'Leaf Journal' is a scholarly journal that publishes insights and observations on the act of creative writing for young people. We are currently welcoming submissions of articles for Volume 4. ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/lj/about/sub... #UKkidLit #academicsky

We've had robot pets. Tamagotchi. They were shit and we all went back to walking our own dogs, like normal people.

I used to wonder how the Romans felt when the Emperor Caligula put his horse in the Senate.

People have started queuing at the pub. Today, Other Half sauntered past the queue to lean against the bar. Someone in the queue called, "Hey, I'm ahead of you." OH said, "And I'll let you get served before me, but I will not queue in a pub." The queue disolved and I fell in love all over again.

The guest room I'm staying in smells of fresh paint laid over a layer of mould. And I am just feeling sorry for myself for recognizing such a specific smell.

Spent my Christmas book tokens! If you need me, I'll be on the sofa with these and a cuppa. 😍

Reminder: Applications are open for the 2026–27 @malorieblackman.bsky.social Scholarships for Unheard Voices. This is your chance to receive up to £1,000 towards City Lit writing courses. Applications close 8 Feb 2026. @citylitwriting.bsky.social Apply now: www.citylit.ac.uk/malorie-blac...

I'm going to stop saying 'happy new year' at the start of every email starting tomorrow. Enough is enough. Can you be a New Year Grinch? Clearly yes.

I am already getting emails. What are you doing at your desks, people? It's 8.23, you should be in bed, with your pillow over your head, saying "I'll get up in seven minutes".

OMG 😭 Huntington's is an inherited disease that's like Alzheimers + Parkinson's all in one. NOW: "once the gene therapy has been delivered into the brain... [it] injects a piece of DNA to reprogram the neuron to become a factory for its own cure." LIFE SAVING! www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEx...

With the National Year of Reading approaching, a few people have asked if I'll be running the online 'Building a Classroom Reading Culture' session again. Will be doing it twice, on Sun 11th Jan at 11:30am and on Mon 12th Jan at 3:45pm. Link below: www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/jon-biddle...

I am interested in working with an artist on a graphic novel on soil and/ or global environmental change. The lab would have money to fund this. Do you know of any graphic artists that would be interested?

One of the online highlights of the year.

"The value that I derive from generative AI is not from the technology itself blindly churning out text, but from engaging with the tool and using my own expertise to refine what it produces." And how will thinkers of the future develop the necessary expertise, Dritjon?

All my British podcasts are still Christmas tumbleweed, but the American ones all have chipper new episodes. They are keeners with no stamina for a decent holiday rot.

An autistic desire to burn my house down, post-Christmas, because it reeks of a dozen different toiletries sets that I can never use.

We are looking to recruit a Rights & Contracts Assistant to provide administrative support to ensure the smooth running of the Rights and Contracts departments. This is an exciting opportunity to launch your publishing career. faber.co.uk/careers/rights-contracts-assistant/

New Knives Out. Hmm. I think the Gothic camp would have been more whelming if there weren't half a dozen parish churches in spitting distance of me that all look like that. Tonally, it was Conclave filmed in Chipping Sodbury.

Dreamed an amazingly complicated but brilliant plot. Even in my sleep, I thought 'this is something Christopher Nolan is going to want to film.' Tried to remember it as I woke up. Am now left with: 'it's in three parts and there was a scene that was mostly red'.

Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, because he knew that the cup of a carpenter from Nazareth would not be made out of gold.

Unbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

I was always gonna donate to #DuvetKnowItsChristmas, but this entry sent me scurrying to the fundraiser. It's giving strong '90s chain letter threat of a curse' vibes.

#DuvetKnowItsChristmas 2025 The Peach Room of Doom awaits, with a bonus clothes dryer, his and hers towels, and after 24 years of marriage the Formica Stool of Chastity guarantees a hankypanky-free night Donate to @centrepointuk.bsky.social at www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know... h/t to @rhodri.biz

The dog is very much looking forward to tomorrow and Local Children Fall Off eScooters in the Park Day. It's her favourite annual freak out.

Want to hear about my worst ever Christmas Day? Sure you do. 20-ish years ago, my then-girlfriend said her brother had invited us to spend Christmas day with him and his girlfriend at said girlfriend's mum's house. Sounds cosy, right? Nope. 1/

I've long understood that the left are cursed to 'people's front of judea' their way into obscurity. I can only hope that the right are about to do the same.

Everyone involved in the publication and promotion of this book should be embarrassed. It's not a "harsh truth" that COVID mitigation was a mistake, it's ghoulish and false.

Tomorrow evening it’ll be my annual duty to vaguely shepherd the activity on the #duvetknowitschristmas hashtag and urge people to give small sums to charity. 7.30pm? Something like that?

We need to eat tea from the freezer tonight to make room for ice cubes to go with Christmas gin. It's getting festive! 🍟🌭

The Dunning-Kruger Effect and the Streisand Effect, when merged, become the Bari Weiss Effect

call us old fashioned but, if you've built a machine that makes child porn, we really don't care if can do anything else. unplug the machine.

As a journal editor this is fucken horrifying. Asbestos in the walls.

If you know that the young women in your employment are not safe around your cash cow, and your "solution" is to ensure the young women work in pairs, *you* are one of the people your employees are not safe around. Furious all over again with publishing.

Every time there's a breaking story about a celeb's treatment of women, everyone in the book world asks, "Is it finally Walliams?" Well, it finally is.

Have I seen a ratio on Bluesky yet? This may be my first, and it was worth the wait.

If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here: fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20... @uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

ICYMI in our latest issue: this year’s stand out new books, recommended by a panel of experts including Books for Keeps reviewers and writers. #KidLitUK booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/book...

Nobody in The Moral Maze gets eaten by the Moral Minotaur, which is a fundamental flaw in the programme.

We are a team at the University of Manchester researching what UK undergraduates with ADHD and/or autism would like to see in university staff training on ensuring undergraduate courses are accessible to them. Study link: www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...

Absolutely horrific and repulsive. Solidarity with Jewish friends, especially as it’s the first night of Hannukah www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

I should probably save for my old age. But secretly, I'm saving to get my own Petit Train touristique. I intend to offer free lifts to anyone as long as they don't mind sharing the seat with my dogs. *Photo for illustration purposes only. These are not my dogs.

There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

*Disneyland Paris puts on extra buses*

I've played 133 escape rooms, and this may be my favorite thing out of any of them. It's an accessibility panel that gives players direct control over sound volume and flashing lights. (Plus it directs them to other accessibility options elsewhere in the room.) Bravo to 60 Out Hollywood!

Delighted that Michael Hobbes has finally got to do an Elon Musk episode, and hope this means the Eurovision episode is one step closer.

I don't mind the smell of a vape, but I really don't understand why anyone wants to smoke an Um-Bongo.

Being a British parent is so weird bc you're actually worried about paying the sky high rent/mortgage & getting GP appointments but the entire press keeps telling you you're worried there's a trans person or immigrant nearby & the vat on Eton means there'll only be two skiing holidays this year

Today I discovered that Americans pay to go into their national parks. 👀👀

I am honestly very curious to know how women will be asked to prove they are women in order to be allowed to vote. Passports and birth certificates aren't enough. Will there be some kind of peepshow booth next to the coffee stand?