The Ragged Optimist has published his 71st newsletter, a start-the-week bulletin full of hope, joy, and optimism - architecture, rewilding, science, art, music and other wonderful stuff so you can start the week in a good mood. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

Monstrosities Mon Amour is on a summer break, but will be back soon. In the meantime I can’t believe there’s already nine episodes! What a lot of cheery chat about unloved things johngrindrod.substack.com/podcast

It was fun to be on this. Even if the car ride was a little bumpy. Sorry, John.

This is lovely to know.

Remembering a forgotten soldier of the First World War. My attempt to keep the life of a stranger in people's memories. mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2018/08/02/t...

The temptation to mention (again) that @danthompson33.bsky.social wrote the liner notes to my #WesternVerses EP is too strong… he’s guesting, not for the first time (see Arlington House in #Iconicon), with @grindrod.bsky.social in the latest of the latter’s Monstrosities Mon Amour.

NEW PODCAST EP! Smashing to chat to @danthompson33.bsky.social about his love for Terry Farrell's much overlooked Drum in Margate, and about the joys of studio pottery teapots in the latestMonstrosities Mon Amour open.substack.com/pub/johngrin...

Cliftonville in Margate as the most gentrified place in the country. I spoke to the Telegraph about Margate history and regeneration. www.msn.com/en-gb/travel...

I'm Sittingbourne Steam Railway’s Writer-in-Residence - more about what I'll be up to here. An Ideas Test commission. mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2025/07/03/s...

The Ragged Optimist's newsletter is out - ten stories of hope and joy to get you in an optimistic mood. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

'True guidebooks should lead you to things and leave you at the door. If you are reading you cannot see. Travellers should only read after dark.' Robert Harbison in Eccentric Spaces.

"Anything can happen in a war. Slap in the middle of absolute insanity, people pull out the most extraordinary resources. Ingenuity, courage, self-sacrifice. Pity we can't beat the problems of peace in the same way, isn't it? It would be so much cheaper for everybody." Guns of Navarone

It’s been a whole month since the peat map of England was launched! It’s still very wrong And it’s still online So I’ve written a open letter to @naturalengland.bsky.social I am starting to worry that massive mistakes are just a thing with the whole organisation. What else is wildly wrong?

Ah! I figured it out! (Or at least part of it) Peat map quiz time - How can I tell it was late afternoon when the aerial photos used in the @naturalengland.bsky.social peat map were taken? (Do I really have to explain the idea of shadows to a government body in charge of nature? Really?)

In the latest instalment of ‘ways the peat map is wrong wrong badly unusably wrong’ we have…. China clay works! Not exactly known for their deep peat! Oh what a wonderful gift the @naturalengland.bsky.social peat map of England is. It just keeps on giving! 🤷‍♀️😑🤦‍♀️

A brief history of the seaside shelter. My life's ambition is to become so expert in something I get to write a Shire Guide. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/rich-and-s...

@keithharrison.bsky.social Your work update this week - I have the perfect tune for you. I have this on vinyl. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbv-...

"The world needs a lot more young, angry women. That's the thing we need most of." Greta Thunberg This week's newsletter from The Ragged Optimist - lots of good things happening in the world right now. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

“The most important territory to take is in the imagination. Once you create a new idea of what is possible and acceptable, the seeds are planted; once it becomes what the majority believes, you’ve created the conditions in which winning happens.” danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

On this day - 23 May 2010, Lucy Siegle wrote kind things about me and my work with empty shops in The Observer. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'll be talking about how we need to tell different stories about the places we live, and about imagining and then making better worlds. I'll read some poems, and maybe we'll make a map of a better world together.

I am talking about Storytelling For Activism in that London tomorrow evening. Or more accurately, I will be talking about not being a storyteller (but always telling stories) and not being an activist (but always doing things that impact the world). connectionwithwonder.com/events/story...

I am talking about Storytelling For Activism in that London tomorrow evening. Or more accurately, I will be talking about not being a storyteller (but always telling stories) and not being an activist (but always doing things that impact the world). connectionwithwonder.com/events/story...

And if anyone's going to write a song about this...

I was using Letraset in a workshop with young refugees this week. It is useful stuff - in a workshop like the one i did, it overcomes barriers and fears very quickly.

Today is William Gibson Clarke's birthday. He died in the last days of the First World War. I once sat on a bench with a memorial plaque in his memory, and when I could find nobody local who knew his story, I decided to remember him ...

