Dipika Mummery

The stories of Levenshulme take centre stage this November, as A Sense of Place transforms the Old Library into a night of words, sound and memory.

Among the readings is Parakeet by Dipika Mummery, set in Highfield Country Park, one of our neighbourhood's wonderful green spaces.

buff.ly/FPa13ub

Calling all Manchester folks! I'll be at this event in Levenshulme next month in my capacity as a writer on the You Are Here podcast project - come and join us on November 7th at Levy Old Library 🦜

Without that degree, I wouldn't have got my creative writing MA a few years ago, and I wouldn't now be writing a novel about love, music and anti-racist activism in 1970s Britain.

I wonder what it is about an accessible arts education for all that right-wingers don't like...? 🤔 (2/2)

I grew up in a working class immigrant family in Bolton. My English degree led directly to a career in copywriting.

I now work in a brilliant university team building websites to support health and medical research, and to recruit students who go on to work in the NHS and associated fields. (1/2)

This is so lovely! I really enjoy the performances each time I go.

Books on a mantelpiece: The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Last Wild Horses by Maja Lunde, Zero by Gine Cornelia Pedersen, Animals at Night by Naomi Booth, The Parallel Path by Jenn Ashworth.

What I read in September. The standout was The Parallel Path for sure. A brilliant, thoughtful memoir! #booksky

Front cover of The Last Wild Horses by Maja Lunde, translated by Diane Oatley.

The Last Wild Horses by Maja Lunde.

what I think it’s going to be like watching bake-off every year:
🍰 lovely ☺️ cosy baking 🍂 with nice people 🐿️ and enjoying 🥨 how great it all looks 🧁 hooray 🥧

what it’s actually like:
oh CHRIST that caramel is fucked oh GOD the cake is splitting oh SHITE what are you going you EEJIT oh FUUUCK

Acknowledging your value As a writer, you’re conditioned to expect that you won’t make much money.

Wrote a Substack, which is only very briefly about Scrooge McDuck.

adamfarrer.substack.com/p/acknowledg...

This was a really good read! There still isn't nearly enough transparency over what authors are expected to do for hardly any money.

Nature is Not Going to Cure You: On Raynor Winn’s Fabricated Memoir Like many writers, I have been following the unfolding revelations about Raynor Winn and The Salt Path with great interest, and a degree of self-interest. I am a memoirist and nature writer, and I …

I keep getting asked for my salty thoughts about the Salt Path as my position on nature cure narratives is v clear! A mere fraction of those thoughts published here @literaryhub.bsky.social, with thanks to @bookwormvaught.bsky.social and @nicwilson.bsky.social for their earlier pieces linked below.

Home | Matt Owen | Freelance Writer I offer a broad and diverse range of writing services. Get in touch!

My husband @mjowen174.bsky.social is a brilliant writer. He’s written for Dangermouse, Private Eye, @almurray.bsky.social and many more…
He’s struggling to find work at the moment. AI isn’t helping.
If you need a writer have a look at his website and please repost.
www.mathew-owen.co.uk
Thank you

Can’t believe we are still doing the “defeat fascism in the marketplace of ideas by platforming fascists and confronting them” in 2025 whilst *gestures wildly at the US concentration camps, ICE-gestapo, UK’s Reform anti-immigrant party and race riots*

Where Is the Political Leadership Against This Violent Far-Right Movement Terrorising Britain? The silence of senior mainstream politicians and media organisations against the rise of a new well-organised far-right movement on Britain's streets is a disgrace, argues Adam Bienkov

Far right groups are threatening to burn down hotels full of refugees at events attended by senior politicians, while people of colour live in fear after being falsely labelled as paedophiles

How mainstream politicians and media organisations are allowing a violent far right movement to spread

The Beatles, jumping in the air.

Flashback to the day The Beatles passed their A-Levels.

This is such a great book!

If You Love to Write Just Wait Until You Try Not Writing Do you love to write? Is writing what makes you feel alive? Are you sure? Let me ask you something: When’s the last time you wrote and thought, Tha...

"Writing is the adult equivalent of a kindergartner playing inside a cardboard box, believing it’s a rocket ship that will take her to the moon. Adorable, but ultimately sad." (via @mcsweeneys.net)

I hope this email never finds you. I hope a single shaft of light pierces the broken ceiling, giving life to saplings and ferns. I hope the old computer went dark years ago, and the office smells of moss and wild spores. I hope that you are free.

I recently visited a website that I've ordered from before, but on this occasion I put something in my basket and never checked out. Presumably because I've opted out of their marketing emails, I got an actual paper letter a few days later reminding me that I'd left something in my basket 😑

The first issue of Lost Levenshulme sold out fast. We printed some more, and they sold out too. So we printed a whole load more - they sold out too!

So for for those who missed out, the full issue is now free to read online.

levenshulmeoldlibrary.org.uk/lost-levensh...

Yessss so glad you loved The Stand!

A photograph of paperback book spines, with the words "Happy Paperback Book Day."

Today is Paperback Book Day, commemorating the date that the first Penguin paperbacks were published, back in 1935. A lighter, less expensive form of book, the paperback helped to make pleasure reading (and book collecting!) accessible to a wider swathe of the public. #💙📚 #Booksky

What they think I want AI to do:

👉 Research my plot
👉 Give me ideas
👉 Write my story

What I actually want AI to do:

✅ Sort my accounts
✅ Make my inbox go away
✅ Clean my house

Ofcom: stop TalkTV broadcasting hate TalkTV is Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News for the UK – a constant source of toxic hate and far-right lies. Over the last 11 weeks, TalkTV has been spouting transphobic hate again and again – totally ignorin...

📺 NEW 📺

TalkTV keeps broadcasting anti-trans views with nobody in the studio to push back.

It’s up to us to stop them. Write to Ofcom here: goodlaw.social/66f6a3

Sorry to hear this, Emma. Hope you're being well looked after on all fronts.

Congratulations, the universe sent you this dog because you have been chosen. Joy awaits. 13/10

Tag yourself!

This ruthless pursuit of disabled people has damaged Labour – no matter what happens next | Frances Ryan The number of rebel Labour MPs vowing to oppose the disability cuts is growing. But the moral stain could take years to shift, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

“Forget the MPs who rebel over cutting disabled people’s benefits - remember those who don’t. Just as Iraq was for Blair, disability cuts is the moral stain that will mark Starmer and his government for years to come, whether they succeed or not.”

My col. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

the year is 2029. i start my work day by logging into the authentication app and plugging a six digit code from my phone into the computer. after repeating this process 300 more times for every application and website i use, i am finally ready to get to work. it is now 5pm and time to go home

Headline: Equality Act blamed for surge in failed race discrimination claims.

Don’t Divide Us believes in “colour-blind anti-racism” and campaigns against “divisive” political ideas such as critical race theory being imported from America. The findings have been published as part of a wider report on equality laws by the organisation entitled “The Equality Act Isn’t Working: Equalities Legislation and the Breakdown of Informal Civility in the Workplace”.

Having stripped trans people of their right to be treated with dignity The Times is now coming for people of colour.