Frances Ryan

Who Wants Normal?: The Disabled Girl's Guide to Life: A handbook and manifesto from the acclaimed journalist Who Wants Normal?: The Disabled Girl's Guide to Life: A handbook and manifesto from the acclaimed journalist : Ryan, Frances: Amazon.co.uk: Books

PSA: If you can’t normally afford hardbacks, Who Wants Normal? is briefly 40% off on Amazon. shorturl.at/NcgFG

Despite the chaos of its launch, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new party has struck a nerve | Andy Beckett Scathing rightwing coverage contains a revealing note of alarm: this is more than just a rebellion, and it’s gaining supporters fast, says Guardian columnist Andy Beckett

“Labour loyalists will say that a left divided is a left defeated. But if they truly believed that, Starmer’s government would be much more pluralist. What [they] really think is that the left should only ever be divided on their terms.”

Thoughtful on Your Party: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Either way, your wider point stands: a lack of resources, red tape, and a snail-pace provision of equipment and care.

Mass rape, forced pregnancy and sexual torture in Tigray amount to crimes against humanity – report Research documents ‘horrific and extreme’ attacks by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and warns that impunity has meant such atrocities are expanding to new regions

As the world rightly looks to Gaza, let’s not forget Tigray. Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers are using horrific sexual violence against women as a weapon of war. This includes gang rape, destroying reproductive organs, and ostracising. Victims are as young as 1. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

No, you can’t get hoist stuff directly but it isn’t means tested like a DFG (at least not in my area).

You can get it through the NHS but they don’t give them away easy.

I didn’t write the story so I don’t know but that absolutely would be something to look at - unfortunately it may now be too late.

I’ve stopped life-saving medication says man exhausted by fight for NHS care Tim Hull, who has a rare neurological condition, says his quality of life is

This is a horrific story: a disabled man has stopped taking his medication in order to end his life because he can’t access NHS or social care.

And yet having spoken to so many disabled people left in the most dire conditions, I can’t imagine he’s the only one. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A photo of a double page spread. On the right is a large photo of me.

Another double page spread. On the left is a photo of me and on the right is a small image of the book.

So lovely to see this spread on Who Wants Normal? in this month’s Disability Review Magazine.

I chatted about writing 80,000 words on an iPhone, trying to make the British media more diverse, and why this book definitely has more jokes in it than my first.

Yes and a central rule too. You were told to always alert at Childline if a certain topic came up.

Yes, it’s more that safeguarding issues plus protecting volunteers is such an integral part of orgs like Samaritans/Childline. If you’re helping someone who’s at risk, it’s often very different than other forms of counselling.

I was a Samaritan – I love Samaritans. But for the sake of all who take those calls, it must change course | Peter Ormerod Branches to close, volunteers in ‘regional hubs’, some working from home. It will be bad for them and for the desperate people seeking help, says journalist Peter Ormerod

As a former Childline volunteer, I’m baffled Samaritans thinks taking calls from home will work. Debriefing with the team or a note from a supervisor was so integral, I wonder whether anyone advocating for remote counselling has ever picked up a phone. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thanks so much!

I will share a secret: I had no idea where I was going. I didn’t have a plan for how to get a job in journalism or write books and had no contacts with fancy editors or agents. But I knew three things: I cared about injustice; words could be powerful; and politics was both the cause of deep inequality and a positive force to change it. It was my time at university that cemented these beliefs. I wrote a column for the campus newspaper. I ran our Labour Club, back in the days when we were furious at Tony Blair as well as the Tories (rather than furious at Keir Starmer as well as the Tories). The media - and global - landscape today is in many ways very different than when I first graduated almost two decades ago. Forget buying a newspaper, you can get 24/7 coverage for free on your phone. And that news is not exactly cheerful, is it? From a housing crisis, growing warfare, to threats to democracy, the world you’re stepping out into could understandably feel hard and cold.

