work sitting time over (in home office) now to begin fun sitting time (in living room)

chose Chernobyl as my Halloween watch cos there’s nothing scarier than a nuclear disaster and a government who lies

I'm rewatching Bones and the most unbelieveable bit of Season One is when her 'Publisher' sends her a car in the hope that she'll write another book 😭

possibly the grimmiest book list I've seen in a while (via my local council library)

I hope we all understand this is happening because the services are being made less social. Being social isn't profitable.

perfect lunchtime reading. you might think, how could a tram driver championship be exciting, well Holly explains how

What's effectively happening here (in the British media at large, too) is the construction of "anti-racism" as somehow a "political alternative" to racism, rather than as a minimal civilisational standard, which in turn (further) vindicates racism as *also* an acceptable political position.

My new novel, AS IF, has a cover. Out from Hamish Hamilton on 26th Feb 2026, and later in the year from FSG in the US. As of now you can preorder via your usual bookshop or your library—thank you! x

I said what I said! I loved reading this book earlier this year 💙 and now you can preorder it!!

come along! no ticket needed! we’ll be chatting horns, lesbians and detective fiction!

Really enjoyed this afternoon’s @womenshistnet.bsky.social roundtable on “Lesbian Histories & the Long View” with @elizabethlovatt.bsky.social, @sazwingrove.bsky.social, @vickyig.bsky.social & Lisa Weston! I particularly loved everyone’s joy for research & the rabbit holes you end up going down!

one day you wake up post-35 and realise you have become the Lorax and it time to get better tweezers

Some Awesome games in this bundle with all proceeds going to a just cause! Be sure to pick it up 🇵🇸

Ursula K. LeGuin on technology

too many men wearing swede shoes in (rainy) London today

I’ve written about making art when it feels like the world is ending, about living truthfully in a homophobic world, about the Two Roberts in the 1940s. And a lot of it feels very…now.

my mum is going to Leicester Pride this year for the first time and with her new church - hoping she snags a zine for me!

The sign up link for our roundtable 'Lesbian Histories and the Long View', ft. @elizabethlovatt.bsky.social, @vickyig.bsky.social, @norenashopland.bsky.social, @sazwingrove.bsky.social, and Prof Lisa Weston, is now LIVE. Please visit our website to register: womenshistorynetwork.org/sign-up-now-...

Is the Magic 8Ball sentient? We asked the Magic 8Ball, the company that are raking it in from the toy & the players who are using it rather than going to therapy. An LLM is a predictive algorithm that replicates the most common or likely response. It's like asking if a fruit machine is suffering.

I'm reading Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer (a brilliant book on the gift economy) -it strikes me that the below is in opposition to what she advocates: to see nature as a person (as some Indigenous people do) worthy of empathy & respect as much as you or me, as way to see abundance not scarcity

British Lads Hit Each Other With Chair hats up on my ☕️ There’s a hat + art print deal too 🪑 ko-fi.com/benmc

I am absolutely delighted to be speaking about ways of doing lesbian history alongside @norenashopland.bsky.social, @elizabethlovatt.bsky.social, @vickyig.bsky.social and Professor Lisa Weston next month!

if anything happens to these little weirdos I’m gunna be really really sad #Herdlings @okomotive.ch one of them has a flower crown now 🥺

so far we’ve raised over £1000 for Loneon Friend - the LGBTQ+ charity that house the lesbian telephone helpline I write about in my book! To celebrate there’s 10% off on my online shop with the code DYKEMARKET10 until end of Aug! merch-by-elizabeth.sumupstore.com

If you’d like to buy a copy of my book, which looks at the lives and history of Black gay men in Britain, you can get a copy from a bookshop or any of the retailers on the attached link. And please do buy books from the other withdrawn authors linktr.ee/revolutionaryacts

Perhaps, one day, schoolkids will study this squalid little chapter in British terror-panic history. When they do, I hope these two headlines from today are printed side by side, with clear annotation of which individual faced more outrage and condemnation.

