Welcome to my January newsletter! open.substack.com/pub/florajoh...

Set 1918-1920 this focuses on two sisters and the parts they play in what comes after the War. Stella goes to Paris as a typist at the peace conference; Corran joins the YMCA School of Education to teach soldiers about to be demobbed. Loved it @florajowriter.bsky.social @allisonandbusby.bsky.social

Farage wanting to kick people out of the country because they migrated here made me angry and made me think about which best of British people and things wouldn't have happened were it not for the brilliance of immigration to the UK.

The programme for this year's Bookmark Blairgowrie book festival. A really excellent, high quality book festival in the heart of Perthshire. This year feat. @seanluskauthor.bsky.social @linanderson.bsky.social @billykayscot.bsky.social @florajowriter.bsky.social and many others. Well worth a visit.

The 2025 Portobello Book Festival Programme is now available! Portobello Book Festival: 3rd – 5th October 2025Tickets for all events are free and available from Portobello Library The programme for this year’s festival was officially launched at the library last night. Copies are now available to…

Congratulations to Flora Johnston on the paperback launch of 'The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay' The compelling historical novel inspired by the pioneering Scottish aviator www.amazon.co.uk/Endeavour-El... @florajowriter.bsky.social #HistoricalFiction #Booklaunch #Booksky 💙📚

Coming up in the second hour of the #TREBookshow, with Hannah Murray from 21.00CET - Ed Needham, editor of Strong Words Magazine , ‪@ragriggsauthor.bsky.social‬ , and @florajowriter.bsky.social ‬ #TuneIn on https://tre.radio or TRE Radio App

Coming soon: the third Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival. Tickets for all events available now! @EdWomensFicFest The third Edinburgh Women's Fiction Festival will be taking place on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th September and I'm delighted to be part of the blogging team once again. Over the next…

Look who's arrived in paperback! Well hello there, Elsie! #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay

This is so niche I can't believe I am asking, but does anyone know anyone who might be an expert in Protestantism in Italy during the Reformation? (Stranger things have happened). RTs welcome.

Thrilled to read this review of #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay in @writing.ie '... a beautifully written historical fiction novel set against the bustling shipyards of the Clyde in Glasgow between 1927 and 1928 amid the burgeoning beginning of the golden age of aviation.' www.writing.ie/readers/the-...

My seventy-seven-year-old father put his reading glasses on to help my mother do the buttons on the back of her dress… —“George Square”, by Jackie Kay LIFE MASK, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 2005 Hear Jackie Kay read this poem on the @thepoetryarchive.bsky.social: poetryarchive.org/poem/george-...

It's rainy but what a view. Hi Dundee Book Festival 👋 If you're in Dundee come in out of the wet at 4.30 to hear @florajowriter.bsky.social and I with all the histfic chat. tix: dundeebookfestival.com/product/sara-s…

A sonnet for St. Columba's day You called me and I came to Colmcille To learn at last the meaning of my name Though you yourself were called, and not the caller, He called through you and when He called I came malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/06/09/c....

Lovely evening celebrating the publication of #WhispersintheGlen by Sue Lawrence at Edinburgh Blackwell's. A trip to Glen Clova is now a must do for this summer! @jennybrownagency.bsky.social @saraband-books.bsky.social

We're thrilled to welcome back Susan Elsley with her #shortstory Sheepskin, out tomorrow @susanelsley.bsky.social

Top Ten Tuesday 6th May 2025: Authors Who Live In My Country #Scotland | #TopTenTuesday #amreading #bookrecommendations #TuesdayBookBlog This week's topic: Authors Who Live In My Country Today's topic was submitted by Jennifer @ Funk-N-Fiction and we've to come up with ten authors who live in our…

So pleased to see Elsie included in Scottish Field's feature on 50 Greatest Scotswomen, accompanied by this haunting sketch of her by Sandy Morrison @sandysdrawingsroom. #gettingtheexposureshedeserves #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay

See, as they strip the robe from off his back And spread his arms and nail them to the cross, The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black, And love is firmly fastened onto loss. malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/04/18/g...