And yet it is in these times that your passion, hard work, and integrity is needed more than ever. Whether you’re a journalism graduate, wannabe politician or future scientist, you can have a unique role in shaping the national conversation and the society we live in. You will provide the public with information - or misinformation. You can help set not only the agenda but the tone. You could hold the powerful to account - or serve their interests. The skills that you have gained over the last three years will equip you to navigate this tricky terrain, as well as the lifelong friends and bonds that you have made here. There are few moments in life in which you can say there is nothing but potential. Where you can look to tomorrow and not know exactly what it holds but be filled with hope and anticipation for whatever it will bring. This is one of those moments. Savour it. And when the gowns are returned and the photos have been developed, and you are ready to see what is next - or better yet, when you have taken a step but stumbled - remember this feeling. This day. when hard work paid off, possibility was endless, and the future was at your feet.

Thank you so much to the University of Sheffield for awarding me an honorary Doctor of Letters. I’m so touched.

It was a privilege to give an address to the graduating class (all those years watching US high school dramas weren’t wasted).

Ugh I’m so sorry. I hope she’s doing as well as she can be now.

The fight to keep measles out of nurseries raises issues of freedom and responsibility | Letter Letter: Parents’ ‘personal choice’ should not extend to putting other children at risk, say Dr David Elliman and Prof Helen Bedford

“Perhaps children who are not immunised should be excluded from nursery. What all too often happens is that the child who cannot be immunised is excluded. Is that right?”

V thoughtful letter from Great Ormond Street profs in response to my measles column. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The U.K. and allies dropping small parcels of food into Gaza from the sky because Israel won’t let in lorries packed full of aid is such a blatantly horrific symbol of everything that’s wrong in the world, isn’t it.

2 in 5 arrested over last summer’s riots had been reported for domestic abuse Police data indicates overlaps between public violent disorder and domestic violence and abuse

The far right terrorising asylum seekers in hotels love to spread the lie they’re worried about the risk of sexual assault. But here’s the truth: Two in five men arrested for last summer’s riots had been reported for domestic abuse. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

It’s easy to see all this as ugly bigotry if you live in a large city rather than a small, fading town. On X, Ramsay proclaimed Diss “is rooted in compassion and decency” and abhorred “those dividing us”, yet was silent about his constituents’ concerns. But when treats like a family dinner out are hard-won, when you save all year for your fortnight’s holiday, it is enraging to see new arrivals living for free in the place where you held your wedding reception, eating three meals a day paid for from your taxes.

There’s so many nasty, awful details in that Janice Turner piece it’s hard to pick the worst. But this is so telling. Asylum seekers apparently don’t deserve to live in a place British people use or even have three meals a day. They’re not quite equal to us, are they?

We ask a lot from small towns that take migrants Norfolk market town of Diss has quietly accommodated families since 2023 but the mood changed this week

I spoke to women sexually harassed by staff, I spoke to a woman trapped in her room because she was visually impaired and no one would assist her.

scabies break outs, staff bullying, kids held in rooms with no windows.

Janice doesn’t mention them in her article

www.thetimes.com/article/a50f...

Oooh I thought you meant you were trying to leave a new one. Phew! Thanks for your lovely words.

Uhh I’m so sorry Amazon is still being crap. I noticed just now I couldn’t see your lovely review. Other people say it does it after a second go if you have a chance? Sorry it’s a hassle!

I’m afraid that isn’t really what newspapers like The Guardian tend to do. But hopefully some online magazines in the US will be able to pick up a thread from the campaign!

Newspapers can’t really report on campaigns unfortunately but love Alice’s work!

This year, I’m also thinking about disabled people in Gaza. It’s clearly not at all the same: Palestinians aren’t concerned about shame - they’re afraid for survival. But a large part of Disability Pride is community and solidarity. So, we remember: Israel’s genocide is a mass disabling event.

I’ve never been hugely into Disability Pride but it has felt more important than ever this year. The summer has seen a wave of demonisation and disbelief of disabled people. Our conditions are doubted, our needs depicted as burdens. I’m glad Who Wants Normal? can do its bit to challenge that.

The three formats of Who Wants Normal? - hardback, audiobook, and e-book - sit in front of a background of the Disability Pride flag.

This Disability Pride month, I’m grateful for the readers who say Who Wants Normal? is helping them feel more valued and confident. This book was never about downplaying inequality but proudly rejecting the shame and stereotypes the non-disabled world forces on us. With jokes.

Holding important meetings, lamenting bad things, urging people to do good things. The same routine for 20 months. And all the while the arms exports continue, the surveillance flights continue, trade and investment continues, normal diplomatic relations continue. Complicity in genocide continues.