Jo Cotterill/Kenrick

I saw an apology from BAFTA on Facebook about 2 hours ago.

Happy birthday! Hope the kids are kind to you 😉🎉

Heading reads "Proud to be an EmpathyLab Ambassador" over a photo of Jo who is a white woman wearing glasses and smiling at the camera. She has long grey hair and stands in front of a plain pink wall. Underneath is her name Jo Cotterill.

Text reads "Introducing EmpathyLab Ambassadors" and then there are photos of the following children's authors: Jo Cotterill, AM Dassu, Hannah Gold, Tom Percival, Sue Cheung, Bali Rai, Rashmi Sirdeshpande, Jion Sheibani and Patrice Lawrence.

Honoured and proud to announce I've been asked to be an Ambassador for the incredible, life-changing organization EmpathyLab @empathylabuk.bsky.social #empathy #schools #readforempathy #goallin

Here for the Shakespeare appreciation club.

Hard agree. I know these books SO well and it infuriates me when they mess with the plotlines and invent stuff to make it more sensational. The Poirots are generally better apart from the hideous mess of The Big Four, and The Labours of Hercules.

I just bought this: A Year of Creative Thinking, by Jessica Swale. Very wide range of writing/thinking prompts, mostly taking no more than 10 mins. I feel like this will really help me keep the joy of creating!

Do. It.

But you've carefully hand painted her full name on it so she can't regift it.

Clay pot that will be almost exactly the wrong size for any items.

How do I ACTUALLY do a school visit? From getting them to doing them

Up now on my Publishing Peptalk substack including,
What to put in your sessions,
How to get work,
How to control the kids (featuring a VERY funny story from the brilliant @sarahcrossan.bsky.social who does amazing school visits)
open.substack.com/pub/abielong...

NEW: The British politician, his Russian intelligence handler & a Kremlin plot against the US & Ukraine.

My new piece about Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage for @thenerve_news in which we ask:

Why, even now, is no-one asking questions?

t.co/BUTtpK9C4S

Two fun days at the North Cornwall Book Festival doing events to kids in a beautiful tent! Now in Bath (not in a bath) for an event tomorrow! Busy times 😁

This is awesome! Congratulations!!

Image shows Keir Starmer, David Lammy and Yvette Cooper with the words: don't be genocide deniers.

BREAKING: A UN inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

All eyes are now on the UK Government who must stop indulging in genocide denial.

It must fulfil its legal and moral responsibility by taking immediate, decisive steps to prevent and punish genocide.

Have fun!

Surely there's a difference between stress and pressure? Pressure is placed on you (such as needing to finish slides by a particular time). Stress is your own response. People with ADHD need pressure/deadlines or they won't get anything done. Autistic ppl need structure, which pressure often creates

Loch Lochy in sunlight with blue skies above

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin

Series 1, Episode 1 - 'Melon buffet.' | Full Episode | Taskmaster YouTube video by Taskmaster

For anyone who needs respite from the news, I highly recommend Taskmaster, an extremely silly long-running UK show in which five comedians compete at absurd tasks. Low-stress, high-pleasure, lots of laughs, utterly disconnected from reality. As your doctor, I hereby prescribe one episode minimum.

Tried it. Couldn't get past the first twenty minutes. Dreadful.

No, just plunge in. I mean, you'll be wondering "who?" But none of their back stories impact the plot. I LOVE the film and I can't even remember where two of the characters came from. Doesn't matter. Sit back and enjoy, it's fab.

Cuppa tea.

Same. And as recently as July this year (I left Twitter 2 years ago). Inciting a pile-on of hatred. Thankfully it didn't spill onto other platforms - maybe his supporters thought that was too much effort (or maybe they're all bots?)

Or even the cis women allies he also hates...(I left Twitter two years ago. Just found this from July this year.)

Judge SPARKLE?? this is the most awesome name ever.

"But I never thought they'd eat MY face!" wails woman who voted for Face-Eating Leopard Party.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This whole thread so clearly explains ONE aspect of why being trans is so hard at the moment. "Tell me what rights they don't have" - HERE YOU GO.

Oh, I'm sorry, that sucks.

They should just have said "we're recruiting experienced writers for Father Brown; here's how to apply to our training course". They've pitched this as "following on" from their previous opportunity when it's clearly nothing like 😞

I'm in the UK.

Sorry. You didn't mention seeing a doctor, just pain for two weeks. I hope it improves soon.