The UK is paying more interest for its debt than most other developed countries and I learned today analysts call it the Moron Premium thanks to Liz Truss.

The blackthorn blossom is something else this year

This morning I found a much-loved and long-missed sock inside a duvet cover and am greatly pleased. #smallthings

I'm thrilled to report that I'll be launching the paperback of Wildly Different at @darkpeakbooks.bsky.social next month. If you live near Glossop, come and listen to how one woman helped the Peak District become the UK's first National Park 75 years ago this April share.google/7UrJEoSMwt8D...

Can someone explain why we are running into the deceiving, toxic embrace of AI, please? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

You couldn’t make it up

Just back from my daughter's Exhibition Opening Night in Stirling... and could not have felt prouder to wear my lanyard telling the world that I am 'Charlotte's Mum!' Love you @cstrawbridgeart.bsky.social 😘

The tragic irony of the last few years is that, had the USG given Ukraine only a fraction of the weapons that they have expended against Iran in a few weeks (Patriots, Tomahawks, etc), Ukraine would have won, oil prices would not be skyrocketing and the US would be more secure.

Very much enjoying the New Statesman under Tom McTague's editorship. I know he's been at the helm for nearly a year but he seems to have found his stride. Excellent current edition, and particularly pleased he admits to Francophilia, something I also am afflicted with.

Love this 🩷❤️🧡💛

There is an element of truth in the cartoon that makes the situation truly pathetic. Our sons and daughters are the cannon fodder for the sons and daughters of the oligarchs!

Social movement scholar here to comment on No King again. a 🧵: These protests are important b/c: 1.) as sustained image events, protests offer evidence of continued disapproval of the direction the country is going and disavowal of the country's leadership.

Orban is facing the toughest ​fight of his career against a former ally who wants to oust him in an election on April 12. Most surveys show his nationalist Fidesz party losing to Peter Magyar's pro-EU Tisza. It's essential that Orban loses this election b/c he blocks important decisions in the EU.

To be honest the report talks of the “almost” collapse of the NHS. I don’t know what collapse looks like if it isn’t thousands of people dying for want of an ambulance or hospital bed, and nurses, doctors, ambulance and support workers -eg cleaners sick & dying for want of adequate protection

This is what happens when you entrust the governing of a country to a man who thinks hard work, commitment, and service to the country is for 'Girly Swots'.

This picture!! A newborn baby whale being held above water by a team of midwifes www.newscientist.com/article/2521...

Let me boost this message still further, having just received about the same amount - incl for book chapters that I wrote over thirty years ago! Far more than the continuing dribble of royalties for academic books written at about the same time.

Writers! Have you joined @alcs.co.uk yet? This wonderful organisation collects copyright payments on your behalf and distributes it twice a year. It's like free money. I've just received a welcome payout of £220, for which I did very little except register my book titles - thank you - just do it!

With every passing day it is becoming clearer that Iran is becoming the US's Suez. A hubristic, visible symbol of a great power in relative decline, unable to keep key transit routes open. Increasingly rapidly. I wouldn't even bet against the Yuan being the Gulf reserve currency in a generation.

Thanks to @foldedorset.bsky.social and Shaftesbury Book Festival for the brilliant Reading the Land event. The only festival where the speakers were briefly eclipsed by the discovery of some nearby Miner Bees. So lovely to talk with @nicolawriting.bsky.social about her wonderful Ghosts of the Farm

Wonderful time at Shaftesbury Book Festival for Reading the Land - a fantastic gathering of speakers & a full-house for me & @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social’s talk about brilliant women in history defying expectations in ‘Her Outdoors.’ What a line-up & setting too!

Blackthorn. #WildflowerHour

cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see (small strip of woodland between road and rail i've driven past hundreds of times, finally explored yesterday)

When reporters would ask me about "how will the public see the effects of DOGE?" my answer was pretty unsatisfying. 1. Performance declines in orgs that deliver direct and measurable services (e.g. IRS, VA, SSA) 2. Emergencies reveal lack of expertise when you need it. The Iran war is a #2 case.

These are overly kind words when applied to me, but accurate when applied to what we are all trying to do with our storytelling. We excavate the ghost soil to find and connect.

I have a bright student who excitedly told me about an AI tool she used to organize her notes before a test. She ended up having her worst grade of the year because she probably never internalized anything before that test.

Happy vernal equinox, everyone. May your path through the woods strewn with spring flowers.

