The US has 5 times the murder rate of the UK, and about 3.5 times the murder rate in London. London half the rate of New York which is not a dangerous large US city compared to others that come to mind.

Genuinely bewilders me that the work of Michael Moorcock is as absent as it is from the conversations around the fantasy genre today. The first author I read to show me what else fantasy could be. So of course I'm biased and yes I'm old.

🔴 NEW: Larry Ellison’s £257m bet on Tony Blair Our investigation with @lighthousereports.com reveals how the Tony Blair Institute has been accused of pushing the interests of tech tycoon Ellison — Trump’s “CEO of everything” — and his company Oracle democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...

Writing the Magic is out now! The sequel to our British Fantasy Award-winning books on the Uncanny, the Future and Murder. 13 essays on crafting fantasy fiction, published by Dead Ink Books: deadinkbooks.com/product/writ...

Maravilloso poema que trata un tema actual, sobre los que quieren comprar vida… o quedársela. Igual que acaparan todo lo demás, aunque les sobre.

Sadiq Khan's team on Trump's comments about London crime The homicide rate in the US is seven times that of London

It's a basic point, but one that needs to be repeated: If right-wingers and their views were popular, they would not be so desperate to control mass media & social media nor to use government power to silence everyone else, and they wouldn't need oligarchs pumping billions into amplifying them.

Looking at Labour legislative programme and refashioning as "never give powers to a crappy government in terrible times which you wouldn't want Nigel Farage to have."

"You couldn't make The Birth of a Nation nowadays," laments D. W. Griffith, "because it's three hours long, very racist, and I am dead."

Our supermarket brand of Camembert describes itself as "Camembert of Character" I think this one is a Troll Fighter cursed to be unable to wash their armpits

The sound of a bald eagle you hear in movies is almost always actually that of a red-tailed hawk. That's because bald eagles sound NOTHING like what you think. Don't say I didn't warn you:

Shocked, shocked, I tell you, to learn that a machine which views verbal or visual statistical probablities without comprehension of their meanings cannot be programmed to be always right. #AITheft #AIShit

Kirk’s ‘memorial’ getting a live coverage on The Guardian is a great example of how the right gets automatically framed as the default political movement to be ‘understood’ while the victims of that same movement never will never get the same amount of coverage

In news surprising few of us...

‪@hws.bsky.social‬ note attending Fantasycon...

What movie do you consider "perfect"?

Endorse this. The first of theirs I have read but not the last

Many media outlets hid the full truth of Trump -- his background in organized crime, his Epstein ties -- out of fear, only to be obliterated by him in the end. Had they not self-censored then, they might not be state-censored now. When you hide the truth, you face the consequences.

It's fun when you say something on a panel and your fellow writers go 'ooh, I like that'. We were discussing tropes and I said awareness of the classic story elements matters because we grow up with them so they influence us subconsciously. 'Tropes are the background radiation of our creativity.'

Really don't understand why it's so hard for people to get this but maybe with someone who isn't a Black woman saying it, it will get through

Delighted to see that I was not the only person to think Trump’s legal complaint against the NYT was too badly written to take seriously: turns out the judge thinks so, too. bsky.app/profile/timm...

Arrrr arrrr if ye use Artificial Intelligence, you're a scurvy knave

UK weather right now: It's going to be cloudy and windy and almost certainly rain at some point, but it's also going to be way too hot to wear a raincoat.

Opportunity here for a writer on a low income to get access to a nine week novel writing course taught by the great @silvanhistorian.bsky.social www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/course/break...

I am heading to Derby. With ten copies of the book in the wheelie. The otiose booking system at the hotel has been vanquished by a human. I am at the "really do I need all these characters" stage of the sequel. I have the Dickens disease of if in doubt, through in a new character.

"AI can replace 95 per cent of university tuition with superior one-on-one tutoring, bespoke, in your own home, 24/7" Increasingly obvious that the only question the Telegraph asks its contributors is 'Can you promise us you know absolutely nothing about the subject you're writing about?'

