Penelope Price

Celebrity Traitors, and why no one has talked about the most revealing part of the whole thing Yes, Joe Marler is a hero.

My thoughts on that Jonathan Ross—Ruth Codd round table in Celebrity Traitors, and what it reveals (which nobody seems to be talking about).
open.substack.com/pub/penelope...

Wonderful to be shortlisted for @thebookseller.com Freelancer of the Year! So excited to attend the awards ceremony and meet these brilliant fellow shortlistees.

Serpent's Tail to publish Robert Newman's new novel

Serpent's Tail is set to publish Robert Newman's "unputdownable" new novel. Intelligence will be published as a Serpent’s Tail lead title on 5th March 2026 👇 #BookSky

Oh my God. Can’t they arrest some actual criminals for s change?

Maybe it’s something to do with the schools breaking up, and my brain hasn’t registered yet that I’m not 15 anymore?

It feels like Friday today, which makes me think I’m in for a tough week…

Review of Rebecca Wait’s ‘Havoc’ in the Guardian newspaper.

In Havoc, Waits mines the rich seam of girls' school fiction to delirious and rewarding effect. There are welcome echoes of St Trinian's - the shade of Alastair Sim hovers over the staffroom, comforting and anarchic at once - and there is abundant Ealing comedy in the madcap chases through school corridors and machinations in the lighting gallery during the school play. Yet beneath the comedy lies a distinctly unsettling undertone: the girls experience a convincingly visceral terror that edges towards Shirley Jackson territory and gives their hysteria an extra dimension. This, along with a genuine unexpectedness in the characterisation and a lot of very funny dialogue, loosens things up and brings real originality to the game. Combined with excellent pacing, a plot so deliciously thick you could stand a spoon up in it, and the boldness required to splice a darker thread…

Lovely review of ‘Havoc’ in today’s Guardian. This is the third Rebecca Wait book I’ve copy edited and I *love* her work. Highly recommended! (As are ‘Our Fathers’ and ‘I’m Sorry You Feel That Way’.)

Humanitarian distribution points for Gaza

#Gaza #israel #food #help #genocide @CartoonMovement @cartooningforpeace.bsky.social @Joop

Yes, there’s a book called ‘The Glass Cliff’ by Sophie Williams all about this.

Yes - exactly this!

I agree with this, and I also am somewhat dismayed that it’s Archna Sharma’s face on all the press covering this, when she seems to be the one trying to clean up the mess, and wasn’t even at the company when it made such reckless decisions.

A coconut, almond & lime cake, with one slice cut, with a scattering of strawberries on top.

I made a delicious cake.

A forest floor carpeted with wild garlic in flower.

Did someone say wild garlic pesto?

The absence of trans people from the British media is part of the problem. I'd like to offer mentoring to trans people trying to get into journalism, free of charge. Most of my experience is obviously in political commentary, but I might be passably useful in news and other areas.

NEW: Elon Musk’s X has suspended accounts of Turkish opposition groups, suppressing footage of anti-government protests.

So, best we share all the footage we can here!

This was last night’s massive demo against Erdogan’s government, which follows the arrest of his rival Ekrem İmamoğlu.

🇹🇷 #Turkey

Anyone who actually thinks there are any public services left to cut has surely not used public services for a very long time. The policy should be: Get more taxes, make things better, hurry up. It's really not complicated.

Kemi Badenoch Ditches Net Zero Target After Taking Donations From Funders of Tufton Street Climate Denial Group The Conservative leader and her Shadow Net Zero Secretary took funding from key backers of lobby groups campaigning to curb action against climate change

Kemi Badenoch and four members of her Shadow Cabinet received donations from funders of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which campaigns against Net Zero

GWPF do not release details of their funding, but US tax records reveal links to the fossil fuel industry

bylinetimes.com/2025/03/18/k...

If you haven’t yet discovered them, @divorcehq.bsky.social are a real treat.

With Lowe’s whip withdrawn, the proportion of Reform MPs jailed for viciously assaulting a woman now stands at 25%.

At a time when the rule of law is under global attack, those electronic books people have made the Sunday Times bestseller #FakeLaw a Kindle Monthly Deal, a stonking 99p.

Those in power misrepresent the law to advance their own agendas.

Don’t let them lie to you.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B081...

Copyright and Artificial Intelligence This consultation seeks views on how the government can ensure the UK’s legal framework for AI and copyright supports the UK creative industries and AI sector together.

UK WRITERS: You need to fill in this consulation. Govt is very clearly looking to an opt-out model of rights licensing that puts all the burden on creators instead of profiteers. It's long and boring but this is important.

www.gov.uk/government/c...

I’ve just discovered Labi Siffre, and oh my goodness, what a marvel!

View from behind a waterfall in Iceland.

View out to sea across a black beach in Iceland, with rocks jutting out of the sea in the distance.

Someone in a bobble hat, viewed from behind, looks up at the Northern Lights, which swirl green in the sky.

Me, wrapped up in jacket, scarf and woolly hat, with my feet in a natural hot foot spa on the Seltjarnarnes peninsula, near Reykjavík.

Epic Iceland!

Opinion | There Is No Going Back (Gift Article) The president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...

The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth by Adrian Duncan review – the meaning of beauty A sculptor embarks on a philosophical quest in this revelatory tale of love and loss, exploring our relationship with the divine In 2020, when the statue of slaver Edward Colston was toppled into Bristol harbour, the public were treated to weeks of…

The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth by Adrian Duncan review – the meaning of beauty

Instead of building a third runway at Heathrow, can we focus on getting a functioning rail and bus network that’s reliable and affordable, please?

Photo of the Guardian’s listing of ‘The Stolen Heart’, second book in the Ukrainian author’s crime series set in post-revolution Kyiv.

Photo of the Guardian’s listing of ‘Saraswati’ - ‘an ambitious panoramic portrait of the ancient river and a plan to artificially reinstate it in present-day Punjab.’

Lovely to see two books I worked on this year in the Guardian’s round-up of books to look out for in 2025 - ‘The Stolen Heart’ by Andrey Kurkov and ‘Saraswati’ by Gurnaik Johal. And they’re right, of course - both are brilliant.

When I was a lowly autocue op on a live cooking show in the early 2000s, a celebrity chef commented on the bounce of the series editor’s bosom as she came down the steps from the gallery. Nothing was said. I’m glad people are speaking up now. The culture needs to change. #GregWallace

Sunrise, with trees and a pretty church in view.

Not a bad view to wake up to this morning.

Currently reading ‘Woman, Eating’ by Claire Kohda and very much enjoying it. Might follow it up with ‘She’s Always Hungry’ by Eliza Clark, and have me a little themed book party on my reading table.