In partnership with @librariesunlimited.bsky.social our 1st Christie for Kids Day is on Sat 13th Sept at Paignton Library. With bestselling children’s authors Robin Stevens & Abie Longstaff @redbreastedbird.bsky.social @abielongstaff.bsky.social Free but pls register www.iacf-uk.org/festival-202...

Fun interview with @redbreastedbird.bsky.social at Isabelle Knight's website! springfallschronicle.com/an-author-in...

Another incredible mystery from the genius that is @redbreastedbird.bsky.social, A Stocking Full of Spies sees the younger members of the Ministry of Unladylike Activity head to Bletchley Park. Out 11/09 from @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social #KidlitUK worldssmallestlibrary.wordpress.com/2025/07/27/a...

Shirt alert at an incredible launch for Cressida Cowell's new book with @redbreastedbird.bsky.social. Dragons! Pic by @primarylibrarian (on insta, still trying to tempt all the librarians onto here...). @cressidacowell.bsky.social is a force of nature, and a force for good. #KidLitUK

Teachers, I am once again begging you to stop giving your pupils assignment where they have to write to and get a response from an author. Do not make us part of a child’s homework grade! We are inevitably only going to find time to reply six weeks after the assignment is due, if at all.

Happy Pride from the Murder Most Unladylike family all around the world. I hope that wherever you are, and whoever you are, my books can feel like home to you. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

And here it is: the gorgeous cover of #AStockingFullofSpies! Illustrated by @janbiel.bsky.social and published by @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social on 11th September this year! Pre-order from @waterstones.bsky.social now … www.waterstones.com/book/the-min...

The cover of A Stocking Full of Spies is … gold! And all will be revealed next week …

And for your next mission … can you guess the colour of A Stocking Full of Spies’s cover before all is revealed on Friday?

Truly evil stuff.

And the title of Ministry of Unladylike Activity 3 is … A Stocking Full of Spies! Out on the 11th of September 2025! And keep an eye out for the full cover, being revealed very soon …

Let the games begin! Please find attached a clue to the title of Ministry of Unladylike Activity 3, out from @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social in September. It’s hidden in the first paragraph of the book … can you unscramble it in time for the big reveal on Wednesday?

New books. @redbreastedbird.bsky.social @matthewhubbard.bsky.social Hannah Hendy Uketsu Sosuke Natsukawa

It’s Daisy Wells’s birthday, and to celebrate @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social have released this lovely special edition of Arsenic for Tea! With stencilled edges & a brand new intro from me, it’s available from all good bookstores, including @waterstones.bsky.social! www.waterstones.com/book/arsenic...

@redbreastedbird.bsky.social I made a Murder Most Unladylike cake for my son’s birthday. Hope you like it! #MMUL

One week to go until #WBD2025 and if YOU, like me, are a parent panicking about your child’s costume, may I suggest one of my characters? They just wear normal school uniforms with a hat and a magnifying glass, and I have a full guide in this post from 2020: robin-stevens.co.uk/dress-like-t...

Look what arrived! My officially licensed #MurderMostUnladylike pins from @litpinsandco.bsky.social! I think they are unbelievably fancy and beautiful and you can order yours from litpinsandco.com/collections/... now!

In honour of Valentine’s Day, I would like to present my favourite historical love story.

Proud to be supporting READ IT FORWARD. 10% of all children's book sales go to @booktrust.org.uk & @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social on @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social in February. I've got a BIG list of book recommendations for inspiration right here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/rashmis... #KidLitUK

One thing I really believe strongly is that we should NOT listen to creators too carefully when they tell us what they think their works are about. My evidence for this is the fact that I realised TODAY that all three of the main characters in MUA have arcs about losing their fathers in some manner.

The takeover of Twitter was a preview of what we're all living with now and a stark example of why you can't let any one person have too much money: they go insane and make themselves everybody's problem

I am very, very careful about getting details right in my books until it comes to military ranks or British peerages. Captain? Major? Commander? Lord? Baronet? Whatever, I don’t care, knowing this feels like narc behaviour.

