Very sad to hear of the death of Dame Jenni Murray. She was great company back in 2015 at the @EmiratesLitFest in Dubai. @philipardagh.bsky.social @gumdraw.bsky.social @stevecolewriter.bsky.social

I was talking to a book designer on our team yesterday and was able to put to words: “We expect the illustrator to be excellent at making art but they are not expected to be excellent at making books. It’s our job to be excellent at making books, inside and out. The book itself, that is our domain.”

THIS SUNDAY, The Sunday Times has brought back The Funday Times as part of their reading campaign and The Phoenix is involved! The Funday Times was a weekly comic supplement, all big and newspapery, an absolute joy to read and an instrumental part of a lot of our childhoods 🤩

Hannah Spencer walking into Westminster, sucking her teeth, tutting, and muttering "tell you what, you've had some cowboys in here."

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.

The press has got hold of it! Yes we’re making a #bbcghosts movie.

Comps for @philipreeve.bsky.social’s new Mortal Engines novel ‘Bridge of Storms’ have arrived. Out on the 12th, get your preorders in now!

exactly. this is not difficult. as.ft.com/r/58ed1b23-d...

Everything is nice and normal

ME: whenever i make fried eggs the yolks break but when i make scrambled eggs they don’t ALANIS MORISSETTE: i’m sorry but the lyrics are already done

I will never understand how Trump was legally able to run in 2024 after trying to strong arm governors to defraud voters, and then, when that didn’t work, a violent coup. We let a traitor re-enter the White House.

Yet another example of the idiocy of the Supreme Court’s immunity opinion: If Trump invades Greenland, even for the most insane reason (like not winning the Nobel Peace Prize) and against our obvious national interest, it’s an “official act” that can never be held legally accountable

The world’s wrongest man, Daniel Hannan, contending that Trump’s utter unfitness for office only emerged *yesterday*… Because it’s the only way the irredeemable idiot can cling on to the delusion that he’s not an irredeemable idiot.

The Nobel Peace Prize becoming so prestigious that wars are fought over a head of state coveting it is some real monkey paw stuff for Alfred Nobel.

Nearly showtime! Very much looking forward to this.

We need your help. @waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith. Please read on for more information www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908... (1/2)

📚 Continuing this year’s BCAW focus on books, we’re sharing a message from author John Dougherty. 💛 His book, A Hare-Shaped Hole, beautifully explores emotional expression and continuing bonds for bereaved children. 👉 More reads: childhoodbereavement.ie/bookshelf #ChildrenGrieveToo #BCAW2025

I’m hearing from a charity that’s reluctant to support an anti-racism event because it’s too “political”. I’m explaining to them that opposing racism wasn’t at all “political” until very recently. Also (1) everything is political but (2) it doesn’t need to be party political. Charity IS Politics.

I struggle to see why turning ourselves into a society so unwelcoming that even those afraid for the lives are deterred from coming is something we would actually *want*.

Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen. Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

People see Jesus Christ in slices of toast, tea stains, patterns in carpet and damp stains on walls. We are not psychologically prepared to show the required caution in the face of computer software that can mimic human language. People are already surrendering reason to the Jesus in the toast.

If we accept someone is a genuine refugee and they build a life here, perhaps have children born here, what is the advantage to us of expelling them once we’ve persuaded ourselves that their country of origin is safe?

In 1997 Labour won a huge victory. And while campaigning they promised to honour Tory spending pledges for 2 years. Bizarrely they seemed to think the former was in any way based on the latter or that any of us expected them to stick to that, having voted for change. Plus ça change.

The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship

People who believe in democracy really need to relearn how to tell people that don't to fuck off.

Such a mystery, what MASS DISABLING EVENT could have happened after 2019 to cause this?

Hannan and Frost in the Telegraph. Sunak in the Times. Kwasi Kwarteng in the iPaper. Johnson in the Mail. Gove editing the Spectator. Farage everywhere. All of them shamelessly honking out their ‘Listen to me!’ garbage, as the country flails around in the unbelievable mess they’ve made. Nauseating.

