Aidan Ghyll

Every day the dystopian future imagined in the novels I’m writing about a future UK ravaged by climate change gets a bit closer.

New elevator pitch for The Phantom Flame:

When a servant girl steals the magic of a long-dead Viking queen in the future city of Cant, she becomes both a weapon and a target in the war for the drowned fenlands of a shattered Albion.

Go on - make me an offer!

Read Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury's new Christmas story, created for Big Issue Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, creators of We're Going on A Bear Hunt, are back with a festive tale written specially for Big Issue.

If you missed it when it first came out, here it is:
www.bigissue.com/culture/book...

A manuscript depicting St Nicholas standing over a tub with three young boys inside who he has resurrected, set within the letter B on a page.

St Nicholas, shown here resurrecting three boys from a pickling tub, became known for genorosity and protecting children.

Such stories shaped Europe’s Sinterklaas, which evolved into Santa Claus and eventually, Father Christmas. 🎅

MS. Douce 51 fol. 069v

#MedievalMonday

Up to chapter 10 of the second novel in my quartet. A strange song has appeared, which I wasn’t expecting, and it’s on everyone’s lips. 🎶 The novel writes itself …

Huzza!

Nice graphic from the @bathnovelaward.co.uk showing words appearing in titles of novels submitted. I see a word from my title! Judging starts tomorrow….

Into chapter 6, and the protagonist from the first novel has appeared to join forces! Flood, drought, mysterious cracks in the earth, and a crew of vagabonds. It’s very exciting!

Amazing how, when you’ve created the imaginary world, the novel writes itself. As Stephen King says - “Buckle up for the ride!”

I love writing in my loft, surrounded by books and art materials … but then upload online, and download for evening browsing and revision on phone. Then email to myself for next morning … It’s a virtuous cycle!

Brilliant - thanks!

Thanks so much! Is it a firm or an individual? May I know the name?
Thanks again.

Blimey - that’s very generous! Would they need the usual package?

Wrote the novel this year. But many years of academic writing - on videogames and children’s lit!
Did you get an agent first?

Very impressed by your publications! I need advice! Thanks for reposting my blurb.

Hi Lucy!
I am! But deep into the agent query game … One novel of a quartet complete and into the second. How about you?

YouTube video by CAMUS MUSIC CAMUS RANT SET

Our new set of rants, coming up on the next album! Here’s a live version from our last gig.

youtu.be/4UoChU-XUfw?...

Monochrome photo of Victoria with a wide smile, with the words: "Black History Month is a vital time for reflection, recognition, and renewal. To truly honour Black history and Black futures, we must embrace culturally responsive pedagogy in our teaching - Professor Victoria Showunmi Vice Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Chair of Athena Swan IOExBHM2025".

Monochrome photo of Victoria with a wide smile, with the words: "Decolonising research is not simply about inclusion; it is about transformation. Black History Month is not just about the past - it is about our future. Professor Victoria Showunmi Vice Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Chair of Athena Swan IOExBHM2025".

"It is a time to engage with literature written by scholars of colour–voices that are too often marginalised in mainstream academic discourse. It is also a time to challenge the dominant narratives that shape our curricula, our research frameworks, and our institutional cultures" uclioe.info/bhm2025

The national curriculum should respond to the climate and nature crisis, emphasises a new policy proposal by UCL academics from @ucl-cccse.bsky.social

www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/...

Excited to complete first chapter of second book in the series. All the hard world-building in the first book is paying off!

Draft blurb for my novel, The Phantom Flame: In the mighty city of Cant, high above the drowned fenlands of a broken Albion, servant girl Chas Berryman inherits an ancient stone of power. She and her friends are swept into a world of spies, rebels and junk-pirates. And the mysterious Grey Heron.

First felt like a writer at age 11, when I won this prize at school for a description of a coral reef in Malaysia where I lived then. The choice of book indicates also an abiding interest in horror, later to be my PhD subject!

Animal Farm at 80: why the animals really matter in Orwell’s parable about communism Orwell wrote his short, shocking novel at a time when it was considered scientifically inadmissible for animals to be granted thoughts or even feelings.

Animal Farm at 80 - exposé not so much of communism as of tyrannical populism - never more relevant. theconversation.com/animal-farm-...

That’s what I call pressure.

I’ve drawn maps in my novel. Big fan of literary maps - Ransome, Tolkien, Stevenson, Lewis. Fascinating project @lancasteruni.bsky.social on Chronotopic Cartographies. Here are my maps of the future (2154) city of Cant.

I’m drawing the characters in my novel. I’m not intending it to be illustrated, apart from cover art. It’s more like casting them for a film adaptation. Thinking of authors who draw … Mervyn Peake’s haunting sketches; Lewis Carroll’s unfunny drawings of Alice; St-Exupery’s naive watercolours…

It’s very weird to have taught literature my whole life and now be writing it. Can’t find the right metaphor … anyway, maybe I’m getting used to it.

Join us next year 31st July - 7 August 2026.
A limited number of season tickets are now on sale (online only) at 2025 Super Early bird rates. This is the lowest these tickets will be. sidmouthfolkfestival.co.uk/tickets/

I reckon an academic book is 80% writing, 20% editing. I’m coming to realise that a novel is the complete inverse.

Enjoying the (admittedly interminable) process of self-editing my novel. Completely different from academic books I’ve written. Continuities, false notes, tone and texture. Unpicking and restitching bits in a tapestry. “Polissez-le sans cesse et le répolissez” - Boileau nailed it.