4pm today on BBC Radio 4 Extra it’s the repeat of my adaptation of Iain M. Banks’ The State of the Art, with Sir Antony Sher as the ship. So proud of this amazing production by @nadiamolinari.bsky.social
Malorie Blackman on Noughts & Crosses at 25: ‘It’s even more relevant today’
A keybox for a hurdy gurdy. Basically wooden pegs that will change the pitch of two of the four strings.
A nearly complete hurdy gurdy, a boxy pear shaped wooden instrument.
My hurdy gurdy project is nearly done. This weekend I'll put the wheel in, which might require a little light chiselling ("trueing") to make sure it's perfectly round. Then I'll wax the whole thing and then: the strings. (And the dog, a little piece that buzzes when you crank with force.)
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone on here who's offered their congratulations about the British Book Award nom for Nessie. I started to thank people individually, but, ahem, eventually there were too many. Thank you so much, friends and followers!
As we hurtle towards international women's day and the usual articles about women chefs will be dutifully rolled out, I want to flag up something. There are many Gujarati restaurants with all-female teams of mostly older women, diligently cooking their family's recipes, that go largely unheralded.
In local news, the hedgehogs are out and about 😊
We reckon we've seen two big ones and three small-to-mediums.
More hedgehogs. These two big lads are evidently getting territorial ahead of potential mating opportunities. #TinyJoys
Photograph of John le Carré. Head and shoulders shot of him standing in woodland
Running since the last quarter of 2025, the John le Carré : Tradecraft exhibition enters its final month. If you have yet to visit, don't miss the chance to view this incredible archive spanning his life and career. Entry is free @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Weston Library
go.glam.ox.ac.uk/yPfczgbcy
More hedgehogs. These two big lads are evidently getting territorial ahead of potential mating opportunities. #TinyJoys
In local news, the hedgehogs are out and about 😊
We reckon we've seen two big ones and three small-to-mediums.
A black-and-white close-up portrait of John Colicos. He faces slightly toward the camera with a calm, attentive expression. His short dark hair is neatly trimmed, and he has thick eyebrows and a clean-shaven face. He wears a collared shirt with the top button open beneath a darker jacket. The softly blurred background suggests an indoor setting, keeping the focus on his face.
John Colicos was the first man to portray a Klingon on Star Trek.
He was a veteran of the Stratford Festival.
He acted in The National Dream, voiced Apocalypse on X-Men: The Animated Series and much more.
This is his story.
🧵 1/9
Seb Doubinsky author picture
Delighted to announce the exciting new speculative novella by Seb Doubinsky, The Machine, for the award-winning Luna Novella 2027! Luna Press has acquired EWR from Matt Bialer, of New York Sanford J. Greenburger Associates www.lunapresspublishing.com/post/unveili... @sebdoubinsky.bsky.social ❤️
'The government must not weaken copyright law, and should instead strengthen licensing, transparency & enforcement.
The government should stop prioritising large multinational tech firms'
Training larger language models is not an academic pursuit. Training material should licensed and paid for.
The British Book Awards (the Nibbies) short lists have been announced and the British Fantasy Society is proud to be supporting the Science Fiction and Fantasy category. Congratulations to everyone who made the short lists!
www.thebookseller.com/british-book...
"Mandatory genetic testing for some female athletes constitutes a “step backwards” and risks serious ethical, legal and psychological harm, a new editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has warned."
www.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-eve...
Yellow bird with black face and red eye, all puffed out and slightly damp.
Let me start a belated thread of Aotearoa New Zealand silvan birds.
To lead things off, a New Zealand Bellbird photographed on Kapiti Island.
Anyone willing to do that would need very deep pockets, a lot of time and focus to devote to this, to the exclusion of other aspects of their life, and the resolve to withstand being monstered in the media. That's a very big ask.
Full report:
committees.parliament.uk/committee/17...
In 2013 archaeologists uncovered the skeleton of a large dog at Leiston Abbey- locals claimed it as the remains of Black Shuck. However, scientific analysis indicated the skeleton belonged to an elderly male farm dog from the 18th century, carefully buried rather than feared… 🐾
#PhantomsFriday
Reasons a cis women might have Y chromosomes:
- Twin brother
- Gestating a child with a Y chromosome
- Bone marrow transfusion from someone with a Y chromosome
- Being intersex (we know of XY women who have naturally conceived and given birth)
Actually, here's that announcement, and it's huge! Who Killed Nessie by me and @rachaelsmith.bsky.social has been nominated in the British Book Awards! www.thebookseller.com/british-book...
The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer.
🧵 1/5
Cover of Three Twins at the Crater School by Chaz Brenchley. Art by Ben Baldwin. Three young girls in green school uniforms cower back at the edge of a lake. From the waters emerges a giant Martian creature: part-insect, part-lobster. The Crater School buildings can be seen in the background.
Are you a fan yet? Chaz Brenchley's Crater School books are a perfect recreation of the classic girls' boarding school tales such as the Chalet School series. There's just one twist: the school is on Mars! The first book in the series is Three Twins at the Crater School.
wizardstowerpress.co...
Indeed. When this was tried before, unexpected (and irrelevant) test results caused great distress, which was one reason the practice was binned.
I'd be very interested to see the numbers on this, but have no idea where to find the data.
How many women athletes must now take this test x £185 = How much money drained from women's sport funding? In order to stigmatise and exclude how many on ideological grounds?
Press Association comment from Quakers in Britain This evening, for the second time in a year, the Metropolitan Police raided a Quaker Meeting House and arrested a number of young nonviolent activists who were meeting there on the grounds that they were conspiring to commit a criminal act. The room in Westminster Quaker Meeting House was let to Take Back Power to hold nonviolent direct action training. Quakers support the principle of nonviolent direct action, which aims to protest without harming people. Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship for Quakers in Britain, said: “For Quakers, faith and action are inseparable. Peaceful protest, prayer and nonviolent action are integral parts of many Quakers' religious life. “Whilst we take the planning of criminal acts very seriously, we believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place. This raid is part of a systematic stifling of dissent. “That this is the second time in a year that the police have raided our meeting house dramatically illuminates the broader trend in the UK of cracking down on those who disagree with the government. The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. It's a key part of how people make their voices heard between elections.”
Statement from @quaker.org.uk about tonight's police raid on Westminster Meeting House. Guys, I don't think they're buying the Met's line about it all being a cover for plotting "mass shoplifting"
I'd be very interested to see the numbers on this, but have no idea where to find the data.
How many women athletes must now take this test x £185 = How much money drained from women's sport funding? In order to stigmatise and exclude how many on ideological grounds?
Bronze statue (Ashmolean Museum)
A bronze statuette of a Hindu saint, acquired by the Ashmolean in 1967, has been returned to a temple in Tamil Nadu. The Ashmolean had been alerted to doubts around its provenance in 2019 and voluntarily approached Indian authorities for an investigation.
www.ashmolean.org/press/return...
Anyone at the #LondonBookFair, next week, I'll be there and speaking about #Manga.
The panel is 'Manga is Mainstream: Why Japanese Comics Connect With Global Readers’, and I'm very much looking forward to it!
danacea.ghost.io/speaking-at-...
If you're doomscrolling, guess what? So far there are 51 kākāpō chicks hatched and thriving this season, the same number of birds as we had in TOTAL in the 90s! Only one chick has died and there are still fertile eggs waiting to hatch!
