Ruth Lampard

Holding a copy of my new book Lifelines in my hand, with a pelican on the cover, in front of a stand of reeds on a lake.

Arrived home the other night to find this beautiful advance proof of the North American edition of LIFELINES waiting for me. With the stunning design of Nicole Caputo on the cover, it will be published on April 14th by Godine and is available to pre-order now!
bookshop.org/p/books/life...

Book of the year 3.
Beautifully written combination of memoir, history, and nature, set where mountains, countries and lakes meet in Northern Greece.
With bears and pelicans too.
I had to take this opportunity to boost with the American edition on the way.

Action for ME Big Give Christmas Challenge graphic. Text details how every £1 you give during the campaign gets doubled, with an example of how £20 helps Action for ME support people with ME through their Information and Support Service.

Action for ME Big Give Christmas Challenge graphic. Text details how gifts made during the Big Give will help Action for ME invest in research, including biomedical research, early-career ME researchers and ensuring people with ME are at the centre of research.

Action for ME Big Give Christmas Challenge. Text: 'We're aiming to raise £135,000 in one week to help improve the lives and accelerate understanding, for everyone affected by ME.

(1/3)

This week, your support can go twice as far for #pwME.

During our Big Give Christmas Challenge (2–9 December) every £1 donated to us is doubled, helping us provide vital services and drive change for the 404,000 people living with #MECFS in the UK.

⬇️

This is good news!

He is the
Secretary of State for *War*
so self-declared to be eligible
for that category of crime!

Books of the Year 2.
I was fortunate to be able to attend the launch of this beautiful and moving volume.
Mainly a reflection on the effect of military service during World War 2 on her father and its cascading generational impact, this is empathetic,poignant and will speak to many

By donating and sharing our Big Give campaign, you can help change this and provide hope for people affected by ME.

Donate here (your donation will be DOUBLED whilst the match-pot lasts!) 👇
bit.ly/2025-big-give

For our @biggive.bsky.social Christmas Challenge, we want to accelerate understanding of ME.

ME can affect anyone of any age, and the lack of understanding about the condition means that many people living with ME face serious stigma and isolation.

“HIS DOG IS HIS ‘EYE’”: The Guide Dog in Public Spaces and Transit, 1930-1970 - All of Us Writing the first editorial for AllOfUs has not only been a joy, but it has also been an honor. What has always delighted me about disability history is how much our field owes its very existence to t...

Anyway, if you think it’s EASY having a service dog in public and people aren’t suspicious and sometimes abusive, let me tell you otherwise. The sad thing it’s always been like this, I wrote about it a while back for the @disability-history.bsky.social’s blog AllOfUs:

allofusdha.org/research/his...

An every weather moment at the beach - sunshine, light rain, clouds and blue sky. No rainbow in sight.

Time to soak up winter sun & sea

Still and cool at sunrise

3rd December 2025 08.06

Nearly there ladies and gents

Because of the Earth's axial tilt/ elliptical orbit, the sun will only set earlier by ~3 more mins in the evening before starting to get later again from ~mid month onwards

Despite the shortest day being 21st and latest sunrise occurring early Jan

Welfare spending has held roughly steady as a share of the economy since 2007.

In real terms, it's risen by £44 billion since before the pandemic.

Let's break down what that's going towards ⤵️ 🧵

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

chart of child mortality in history, roughly 48% for all societies across the globe…until the 20th century, where it plummets to 4%

Currently dorking out over this graph about child mortality with my brother. Just mind boggling to take in.

This was a very pleasant surprise.
Congratulations to everyone 🦋

Photo of Fleur wearing a red ribbon and holding a sign saying ‘From awareness to action: let’s end new HIV transmission’

Women & HIV in the UK: Key Facts
• HIV positivity among women - especially middle-aged women - in the UK is rising slightly
• 42% of new diagnoses are late
• Black African women face 7x higher risk
Know your status.
Book a free HIV test today: freetesting.hiv
#WorldAIDSDay #WomenHealth #endhiv

Playing the role of
prosecutor, judge, jury and
executioner.

Somewhat lacking in balance.

"StreetLink can be used by anyone in England and Wales to send an alert about someone who is sleeping or preparing to sleep rough.

"Alerts are sent to outreach teams, who go out mostly at night to offer people sleeping rough appropriate support."

Link here: thestreetlink.org.uk/location

Part of our 2025 Advent Calendar, a black and white line drawing showing my version of Bigfoots wearing wintery clothes and bearing various wrapped Christmas presents.

Every year we make a free-to-download-and-print-off-yourself colouring-in Advent Calendar. This year’s heavily features Bigfoots. Please share!
Download it for free here… www.worldofmoose.com/pages/2025-b...

The "don't have an extra kid if you can't afford it" brigade get awfully upset when you suggest they don't stay in their £2m house if they can't afford it, don't they?

If you want some good news this morning, I showed my three boys the PM doing the six/seven thing and now they have all stopped doing it.

New net migration figures at 930am.

Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023

56% of people think it went up last year
17% think stayed the same
14% think it went down

2025 figure to be lower again
16% expect that
38% think it will be up
31% about the same

I do wish that Rachel Reeves wouldn't interrupt Nick Robinson in the middle of one of his exquisitely long and beautifully crafted paragraphs.
#r4today

Funnily enough Nick
there is a Budget
*every year* because
circumstances change.

I think making sure children
aren’t suffering now and for life
is a very reasonable choice.

Ukraine, Trump, Brexit,
the Liz Truss Budget
many factors are having
a biting long term impact
on the economy
#r4today

My Dad likes to say that Jesus almost certainly existed as a historical figure, because if he'd just been made up by Christians they wouldn't have made up somebody who so clearly disagrees with them on almost everything.

an island in the middle of a lake in november at the end of the afternoon. the colours of the trees and the clouds are reflected in the still water. some pylons are in the distance. this is an urban oasis of quiet.

As part of our Black Friday deal, you can listen to Radio Lento for free. That's all 286 episodes or 8 full days of sound. All from real quiet locations across the country. Free to your earlobes. Always. (Though a coffee would be nice if you can spare it > ko-fi.com/radiolento)

🚨The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 55,000 signatures! Let’s get it to 100,000. If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who’s coming to save you?

Got this covered!