No link between paracetamol in pregnancy and autism or ADHD in children, review finds

Push the Boat Out 2025 is here! You can browse our programme, download a brochure, and book now 📣 🛶🎫 This year’s festival sets sail from 20-23 November with a bold mix of poetry, performance, music and art in a sparkling celebration of words in all their forms. pushtheboatout.org/programme/

It shows that the criticial Goodreads review had gone largely unnoticed, that many couldn't stomach the book privately, but didn't feel able to speak up (how right they were), until Clanchy poured petrol on the review, set it alight for everyone to see, and then blamed everyone else for the fire.

Good folk doing the right thing being treated like extremists. #climate www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...

Owl alert! You can listen back to my little snippet on #TawnyOwls now. Thanks agains so much to Sophie Anton for asking me to do this and to being so flexible so we could get it recorded easily and accessibly for me, and to Caz Graham for coming to do the recording. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I couldn’t believe how many different groups of #TawnyOwls I heard yesterday afternoon at dusk. They’re in charge now. Tune in to #TweetOfTheDay on radio 4 tomorrow morning and on BBC sounds afterwards to hear me talk about my tawny neighbours and what they mean to me a little. #TheCompanyOfOwls

www.culturematters.org.uk/kate-clanchy... has recorded this and a bit more. and among other phrases, “flirty hijabs”.

I have sooo many fave writers! @julietemckenna.bsky.social @julietk.bsky.social @rachelslacey.bsky.social @rodduncan.bsky.social @pollyrowena.bsky.social @hannahbournetaylor.bsky.social @rozc.bsky.social @hierath77.bsky.social @hjm.bsky.social JRR Tolkien, Diana Wynne Jones, Alan Garner, 1/4

💬 The City of London consultation on the ponds is open until 25 November. It’s important that women who support inclusion take part. Read our new piece to learn more and find out how you can have your say: 🔗 notinourname.org.uk/nion-women-rejects-anti-trans-narrative-at-kenwood-ladies-pond/ 4/5

I had a miscalculation of stock from last week's drop of Professionally Defaced copies of Tales Accursed, I've actually got this one straw bear copy left if anyone wants it... 👁️ slipperyjack.bigcartel.com

Exclusive by me: How thousands fossil fuel lobbyists got access to UN climate talks – and then oil and gas companies kept drilling www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This floofster looks ready to pounce! 🦉💙😍

Bats!

⭐️⭐️⭐️BOOK GIVEAWAY⭐️⭐️⭐️ To celebrate the return of #Shetland detective series I am giving away 2 signed copies of Ponies at the Edge of the World with 2 wish bottles with Shetland shells or seaglass. To enter just like, share and comment on this post

This book was full of language which is so incredibly painful, especially if you've been a bullied kid, a kid who felt themselves judged by teachers as well as peers. But as I said at the time, everyone involved in the publication and prizing of it is part of the problem. This is a structural issue.

Very excited about this online lecture by Dianne Seuss!

More tickets have been added to our annual lecture! Given this year by Diane Seuss on 10 November @ 7:00pm GMT via Zoom, the lecture will address an education in poetry from outside the borders of academia, specifically that of a poet from the rural working class.

"It’s another blow for media in a year that’s seen noted campus-free-speech-hysteric and Trump apologist Bari Weiss take the reins at CBS News; the Washington Post implode in on itself like a dying star; and the Trump administration choke off funding for public broadcasting."

Good morning!

Oh ... what's this that's on the radio on sunday?

CONGRATULATIONS @pollyrowena.bsky.social !!!!

Members of the Society of Authors have newly elected four of their peers to represent authors’ views on the Management Committee (the Board). SoA members @ajwestauthor.bsky.social, @iangiles.bsky.social, @pollyrowena.bsky.social, and @lucindahawksley.bsky.social now join the committee.

The new Management Committee members will begin their term following the 2025 AGM on 20 November. You can find out more about them and see the full election results on our website. societyofauthors.org/2025/11/03/t...