There are 128 other people in the world who always start Wordle with ROBIN and I want to know who they are.

Wilbur is relaxing on his 😂 cushion, contemplating one of @redbreastedbird.bsky.social’s Murder Most Unladylike puzzles

Signing off for Christmas. Be good, don’t be weird, I’ll be back in 2025.

#StorySnugAdvent December 12th #TheVeryMerryMurderClub an anthology of stories by 13 children's authors. Edited by @serenakpatel.bsky.social & @redbreastedbird.bsky.social. Illustrated by @harrywoodgate.bsky.social storysnug.com/2021/11/very... @farshorebooks.bsky.social #UKKidLit #BookSky #Xmas

god i loved Molesworth. like an artifact from a different planet but the gerunds still live in my mind to this day

I must ask that no one emails me one single time more between now and Christmas.

This is what 10 years of fan letters looks like! I’ve maxed out this filing cabinet completely - closing this one up for good and starting a new drawer in January.

Reminder: if you‘re looking for Christmas jumpers, especially for kids, charity shops are a STELLAR bet. No need to buy new! There are thousands of Christmas jumpers out there for cheap. ALSO, charity shops need toys before Christmas! If you have kids consider donating old toys now, not in January!

This is the thing … it’s *bad*. Tech is being so polite about it, like it’s a drunk CEO at a party. Companies are all forced to pretend it’s not slurring its words and making up nonsense and generally embarrassing itself.

One thing I really loved about Wicked is the way characters catch movement from each other, and that’s how we understand who’s holding the power in each scene. Obviously a very musical theatre thing but this takes it further and does it more clearly than I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Wicked! A win for bisexuals! A win for love triangles! A win for homoeroticism and hand holding and longing! A win for cool glasses and antifa! A loss for everyone who has a weak bladder.

One of the highlights of our year was a visit from the fabulous @redbreastedbird.bsky.social who delighted our students with the background to her stories, tips on solving puzzles and writing techniques. Thank you to her and to @yorkbookaward.bsky.social for bringing magic to our school.

I woke up and chose violence today. Anyway! I’m going to log off and go see Wicked, a film about the way that only being in love with your best friend can stop the creeping rise of fascism.

Shocked pikachu face. Publishing you exhaust me. Promote better. Mentor better. Do right by your marginalised staff.

Once again popping up to remind you that controlling what someone does with their body is fundamentally right-wing, and if you are campaigning for the removal of bodily autonomy in one area you should NOT be surprised when you lose bodily autonomy in other areas. It is NOT feminist to be anti-trans.

My characters have been writing letters to me again I see.

btw the alt text for this is incredible

Cannot express how annoyed I am that @ldlapinski.bsky.social’s hack for ADHD brains truly works. I’ve been on 15 minute timers all day, hopping up and down, and I’ve managed to read through ONE HUNDRED PAGES of my manuscript. I don’t even feel tired. I handed it in 3 days ahead of schedule. Raging.

Eating leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches makes me feel like I’m living in the future. This is what peak December performance looks like. If I time this right I can just go on gnawing at turkey legs like Denethor until the 25th.

TREMBLING with excitement about this. The last season of the Traitors was some of the best TV I have ever seen.

Anyway who else is ready to march on the NYT puzzles section with me in response to today’s connection wall?

We literally did this in the 80s and 90s. Same arguments! None of which turned out to be true! And now we are here again! It’s actually so boring that we’ve decided to ruin MORE people’s lives for no reason.

My computer: it’s Giving Tuesday! Me: it sure is, queen. Werk.

Kaphar is one of the most spectacular active artists. If you don’t know it yet, read about his series The Jerome Project, parts of which were included in an exhibition a year ago at the Gardner. www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/t...

At this point it’s been said in a hundred different ways, so I think people are being intentional about not getting it.

Bringing down the glasses I found in my office this morning and reminding myself that this is NOT a problem it is a USEFUL behaviour because M Night Shyamalan taught me that when aliens come to earth we will NEED glasses of water in every room in the house to defeat them.

I have this radical concept of seeing trans people as the primary stakeholders in trans rights and policy