Lesley Pitman

Sad news. Why does the BBC struggle so much to put on a decent book show?

So I made up for it today. The best advice, if you have to go gluten free and can’t cook? Learn! Saves a lot of disappointment.

Radical with Amol Rajan - Books v Screens: Why Every School Needs a Library (Katherine Rundell) - BBC Sounds Children’s author Katherine Rundell on the crisis of reading amongst kids.

Katherine Rundell on why every school needs a library AND a librarian www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

It’s the hope that gets you. They were sold a while ago, but kept the same very good chef, who always greets us when we go in, and knows how to feed me safely. But the new owners have said no.

Went out for the best gluten free eggs royale at our local pub, and suddenly it is all sharing plates and no brunch. Sadly, some of us can’t share.

He does. Maybe that will be the deal.

Now it’s tomorrow, teletypewriters?

Alaska seems like an odd choice for the summit. More provocative than neutral. Or is it possible they don’t know it used to be Russian?

Failed to get today’s Wordiply, so I just checked and I haven’t seen that word for 30 years.

I admit to being biased. One of my favourite, and incidentally entirely gluten free, restaurants is Fifteen Square Metres in Broadstairs. The owner and chef is Tony Rodd, Masterchef finalist in 2015. Highly recommended.

I think I agree with this. Too often the wrong people are punished. The contestants shouldn’t lose out.

Toaster bought, in the big Sainsbury’s a bus ride away. This feels like a category error.

Seeing nonsense in the other place about how free of toxins life was when our grandmothers were having children. Not really. One of my grandmothers, born in 1880, was a paintress (sic) in a pottery as a young woman. There would have been lead in the paint. She died aged 44 of TB.

Not holding my breath. When we moved to Tooting it was Woollies, with M&S right next door. Wilko was useful, and I could buy a toaster there too.

Of course you are right. But I really miss Morley’s. My kitchen is completely kitted out from Morley’s, and if my toaster broke I could have another within the hour.

Tooting is a great place to live, but suddenly I need a new toaster and all the kitchen shops have closed down. Why? Please, we don’t need any more coffee shops, or barbers, or chicken shops, or nail bars, or did I say barbers. I just need somewhere I can pop out to and buy a new toaster.

no context the west wing on X: "10. "Dear Father, let our country awake" https://t.co/c1QHaIMd00" / X 10. "Dear Father, let our country awake" https://t.co/c1QHaIMd00

I know that as President he represented a liberal fantasy, but Martin Sheen is 85 today, and that is worth celebrating. Jed Bartlet quoting Tagore just last year seems to come from another age, and that is sad.

“Without our libraries and universities, how will we tell the story of Gaza?”

It would only be properly gluten free if you checked every ingredient for may contain warnings, but that’s always true. Makes the labelling a bit of a waste of time, and potentially misleading, too.

My regular Saturday moan about allergen labelling in the Guardian Feast supplement. The kofta recipe looks great, and entirely gluten free. I assume it isn’t labelled GF because they suggest you serve with rice or bulgur wheat. Well, ok, but that isn’t the recipe. There must be a better way.

Others have noted that this means foreign-born people are LESS likely than UK-born people to be in prison. What I want to note is that The Times is now referring to foreign-born UK citizens as ‘foreigners’. This includes Boris Johnson, Sir Mo Farah, Emma Watson, Rory Stewart and little old me.

Nose in a book all day?

Thank you! I thought it was just me, but they look to me as though they’re aimed at 5 year olds.

Illuminated bat from the Ashmole bestiary showing a bat on a gold background inside a red and green frame. The bat is brown with black wings and cartoonish, with incongrously detailed human-looking facial features.

Three outlines of three bats as marginalia in a yellowed page from a Bodleian manuscript. The bat marginalia are hastily drawn (likely added by a different hand than the scribe who wrote and illustrated the rest of the text). The bats have simplistic facial expresisons; one has two eyes and a straight line for a mouth, the second has a soft smile, and the third has something between the two.

