Charlotte Tomson

A painting of diagonal slashes and crosses of various kinds all filling the white page in red paint of varying intensity. In tiny scratching handwriting the words 30 million dead July 76 M Bishop The Somme

30 million dead, The Somme, painting created by Mary Bishop 1976 in the art therapy studio at Netherne hospital where she was compelled to live.
Aged 4 when her father was killed in WWI, the reverberations of his death & her mother’s vast grief traumatised & distressed Mary for the rest of her life

Here's our pick of the best writing comps and subs for November. Join the WHQ slubbers club and send your stories into the world. Go go go!

writershq.co.uk/5-competitio...

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Victorian drawing of a blindfolded man with long black hair and a tight suit with red boots prancing around a stage littered by eggs.

Baron Nathan, the celebrity dance teacher of the 1850s who danced the hornpipe blindfolded, surrounded by eggs. There's something SO malevolent about this image. It's powerfully frightening.

An illustration in green, black and white. There are two houses: a witch is peeping out of the front door of one, a Jack O'Lantern out of the other.

Another lovely #Halloween illustration, this one by Kurt Werth from 'One Dark Night', a children's book by Edna Preston. In the story, various spooky beings gang up but are frightened away by a crafty little mouse.
#witch #jackolantern #illustration #KurtWerth #mouse

Important piece from @booktrust.org.uk and @openuni-rfp.bsky.social about the value of book choice for pupils and how to help promote it in the classroom. Do have a read! files.booktrust.org.uk/docs/documen... @teresacremin.bsky.social @richardruddick.bsky.social

"Once upon a time there was a little witch who was only a hundred and twenty-seven years old". The Little Witch, Otfried Preussler -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lit...
#bookwormsat

Excellent advice...and something for every occasion!
www.joanaiken.com/books/

Illustration of woggle dancing with broomsticks in a forest, a little bat in flight around them.

The Woggle of Witches,
Adrienne Adams, 1971.

Illustration of a lush, green Moominvalley with a variety of Moomin characters and other creatures from the series. The illustration includes Moomintroll, Snorkmaiden, Little My and Moominpappa, who is wearing a top hat and a vest. The characters are in a landscape with a river, a field of white daisy-like flowers, and numerous trees. Some trees have green leaves, while others are laden with yellow, spherical fruit. A ladder is propped against one of the fruit-bearing trees.

‘It is autumn in Moominvalley, for how else can spring come back again?’ ~ Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson.

@racheldeering.bsky.social here for the rest of an Autumnal #BookWormSat 🍂

Romanticism gave Gothic fiction its pulse. Behind every phantom is longing. Behind every monster, love twisted by loss. The horror is never just outside. It’s what the heart won’t forget. #31DaysofHaunting #31DaysOfHalloween

Art: Munch

Art by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Black and white illustration of a witch standing in the pouring rain near a lake. Mountains in the far distance.

One of my favourite Flemish folktales is that of a witch who lived near the sea in a derelict cottage that the locals avoided. They were thrilled when a storm destroyed it. The witch went to the sea and kept herself occupied by conjuring storms and capsizing ships.

🌙See thread for more witchery🌙

Amazing opportunity for unpublished authors.

Thanks for the recommendation. Hadn't heard of these before, but they sound like a very fresh take on fantasy and enormous fun!

I'm a bit late to the party on these two, but I really love Cornelia Funke and Catherine Fisher. In the meantime, if you have some gothic recommendations, send them my way!

The Box of Delights. Properly unsettling. Abner Brown's a brilliant villain!

The Storm Swimmer by Clare Weze

Up Above The City by Clare Weze

Next up for my month of Black kids books is another double - both by Clare Weze. She blends real world social issues with elements of magic and science creating unique and wonderful adventures. Up Above The City is her latest book and highlights the hidden plight of refugee communities.

Swimming into the weekend – and all the adventures it will hold...

🐻‍❄ 'Dark Waters', from The Caterpillar Archives by Scottish artist Lucy Campbell #ArtistSpotlight

Painting of a shocked looking lady dressed in black standing in an autumnal woodland while the wind whirls gusts of orange leaves all around her.

"Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings, now for #October eves!"

By Humbert Wolfe

#October1st #BookChatWeekly #Autumn 🎃🍃🍂

🖼️ 'La Bourrasque' (The Gust of Wind) by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, 1896