The screeching handbrake turn from Everyone Left Of Norman Tebbit Is A Fragile Snowflake to Don’t Go Outside, It’s Full Of Blacks And Crime has to be seen to be fully believed

‘AI gets them going and writes the first paragraph, or first chapter.’ There’s something deeply sad about somebody in his position misunderstanding writing so badly. Making that start, overcoming those challenges? These are what MAKE you a professional writer. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Stephen is so consistently funny, but this is especially strong 👇😆

Unsolicited writing advice: no. 8075: There is no such thing as serious writing. There are only writers who take their work seriously, and those who don’t. Tragedy is no more “serious” than comedy. Children’s writing is no less “serious” than writing for adults. Good writing is wherever you find it.

Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins? He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions. So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?

I wonder who is going to be cast to play Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in the inevitable ITV dramatisation of the whole Salt Path scandal.

Very proud of my daughter Cara, who’s about to graduate from @lipaliverpool.bsky.social. Here’s the short film that was part of her final year coursework: youtu.be/o5a8P52orxs?... I know I’m biased, but I think she’s brilliant in this!

I suspect it would be even higher (ie, way more than half) if we also promised to re-open the youth clubs & other youth facilities that got shut by David Cameron, just at the point the smartphone was invented.

Because they serve class power, and we don’t talk enough about that?

A lot of people are enamoured with the mystique of writing but they're not interested in developing the practice of writing or treating it like work. That used to be the difference between aspiring authors and published authors. Now it's the difference between tech bros and actual fucking writers.

It’s great being a professional artist. On one hand, you have to deal with companies who think you should be happy to work for exposure and have to constantly hassle them to pay, and on the other, you have people saying they have a right to pirate your work because you’re a rich, Western capitalist.

“There is this terrible misconception that disabled people just take, but actually by taking from us, you prevent us from being able to give – we want to be able to participate in life equally the same as anyone else, and that includes going to work.” Disability campaigner Tanni Gray-Thompson

There’s a great interview with Nick Park about Wallace And Gromit in last month’s Empire, and this bit in particular stood out. It sums up what artists have been trying to say about AI. The mistakes and the learning aren’t things to be bypassed, but a vital part of the process 🤟

Meanwhile Spain carries on with socialist policies & looking after people & redistributing, and whaddya know, it’s economy soars and no-one in the Brit political class talks about it because omg maybe some second homes & wealth would get taxed, no, it’s very sad but we must make difficult choices…🤮

“I’ve never PHYSICALLY hurt anyone” (My caps for emphasis) He knows full well the vast damage he’s doing to so many people’s lives. This is a man that holds disdain for the concept of “empathy”, but constantly seeks empathy for himself.

This is why we need a wealth tax No-one needs this kind of money. And the ability to hoard it, corrupts utterly.

The level of dishonesty on display in recent days about benefits, is alarming. Didn’t this lot get elected basically because the public were utterly sick of the dishonesty of the last lot?

This country is awash with money. The very rich are rich beyond imagination. So when Starmer wants to stay within his arbitrary fiscal rules, who does he decide to take money from? The very rich? No, from people with disabilities who depend on benefits for the bare minimum of a decent life.

It's always 'more people are pretending to have poor mental health'. Never, 'piss poor governments and predatory, unregulated capitalism is making more people ill'

Right I better go back to my Lenten social media fast, but if anyone wants to hire me to help them analyse, campaign on, and / or explain how we improve upon, this government’s NHS plans, I’ll be more available from mid May, drop me a line!

Want to know how to forge a Great Master and get away with it? Then read THE LAST LETTERS OF VILLA CLARA. She’s out today in paperback in all the usual places. @headlinebooks.bsky.social @sheilland.bsky.social #1960s #art #tuscany #london #vermeer #historicalfiction #publicationday