The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly open.substack.com/pub/kathleen...

Auditions are over, poets have been informed of which wave they'll appear in throughout 2026/27, and Christmas is just around the corner. Time to say hello to the poets who'll make up wave twenty-four of @iambapoet.com – including special guest poet @johnglenday.bsky.social. iambapoet.com/wave/24

A bowl of light for a dark winter's night.

I wanted to share probably the most important sermon I’ve given and it’s while I’m being arrested. It’s torture pure and simple what happens at #Broadview. I’m ok, though I was thrown to the ground and choked with my pectoral cross. A review of the video shows I was peaceful - did I deserve this?

I'm having a rant over on Substack (my substack is free) about the new way of AI scams involving book clubs. #writing kathleenjones104015.substack.com/p/the-great-...

Zohran Mamdani will be the first Muslim and South Asian to lead America’s largest city, after winning NYC’s mayoral race aje.io/vrh1g8

Western media is in desperate need of an overhaul. It should have no political affiliation whatsoever and remain neutral as a founding principle. But then we're not in charge. Who holds the mic gets the say. And rn fascists are holding the mic.

“A curtain of darkness is settling over our nation. And it’s getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots,” Peter Wehner argues:

This Bylines Network crowdfunder is just 6 supporters away from 1,000 supporters! Please do consider cipping in something small and then feeling great about yourself for the rest of the day. 🙃

You may not realise that during the coalition government, an attempt was made to codify the British Constitution. www.parliament.uk/globalassets...

This is so exciting - and follows the example of many other countries that already have recognition of nature rights in their constitutions. It’s time to give Nature a voice in law! @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social

“police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club.” “West Midlands police were told supporters randomly attacked Muslims in Amsterdam last year”

Ella Baron on the fragile ceasefire in Gaza – cartoon

We are told the ‘war’ against Gaza is finally ‘over’. Is it? | Arwa Mahdawi

Human rights official urges UK to review laws after Palestine Action placard arrests

Go on then Nigel Farage, keep telling us you know nothing about Russian influence… The Farage staffer, the Russian embassy and a smear campaign against a Kremlin critic www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

Ben Jennings on Trump the peacemaker – cartoon

Have you shopped our monthly discount yet? This month, use code BHMBOOKS10 for 10% off books in our Black History Month collection at the checkout on our website:⬇️ www.carcanet.co.uk/

'If the press were investigating Farage with the same enthusiasm they went for Rayner, he'd be done for.'

John Buckland Wright

So here’s my question… What two or three existing books would give people the atmosphere of YOUR work in progress?

Let’s make different political choices. For decades now British people have been told to simply swallow austerity. They’ve been told that the NHS needs cuts, that libraries need closing and that child poverty can’t be tackled. Greens say: Bullshit! Join the Green Party today.

I'm framing up three new small square paintings today- all of which will be included in this early bird deal!!

www.theguardian.com/environment/... Starmer seems to go out of his way to piss me off

In other news, Robbie Gibb, former spin doctor for a Tory PM, former editorial adviser to GB News, & leader of the consortium that bought the Jewish Chronicle in 2020, is still responsible for "upholding the editorial independence of the BBC".

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 235: Stop equating wealth and fame with your value as a writer. Some of the writers we now admire were unknown in their lifetimes; just as many once-bestselling writers are now forgotten and unread. Making good art is not the same as making good money.

On Saturday 11th October join Carcanet's Managing Director Michael Schmidt and two Carcanet poets at the Brontë Parsonage Museum for a day of poetry! For more information, and to purchase tickets, see here: www.bronte.org.uk/events/poetr...

Kathleen Jones kathleenjones104015.substack.com?r=1vlrkb&utm...

Publication day! 1066 wasn't just a testosterone-fuelled sword fight between men. There were powerful women - some of them telling their own stories. kathleenjonesauthor.blogspot.com/2025/10/jeop...

The TikTok deal puts even more media in the hands of the super-rich | Margaret Sullivan

Farage wants the UK to quit the ECHR. It is exactly what Putin wants, for the UK to join Russia and Belarus as the only European countries outside the ECHR. It would be a huge victory for Putin in his war against human rights and the international rule of law. Farage is a traitor.

“Trump has dragged the US to the abyss and Nigel Farage would do the same to Britain” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is genuinely terrifying. People who arrived legally, and are living here within the law, to be deported en-masse? It's only a small step to then expelling anyone who disagrees with you. Make no mistake, Farage is as much a threat to democracy as his hero Trump 🤮 share.google/YdwRf9kQhZWT...

"Earlier this week, I was denied entry into Israel while on a humanitarian parliamentary delegation..." ...says a Jewish MP who has been to Israel many times. Israel is no friend of the UK nor any humanitarian principle.

Completely ridiculous. How is she a terrorist FFS

"A feeling that there must be a set of words in which the essence of the horror discovered in this century could be captured. . . the fate of man on earth is different from the one we were taught. Yet we recoil from giving it a name." Czeslaw Milosz 'The Search', Roadside Dog #poetry

Breaking. "To count as genocide [under the 1948 UN genocide convention], at least one of five acts must have occurred. The UN commission found that Israel had committed four of them." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

The world right now is terrifying, enraging and heartbreaking, not by turns but all at once.

"I'd like Government contracts with Tesla to be cut and ended." “Elon Musk is not a fit and proper person to do business with” @EdDavey.LibDems.org.uk

Excellent to see Labour MPs call on the government to leave Elon Musk's hate-filled X. Doing so would spark an exodus of journalists & public bodies. Thank you @bengoldsborough.bsky.social @sarahowen.org.uk @alexballingermp.bsky.social www.politicshome.com/news/article...

5/ Much more work is still needed after today to protect and restore England's peat bogs. We need a new Nature Bill that would, amongst many measures, outlaw the sale of horticultural peat, & ban driven grouse shooting. And we need much more action to stop the drainage of Fenland peat.

Great to see that government WILL ban moorland burning on peat deeper than 30cm, and over a much greater area than previously Big win for communities who've suffered the smoke + floods stemming from this Victorian practice Only losers are ~150 wealthy grouse moor owners www.gov.uk/government/n...

Coming soon. 1066 from the women's point of view - Jeopardy: Three Queens, One Throne - and a Poet. Who were the women at the court of Harold Godwinson? This novel tries to give the answers. #fiction #amwriting #history #anglosaxons

A year into government, Labour partnering with private capital indicates abandoned principles and prioritisation of corporate interests Cleisthenes’ Disciple northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/opi...

Thanks to vaccines & requiring school kids to be vaccinated, deadly measles was eradicated in 2000. HHS Sec'y & infamous vaccine denier RFK Jr. is happy there are now 1,288 active cases. A very dangerous man who should be removed from power. Speak out!

A #Roman glass vessel in a bluey-green-aqua colour, with a large bulbous body & elaborately-curled handles. Such a beautiful piece of ancient glass!

We think the best way for #WomenWriters to overcome patriarchy is to support and promote each other. We aim to raise awareness, boost confidence and keep Bluesky friendly. Would you like to join us? Follow #WomenWritersNet for details about our monthly chats.