Silence and Sirens. Save the date – June 18, just ahead of midsummer!

yeah good choice but you can see why the Pope sampled Masters of War instead

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or one; that whilst the planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful & most wonderful have been, & are being, evolved

People rally round when something terrible happens: an accident, an illness, an invasion. But what do we do now that the invasion of Ukraine has changed from a sudden drama to a chronic condition? Our first blog post kupalabrighton.org/blog.html

We now have a newsletter and you can sign up for it here eepurl.com/jCIgys !

Spring is here and so is the #EBRDLiteraturePrize2026 shortlist! Thank you independent judges: chair Maya Jaggi, @marekkohn.bsky.social, Chigozie Obioma, @leaypi.bsky.social! And congratulations to the authors, translators and publishers on this inspiring list from across our countries of operation.

Like the druids, no one knows who they were, or what they were doing, but their legacy remains ...

Can't overstate the importance of recognising the drone strike as an attack on shared history and universal heritage. As well as damaging the monastery, it nearly struck the archive that documents 900 years' worth of Lviv's widely shared history.

Congratulations to the Laukiai Oak, Eurovision Tree Contest winner!! 🌳👑🥬

A Russian strike hit the historic center of Lviv on March 24, causing damage to a UNESCO World Heritage site and residential infrastructure. Video: Kozytskyy Maksym; Lachen / Telegram.

Insincere thanks to Virgin Media for finally pushing me to get an icloud email address by randomly denying access to my virginmedia email once again. Hint taken.

Sincere thanks to the Southern train driver who just offered us passengers ‘sincere apologies for the complete cock-up of your journey today’

The $200bn bill the Pentagon is presenting for the four-week-old war against Iran is larger than the amount America has spent on the defence of Ukraine in four years www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Standing for Ukraine in Brighton

Bonus #DarwinDay content: Six of the best grumpy Darwin quotes.

Take the time to do this folks. The proposed changes to ILR are shocking and cruel, which is made abundantly clear in the text of the public consultation linked below. Please lend your voice to try to mitigate the cruelty.

We're just coming up to the 6th anniversary of Brexit, and to the time I imagined, nearly 20 years ago, that it would happen. For my 2010 book Turned Out Nice, about how climate change would shape the British Isles, Brexit was in 2026/7. The future arrived faster than I expected. (See Alt text)

We're just coming up to the 6th anniversary of Brexit, and to the time I imagined, nearly 20 years ago, that it would happen. For my 2010 book Turned Out Nice, about how climate change would shape the British Isles, Brexit was in 2026/7. The future arrived faster than I expected. (See Alt text)

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem. Thank you. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

British citizens and UK-based folks: please consider signing and sharing this petition: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75... #RefugeesWelcome

A family's night-time routine in Kyiv; shelter at night, kindergarten in the morning. This ‪@kyivindependent.com‬ video is thoughtful, respectful and eloquent. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGEI...

don't suppose the menu at the Grenadier is as traditional as Google makes it look

Yes, the answer to 'do you trust me?' has to be 'to do what?', as Russell Hardin pointed out long ago.

'130,161 people in Scotland had some Gaelic skills in 2022, an increase of 43,105 from 2011 ... 2,444,659 people in Scotland had some Scots skills in 2022, an increase of 515,215 from 2011'. What's driving this impressive stat surge?

Excited and honoured to be one of the judges! Looking forward to reading all that lit fiction:)

Very proud and thrilled to be on this shortlist, for books that 'stimulate new ways of thinking about contemporary Europe as a whole' nanovic.nd.edu/news/2026-la...

‘Defensive Wall: Why Ukraine’s Culture Is Everyone’s Fight’ by Uilleam Blacker @uilleamblacker.bsky.social londonukrainianreview.org/posts/defens... 6/10

The Belgian government is called Arizona. Central Brussels currently full of people protesting against it

Yeah, I'd like to hear less about mastering and odysseys, more about the humbler rewards of speaking a different language even if you have no idea how you're going to finish a word when you start it

Nature, belonging, and drones in the night: moments from our conversation at the edge of a wetland in the middle of Ukraine kupalabrighton.org/trubaitsi.html

Teenagers grass up guerrilla gardening, police 'rehome' cannabis plants 😉 World's turned upside down in Eastbourne, isn't it? www.theargus.co.uk/news/2552206...

My book about climate change and the British Isles is in the new @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social ebook range; turns out that the 2100 future I imagined in 2009 is approaching faster than scheduled. #Climate breakdown and Britain's national identity crisis are on course to merge. tinyurl.com/4663bue2

My book about climate change and the British Isles is in the new @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social ebook range; turns out that the 2100 future I imagined in 2009 is approaching faster than scheduled. #Climate breakdown and Britain's national identity crisis are on course to merge. tinyurl.com/4663bue2

Yes. Remember the unbearable smugness of those remainers who were absolutely sure that they'd be in the majority at the Brexit vote? We might not be so far down this road now if they had been a little less smug and sure that we would win because we were right.

'Bilingualism should not be reduced to a talking point about brain training ... it’s about helping children stay connected to their families, their heritage'. Yes. But brain training is an easier sell than helping children and communities keep their culture. www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/empo...

'Are you writing in Polish?' No, Bluesky, I'm trying to reply to a post in English by @benstanley.eu , why do you ask? now let me get back to complaining about ios26 pls

A siren on the audio tracks and Cuyahoga playing in my head as I edited this #R.E.M.

Splendid reconstruction at Tustan Fortress in the #Ukrainian #Carpathians – not of the fort, but of the camp made by the archaeologists who investigated it in 1970. Material culture and way of life authentically represented; Volga in surprisingly good nick #HillfortWednesday

The sounds of war just reached deep into the Polish countryside too. Surreal experiences are often previews of a new reality. #Poland #Ukraine

'I heard the air siren from the nearby village, and that was a really surreal experience, because you know that place where you grew up, running with friends, swimming in the river, herding cows, going for walks, and then that surreal sound …' youtu.be/oB_HOjDeUyQ

also on Spotify audio-only: Apple, Amazon podcasts YouTube has English subtitle option

We travelled to the Ukrainian village that is the deep inspiration for our project, and talked on the edge of its wetlands: about nature, childhood, imagination, the sounds of war in the air, and why places must not be stolen from people. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx_X...

The flag of St George tops the Bhangra Fusion outfit off perfectly, don't you think? Well done and thanks @bestfootmusic.bsky.social for yesterday's Summer Fusion Festival in Brighton yesterday ☀️

I bought some dried mushrooms in the Ukrainian Carpathians, but not the ones in the tub on the right, this isn't a fairy tale 🍄

If you're in the UK and your phone sounds a strident alarm this Sunday 7 at 3pm, don't panic. This is just the alert from Penguin Random House signalling one month till the publication of the new Pynchon novel

All these brilliant performers, and we'll be there too! Looking forward hugely to the Summer Fusion Festival at the Jubilee Library in Brighton, Sun 7 Sept, 11 – 3, free, all welcome! bestfootmusic.net/2025/07/10/s...

"The rise of the city's #underground nightlife." Today's book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @marekkohn.bsky.social & @grantabooks.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

A week ago I was eating grapes from a Ukrainian kitchen garden (= small farm in UK city terms) and thinking I should follow the example in my own small way back home so ... rose hip syrup (too early, but best I can do) soundtrack: The Ukrainian Shelf 5: Food www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwOD...

'These are not images of this reconstruction': renovation work in Lviv's old town confronts passers-by with a street screen showing the aggressor's destruction of #Ukrainian built heritage.