Rachel Mann

Summoning Our Ancestors | Southbank Centre

Reminder about the @arvonfoundation.bsky.social course I’m teaching this May w/ Richard Scott and @troycabida.bsky.social

www.southbankcentre.co.uk/venues/natio...

Do check this out. I was one of the near 10,000 writers involved in this protest. It’s just so grim that AI is nicking our work…

Trump did not announce a U.S. policy then walk it back. That is not what happened, and media presenting it that way does a disservice.

Trump said words he thought might appeal to his audience in the moment, with no connection to actual policy, then did that again with a different question/asker.

Andrew O’Hagan · Stay Classy: Mummy’s Favourite The late queen can be held responsible for much, but nobody could accuse her of seeming to enjoy her role. For the...

Nobody has ever been so lyrically yet thoroughly excoriated as in this piece. And yet, few people have ever deserved such a complete dismantling as the Prince formerly known as Andrew

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Welcome to the Connecting Wall. 4 groups of 4 words are hidden in the grid. Each day a new wall. Send me your 4 groups plus a connection for each group. This is just for fun!
There's no time limit but solutions will be revealed 6pm (UK time) each day. THERE ARE NO PRIZES!
Here is grid No.132.

Still no Labour MPs on here justifying their party's transphobic policies. Come on, explain why the harm & death you are causing is good for us...!

Maybe to start with instead of complaining they should read these 14 peer-reviewed critiques of the Cass Review plus two other authoritative ones.

Off to rehearsals with Imogen Heap and Olly Alexander for TransMission on Wednesday. I really hope you can make it - I usually hate to pull out the 'trans first' claim (and it's usually wrong) - but I think this might be the biggest trans fundraiser the UK has ever seen? Incredible work.

So that’s what she did after she got cancelled

SATAN: So what makes you want to work here? Isn’t it a bit of a sideways move for you?
ME: Well, sideways and down, haha
SATAN: Haha
ME: But I’ve been working in the sector for a while, and I feel this is where the action is
SATAN: Your most recent role was…
ME: Cinema website designer
SATAN: Sweet

This is just horrible.

Medical transition for trans kids is now banned for new referrals on the NHS. Trans kids in the UK can still go private or DIY (for now).

This means the new clinics that replaced GIDS are close to useless at best, conversion therapy at worst. 1/5

my grandparents thought the start of WWII meant the 2nd Coming was nigh; my mom and her sisters were confident it’d happen when JFK (a CATHOLIC who totes followed the ANTICHRIST) got elected; I was told it’d drop in the year 2000 (since Jesus’s birthdate was miscalculated by a few years); yada yada

Welcome to the Connecting Wall. 4 groups of 4 words are hidden in the grid. Each day a new wall. Send me your 4 groups plus a connection for each group. This is just for fun!
There's no time limit but solutions will be revealed 6pm (UK time) each day. THERE ARE NO PRIZES!
Here is grid No.131.

These people are, to be blunt, substantially less intelligent than they believe they are.

How dare these Non-Playable Characters assert agency rather than remain part of my picturesque holiday background…in their own country?

Yep. The idea that the cabinet actually debating ideas, policies and difficult decisions is bad is *quite* the take. Yet another regular criticism that takes not much thought at all to unpick, and yet very little unpicking seems to happen in much of the Westminster press.

Of all the complaints against Starmer, the most absurd is that it's "weak" to have a Cabinet that doesn't just rubber-stamp what The Leader wants on questions of war & peace.

I'd take Cabinet govt - in which ministers kick the tyres of big decisions - over the kneel-and-obey model of Farage any day

I hate that entire groups are being prevented from existing in mainstream art because of roughly 200 shrill lunatics who can't be normal about anything.

Today is International Women’s Day, and this week the leadership, faith and creativity of local women clergy is being celebrated with a special series of BBC Daily Service broadcasts 🎧✨

Saudi Arabian version of Vimto …

People talk of British soft power in Middle East… this is what it looks like … #Vimto

This is such a wonderful little film, for lots of reasons I haven't quite got the word-finding for this morning.
It's important. That'll do.

Image of PowerPoint saying Welcome to St Paul’s Church with a school logo saying One Team, One Mission, One Family

I’m with St Paul’s Astley Bridge this morning. They now worship in the church school. It had led to growth in their congregation and a deepening of their faith.

YouTube video by Together for the Church of England Together for the Church of England

Please watch this short film by Together, an organisation working for the full inclusion and celebration of LGBTQIA people, disabled people, GMH people, and so on, in the Church of England. I burst into tears halfway through …

youtu.be/xcSHRh6l2EE?...

Quite

I’m not saying anything new/fresh, but in the light of the instability ushered in by the new age of authoritarians, Brexit looks worse and worse …
the UK has become vulnerable.
The European Union is v far from perfect, but remains a community which would have helped the UK deal with this new world.

Quite. That’s one reason I won’t share the headlines/pages …

The majority of the UK traditional press being hot for involvement in a hot war without clear ends and purposes is sheer cringe.
Newspapers are not well.

Welcome to the Connecting Wall. 4 groups of 4 words are hidden in the grid. Each day a new wall. Send me your 4 groups plus a connection for each group. This is just for fun!
There's no time limit but solutions will be revealed 6pm (UK time) each day. THERE ARE NO PRIZES!
Here is grid No.130.

Sending a warship called HMS Prince of Wales east of Suez into an active battlefield because of some vague deterrent mission always goes well

The Poems We Made Along The Way is back!

Series six starts with my interview with Michael Symmons Roberts.

We spoke about his new collection Dogstar, working in collaboration (mainly with composers), and the filmmaker Tarkovsky*.

Find episodes and other info here: linktr.ee/thepoemswemade