Amazing book launch at Keats House! Huge thanks to everyone who came, and to my publisher Greenwich Exchange.

Looking forward to a bit of a tour with my new book!!

This is so vital.

"From tender romances to sweeping historical & intergenerational sagas, these stories highlight the touching & complicated lives of those with extra years under their belts." Thanks for including Follow Me to Africa here, @booktrib.bsky.social & @womenwriters.bsky.social shorturl.at/8kYAc

👏 A HUGE thank you to all the MPs who have pledged to vote to progress the Climate and Nature Bill at its pivotal Second Reading this Friday, 24 January. 🐝 zerohour.uk 🧵

Superb performance by Tracy-Ann Oberman as Shylock in this Merchant of Venice set in 1936. Timely and very moving. . #shakespeare #merchantofvenice @tracyannoberman @trafalgartheatre

This amazing book is everything it says on the cover: ‘stunning’ ‘beautiful’ ‘extraordinary’. A well deserved Booker winner. #orbital

The indomitable and irrepressible Katherine Gallagher launched her new collection last night to a packed house. ‘Can the Dandelions Be Trusted’ (Arc Publications) is her 7th full collection, in addition to a chapbook and book of translations. The love in the room was palpable. #poetry

So many issues in the world, but passing the Climate and Nature Bill into law would really make a difference to the climate crisis. Please ask your MP to vote on 24th Jan. @zero-hour.bsky.social

Acumen Literary Journal has always been very special to me. It was the first highly regarded magazine to publish a poem of mine. A few years later, Patrica Oxley published my first pamphlet, ‘Quintana Roo’. Thank you Acumen.

It’s so amazing when a writer you really admire says something nice about your book! Thank you @tracyreesbooks.bsky.social

Wise, witty and consummately clever. Harriet Walter tells us what Shakespeare’s female characters might have said, if they’d been given a chance! Not just for Shakespeare fans and feminists, as you can see from these two sonnets. @viragopress #harrietwalter #shespeaks #shakespeare

Has anyone got a better cure for the new year blues?

Happy new year! May it bring you happiness, hope, peace and love. (This clock has chimed 248 new years!)

Some of my favourite reads from this year which sent me whizzing through space and time. Any of your top 10 here? @lizfremantle.bsky.social @gillpaulauthor.bsky.social

Fantastic line-up at Faversham this year! Book early because the Faversham audience is keen and events sell out!! I will be interviewing Tasmeem Abdur Rashid on Sat 22nd Feb and reading from Wish, my New and Selected poems later in the day. @favlit.org #wishpoems www.favershamliteraryfestival.org

Beautiful writing in this vivid portrayal of Calcutta. And wonderful characters. And so wise. But is it a novel if nothing really happens? Discuss. #amitchaudhuri #whatisanovel

Very useful list of numbers and support agencies available for anyone struggling this Christmas. This is for Ireland. ❤️ #Bluesky #Christmas #Speirgorm #Ireland

Look closely at my favourite Christmas card: Mary is sitting up in bed, reading, while an exhausted-looking Joseph sits on the floor, holding the baby. No, it’s not a modern meme, but a genuine 15th century image. Happy Christmas to all who celebrate it. #fitzwilliammuseum

The wonderful Renard Press produces one of these gorgeous little books each year in aid of Three Peas, a charity which helps refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. Happy Christmas @renardpress.bsky.social

The suspense at the end of this powerful, atmospheric novel was so great that I couldn’t bear to read it at bed-time, in case the ending kept me awake all night. So I had to get up early this morning to finish it! Wrung out! @larsmytting #thebellinthelake #readers

Very happy that my poem Yoga has been shortlisted for Ink, Sweat and Tears poem of the month. If you like it, do feel free to vote for it! inksweatandtears.co.uk/november-202...

