A K Blakemore

whee! congratulations ben x

i assume you've read Dead Man in Deptford? x

Author statement on the Polari Prize longlist We are writers, editors, publishers and booksellers who stand in solidarity with the trans community. We are profoundly disappointed by the Polari Prize’s decision to include John Boyne on the longlis...

The Polari Prize last week longlisted John Boyne, who only recently wrote a piece saying how much he admired JK R*owling and is a 'proud terf' - book pals: there's an open letter here that you can read + sign to show your solidarity with our trans community #booksky

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

my twins, little Zeit and Pola

'Zeitgeist' would actually be a stellar weird millenial babyname in and of itself, i now realise

Tickets now on general sale!

🔥 The Manningtree Witches
A Mercury Original
Sat 28 Feb - Sat 14 Mar 2026
Adapted by Ava Pickett
Based on the novel by A. K. Blakemore
Directed by Natasha Rickman
🎟 mercurytheatre.co.uk/event/the-manningtree-witches/

#MercuyTheatre #Essex #TheManningtreeWitches

very
tiny wittle baby eugencist charwotte pewkins giwman 🫦

thank you so much dave! x

My new big TERFism explainer is now online and unpaywalled at Lux magazine, and the physical version in the print issue (#11-12) looks incredible. I do recommend buying it or subscribing. Thanks to Sarah Leonard & all the Lux comrades for wonderful editing. lux-magazine.com/article/terf...

i always just assumed it was some combination of the subconscious influence of his being the handwriting i saw most often in childhood - shopping lists on the fridge etc - and possibly a similar/learned relationship btwn motor function/thought patterns. it's so odd!

my handwriting - very bad and cramped - is nearly identical to my dad's & it's always intrigued me!

On sponsorship and conscience Last year's activism against Baillie Gifford is part of a long and valuable tradition of literary protest.

'In the UK, FFB has been viewed in a vacuum, anomalous and bafflingly disconnected from similar movements around the world. Last year 1000 American writers boycotted all PEN America programming... for failing Palestinian colleagues.'
www.thebookseller.com/comment/on-s...

Sweet Relief Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-rela...

The great David Johansen of the NY DOLLS has been battling stage 4 cancer for the past few years, unable to work. This being America, he is having a hard times paying for medical care. A fundraiser has been set up through Sweet Relief; more info below. www.sweetrelief.org/davidjohanse...

oh, this is *wonderful*

Once more with feeling: the govt does not do this out of goodwill. PLR was organised, agitated for & activated by Maureen Duffy and Brigid Brophy. Borrow their books, especially Maureen's, and give them their 💐

one of the weird violences of literary culture - the way we are

(a) vilified for doing/writing about the things which might make a broken world better

(b) SIMULTANEOUSLY: constantly asked, by the same people, to gesture to/perform hope, in what we write and say

big respect to you forever noreen x

‘They were inventing a new definition of sexy’: stars and scenesters on the New York Dolls’ riotous rock Fifty years on from their dissolution, admirers from Joan Jett to Dave Vanian explain the appeal of a band who ripped up rock’n’roll in high heels – and pointed towards punk

cute feature in the guardian this morning about one of my favourite bands of all time:
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

anyway, nosferatu was solid

if i was a wilting victorian lady, i simply would not summon an eldritch erotic entity with my thwarted yearnings

livin' life

📣 In 2022, the UK publishing industry made RECORD revenues of £7bn+

📣 Richard Osman’s last advance was £10m, enough to fund all 9 BG festivals for a DECADE

📣 BG are investing in arms companies supplying Israel

📣 FFB are not the reason writers are poor!

1 - literary festivals contribute fuck all to author incomes

2 - fans? What happened to critically engaged readers

3 - books expand yr inner life but do not apply to real world situs eg fossil fuels/ gaza ?!

4 - ‘we need books to propagate & pay for the empire’ = creative economy discour$e

😷

Can’t put enough emphasis on what the words “last medical facility” mean in the context of this genocide. It’s pretty simple to understand what happens when there’s no hospital available.

‘Tiny broken bodies, rotting babies, flattened corpses, mass graves, levelled neighbourhoods.
It is a spectacle of slaughter. All unfolding in plain sight, livestreamed and posted by Palestinian citizens and journalists, witnessed by outsiders, and described by Israelis themselves.’

Sophie Smith · Sleeping Women: On the Pelicot trial Gisèle Pelicot doesn’t conceive of her now ex-husband or the other men who raped her as ‘bad apples’, aberrations...

'Patriarchy does not mean that men cannot act decently, and kindly, indeed that the men in our lives may not sometimes be better and more reliable than the women. But it does mean that there are no men, no people, who can ever claim to be entirely beyond its reach.'

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

RIP Richard II you would've loved chewing gum loudly

✨

i hope you enjoy, elaine! x