Morning.

The general right-wing freakout about London as a multicultural city doesn’t stand up very well to … an actual awareness of history, does it? This twelfth-century text (William fitzStephen’s biography of Thomas Becket) sees it as part of what makes the city thrive.

Last week: we roll out the red carpet for a fascist. This week: our Health Secretary has to go on morning television to reassure the public that, counter to that same fascist’s claims, paracetamol does not *checks notes* cause autism.

Gutted not to be at the anti-Trump march today. If you’re going - thank you! Please shout for those of us who won’t be there. No quarter for fascists.

Please enjoy my mother-in-law’s painting, which I like to call ‘Man with Levitating Cat’.

Yeah, not quite what I expected when a human rights lawyer became PM. Thought he might mind a bit more about genocide, but OK yeah, yeah , cool.

Unexpectedly beautiful pommes dauphinoise prep making me think of Whoopi Goldberg.

Is it starting?!

Not just one, a triptych.

As someone also born overseas, it strikes me that quite a few Times journalists probably were.

I love this piece so much I once wrote a flash fiction about it. We’ve adorned our bodies since forever. This would look utterly banging on anyone in the twenty-first century.

NOVELIST starter pack featuring @kitdewaal.com @regretteruane.bsky.social @susannacrossman.bsky.social @drewgum.bsky.social @salmanshaheen.bsky.social @anna-orridge.bsky.social @jendiagammon.bsky.social @tammykomoff.bsky.social & many more. Please follow & repost the pack #booksky #writingcommunity

The National giving us the best front cover of all time @scotnational.bsky.social

World Central Kitchen has been able to provide water & fresh bread while their food is stuck at the border. www.worldcentralkitchen.org/donate

Are we meant to consider this a big leap?

@isabelrogers.bsky.social Donating plasma. Look at this beauty. (Mint Club also available.)

Chabon.

Blimey, America. I’ve never felt so divided about a country that isn’t my own. Trump voters: may everything you wish on immigrants happen to you. Non Trump voters: my brothers, sisters and non-binary siblings, I am with you. If you run and need a place to crash, I’ve washed the spare duvet.

Rant alert. Mega rant alert. How about our leaders stop wringing hands, issuing feeble denunciations, and actually DO something? Stop the moral equivalency. Stop pretending we’re helpless. There’s plenty we could do if genuinely committed. Here’s some suggestions for starters. 🧵

Superlative stuff. Got me thinking about other novels which take an encompassing / dispassionate gaze across time (no ‘plot’ as we’d understand it, no hero). John McGregor’s Reservoir 13, I think. Any others…?

Not now, Pulsing Something.

It’s here!

Morning!

Happy solstice! (I’m at a cocktail bar on an iron age hillfort).

Of all the priceless and world changing glorious objects and pieces in all the museums in the world, this is still one of the most precious. Well done ‪@poolemuseum.bsky.social

If I may… friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk www.visitchurches.org.uk

The proportion of state school pupils accepted into the University of Cambridge has fallen by a record amount, following the institution’s decision to scrap admissions targets in this area, analysis reveals. @patrickjack.bsky.social reports #AcademicSky #EduSky

Allow me to wholeheartedly recommend this book, written by a German-American jew who embedded himself in post-war German society to learn about how ordinary people came to support the unthinkable. Yes, there are of course multiple analogies with what we’re seeing in the US right now. /

This evening UK Parliament voted to reform abortion law. It is the most substantial reform in almost 50 years. This is an historic moment.

@ollyglover.bsky.social Thank you!

Thinking of all the Shakespeare scholars I know, weeping into their beer.

This magnificent thread about a forgotten Welsh marquess – yes – is frankly REQUIRED READING. Newspapers in March 1905 declared his death a "wasted life". Nonsense. Anyone who yearly spent £3,000 (£314,000) In today’s terms on bejewelled underwear strikes me as a man having a remarkably good time.

[Exit King.]

How long, oh Lord? How long?

Fascism playbook being well-thumbed there, I see.

Google tells us there's a moderate thunderstorm warning today in Reading but the good news is that our founders wisely prepared for this by building a roof. Come and marvel at how dry it is at The Museum of English Rural Life.

Giving blood is a brilliant thing to do, and comes with that most iconic of British experiences: a cuppa and a Club biscuit. (And a reminder to my Reading pals that we also have a specialist plasma donation centre, should you want to ring the changes.) www.blood.co.uk

London sends love to LA. Different countries, same fight. Ain’t no way we’re blaming our neighbours when it’s billionaires who dodge taxes and hike our rents 💋 #losangeles #laprotests

Weirdly, it’s easier to get your head around the evil than around the stupid.

The *superb* Stephanie Butland is now offering Creative Writing workshops on Zoom - run, don’t walk. www.stephaniebutlandauthor.com/p/zoom-works...

Best thing you’ll watch today.

I wonder a lot whether ICE members realise they’re the Gestapo. I know we all think we’re the hero, but I wonder whether there’s something troubling for any of them, glimpsed out of the corner of their eye.

Do tell me again how women are too emotional for leadership.

Oh, 1981. ♥️ #totp

Happy Pride Month! Apply for this fab mentoring programme!

Is this what good news feels like?

I have no words.