Wonderful Christmas histfic writers lunch at the Ivy. @tracyreesbooks.bsky.social @gillpaulauthor.bsky.social @hazelgaynor.bsky.social @evepollychase.bsky.social @jennyashcroft.bsky.social @rachelhore.bsky.social @louisefein.bsky.social @juliakellywrites.bsky.social

Paperback out today! And you’ll see it in WHSmith as a Richard and Judy pick!! Congratulations @evepollychase.bsky.social

I am so, so thrilled that @evepollychase.bsky.social ‘s amazing novel The Midnight Hour has been selected as a Richard and Judy bookclub pick! #themidnighhour

This was such a hoot! Christmas has officially begun…

Didn’t manage to see the northern lights, but thanks to the magic of sophisticated AI, we can imagine that we did! 🤣 #tromsø

Book lover hell: In 1895 Fridtjof Nansen spent 8 months overwintering in a hut on the ice - with nothing to read but his almanac and navigation tables by the light of their blubber lamp! #readers #readershell

Snowing hard at 11am in Tromsø. Thank goodness - found a bookshop! #tromsø #bokhuset

Tip for a struggling writer: When Norwegian novelist Cora Sandel fell on hard times she wrote “I didn’t make a living by writing… I survived by pawning my typewriter. For each short story payment I redeemed it again. One can get a lot out of a typewriter if one just doesn’t use it’

Forgive me if I tartle while introducing you!

Sliced reindeer stew or a whale steak anyone?? #arcticfood #tromsø

I want to be this feisty Sami woman when I grow up. And to carry a bag made of silver birch bark. #tromsø

Hard to think of a better book I could have brought to snowy Tromsø. A snow child might materialise at any moment! @eowyn.ivey #thesnowchild

Still snowing, and this is a real cathedral, not a library! Pretty spectacular. #tromsø #arcticcathedral #arcticcathedraltromsø

A city with a library which thinks it’s a cathedral. That’s my sort of place! #tromsø

Lovely view over Tromsø, but thick cloud and an arctic storm on the way. #tromsø

Another sky-related post! Off to Tromsø. Hoping for northern lights. Def going to see snow! Very excited to go to a place with an ø. #tromsø

Authors receive a payment every time you borrow a book, audiobook or ebook from libraries in 35 countries. Those countries include the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany to name but a few. Borrowing a book helps the author’s pocket as well as yours.

Last rose of summer? But what a beauty. Can anyone identify it? It’s a very vigorous climber. #roses

Blue skies are not always the best! #bluesky #rainbow

Feeling chilly? Let Barbara Kingsolver whisk you away to summer in the appalachians. Possibly the best opening chapter ever written. #prodigalsummer #barbarakingsolver

Fishing boats huddled in Whitstable harbour. Cold and blustery. Such respect for fisherfolk. #whitstable #whitstableharbour #fishers

Ever since I first heard about this book, I’ve been longing to read it! It imagines the story of Aunt Em before Dorothy, before the tornado, before Oz. What a brilliant idea! And today this enticing cover has been revealed. @hazelgaynor.bsky.social #beforedorothy #wizardofoz #historicalfiction

November, 1879. By John Atkinson Grimshaw who upset his family by leaving his job on the railways at the age of 24 to pursue a career as an artist. He was entirely self-taught.

So thrilled that this marvellous book about Artemisia Gentilleschi won the HWA gold award last night! A phenomenal book about an extraordinary woman. @lizfremantle.bsky.social @historia-hwa.bsky.social #historicalfiction #artemisiagentilleschi #disobedient

This actually happened! In my befuddled astonishment on the night I forgot to thank the incredible @imogenrobertson.bsky.social & @francesowen.bsky.social who power the HWA & the judges chaired by Louise Hare. Still completely overwhelmed!

Nine of my all time favourite historical fiction books on booklisti. What would yours be? #readers #reading #historicalfiction @gillpaulauthor.bsky.social #louisatreger #louisefein #tonimorrison @melissaharrison.bsky.social #clairekeegan #geraldinebrooks booklisti.com/booklist/bes...

Chilly start in London! #frost #chilly #weather #London

My first post on Bluesky is about an unseasonal snow-sky over London. ‘ ‘The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose’ (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) #snow #london #november #seasons