SAM BLAKE

#BookReview: The Night I Killed Him by Gill Perdue @PenguinUKBooks #TheNightIKilledHim #20BooksofSummer2025 #BookTwitter #booktwt #BookX #BookSky #damppebbles “The world of beloved influencer, Gemma Fitzgerald, seems ready to implode when the body of her brother, Max – who disappeared 18 years earlier – is washed up on a beach. Everyone thought Max…

The Night I Killed Him by Gill Perdue
#TheNightIKilledHim #GillPerdue
damppebbles.com/2025/08/19/b...

a hand-carved wooden spoon, recovered from the Mary Rose.

Sure, culverins and cannonballs are wonderful objects, but there's something special about a simple wooden spoon that a sailor used to eat his dinner 500 years ago...

maryrose.org/artefacts/sp...

My eldest used to live here!

Our campaign for the rights and interests of authors in the face of big tech companies using copyrighted work to train their generative AI models continues.

Read our views on Bloomsbury offering its authors an opt-in licensing deal with a 20% revenue share.

societyofauthors.org/2025/08/07/b...

Fabulous launch for @amandacassidy.bsky.social THE STRANGER INSIDE on Thursday - make this your weekend reading, it's gripping and a real twister!

Fungi season begins in an Irish Atlantic rainforest.

Congratulations!!! 🎉🥂❤️

Painted skies over Loch Lomond today.

#stormhour #scotland

Not all creative entrepreneurs are in the fine arts. A basic income can help bring all kinds of ventures to life.

Unconditional basic income, by laying down a solid floor, opens up every kind of possibility. You could add the work you really want to do but can't afford to presently only do. It opens time for creative, scholastic, entrepreneurial... anything.

@sarahhilary.bsky.social is good on Japan @ronanhession.bsky.social!

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Adam Ming, based in Kuala Lumpur, from A First Book of Bugs, which includes 30 poems by Simon Mole. Informative and characterful images delighting in the detail of slugs, spiders, flies and butterflies. Walker Books 14 Aug @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social @adamming.bsky.social

❤️

That made me laugh!

Bluesky hivemind, have any of you been to Marrakech? If you were buying a gift for the lady who had looked after your dog for two weeks, what would you bring home? (This is research that unfort doesn't require a personal visit!)

I see you, the 17% who dealt with your problems. Nice work

The news is all bad so here's a treat: a bunch of horoscopes written out by John Dee, a bunch of shopping lists written out by John Dee. A magus has to eat. (Bodleian Ms Ashmole 337)

Love this!

Two roads diverged: Pathways toward harnessing intelligence in neural cell cultures Exploring neural cultures for information processing is rapidly advancing. Organoid intelligence focuses on developing functional neural organoids to capture physiologically relevant abilities. An alt...

🧠 Brain cells can learn faster than AI

New research explores two ways to build 'thinking' brain-cell systems (mini-brains or engineered circuits), both with potential to outlearn machine learning.

🔗 www.cell.com/cell-biomate...

#SciComm 🧪 #Neuroscience #AI

A happy book says: I'm so proud you chose me as your holiday read! I can't wait to start entertaining you! A smiling drink says: And I'm right here! Ready to keep you cool and refreshed while you read! A gleeful phone adds: Yay! So great! How about we kick things off with a load of the same old rubbish you always look at, plus some gloomy news and mavbe a few emails from work!! Hours later... The drink and book lie untouched. The phone is out of view but a bubble reads: Scroll Scroll Scroll Scroll Scroll The book says “I hate that guy.”

My cartoons for this week’s @theguardian.com books
#holiday #vacation #reading

One of the unexpected joys of parenting has been discovering just how many great books are now available for the confident middle grade reader, and indeed the useful existence of middle grade for labelling books with plenty of action/peril but not much emphasis on the relationships side.

On the podcast this week I chat to @stevecavanagh.bsky.social about his holiday reading plans! You can listen here: podfollow.com/quick-book-r...

Glorious!

An upside down cat's paw pad with a smiley face drawn on the top toe bean to make it look like a teddy bear. The text says "cats paw pads are really tiny teddy bears"

In English a cat’s paw pads can be called “toe beans.” In German, I’ve heard them referred to as Zehenbeere, or “toe berries.” In Japanese they are 肉球 (“flesh buns”). Norwegian has tredeputer, or “stepping pillows.” And a colloquial Korean name for them is 냥젤리. It essentially means “meow-gummies.”

About half way through the summer holidays now and sharing this again for any parents / carers who’ve missed this - a thread of TOYS you can make with your children from scrap materials

Would honestly make you want to go back to school

Oh that's fun! Was seriously thinking about going but in depths of a new first draft so daren't get distracted!

Sorry was writing! Will do!

Another week-end has arrived & with it, of course, comes another #SaturdayMorning! Here's our "usual" start to the day: "Interior" by Brynhild Parker from 1930. #BrynhildParker #EastLondonGroup

Didn’t want to believe this was true. It’s true.