Maybe the Birds, by @ajashworth.bsky.social featured on MIT Reader from @mitpress.bsky.social @goldsmithspress.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @sffoundation.bsky.social #newwriting #newreleases #newbooks #SF #FeministSF #IntersectionalSF thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-j-ashworth...

I bought airplane wifi so I could tell you that @alixeharrow.bsky.social’s THE EVERLASTING is a perfect goddamn book, also if you can see her on tour you absolutely should

LRT: Not that I was a fan of current BBC management anyway. This just further pushes mainstream media into solely being a political tool. I can't see anyway 'back' to an objective national media in UK.

This is absolutely nuts Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

I just meant 'modern' not 'modern modern' ... but maybe 'modern modern' has possibilities.

Definitely contemplating this. Anyone interested in doing a panel on Scottish SFF. I'm thinking modern modern or contemporary but always open to ideas. #fantasy #sciencefiction #ScottishSFF

"The moment you allow AI to write a sentence for you, you lose your voice." Francesca Barbini @lunapress.bsky.social nailing it in her guest of honour interview with @megintransition.bsky.social. #pictcon

At #PictCon on Scottish science-fiction- someone FINALLY mentioned Margaret Elphinstone. #TheIncomer #ASparrowsFlight

It's beginning to feel a bit like ... PictCon 1 #Pictcon

Not technically on 'the road' as I'm sitting in the hotel in Perth, where I have just finished this #ScottishSFF post on Ken MacLeod's The Star Fraction. An Elflandish take on what happened to the revolution! Remember, it's all about the practices it codes for...

A quick reminder that i have a weirdish dark fantasy novel available on Audible. And, despite the shocked Pikachu reviews about being woke cannibal erotica, it is a) queer and b) not a YA ;) Listen to The Shape of Monsters by C L Hellisen on Audible. www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0FGDJ5X1...

'University of Little England'

Freyja Stokes goes deep into the historical connections between European witchcraft and sex work, and draws out how #Pratchett uses these in the person of Mrs Palm. It's got history AND sexy puns... This one's very reasonably-priced - it's free! Read it now: www.speculativeinsight.com

As if by magic, this review (the Swift one, aka read this everyone) is now online. locusmag.com/review/when-...

Seeing lots of nice pics from Brighton on social media. Here's one of me on Aberystwyth seafront about 45 mins ago. Nice here but looked like it was raining out to the west towards Ireland.

Thanks for posting this. Timely, as I am thinking about Mitchison and other Scottish SFF writers, such as Margaret Elphinstone and Ken MacLeod, at the moment before heading to Perth for the PictCon 1 SF convention next weekend.

Fantastic news. Great to see Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light coming out next year in a new edition.

“In the year CS Lewis published THE LION, THE WITCH & THE WARDROBE… Naomi Mitchison published a very different fantasy novel for children” @profrmaslen.bsky.social on how THE BIG HOUSE mixes folklore, class war, world war, & the supernatural 💙📚 8/10 thecityoflostbooks.glasgow.ac.uk/naomi-mitchi...

Century Notes: special Naomi Mitchison issue of THE BOTTLE IMP 🧳 travel narrative MUCKING AROUND 🚀 #scifi SOLUTION THREE 🧚 fairy encounters 👻 Mitchison & the supernatural 🚢 Mitchison: traveller & storyteller 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 WE HAVE BEEN WARNED in modern Scotland 3/10 www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2016/06/edit...

“She liked to challenge, she liked to shock, she liked to deliver the unexpected, she liked to experiment” —Jenni Calder looks at Mitchison’s life & work for the Dangerous Women project 2/10 dangerouswomenproject.org/2016/09/25/n...

Naomi Mitchison (née Haldane, 1897–1999) was born #OTD, 1 Nov, & saw almost every day of the #C20th. A hugely influential writer, with 80+ books – poetry, politics, #HistoricalFiction, #ScienceFiction, #Fantasy, #ChildrensFiction & more – to her credit, she deserves more attention A 🎂🧵 💙📚 1/10

Hello! It’s the weekend and time to relax with the latest Wombling Along as I have a selection of reviews and other online article that may have a temptation or two for you! www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/10...

Oh my! This is super cool.

'Time is only short of you want to use a person. Otherwise there is the present, which is all the time in the world.' - Margaret Elphinstone, A Sparrow's Flight: A Novel of a Future.

This is spot on: 'The Caerphilly byelection win is historic and exposes something I have been saying for months, that Reform as an English nationalist party has a weakness, and that is going to be exposed in Wales and Scotland.'

