Francesjkey

Some of the BRILLIANT political cartoons of 2025.

The wonderful @bigissue.com will be publishing an article about the Adelphi tent encampment in their 8 December edition. It will feature some of my newest portraits from the Outsiders project, taken last weekend at the encampment.

Imagine showing a petrol engine to someone who had only known electric vehicles, and trying to convince them to switch to petrol. No-one would choose the dirty, noisy, less efficient, more expensive vehicle. This isn't 1910, hostage to gender insecurity. We can just choose the better tech.

Please read this & help save the State Library of Victoria, entering its 'now fully trashed' era. I didn't go to uni - for me the Library was higher education in later life, research for my job, a revelation about what ordinary people could have access to. It changed my life. Not just a building.

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes 30th Anniversary Soft n Sexy Sound tour continues.
Thurs Nov 13th,King Street Bandroom, Newcastle
Fri Nov 14th,Avoca Beach Theatre NSW
Sat Nov 15th,The Lounge, Chatswood NSW
Sunday afternoon Nov 16th, Dangar Island Bowlo NSW. Photo Andy Jans Brown

I have a sharp memory, a photo snap not embedded in video, of standing still in Myer as a little girl with my mother, as the entire city came to a commemorative standstill at 11.00 a.m. on November!

Mourning, not nationalistic flag-waving. Very different times ...

#Remembrance

CATS ON FILM (kindle or paperback)
"possibly the greatest book ever"
"one of the finest pieces of specialist film scholarship published in recent years”
“Bonus: includes My Day by Jones, AKA Alien from the cat's PoV. Fun!”
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1978038747

New substack post

The judges ‘had never read anything quite like it’, says panel chair Roddy Doyle, announcing the Hungarian-British author’s novel as the winner of the £50,000 award

David Szalay wins 2025 Booker prize for ‘dark’ Flesh
- by Ella Creamer

#Booker #literature
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Can absolutely 100% recommend The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

Seven people are rescued/kidnapped from historical eras and brought to the present day. This is the story of one of them and his handler ("bridge") and how they navigate this together.

www.fantasticfiction.com/b/kaliane-br...

Librarian: "Can I help you?"
Me: "Yes, I'm looking for a book about...“
Librarian: "Clairvoyance?"
Me: "No..."
Librarian: "That'll work one day."

‘We never had much fun – we were angry’: Eve Libertine on life with anarcho-punk pioneers Crass Accused of obscenity and sued by police and Tory MPs, Libertine outraged the establishment as part of Crass. Now she’s back – and she hasn’t mellowed with age

"Crass were also politically radical, and several cases were brought against them ..., first for blasphemy ... Later, their 1983 Falklands protest How Does It Feel (To Be the Mother of 1,000 Dead) prompted Tory MP Timothy Eggar to try ... to prosecute them under the obscene publications act."

‘I had a year to write it from scratch’: the 2025 Booker finalists on the stories behind their novels A newspaper report about a missing girl, the memory of a midwinter emergency … Susan Choi, Andrew Miller, David Szalay and others on what inspired their shortlisted books

Some really nice insights into the writing process here: the early germs of ideas, the writing and rewriting, the editing and re-editing, & having the strength to abandon 100,000 words when you know they're going nowhere and start all over again.

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

YouTube video by Sarah Watson the pretty bird tree | lj hill | official music video | 2010

LJHill passed away last year- this song is astonishing. Look up his story. m.youtube.com/watch?v=RJSS...

Collecting TikTok avatars of ppl telling me New York will be under sharia law in six months

The Rise by Alan Baxter. Cover shows a dark road at night through trees, with a left turn sign prominent. At the bottom it says, Another Five Tales From The Gulp.

I'm going through this new volume of Tales From The Gulp one last time before it goes off to the editor and I'm having feels. On the one hand, I'm excited to have a new Gulp book underway. On the other, I'm terrified of how it might be received, given how popular The Gulp and The Fall are. Aarrgghh!

YouTube video by Flame Tree Press & Studio Inside Fever Dreams

Have a listen to this 10-minute podcast from Flame Tree Press where all the authors in Fever Dreams (myself included) talk a little bit about their story in the anthology.
youtu.be/wfd-BqOYcik?...

