with my @mslexia.bsky.social 2026 Diary and Planner and making plans to try and be creative in the new year. Ending a year that’s been full of love and good things excited to write again.

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

The people who live in the house my Gran lived in for more than 50 years have their tree in the same window as she did and - given my belief we only borrow houses for a while - that makes me far happier than it should do.

This is such good advice. We can choose who to work with and who to give money to. Keep checking those lines in the sand, and taking those steps back (I’ve two subscriptions to cancel this week for just this reason!).

“I’d like the most Yorkshire quote you can get.”

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening tonight at my old workplace, with the folks. Grateful for excellent music, the brilliant small theatre scene in the north east and for being able to have this life.

Although I’m on the 9pm train now - which I got a *lot* when I first moved home, and it seems I’m not an evening person either.

It’s a treat to get the 6.30 train and realise just how much of a morning people I’m not.

Today: spend time with people I’ve known since I was six. This evening: watch strangers be strange with mutuals on here, read an article about chatfishing. Happy to have decided against trying the apps anymore, and that I’m happy with my current number of friends.

When someone calls a pub an institution, there are always detractors. But we can't think of a single person who wouldn't agree that The Dog & Bell is exactly that. Will Hawkes joins us again for an insight into Deptford's most beloved pub. www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...

Normally the weekend before my birthday I go away on my own to adjust a bit. This year I’ve had the best weekend with my amazing family, and it has been just cracking. Parents, siblings, in-laws, niblings: an excellent reminder that single life never means a lonely one.

Every tech update now is like: "Great news, the word processor you've relied on for twenty years has learned to juggle! Is it good at it? No! Does it help in any way? Of course not! Has it made it insufferable to use? Oh, absolutely."

A thread on transcription and AI. One reason I don't use AI to transcribe (besides the fact that AI is hugely detrimental to the environment & is coming for our jobs) is that it can't tell the difference between original documents & new notes added by staff members to whom documents were sent. 🗃️ 1/?

I really enjoyed reading this. Not least because for ages I’ve been trying to remember the name of the small department store in Darlo where I used to spend my Christmas money. Dressers - the memories came flooding back.

This is when the internet peaked and we never should have progressed into the current era of social media and hot takes and call outs.

I've been researching infertility histories since 2019 - and I am very tired of seeing the same myths being used over and over to silence women. If you're able to read, or share, that would be wonderful. I really don't think I am alone in feeling like this? lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/bruising-i...

Another small thought as I’m trapped at home by heavier bleeding. I kind of don’t want to function at my usual level just now. I would like my words back, but I’m so much more creative. How do I manage this without pretending there’s nothing going on during such a huge and marked change in my life?

I’m just gonna say right now that when I die, if anyone uses AI to write my obituary I will fucking haunt them forever

Narratives about how hard it is for teenage boys, and subsequently men, to deal with romantic rejection are so weird to read, as a woman who was also once a teenager. Until you realise that they’re entirely built on the premise that girls and women are the gatekeepers to sex and relationships.

Hop on Board replaced with bloody Madri in the LNER standard offer?! Sacrilege.

And the mugs that hold the right amount of coffee (in my case) some months will no longer be the mugs that hold enough in other months, but there will never be more than three in the rotation.

I’ve been single my entire adult life but I’ve just realised how rarely I go on holiday on my own. I’m on the Kent coast having a riot. I have read two books. I’ve eaten every rock oyster I can get my hands on and swam in the sea, and now I’m having a flight of tiny beers…

Our anthology call-out for writers in the North of England is open. We're delighted to have received a few submissions already! There's plenty of time to submit until the deadline at the end of September, so get scribbling - we'd love to read your words.

Find myself thinking of Molesworth a lot these days, but especially this one.

What do I love most about Bluesky? The little bits of Molesworth that appear in my feed unprompted.

Reservoir Dogs was 1992, not 1994. Pulp Fiction was 2 years later, not 11 years later. Jesus Christ, @theguardian.com, whatever wretched AI rubbish you’re using in place of proper journalists, it ain’t working. Switch it off.

Nearly got myself into a fight with an admitted arsehole on the tube tonight with my tired rage. No control of it, because it comes with exhaustion in my bones so putting it aside as a symptom rather than a real thing feels impossible. Another 10 years of this.

Great advice. Gran once gave us (in 1993) a lobster dated 1981 she’d found in the freezer. We decided not to risk it.

Perimenopause and trying to maintain a career: delightful. The tutting when you forget things. The near constant hot flushes. The sense of frustration and rage. Flooding. Trying to find a balance and failing at the moment.

I’ve met some of the most welcoming, inclusive people in small towns and cities and been shouted at at close quarters (I could feel his breath on my face) for daring to give money to someone in a big city. There are twats and good people everywhere. It’s not a case of one place or the other.

I don’t know about anyone else but I went to university to use archives, read books, and do deep dives into radical thought in the 17th century, the history of gender and sexuality and anything that grabbed my fancy (this is basically my UCAS personal statement). Not for anything else.

This myth is one of my big historical pet peeves. Life expectancy was low in earlier eras not because people were middle aged at 25 and died of old age at 40, but because a huge % of people died in infancy and early childhood, bringing the average way down.

I'll repost this for as long as it's needed. Today I want to remind you there is joy and hope in being a helper. Hold someone's hand. Offer a lift. Donate. Listen. Hug. Feed someone. Provide a quiet safe space. Show up. Shout. Cry with someone. Check in. Help.

The final day of #1000daysofsummer, and I’ve 1016 words under my belt. A total of 16,170 words that didn’t exist a fortnight ago. Maybe 12 will be useable, or 1,376. It doesn’t matter. Doing the work is what matters. Thank you, @jamiattenberg.bsky.social, for this.

I think the problems with rejections when submitting your writing is that when you’re still inexperienced and looking for development, you allow yourself to hope and then things crash a little bit. I believe in my writing and I’m excited for this new thing, but I feel a little raw today too.

1029 words tonight, on a train, tired and not in the mood. 1057 yesterday, drunk, happy, flirty, writing past midnight. #1000wordsofsummer

1009 words for #1000daysofsummer prised out of the day in minutes and paragraphs. I’m so pleased and proud to have stuck to it; it’s a good and positive shift.

1054 words tonight, and they flowed so easily. Soft words. #1000wordsofsummer

It’s day 9 of #1000wordsofsummer and I’m taking pleasure in being someone who has written. My imagination is a bit stuffed up today so it’s been about the practical sides of putting together a story - free writing to find who the characters are. 1002 words today and I will take that.

Indulge me in a touch of nostalgia prompted by the Peter Cook/Dudley Moore post doing the rounds. I was born in the late 70s when my folks were living in Kuwait. We then travelled a lot and moved to Turkey when I was about 6. We wouldn’t come back to the UK until I was 8 or 9. Dad adores comedy.