Shelly-Ann racing in her kid's Parents Day race at the school is the funniest thing I've seen all week LMAO

Let's hear from all you writers today, tell us all a little bit about yourself, what projects you have on the go, what you have written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other #WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky 💙📚

And people say Church History isn’t important

So Trump controls the stock market because he's in charge of tariffs, so to speak. So he buys low, i.e. yesterday, and announces some "good news" about tariffs today. Stock market bounces up. After some time, again "bad news" and the stock market dips again. He will do that over and over.

Here’s a poem about going for a walk to clear my head of all the news.

A quick 🧵of the incredible sights in cities across the USA right now. Millions are on the street speaking out against Trump & Musk trampling the Constitution. Let’s start here with Salt Lake City 😳👏 #HandsOff #HandsOff2025 #FiftyFiftyOne (📸Nate Blouin)

Wow Chicago! #HandsOff #FiftyFiftyOne (🎥 Marco Foster)

ICYMI: The Society of Authors (SoA) gathered outside Meta’s London HQ on Thursday (3rd April) to protest Meta’s alleged use of pirated books to train AI models. 👇 #BookSky

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

To open our final day of this fabulous festival is @florajowriter.bsky.social. Flora Johnston takes us through the lives of her characters and we explore not only the global decision making but the impact of the trauma of war on individuals and the ongoing quest for peace. #AlderneyLitFest 2025

Writers, get those pitches in! ⏱️⏱️⏱️ We can’t wait to read them.

The Berlin salon @lettretage.de is on! Our first reader! @ruralunease.bsky.social

This time next week I'll be in #Alderney for #AlderneyLitFest! I'm so looking forward to exploring the island, meeting readers and fellow writers, taking part in a book club and speaking about #TheParisPeacemakers (with a wee bit of #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay).

I made a Starter pack of Scottish Writers. If you’d like to be included, msg me. go.bsky.app/QVgoAEA

Mine are here too 😠

We're aware that some of our members have found that their work has been used without consent in LibGen, a pirated books database Meta has used to train AI We've put together advice for those affected + you can also find out about our campaigning work 🔽 writersguild.org.uk/libgen-datab...

Come work with us at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland & Scotland’s Churches Trust on our new NLHF funded project. - Finding Futures for Scotland’s Churches www.socantscot.org/news/were-hi...

13 March 1928 #OTD Scottish aviatrix Elsie Mackay and her co-pilot Captain Hinchliffe set off from @rafcranwell on a secret flight in their plane 'Endeavour'. (portrait of Elsie by Sandy Morrison)

Jenni Daiches’ ‘Somewhere Else’ is an epic generational novel about womanhood and the Judaeo-Scottish experience across two World Wars, the creation of Israel and the fall of the Berlin Wall. We spoke to Jenni about her inspirations, writing process and favourite books: bit.ly/4bFv95a

Someone shared this with me from TikTok. 'What stuck with you most at the Museum of Scotland?' Answer - Jonet Gothskirk. Me too! #WhatYouCallFree @ringwoodit.bsky.social www.tiktok.com/@byjacklynn/...

Alex Massie’s substack pieces on the US and Ukraine feel like essential reading right now.

Starmer tells Zelenskyy: "As you heard from the cheers in the street outside, you have full backing in the United Kingdom... that is the people of the UK coming out to demonstrate how much they support you and the people of Ukraine."

I've spent today working on some personal letters from 1938 in prep for next book. Then I turned on the news. Praying America can stop these bullies from destroying everything their nation has stood for, because it wasn't Zelensky who disrespected the Oval Office today. This was written in Nov 1938.

Come on America, please don't allow these bullies to destroy everything your country has stood for. Stand up to them. Remove them from office. Who exactly disrespected the USA in the cherished Oval Office today? Not Zelensky. #standwithukraine

We are witnessing appeasement in real time

The scenes in the Oval Office today will shame the US for decades. They’ll never be forgotten. A world leader, fighting for his country against the 21st century’s Nazis, came to the US and was attacked & abused by a gangster regime siding with the fascist invaders. A historic disgrace.

Good morning. We are open. 📖☕️

⏳ Writers, there’s still (a little more than) a day left to enter your work for our Debut Over 50 Award! Our previous winner, Glennis Silk, had her debut novel CITY OF SILK published by Allison & Busby last year. 🎉 For more info, go to jennybrownassociates.com.