This. Things are going to shift rapidly. Plaid's win in the early hours of this morning, which exceeded expectations in its scale, could well become seen as a key moment. Currently, British politics is a straight choice between a rightwing little Britain or a new cultural pattern (Plaid, SNP, Green)

Frodo wakes. ‘Where am I?’ ‘In the House of Elrond. It is ten o’clock in the morning. The morning of October the twenty-fourth, if you want to know.’ ‘Gandalf!’ ‘Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here, too, after all the absurd things you have done since you left home.’

Caerphilly, Senedd constituency by-election result: PC: 47.4% (+19.0) REF: 36.0% (+34.2) LAB: 11.0% (-34.9) CON: 2.0% (-15.3) GRN: 1.5% (+1.5) LDEM: 1.5% (-1.2) GWL: 0.3% (+0.3) UKIP: 0.2% (+0.2) Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.

This issue of the New Statesman is possibly the most doom-laden of all time. From the 'Doom Loop' cover story to the Trump regime's dream of making America white to John Gray explaining why the UK is descending into Hobbesian chaos. This is what total abdication looks like.

Nearly time to head north for PictCon 1. I'm also still on my journey through #ScottishSFF. Margaret Elphinstone's The Incomer (1987) is a very rich and rewarding account of a post-collapse rural matrilineal society, founded on principles of nonviolence but nonetheless still subject to change.

I was going to repost this yesterday but forgot. Still, any day is a good day to celebrate Ursula K. Le Guin.

Today’s Caerphilly specific poll shows clearly that unless progressive voters unite with Plaid Cymru, Reform will win. Greens, Lib Dems and disillusioned Labour supporters - by uniting, we can stop Reform’s division taking root in Wales and deliver positive change 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Nice out in the sun today on Aberystwyth seafront #Faberystwyth

CfP: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research, 7-8 May 2026 @newcastleuni.bsky.social Deadline: 6 February 2026 More details: @sslh.bsky.social sslh.org.uk/2025/10/13/c... sslh.org.uk/wp-content/u... Kindly supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk #GeneralStrike1926 #GeneralStrike100

Exclusive: @zackpolanski.bsky.social backs Scottish and Welsh independence in new interview with me: open.substack.com/pub/abolishw...

In other news: Angry Robot Books has acquired Juliet E. McKenna’s The Riven Kingdom, described as a “fresh and gripping fantasy” that “blends politics, religion, and a battle for a dead king’s throne, perfect for fans of the Realm of the Elderlings series.” britishfantasysociety.org/book-news-an...

While I’m very happy to find myself a part of the cool group of creatives, I really think you’re barking up the wrong tree once you’re describing artists and teachers as a part of ‘the establishment’.

Electoral Calculus and Find Out Now have run a 'poll' of the political leanings of the 'Establishment' for the Telegraph. They define the Establishment as lecturers, teachers, civil servants & professionals, armed services & police. Not finance & banking, media, corporations, companies, security..

Analysis in @thetimes.com by @leaskyd.bsky.social & Anna Dowell of the sharp decline in British identity uncovered by the Scottish Social Attitudes survey. With comment from Sir John Curtice on the polarising of Scottish politics and from myself on the decoupling of Scottish and British identities:

Just backed this! Really good range of pledges to choose from. #Cymru

Thinking about generations for a future project, specifically Gen X, of which I am at the oldest according to this graphic (which means I read Coupland's Generation X in the 90s; I can remember exactly where I was when I heard about the deaths of both Lennon and Cobain). Is it a useful definition?

A good friend has submitted this brilliant model of the library from Buffy to Lego Ideas. I’d be very grateful for your help in getting her to 5k supporters: beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Good article in the G. I worked in Birmingham at the Perry Barr campus of UCE (now Birmingham City University) between 2003 and 2005 and lodged in nearby Handsworth for about 6 months during that period. I always liked the city and found the people and predominantly local students friendly.

I see that one of those fringe parties is having a political conference this weekend.

Reading MacDiarmid's A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle again. It was published 100 years ago next year. Kenneth Buthlay's annotated edition from 1987, published by @asls.org.uk, remains the best guide. The poem itself is as thrilling, ambitious and flawed as ever it was.

Only available for a short time, we've almost hit target for the pressing plant to start production! The #Blakes7 synth pop track you've been waiting for! Realised by @philheeks.bsky.social, a unique Blake's 7 item. Grab it now! PRE-ORDER: www.bit.ly/markedtokill VIDEO: www.bit.ly/federationvideo

Bizarre article in Times implying that diverse assessments in English departments, which have been fairly standard for at least 25 years, are some form of compensation for declining standards and students not being able to read. Part of some sort of rightwing campaign to reset to last century.

Still waiting for the (cheese) man...