Glen Baxter, 1944-2026.

I’ve made a little one-off literary festival, just to prove something to myself. Robin Ince, John Grindrod, Travis Elborough, Ellen Jones, and a bunch more stuff being added still - but here’s the first bunch of listings. Margate, first weekend in May. mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2026/03/19/w...

An incomplete map of public art in Margate, including temporary and lost works www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

Words Change Things. For one weekend only, a festival about books, ideas, and action. 30 April - 3 May, Margate.

March is here, and so are the early signs of Spring. At The Pines Garden, we watch the seasons closely - paying attention to what's going on around us so that we can plant and grow with the natural rhythms of the garden. 📍 The Pines Garden and Cafe: Open Wednesday - Sunday, 10m - 3pm

“If we’re going to change the world, the first thing we have to be able to do is imagine a better world. Hope lets that imagining happen." danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

An incomplete map of public art in Margate, including temporary and lost works www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

The 94th edition of The Ragged Optimist's weekly newsletter - hope, joy, and optimism to start the week, every week. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

Would you like a space to write, with sea views? Dan Thompson Studio are offering a desk at Marine Studios to a writer. You'll have your own desk, 24 hour access, seven days a week. Views over Main Sands, the studio is a five minute walk from the station, Turner Contemporary, and the Old Town.

Tomorrow is your last chance to catch Lost Margate at Pie Factory Gallery in Broad Street. Mixing contemporary art and historic artefacts to look at how Margate always reinvents itself has inspired lots of conversations over the weekend.

'If I could only quit my job I'd join the hippy elite' www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhG8...

In The Guardian, talking about Margate and Londoners - 300 years of gentrification. www.theguardian.com/cities/2026/...

Making hope normal again. Ten things, every Monday morning, to inspire hope and give you enough optimism to last til ... well, at least Wednesday. The Ragged Optimist's newsletter, 92nd edition. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

On this day in 2009, I was on the beach at dawn making offerings to the sea mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/t...

We are officially open! As of today, our new cafe and visitor centre is the place to start your visit to the Pines Garden (and end it, too!). It connects the work of the Bay Trust, the story of the Pines Garden, and the heritage of St Margaret’s. 🌱

'There are still things worth fighting for. La Resistance!' www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttq4...

I'm working on an exhibition in Margate, inspired by a collection of poetry. It takes the idea that different waves of people who’ve arrived in the town mourn a different version of the town, as it is constantly rewritten by newer arrivals. mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2026/01/10/t...

View from my work digs this week. The White Cliffs. Although now it's dark, it's just a big fat moon, the rippling English Channel, the sound of waves on the beach. www.cottages.com/cottages/st-...

It's not all shit. Incredible things are happening in the world - rewilding and nature restoration, new ways of doing things, people making the world better, lots of beavers. Get ten hopeful things in your inbox, every Monday morning, for free. You'll be happier. open.substack.com/pub/danthomp...

We have enjoyed mooching about Rochester today, bumped into @danthompson33.bsky.social and had lunch in Tiny Tim's.

Feel like you need hope and optimism and maybe even a little bit of joy? Every week, I collect together ten hopeful and happy news stories and drop them in your inbox. It's free, too. Subscribe for some ragged optimism. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

Margate Zine Fair at Marine Studios was F U N ! A bunch of great people, all doing interesting work.

I'm really pleased that this year I introduced a zine making workshop (run by the amazing @danthompson33.bsky.social) into a Media module. Making stuff with your hands, writing by hand is more important now than ever if we want to fight against the ongoing enshitification of everything.

I do turn up in some unlikely places.

Really nice exchange with @jonwoolcott.bsky.social last eve. I only knew of his upcoming #HillFigures book thanks to a @grindrod.bsky.social repost… his Monstrosities Mon Amour series features @danthompson33.bsky.social who was working with me at @thebaytrust.bsky.social today. Happy linkages :-)

Lovely to catch up with @danthompson33.bsky.social at the Marine Studios in Margate and to meet all the other artists, poets and creatives working there. Part of the East Kent Open Houses project

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...