I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/

a trans person's right to a safe and good life does not harm my own rights as a cis lesbian. none of us are free until all of us a free!! and using cis women again as a scapegoat to why trans lives don't matter is harmful and illogical.

I think we are very much losing the sight of the fact that it is not the authors we should be mad at. The only person we should be angry with is the organiser who has created this horrific situation for a group of LGBT writers due to their own transphobic ideology.

New Polari Prize Update - alongside those who've withdrawn, Karen McLeod and Avi Ben-Zeev have put out statements explaining why they aren't withdrawing their books. I saw some vibes in my replies last night so I'm gonna say this now - don't harass ANY of the authors for their decisions.

and yet still our government does nothing, shameful.

the fact they didn't make a profit for eight years (and then only because of some luck with a viral TikTok book) kinda says it all - this has been awful to watch for the authors who have been left stranded now that Unbound have gone out of business

The Polari Prize last week longlisted John Boyne, who only recently wrote a piece saying how much he admired JK R*owling and is a 'proud terf' - book pals: there's an open letter here that you can read + sign to show your solidarity with our trans community #booksky docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

We’re delighted to announce that we’re now open to Inklings pitch submissions until the 31st August! Visit our website for further information - we’re really looking forward to reading your submissions! saraband.net/2025/07/11/i... #Booksky #Writers @404ink.bsky.social 📚💙

Lovely chatting to @biancahillier.bsky.social about lesbian lines and archives for @theworld.org 💗 you can listen below!

Last week a group of racists attacked people working in a hotel where people seeking asylum are forced to live, because they’re weren’t white. Essex police watched proceedings unfold and made no arrests. They stopped anti-racist counter protesters though. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

deeply invested in this new factory building game Kaizen: A Factory Story from @coincidence.games so much so that I just made my wife watch this step by step even though she had no idea what was happening (spoilers I guess, but if it helps I'm not v good!) #indiegames #gif

I like how in sports* there’s an omniscient narrator telling you what’s happening *Im watching the Women’s Euros

a misguided and backwards step - banning conversations around gender identity is impractical at best & essentially enshrines transphobia into schools by allowing teaching of 'biological sex' but not gender identity. This will harm young people's lives, in the same way that I was harmed by Sec 28

New episode! We're joined by @itsjensim.bsky.social for an insightful and often unhinged discussion about video game character customisation. Listen wherever you get podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/6SlD...

really enjoyed @itsjensim.bsky.social on @backpagepod.bsky.social talking about dress up games and character customisation, sun a fun conversation! It reminded me of a piece I wrote a few years ago on dressing gay in video games elizabethlovatt.com/2020/11/11/d...

Just finished reading 'Thank you for calling the Lesbian line' by @elizabethlovatt.bsky.social What an absolutely fantastic book. I love the blend of flash 'fiction' written from logbook-entry prompts & the seamless blend of personal story and wider history. Stonking book. Go get a copy, everyone.

every time someone uses the word substack instead of newsletter a part of me dies inside

And today, this extraordinary conversation with the brilliant @catherinelacey.bsky.social... pod.fo/e/2e3d0b @grantabooks.bsky.social ♾️The Book That Refuses to End: Catherine Lacey on The Möbius Book♾️

This happened far outside Israel's territorial waters, stripping even the vaguest legal excuse.

Happy Pride Month 2025 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Be gay do crow stuff #pridemonth #pridecrows

Enough of this racist fiction. Enough. Not a single non-white person in England is in a job in the NHS *because* they are non-white. Not a single one. And as for the idea that England's criminal justice system goes easy on non-white people because they are non-white. Well. Just think about that.

it’s my US pub date today!! I’m at home in London celebrating in style 😌✌🏼

GOOD. So much of my work making merchandise for a gallery is speaking to artists/artist estates, understanding what they are comfortable with and obtaining permissions and PAYING them for their work

this book was so GOOD go get it!!!