"Pessimism is a luxury for good times" @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social at #CBIconf25 in conversation with Laureate na nÓg.

The follow up point by point rebuttal makes me feel heartened that local journalism isn't dead but by GOD when you hear what he says in his own words it's...not far off the 14 words. dorseteye.com/a-response-t... #KidlitUK

I've just discovered the Rapture was yesterday & I missed it! Gutted.

What a spectacular ceiling!

Every Wednesday, I’m going to post a children’s book I’ve enjoyed. If you’ve read it too, or you want to share another book, join in! The first is a novel I read a few years ago now & it's stayed with me: High Rise Mystery, Sharna Jackson. Why do I like it? Read the alt text! #ukkidlit #kidlituk

Poets in Schools is The Poetry Society’s service for educators looking to bring a facilitator into their school to deliver poetry workshops and assemblies. We have been placing poets in schools for over 50 years. Book your visit: bit.ly/PoetsInSchools Photo: Emma Ledwith

The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) urgent appealing to children’s authors, writers and publishers to donate stories to its new bedtime stories app. The charity relies on stories in the public domain but are running out of books. Anyone willing to donate should contact [email protected].

Well, if it’s 23 September... YES, THAT’S RIGHT! It’s the 71st anniversary of the hunt for the Gorbals Vampire, in which hundreds of children aged from four to 14, armed with dogs, knives and sharpened sticks went looking for an urban myth

Had no idea the south-east was so much drier than the rest of GB. Pretty stark.

Details here! amheath.com/hilary-mante... #emergingwriters

I’ll be making a rare 2025 public appearance on the 3rd of October, as part of the Ipswich Book Festival. There will be scribbling, story creation, live drawing, and book signing if you like. Dancing optional. Maybe see you there!

Sunday + broken boiler + snotty cold + cat = perfect excuse to stay in pyjamas all day. Cheers everyone!

Everything about the war in Sudan is terrifying but this chilling phrase stood out: 'RSF is building an earthen wall around El Fasher to trap people inside' my god can't somebody stop it www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Every so often I find seven short poems from new books in my reading pile and put them together with the idea that people might like to read one a day over the week (binge reading is also fine, of course). Here's the latest selection:

This book is lovely, friendship & snow & magic, what more could you ask for?

Haunting vacant basilica, illuminated by just six candles. Wonderfully complex space by Anthonie de Lorme, whose day was today.

A great author FOR FREE? Why wouldn't you? @amdassu.bsky.social

What an amazing offer for schools from @barringtonstoke.bsky.social ! 🤩 THREE bundles of wonderful books by author extraordinaire @catwrote.bsky.social #BlackHistoryMonth #UKKidlit #KidlitUK

Joyous!

My new small museums for mental health w'shop is on Sat 4 Oct Recent compelling research shows that collecting & arranging collections neatly alleviates anxiety & lifts mood. Includes: 🌿2 hr zoom-we'll make & photograph small museums 🗝️30% off my Etsy shop: workshops.emmamitchell.uk/courses/smal...

We've got a new Storyshaped podcast episode for you - and it's a banger! We recorded this chat with @kieranlarwood.bsky.social at @ilfdublin.bsky.social earlier this year, and now you can check it out wherever you get your podcasts! @susancahill.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/68Fz...

Copy that Floppy Cafe 💾 📅Thursday 9 October, 2-5pm Come have your floppy disk data transferred to a modern format at Cambridge University Library! For more info and to book: https://loom.ly/FRjMsM8

Painting by Sylvia Ken, Indigenous artist from the Amata community in South Australia, relates to the Seven Sisters creation story #WomensArt

Ipswich is hosting a book festival, 3rd-5th October. Lots of exciting-looking events, including plenty for children. www.ipswichbookfestival.com

A pair of frolicking foxes for #NationalFoxDay 🦊 These foxes are from a richly illuminated 16th Century copy of the Persian version of Qazwini's ʻAjāʼib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharāʼib al-mawjūdāt (MS Nn.3.74) See it up close in the Cambridge Digital Library: https://loom.ly/9vanVC4

How many hours of my life* have I wasted writing to the bloody Belgian douane asking them to look at the parcel from the UK they've impounded and notice the IOSS label prominently stuck on it? * probably not that many but it's still annoying

After seeing all the lovely Puffin Post covers @regretteruane.bsky.social shared on here, I listened to this edition of Great Lives, about Kaye Webb, the Fat Puffin herself. www.bbc.com/audio/play/m... Treat yourself to half an hour of nostalgia & admiration.