Thank you everyone who voted for me! I hope to prove myself useful as we go forward, and hope to keep building a union that can represent and work for us all.

Wanderers by @kerriandrewsuk.bsky.social is an uplifting account of women through history for whom walking was important: defying gendered conventions, walking mountains alone, often writing as they went. Inspiring, courageous, & passionate #NatureWriting! Buy here: uk.bookshop.org/a/2456/97817...

💪 'Vaccination continues to help protect against severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths arising from COVID-19,' according to @ukhsa.bsky.social. Source: ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/26/w... 🤷 So, why isn’t this potentially life-saving protection free for all? Click: www.change.org/Make-Covid-V...

A nice Krampus stand for the paperback edition of Sarah Clegg's The Dead of Winter. I purchased the hardback last Christmas... and it hast influence'd my travel plans for December 🔥...

Sorry, experts claim standard time 'realign[s] our internal clocks with the sun'? Only if everyone's bed-time is 4pm in winter. Which is what it feels like it should be, tbf. You can take your measly recommended 7 hours sleep and plug the dam of late capitalism with it.

Why is everyone in London so fixed on in-person meetings in this year of our plague 2025? What's the use in using up at least 2 days of your time and £500 travelling to and staying in London for a *meeting*? I've been noticing another uptick in the idea only in-person experiences matter.

“More marginalized people have #LongCovid. We require testing, masking and use HEPA filters so we can welcome these people without endangering them."— Greta, lead organizer of Breathe Easy London, shares her moral values to support #MaskTogetherAmerica. www.instagram.com/p/DQecULAEaF9/

What is it they say? Slow it down and get a skeleton to sing it? Me and my haunted piano possessed by a snippet of the new Florence and the Machine. #OneOfTheGreats #EverybodyScream #TheChronicLife #Piano #Halloween

brb, going to soak my aching bones in an overly hot bath and listen to the new Florence and the Machine album.

Book post! I cannot wait to dive in this evening. The Company of Owls by @pollyrowena.bsky.social #naturewriting 💙📚

Mentors for our Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers include @pollyrowena.bsky.social, Lisette Auton, @nydiawriter.bsky.social, @clotimms.bsky.social and @clairerwade.bsky.social.

I see @oxfordunipress.bsky.social are cancelling independent scholars and researchers. I couldn't have written #RecoveringDorothy without an individual subscription and this is going to make similar work impossible for me going forward, including contributions to scholarly editions. What BS.

Healio: 'Antivirals reduce long COVID incidence at 90 days in patients with rheumatic diseases' www.healio.com/news/rheumat...

About last night … a little snippet of the brilliant discussion between @herdyshepherd.bsky.social and @rory-stewart.bsky.social we hosted last night at Kendal leisure centre. Thanks to everyone who came along and everyone who made this possible!

Very brief appearance of a double rainbow over the shop and the half-term crowds this afternoon. #MyHeartLeapsUp

A strange brew: the case of the man behind an audacious Scottish tea fraud

A portion of every dollar spent on Harry Potter merchandise goes to anti-transgender campaigns.

A little autumn offer for this week! 15% off books bought on our website until 1st November. Use code LTB15G at the checkout. Maybe try Edward Thomas' Icknield Way, Caro Giles' Unschooled or Peter Hahn's memoir of life on a vineyard... www.littletoller.co.uk/shop/

Worth bearing in mind this recent news, while considering Nigel Newton’s latest comments in the Guardian. Looks like Bloomsbury are going to be leaning hard into AI in the future: bsky.app/profile/publ...

Always so great to hear what the CEO of one of the world's largest scholarly publishers (having bought tons of the others) thinks about the life of the mindbody & the sinews of society, inc. evobio bullshit.

Me, grouting at 4am.

#Caturday night at the smithkin burrow.

Barker called me up one night and without preamble said "It's opinions, not onions. Not onions. This is Clive Barker. I've been trying to track down and stop this error in editions for decades. OPINIONS."

Morning sunshine on the bookshop corner.