Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Gorton and Denton byelection: Polanski says Greens best party to defeat Reform after Hannah Spencer wins – UK politics live Reform UK finished second and Labour is pushed into third place in bad news for PM Keir Starmer

"This is Manchester. We do things differently here." Nice to see a line penned by @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social in the new Manchester MP's speech. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Catching up with 'The Verb' @imcmillan.bsky.social . This fine edition includes Sarah Howe's beautifully lucid appreciation of 'The art of losing' @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social remembers John Carey, whose joyful insights into the rewards of books I recall, gratefully.
SEARCH BBC SOUNDS FOR VERB!

The front cover of The Blockbusters plus the logos for the Waterstones Children's Laureate and Go All In, the words "Available from Waterstones" and a circle reading "£1 will be donated to BookTrust for every copy sold"

📢 Today's the day! You can now buy the @waterstones.bsky.social exclusive edition of @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social's The Blockbusters.

Thanks to Waterstones & Macmillan for each generously donating 50p to BookTrust for every copy of the Waterstones exclusive edition sold 💕
https://bit.ly/4b4TC5g

Would absolutely devour a series of mystery books featuring a lightly fictionalized Gordon Brown analogue about a former UK Prime Minister who goes about solving crimes based on archival research and their international network of connections.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce in Conversation with Martin Melarkey

Join us at Seamus Heaney HomePlace for an evening with Frank Cottrell-Boyce, award-winning children’s author and acclaimed writer for stage and screen.

📅 Saturday 21st March
⏰ 7.30pm
🎟️ £15

Book now > tinyurl.com/mrnkarwk

The lost art of letter writing bringing generations together In the hope of reviving letter writing, BBC North West Tonight has launched a pen pal project.

"A letter is a brilliant place to learn to write because you're not writing for a teacher, you're not writing for a competition, you're not writing for marks, you're writing to connect with someone." - Frank Cottrell-Boyce @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I have no idea why you do this but it's fantastically useful so thank you.

For no particular reason, I remind you of the glories of the reporting on Cecil the lion and his brother Jericho.

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

John Davidson Gives First Interview and Explains Tourette’s Tics After Shouting N-Word and Other Slurs at BAFTAs: ‘I Felt a Wave of Shame’ (EXCLUSIVE) John Davidson's explains Tourette's tics and the BAFTA N-word incident in his first exclusive interview with Variety.

Fantastic interview. Everyone should read it:

Giant tortoises return to Galápagos island 180 years after relatives went extinct Giant tortoises have been reintroduced to Floreana Island in the Galapágos, 180 years after going extinct there.

Giant tortoises and other key native species are now thriving, and being reintroduced where lost, on the unique Galapágos Islands ecosystems.

This is only possible due to the eradication of alien invasives like goats and rats, often a *crucial* part of rewilding.
news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

A threatening and creepy tree I don't like at all, which speaks out of its bellybutton and is advancing towards me in tiny tree steps which it thinks I haven't noticed, and repeatedly asking me why I will not "Come inside where it is warm, for a nice treat."

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent trees I have met on walks.

You will find the all-important captions to each photo in the alt text.

LOL

inexplicably positive response

OK people who think that One Battle After Another has some kind of merit squirrelled away in it somewhere ... give us a clue.

I did into this documentary regularly and at random but always hoping for the funeral handbag.

One of the best documentaries of all time: a tender, warm, unshowy study of the threads from which communities are woven & the big-small moments that make up human lives.
It was a huge influence on Birding

Truly a mystery

The footpath known as The Rack. Inset is Elsie Rowson in her postwoman's uniform .

It is #ShropshireDay (Feb 23), so here's the 11-mile postwoman's path at Stiperstones in Shropshire, which Elsie Rowson walked in all weathers until 1970. The picture shows a narrow path known as The Rack. where Elsie would 'lie on the wind' on blustery days. sproson.com/wp-content/u...

A black-and-white photo of Ursula K. Le Guin, standing at a lectern, smiling with her whole face. Her right hand cups her jaw and she is wearing either a watch or a bracelet; her top has an almost maze-like pattern.

Ursula at a reading in Berkeley, circa 2000.

Photo by Peg Skorpinski.

In 1910 Vincenzo Perugia walked out with the Mona Lisa under his arm.

National Year of Reading Podcast Episode · The Island of Brilliant! · 13/01/2026 · 50m

I’ve been catching up with last month’s @islandofbrilliant.bsky.social all about the National Year of Reading. It has inspired me to do more to raise the status of reading and get even more people into it. I’m going to do a weekly book recommendation on the school insta for a start.

notorious radical left communist rag says tax the rich

People are still replying to this so I might as well RT again for people to read. Come for the row, stay for the cost of living in Islington stats!

Damian Barr on Scottish art, memory and belonging - Monocle Damien Barr meets Georgina Godwin to reflect on childhood shaping his memoir and novel, examining class, his move from journalism...

Writing memoir comes at a cost. It also does something magic that fiction cannot. There are so many barriers to writing and rewriting your own story. Here I am talking writing, class, sexuality, shame and the work we have to do just to get to the page. monocle.com/radio/shows/...

These two women are suing Andrew Tate, alleging he raped them. Here they visit the social media companies that created Tate. Please share.

*one voice altered to disguise identity

Teatime in Gorton, Manchester, painting by Steven Scholes (b.1952).

Join me on June 1 at The Union Chapel to discuss the genius of George Michael. I'll be live on stage for @intelligencesquared to launch my new book, Tonight the Music Seems So Loud, exploring the life, music and contradictions of a man beloved by many.

Tickets: sathnam.com/events

See you there 🙏🏾

George Jones on the jukebox
you on my mind

Booked!