Wonderful we now have a 2,700-mile long coastal path, taking in some of our most gorgeous scenery, but why does it have to be called the King Charles III path? Why not the People's Path?

even now, it still hasn’t sunk in for most americans that the rest of the world is taking trump’s threats dead serious—they don’t have a choice. and it’s going to forever alter what the rest of our lives and our descendants lives will look like a lot more than they think

A clearing in the woods: sun came out and warmed the fresh green foliage sprouting through winter's dead leaves and bramble shoots.I was transported to a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris. The very ground was exhaling delicious garlic breath. It's wild garlic time!

Don't miss author @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social in conversation with Nicola Chester, exploring women in nature, at this weekend's Shaftesbury Book Festival. Full line-up here: www.shaftesburybookfestival.com/2026-lineup 'Wildly different' & 'Rebel women' both out in paperback in April. #booksky

On chasing ghosts through the archive: Women's History Month: the women of Wildly Different - Manchester University Press share.google/GdQCOAZm4gAs...

If you missed it, I’m part of a small collective trying to bring a radical bookshop shop to Newcastle. We haven’t had a good proper radical book shop since the 1980s. We think that should change! We launched our crowdfunder today, support if you can: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb... Pls share

I am increasingly seeing Trump as the ultimate western rage against the dying of the light of their age of global leadership, as China now at the very least joins and is arguably on the way to surpassing the US as an innovation powerhouse.

Just a few tickets left for the Shaftesbury Book Festival Reading the Land event, where I'll be in conversation with @nicolawriting.bsky.social to discuss this wonderful book, and Wildly Different. We've called it "Her Outdoors"! Shaftesbury Book Festival www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/sele...

A very sobering example of the dangerous reality of having conspiracy theorist nutjobs in power. Owning the libs, feeling good about being racist and increasing speed limits seem particularly moronic voting preferences in light of the glaring risks of having nasty clowns in charge of governance.

Turn down the lights, turn up the volume for a sublime moment. The words of Jackie Morris read by Jerome Flynn put together with music by Dougal Abbott. This is balm for the soul. (Stained glass by me!)

This! @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social’s book Wildly Different is an incredible achievement. Chasing down the ghosts of these pioneering, forgotten women, it’s a wonderfully vivid account. Our ‘ghosts’ have much in common. Thrilled to be chatting with Sarah this Sunday! www.shaftesburybookfestival.com

The artist and printmaker Gwen Raverat helped Naval Intelligence during WW2, making these stunning 3-d maps to prepare for the Allies to liberate occupied Europe. Many women were involved in creating these invasion guides at a time when women weren't considered very good at surveying or cartography

On chasing ghosts through the archive: Women's History Month: the women of Wildly Different - Manchester University Press share.google/GdQCOAZm4gAs...

Thrilled to be speaking at the 2026 du Maurier Fowey Literary Festival about my book, Dancing with Bees. Due to speak back in 2020, but like so many other events that year, it had to be cancelled... so I'm over the moon to be invited this year! Tickets 👇 www.foweyfestival.com/event/brigit...

Oscar-winning Borenstein: "'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' is about how you lose your country through countless small acts of complicity. When we don't say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice." #TheOscars

Trump demanded NATO countries help his war in Iran – every NATO country said no. "Everybody is looking at the situation and saying, 'why on earth would we want to get embroiled in his war?'" Has 'desperate' Donald run out of friends? www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/why-...

“You have corporate media owners who are increasingly fearful of running afoul of the Trump administration that characterizes #ClimateChange as a ‘hoax’ & climate action as a ‘scam’…” Stop looking away, media. The #ClimateCrisis is the biggest news of our lifetime, with breaking stories EVERY day.

A lovely graph from my roof: March generation has already outstripped February, with half the month to go.

UK ready to explore EU tuition fee cut as part of Brexit reset - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

They're here. In sunny glades, my favourite flowers: wood anenomes, bright stars in a green firmament.

Happy Mothers Day to mothers and their children everywhere

Born today: Harriet E. Wilson, one of the first female African-American novelists, on 15 March 1825. Her novel Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black was published anonymously in 1859 in Boston and was not widely known until it was discovered in 1982 by the scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Yesterday, electricity generation from utility-scale solar peaked at 11 Gigawatts, meeting about one third of electricity demand. Small-scale rooftop solar would also have made a significant unmeasured contribution on top of this. This is before the middle of March - still officially in winter. Wow!