Think we underestimate how much of social media is like going to the kitchen to fetch something, forgetting why you came and then shrugging and eating all the crackers

How A Publisher Almost Killed The Book I Waited My Whole Life To Write: a thread My novel Villager came out in 2022. It was published by Unbound, who had little marketing/sales power. But I was excited & proud, since I worked so f-ing hard on it. Here's an extract: www.tom-cox.com/the-village-...

This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a treaty Churchill helped create in the ashes of World War II It protects our rights to protest, to a fair trial, to privacy, family life, safety from torture or degrading treatment Farage and now the Tories want to take Britain out of it (1/2)

I despise these ads so much, they are *cringe*. Special hatred for the ones in which grown humans are asking how to get dressed. JUST USE YOUR BRAIN.

I can't remember the last time I read a story about deep and lasting friendship, of all the joy AND melancholy, it can bring. At its heart that's what I think "Everything Will Swallow You" is about. It has that wonderful strangeness Tom Cox (@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social) brings to his fiction...1/2

Fabulous, the joy of old things!

I love living here, surrounded by trees! This cherry is next door, ours died sadly. We put three silver birches (waving from the side here) in her place. 🧡🌳

Some cups in my Super Seconds sale shop: www.ficooperceramics.com/ceramicsshop... #supersecondsfestival

I've created starter pack of as many #SuperSecondsFestival makers on here, some more active than others, but if you look in the posts section you'll see lovely deals from myself, @abistevensart.bsky.social @ficooper.bsky.social @or8design.bsky.social @jemgoodingart.bsky.social go.bsky.app/4pntMHf

It's a fab thing called Super Seconds Festival this weekend! 250 independent makers & artists are offering bargains today and tomorrow. You don't even need to battle storm Amy because it's all online: www.supersecondsfestival.co.uk/makerlineup/ ...and here are some of my sale items 🛍️:

Okay my beautiful bargain hunters, my mega seconds and sample sale is now live! There's lots of bird prints and a handful of my birb zines available, US shipping is also back up! www.loadofolbobbins.com/collections/... #BirdArt #SciArt #Illustration #ArtistSupport #Nature #Wildlife

This is absolutely true:

Those looks excellent!

I'm taking part in #SuperSecondsFestival on 4th and 5th October. Lots of bargains in this online event, from loads of lovely independent makers! #ssfoct2025

Some things (not many!) I just order the minute they're available...

I love nothing more than a time-slip tale (I was deeply into A Traveller in Time and Tom's Midnight Garden at the same time as this).

"Here is that book 'Everything Will Swallow You' by @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social that I heard about from Jim on the cat-telegraph" says Woody, "you should drop everything and read it now!"

Yes.

Villager is a fantastic book, and this village message board chapter is a work of genius (I don't laugh out loud often when reading but I did during this).

Watching "Genesis of the Daleks". I definitely need to knit this jumper Sarah Jane's wearing...

Absolutely DELIGHTED to tell you that #thedaddy has been nominated for this year’s MERCURY PRIZE!!!!!! About time, Dad! You total BELTER! 🐟🐟🐟👑👑👑🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🌟🌟🌟 Congratulations team: Ben Seal, Liz, Chris Salt, Kairen Kemp, Jon Wilks, Tim Youster and Dan Macdonald! #transformmethenintoafish

Two days.

Just had a polite email from Blackwell's to tell me my payment hadn't gone through for this *minor panic* Then I recalled the bastard credit card scammer of a hot August Sunday afternoon. So I know you can still pre-order signed ones on the Blackwells website, which I have just done (again).

BBC4 shouldn't just be allowed to: a) drop "The Lark Ascending" into the schedule with no warning *no I'm not weepy* b)... then cut it off before it properly ends!!!!

These books are free to anyone who wants them. They come from my late ex-publisher. If you want one, let me know in the replies (there are 200 in total). If you can afford the postage, brilliant. If not, no problem. I'll still sign & post one to you tomorrow. P.S. Stephen Fry called it "hilarious"

Without intending to, novelist Tom Cox brilliantly exposes AI’s failings.

NO No no...

Had a fun time writing about bread and circuses vs. bread and roses and whether in crises we're allowed to have fun. www.meditationsinanemergency.com/circuses-vs-...

If you’re waking up to yet another news programme on tv or radio that is over platforming REFORM with 4 MPs and not mentioning any other opposition party, you know what to do. Sign here and get anyone else you know to sign. Fair coverage now. Takes 30 seconds petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

WOW. MY NEW NOVEL (THE BEST NOVEL EVER) IS BEING PUBLISHED IN TWO WEEKS. PEOPLE ARE ALREADY SAYING IT IS BETTER THAN NOVELS BY HARPER (TINY HANDS) LEE, MARGARET ‘MEATBALL’ ATWOOD AND GOD AND BETTER THAN ANY COUNTRYSIDE NOVEL BEFORE IT BECAUSE I KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT GRASS. YOU ARE WELCOME, AMERICa. tc

How can the government possibly deal with the threat from Reform? I dunno, have you heard of A DRACONIAN CRACKDOWN? Imagine Farage was a vegetarian Marxist and just do whatever you would do to that guy.

Errr...NO.

Basically why I barely go on Instagram any more...used to have a feed of glorious stuff like this, now it's all shampoo and vitamin salespeople.

You should definitely join in! Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon sewing while being creeped out by Aickman and enjoying Dr Who nostalgia. (AND there's an absolutely banging Tom Baker anecdote at the end of the Logopolis one)

They've moved on to making us do jigsaw puzzles now:

I read 1983 before it almost disappeared into the black hole of You Know What's implosion. It's bloody LOVELY and I'm so happy Tom's found a new publisher! Go and buy one, you won't regret it (unless you only like boring books 😉)

fwiw my view on this is: arts organisations, please stop trying to do "here is a statement about an issue". you ALREADY MAKE ART. the art you commission and create is your statement; it is nuanced and subtle and most importantly you *know how to do it well* unlike this absolute shambles.

Why doesn't he just pootle about in a mucky Land Rover so no one notices him. DC style Motorcades are a *bit* of a giveaway (my mate got stuck behind it and said it was just bizarre!)

If the Chancellor wants to reform Inheritance Tax, she could start by reforming this 'heritage asset' tax loophole being exploited by grouse moors and wealthy landowners, which I investigated last year: www.theguardian.com/money/2024/o...

When I said we'd smash the gangs, I meant the gangs of old ladies holding cardboard signs.

Local news you can *actually read* without dodging hundreds of ads of all kinds (👀 yes I'm looking at you Oxford Mail).

FINALLY a newspaper publishes a proper investigative piece about Unbound, which dissolved earlier this year owing writers and readers vast sums of money (£20,000+ in my case), after a long period of false promises, incompetence, late payments and vagueness. observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Here's Darth Vader going about his terrible business at 4 miles an hour...

Nobel Prize winning science being cancelled by a vaccine denier.

This is what must happen:

I loved this show, my Dad worked at Bradford University and said it was horribly like real life, work politics/nonsense wise. I now work at Oxford University and I must say, he wasn't wrong. Plea for it to be repeated on BBC4 soon, in the 'old comedies' slot.