Dave Graney & The Coral Snakes (Soft & Sexy Sounds 2025) PLAYING TIMES: DAVE GRANEY & THE CORAL SNAKES 9.15PM 'TIL 10.15PM + 10.45PM 'TIL 11.45PM Gather up folks for one of the best tours coming your way this year. Dave Graney ‘n’ The Coral Snakes are hitt...

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes 30th Anniversary Soft n Sexy Sound Tour is at Corner Hotel in Melbourne tonight. Doors at 8:30pm and we play the album i the frist set at 9:15pm. No opening act. We play a second set of rockers after that. tickets.cornerhotel.com/outlet/event...

The Yarra Hotel in Johnston Street Abbotsford Melbourne. A stones throw from Victoria Park footy ground. Built in 1853

"Hey kids - look for the Uncle Tobys Oats packs with the flash. It means they've got super colourful skin tattoos inside to dress up your skin outside!..."

(x.com/LaurenRosewa...)

Uncle Tobys Oats. New Idea, c.1975.

Off the Shelf podcast is interviewing all 13 authors longlisted for this year's McIlvanney Prize (Phoebe's talk with @damedenisemina.bsky.social is ace), listen to them here: creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...
My interview goes live next week
@bloodyscotland.bsky.social @panmacmillan.bsky.social

My home Internet went kersplat, and I raced to the library for its wifi and ample table outlets for my work laptop. I worked for five hours straight.
LIBRARIES.
They have been there for me all my life.

New rule. A parent may only propose removing a book from the school library only after reading it in its entirety and delivering a book report to the librarian. Until then no discussion shall be entered into.

Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre: 9780593493120 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books The unforgettable memoir by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who dared to take on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell The world knows Virginia Roberts Giuffre as Jeffrey Epstein and Gh...

Virginia Giuffre isn’t here to tell her story anymore, but she wrote a memoir and it’s coming out in October. She deserves to be heard and remembered. #BookSky

Details here:
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/712958...

“Oh no! Are they banning state fairs and cake baking contests?”

“No…”

“Have they kicked out bluegrass, soul food and blue jeans?”

“No.”

“So what part of culture and heritage—“

“Oh you know the parts.”

The Secrets Stars Keep: Lady Margaret Huggins, Pioneer of Spectral Photography The history of science boasts a robust roster of Vanished Women, wives and sisters who did the work of full partners but received the recognition of mere Lab Helpmates (if they received any recognitio...

www.wisarchive.com/post/the-sec...

Author Pip Adam on keeping faith in the project – The Creative Independent Author Pip Adam discusses how to regain your voice when you lose it, balancing day jobs and creative output, and how place informs the work

“It’s difficult to find a job you can put everything into & still have time & energy for writing. There always comes a point in the day job where they’re saying, don’t you want to do more? & I’m like, No, not really.” Great @pipadam.bsky.social interview! thecreativeindependent.com/people/autho...

Pro-Israel group lobbied La Trobe and Bendigo Writers Festival over Palestinian academic's institution A leaked letter reveals pressure from a pro-Israel group in the lead up to the Festival

And there you have it.

A leaked letter shows an astro-turf, pro-Israel group pressured Bendigo Writers Festival + LaTrobe uni.

The group claimed the inclusion of a Palestinian author was "antisemitic" and that organisers should "implement immediate measures".

www.deepcutnews.com/p/exclusive-...

“Please, do not have a panel called ‘Women in SF'”: A 1979 Letter from Ursula K. Le Guin During my work placement at the University of Liverpool’s Science Fiction Collections in April to May 2025, I came across a striking letter from Ursula K. Le Guin, dated 1979 and addressed to Briti…

"Please, do not have a panel called ‘Women in SF'”: A 1979 Letter from Ursula K. Le Guin
manuscriptsandmore.liverpool.ac.uk?p=8752

Matthew Paris Annotated Map - Historia Cartarum A fully annotated and clickable version of Matthew Paris's map of Britain. Clicking on any label gives a translation, transcription, and Wikipedia link.

Hey, history and medievalist friends. If you're doing any teaching on maps this semester, I have a couple of digital resources you might find useful.
#skystorians 🗃️

1. Matthew Paris's Map
A fully annotated & interactive copy of Paris's c.1250 map of England.
1/3
historiacartarum.org/annotated-cl...