A page from a bestiary showing Latin text and a black bat illustration in an embossed gold square. The bats wings look feathered and the shape is bird like, suggesting whoever drew it may not have seen a bat up close before.

An immediately strange looking illustration from a medieval Paduan text. A bat flies above an illustration of a man, and both are roughly the same size. The bat has cat like legs and a long tail, and is shaped like a winged rat.

RIP Ozzy Osbourne. We scoured the archives to find our best medieval bats in the rocker’s honour.

#MedievalMonday.
1. Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Misc. 554
2: Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 304.
3: Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764.
4: Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1511.

Yes, if the services come back they can do what they like with the design. Still don’t like the little pastel boxes though. But I will get used to it.

Welcome to the British Library We are the UK's national library. Open to everyone and free to use. Explore our buildings, study, meet friends, attend an event and get free access to over 170 million items.

British Library’s new website is up. Not sure about it. Those pastel boxes with the little figures don’t work for me, but maybe they aren’t aimed at grumpy old women. Bl.uk

❶ “They’re living in luxury hotels at our expense!” Fact: These accommodations typically comprise budget hotels or repurposed facilities. The rooms are basic, frequently cramped, lacking kitchen access, and providing limited privacy. ❷ “They get £40 a day spending money.” Fact: Asylum seekers residing in hotels receive approximately £9.58 per week in cash, equating to about £1.37 daily—insufficient to cover even fundamental necessities. ❸ “They’re taking hotel rooms from paying guests.” Fact: The government specifically contracts hotels that often have available capacity or are unsuitable for typical guests. Most were not fully booked prior to their use. ❹ “They should be working to pay for their stay.” Fact: Asylum seekers are prohibited from working while their claims are being processed—a policy decision rather than a personal choice. ❺ “They’re just waiting around doing nothing.” Fact: The majority of asylum seekers aim to contribute positively. Many engage in volunteering, learning English, or participating in community organisations, despite facing significant uncertainty.

❻ “We’re spending millions on them!” Fact: The high costs associated with hotel use stem from a broken and backlogged asylum system, not from the individuals utilising it. Delays perpetuate a state of limbo, resulting in increased long-term expenses. ❼ “They’re given better treatment than our homeless.” Fact: Asylum seekers are housed in hotels due to the government’s legal obligation to accommodate them. Homelessness is a distinct and also underfunded issue; one should not be used to justify neglect of the other. ❽ “They’re all men of fighting age.” Fact: Asylum hotels also house families, women, and children. The narrative surrounding “fighting-age males” is often intended to incite fear rather than accurately represent the situation. ❾ “They could have stayed in a safe country.” Fact: International law does not mandate claiming asylum in the first safe country encountered. Individuals arrive in the UK for various reasons—language preferences, family connections, historical ties, or safety concerns elsewhere. 𝟏𝟎 “They’re pretending to be refugees to get free stuff.” Fact: The vast majority of asylum seekers are legitimate refugees fleeing war, torture, and persecution. Their claims undergo individual assessments based on stringent criteria. Asylum seekers residing in hotels are not leading luxurious lives—they are enduring hardships while awaiting safety. The core issue lies not with those occupying the hotels, but rather with the prolonged circumstances that have led them there.

10 prevalent misconceptions regarding asylum hotels, clarified and refuted with accurate information for you to share, particularly if you are sick of hearing the same tired and often racially motivated arguments.
from Community Integration and Advocacy Centre via @westcountryvoices.bsky.social 🙏🏻

RIP Tom Lehrer - the day he announced his items were public domain on a website, we mirrored it. Thank you for your service

archive.org/details/toml...

YouTube video by Tom Lehrer Tom Lehrer Full Copenhagen Performance

RIP the incredible Tom Lehrer. He made all his songs and recordings public domain because he was awesome so please go and enjoy some.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHPm...

It isn’t illegal here, so any bookseller could in principle get it for you, and probably should. On the grounds that if it’s legal you should be able to read it. But odd that I was led straight to Foyles. Advertising it is another matter. www.foyles.co.uk/book/the-tur...