I'll be here tomorrow. I think there's still a few tickets left. IF YOU ARE QUICK.

I enjoyed The Crooked Medium’s Guide To Murder by Stephen Cox for a Victorian cosy mystery www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/9/...

It is Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ahem "AI will transform society into a intergalatic utopia by next year, that's why we can't pay you for stealing your work." #NoAI #AIIsTheft #PayHumanCreators #amwriting I found these on Artvee, a production of Penzance from the Twenties so I assume for men.

It be Talk Like A Pirate Day so here be Pirate Bob to do his annual thing for ye. Thank you @ericidle.bsky.social for making this happen. ♓🐟💖 youtu.be/_ACyZIXkHq0?...

BTW the pirate accent is a West Country accent which the first spoken film Long John Silver used and people randomly decided had to be followed. I have absolute joy when hearing the Bristol accent, which is different from places only twenty miles around it. Mother's milk stuff.

A pirate goes to the ship’s surgeon to have spots on his arm checked. The surgeon says, "They're benign". The pirate replies, "No, no doc. There be 11. I counted them before I came here." Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Privately educated people (7%) still dominate the UK's most influential roles. #edchat #HigherEd #school

Today the Church of England remembers Theodore of Tarsus, second Archbishop of Canterbury, who had never set foot in these isles before being appointed, and who had to learn the local tongue on the journey here. There would be no British Christianity without immigrants.

It is Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ahem "AI will transform society into a intergalatic utopia by next year, that's why we can't pay you for stealing your work." #NoAI #AIIsTheft #PayHumanCreators #amwriting I found these on Artvee, a production of Penzance from the Twenties so I assume for men.

The people who *make this tech* can't get it to work in a simple demo, and their magical thinking about it has convinced them that they didn't need to do the most basic level of preparation for their demonstration. So it is, in fact, an excellent demonstration of what genAI will do for society.

Bluesky Is the answer to the age old paradox of what would happen if you locked really good comedians in a room with people who have never experienced a joke

Gonna retweet my own thread til i see people stop spreading the alternative-facts view of things.

I would love to be part of the conversation on MSNBC related to the Kimmel story and it's chilling effects on first amendment, but unfortunately I was terminated by MSNBC for stating that "hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which lead to hateful actions".

Breaking: Don’t miss this offer before Donald Trump leaves the UK today. Prince Andrew has organised it especially for you* 📍 Pizza Express, Woking *parody, obv #trump #epstein

Karl Rove says the right is being dangerously devisive, the man whose name appears in the dictionary under 'dangerously devisive'. Dark times

This crazy sci fi noir crime thriller is out today in the UK and I can't wait for you all to read it! Available in hardback, ebook, and audio from all reputable retailers (and probably some disreputable ones too!) If you can, support your local indie!

think if you're broadly a centrist and were suuuuuper concerned about attacks on free speech from the left and so you decided to give the right a hearing then you need to realise you were taken for QUITE the ride (and don't really have anyone to blame but yourself)

Groupmind: anyone know the author and title of an SF short story about a civilisation of strange-matter creatures inhabiting Earth's mantle, which is discovered just as they discover us?

“You used to be able to say anything” comedians never been more quiet in their lives

Six recent books I enjoyed hunting for comparison titles - launch news update, and why authors are keen to be reviewed. Six titles are Spirited, What a Way to Go, Grave Expectations,The Other Side of Mrs Wood, The Murder of Harriet Monckton, and The Housekeepers. #books #recommend #newsletter

"150bn of magic beans will really grow our economy" remember, the magic beans did grow something, but it's a fair story, not a manifesto

no personhood for LLMs!!

Wow, this guy talks sense about reviews #amwriting #writing #indieauthor #booksky #reviews #opinions #books www.tealeavesandreads.co.uk/why-authors-... And Tea Leaves and Reads are great