I had never heard of Licinio before but have loved seeing all his paintings, especially these charged family & group pictures. Thank you, @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social

Can I justify buying a copy of Hettie Nettle for myself? It looks charming & exactly the sort of book I'd have lived by aged six.

This is repellent & ridiculous. A concert has been cancelled because the conductor is Israeli. He isn't representing the government or the state, he isn't promoting anything, he's just being punished for his nationality. www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...

It is disproportionate to the point of absurdity to treat people sitting peacefully in a group holding signs as ‘terrorists’. People are outraged by the genocide in Gaza and are entitled to express their horror. Call on UK prosecutors to end these prosecutions: amn.st/63329ARB1U

Amazing! Hilarious! Horrifying!

Oh God. Why do I have to work for a living?

"Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness." ~ Kurt Vonnegut [Artwork: "Tralfamadorian," By Kurt Vonnegut]

🍂 We're opening a 24 hour submission period here at Chicken House this Autumn Equinox (22nd September) 🍂 Do you: 🖋️Live in the UK or Ireland? 🖋️Have a finished or unfinished novel for children aged 7-11? This opportunity might be for you! Details➡️ https://loom.ly/LX7qCic

'Yellow Ox-eye daisies', Charles Mahoney (1903-1968), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Mahoney painted this post-war study of telekia speciosa at his garden in Wrotham, Kent, where he had constructed his studio from munition packing cases.

The Waggon Tracks https://www.wikiart.org/en/joan-miro/the-waggon-tracks

Hello teachers! My book Wild Journey will be published on 6th November and to celebrate it I’m doing a free online school event with Seven Stories The National Centre for Children's Books sevenstories.org.uk/event/author...

Ellen Thesleff's self portrait of 1895, goes beyond a depiction of outward appearances and conveys the enigma of the artist who helped introduce Impressionism to Finland; she regarded herself as a poet with a brush, always trying to capture what she called 'the dream of life.'

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the wonderful Llewelyn Morgan - featuring John Masefield, Aristotle, Rudyard Kipling, Matthew Arnold, Iain Pears and more!

Yesterday, the largest far-right protest in UK history marched through London, led by racist Tommy Robinson. Today, we say: They don’t speak for us — and they won’t have the last word. This Wednesday we come together against Trump and for a better future. Do everything to be there.

Keep thinking of arguments for why it would be completely insane to dump a prime minister with a huge majority just 14 months in, and also about how if he's not going to say a single word in opposition to the kind of shit we saw today then I no longer feel convinced by any of those arguments.

It's deeply dispiriting to have to fight this shit all over again. But we're starting from a stronger position than previous generations. And they won in the end.

I HATE when people compare AI to the printing press, it's so disingenuous. The printing press was opposed by the elites because it put power in the hands of everyday people, and popularized a vernacular. AI does the opposite, by allowing elites to bypass artists and laborers.

Poetry is not a product. Pasolini. (Loving his use of “hermetic” & “preciousness” & praising anything that can’t be mass consumed).

One day, nearly 2000 years ago, a cat dashed across some drying tiles, somewhere near Hadrian's Wall. It's immortality of a kind, isn't it?

#SailFest is BACK for 2025 with a wonderful array of speakers! Open to all, including publishers, educators, children’s literature scholars and librarians as well as creators. #kidlituk #uklidlit More here: www.sailfest.org.uk/sailfest-blo...

#UKKidLit #KidLitUk Children’s book folks! Have you heard of SAILfest? A one-day event about South Asian children’s books in the UK, with new authors and those who have built a career in children’s books and those who elevate and shine a light on children’s books in the UK. Attend in-person / online