🦫 Margate's @danthompson33.bsky.social has made a point to deliver people good news every single week. We talk to him about his ragged optimism 🎨 The photorealist painter 🎸 New Kent music from Hunter 🥖 We review Frederic Bistro in Maidstone 🎟️ Upcoming Kent events, and more

Trump being bribed with a secondhand jumbo jet that is 'fit for a king'. Labour trying to out-flank Reform by being even more Reform. Local government unable to deliver the basics. It can all feel a bit shit. But it isn't.

Explore the real world behind Rosa Rankin Gee's book Dreamland in an hour-long walk with me. We'll see the real locations behind the book (currently being filmed in Margate for a forthcoming BBC series) and explore the rises and falls of Margate's history as a seaside resort and place to live.

'It's like having lunch on an ocean liner'. Perch on Worthing Pier in The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

From a history of Turner Contemporary to a photo zine of Keith Brymer Jones' Whitstable studio, from my Your England poems to a collection of random stuff about Penrith - my back catalogue (or at least some of it) is now online for you. payhip.com/DanThompsonS...

From a history of Turner Contemporary to a photo zine of Keith Brymer Jones' Whitstable studio, from my Your England poems to a collection of random stuff about Penrith - my back catalogue (or at least some of it) is now online for you. payhip.com/DanThompsonS...

What happens when a group of renegade map-makers put Whitehawk at the centre of the world? I'll attempt to answer this question through a new artwork for Wellsbourne CIC and Fabrica, Three Tenses: The Whitehawk Great Map. fabrica.org.uk/news/announc...

A half-century, 50 editions of The Ragged Optimist's weekly newsletter, at least ten good things in each one. 500 things to inspire you, fill you with hope, and make you happier - all for free. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

A half-century, 50 editions of The Ragged Optimist's weekly newsletter, at least ten good things in each one. 500 things to inspire you, fill you with hope, and make you happier - all for free. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

A proud moment for us. The new war memorial is in place after fundraising by residents. The local memorial hall and parish church refused to add the missing soldiers to the existing memorials, so we made sure they are not forgotten. Croft Unitarian Chapel. @lzsl.bsky.social @ukunitarian.bsky.social

This is so important - Quakers have been outside the mainstream all their 400 years along with other people of faith whose conscience could not go along with the Church of England rulebook. Now the church has less power, it’s those dissenting against our economic norms who are held with suspicion

I'll be talking about Margate's bit of brutalism, and the role it plays in Margate's story.

Desk to rent at Marine Studios in Margate - with THIS view.

Keir Starmer, asked 'Who are the male role models?' "I always go to sport for this. Footballers, athletes, I think they are role models. This is something that dads do, dad would reach for a sort of sporting hero" So you have to be a sports star to be a role model for young men, Keir? Really?

New (old) thing on my website: "It is important to make things. The act of making defines us as humans. We make things with intent and purpose. We live in a world of made things, and all the things that are made well make our lives better."

Some avian tones to this week’s blog by @danthompson33.bsky.social - he covers #chickens & #turtledoves (only a few days after my first encounter with a #GreatBustard); also a plug for #biochar work by us at @thebaytrust.bsky.social and that he’s in the new @bernadetterussell.bsky.social book…

Taking inspiration from a review by Prof Martin Parker of a book that doesn’t exist, I've started writing a book I’ve wanted to write for years. A practical cookbook for organizing, with recipes for community organizing, making festivals, DIY culture, and filling empty shops.

Monday's edition of The Ragged Optimist is ready to go. Subscribe now for ten good things in your inbox. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/about

Keir Starmer, asked 'Who are the male role models?' "I always go to sport for this. Footballers, athletes, I think they are role models. This is something that dads do, dad would reach for a sort of sporting hero" So you have to be a sports star to be a role model for young men, Keir? Really?

I've written a bit about my studio at Marine Studios in the preamble to my weekly list of ten good and inspiring things, in The Ragged Optimist's newsletter. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

The benefits of beavers, hoverflies, a beautiful boatshed, Keith Brymer Jones' old workshop, and the lost rivers of Brighton ... This week's newsletter from The Ragged Optimist to get your week off to a hopeful start. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

The great artist, master badge-maker, and all-round lovely person Mark Pawson has died. I did a badge as a tribute.

“I feel real hope. I’ve worked as an ecologist for 40 years, and this is the most optimistic time in my career without a doubt. We are visibly, measurably recovering nature and that is so exciting, it is a real buzz. That hope is so precious.” danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

This week The Ragged Optimist finds hope in an unusual building, 8000 photos, gene therapy that can restore vision, bamboo, and soil microbes. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...