Morning.

Morning.

Timeline cleanser 🐈

I really enjoyed Alien: Earth, and may very well binge the whole series again. But Ep8 was one of the weakest for me: how can it be an ending when all you're really doing is setting up Series 2?

Yes I do. Cheers all, happy weekend 🍷🥂🍾

Book 42 of 2025 A grisly, fascinating, rag-bag history of decapitation, covering science, politics, art, anthropology and much else. Fun fact: 16th/17th London had a 'Keeper of the Heads', whose job it was to maintain the bonces displayed on London Bridge.

Morning.

FRIDAY! (collapses)

Morning.

A message to every Londoner, and anyone who talks our city down.

Went to watch a local production of Macbeth with our youngest (who's doing it for GCSE). Small cast meant they made some interesting choices.

Full on day. Spent part of a free supporting a new colleague who is struggling with behaviour, and genuinely found it triggering. I was right back into last year, when I was in the same position, and struggling to get any traction. #Edusky

Morning.

Brilliant! #Edusky

Finally set on returning to the UK classroom: either primary KS2 or Secondary English. Don't put me off, but do get in touch if you'd like to add some tittering to your staffroom. Please RT.

I am looking for examples of teaching & learning playbooks or people who are currently using them. I need to write one and would love any tips to make it as good as it can be. Thanks. Pls RT

Really pleased to pick up a secondhand copy of this on the way home. Wanted to read it for a while, and it's also full of some amazing images. #Booksky

I mean, really. What a story.

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” Ursula K. Le Guin

Nice to see the King preparing for the President's state visit…

Nigel Farage: "Children who have two stable parents have a better chance in life... The most stable relationships, the ones that last the longest, tend to be between men & women... There's an awful lot of kids in the country not getting the kind of start... they deserve." Farage has two ex-wives.

Only 20 pages in, but loving this already. Largely for Kermode's honesty: 'Shakespeare is hard, some bits no-one understands, but it's fine.'

I will be there.

I'm going to bed in a foul and cynical mood, a combination of too much red wine and too much news. Tomorrow will be better. Stay strong everyone.

Seriously, how much Orwell do we think Musk has actually read?

What would Orwell think, Elon? I'd like to think he'd have you pegged as the slippery chancer that you are, inciting consequences that you will never have to face. Shame on you.

Book 41 of 2025 So much I enjoyed about this: emotional, and moving, and messy and hopeful. It made me speak out loud, about people who don't really exist. And that's pretty good, right? #Booksky

I've emailed my MP about my concerns regarding Musk and today's demonstration in London. I'm still waiting for a response from my last email of 27 August... But what can you do? Stay strong, keep trying.

Wow, Alien: Earth Ep6 was a stressful watch, but just terrific too. Excellent storytelling and tension building.

It's a Church of ENGLAND church, you morons.

I really dug 'Bonekickers', a bonkers show about a team of archaeologists on the trail of history's most fabulous (and mythical) artefacts. The series climax had them finding Excalibur and then... nothing.

The best post is book post. #Booksky

Book 40 of 2025 A hopeful, pacey retelling of 'The Tempest'. Not a play I know well, but after reading this I want to go back to the Shakespeare, which I think Atwood would call 'job done'. #Booksky

Isn't this exactly what just happened? Have people got mass fkn memory loss? Five years ago an ethics investigation took SEVEN MONTHS, resulted in a finding of several serious breaches, which was then ignored by the PM and resulted in the ethics advisor AND the bullied employee having to resign. 1/

First school week finished. Well done all. My feet hurt, but otherwise I'm happy with how it went. And let me tell you, the contrast between the start of this year and the previous one could not be more stark. Night and day.

Book 39 of 2025 I enjoy a Maigret from time to time, and have a vague plan to read them all. But whilst this one was ingenious, it did also get confusing towards the end. #Booksky

Good luck #Edusky if you're back at school tomorrow. Even an Inset can be a shock, so be kind to yourself. It always takes me a while to get match fit, especially in September.

Really pleased to pick up a secondhand copy of this - been after one for years. Full of great stories. #Booksky

This is my country, not the hotel botherers.

Book 38 of 2025 A wild ride. But lots of heart, too. And the writing just sings. Dorothy Parker on poppers. #Booksky

Book 37 of 2025 I'm a big fan of the Sewing Bee, and I've been wanting to read this for a while. I got the audiobook, which was good fun. #Booksky

Day out in London: steak, frites, red wine, art. Cheers!

Well said.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit. Trump on the other hand wants to burn the forest to the ground.

Nigel Farage and the Reform Party’s Taliban Tax means sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat.