“In 2024 the UK’s creative industries contributed £145.8 billion to the economy while the entire AI sector contributed £11.8 billion.”
www.thetimes.com/article/8561...
"There is the third reason to become a parent: It gives the people you love another way to know you."
When you become a parent, you meet your child. & then you meet your child again. & again, every day after that. You will never stop meeting your child. That is one reason to become a parent: To have a child is to fall in love with a thousand beautiful strangers
www.derekthompson.org/p/three-reas...
I’m looking forward to reading this. T Barbara Demick which might shed some light www.waterstones.com/book/daughte...
Is there a regimental museum? They are treasure troves.
"We don’t suffer from a lack of male writers, we suffer from a paucity of male readers, and amongst those who do read, a proportion are reluctant to engage with books not written by men."
"Men account for 56% of readership of books written by male authors, but only 19% of books written by women. & only 19% of readers of top 20 bestselling female fiction authors are male."
I remember the coverage vividly - they were the same age as my little brother. I didn't know so much about the campaign to ban hand guns afterwards. We should all be thankful to them. Would that other countries could learn the same lesson.
“Excuse me, Mr Blair, do you have a daughter?” Blair replied that...he did —Kathryn was then 8. Mr Ross replied: “Well, I had a daughter. She was 5 yrs old & now she’s 5 feet under the ground in a wooden box, & she was put there by someone with a legally held weapon”
www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...
Fascinating from Natasha Poliszczuk's Substack:
A 2025 poll showed 53% of men in the UK had read or listened to at least one book in the last year, as opposed to 66% of women. 11% of men ‘never’ read for pleasure, compared to 5% of women.
Her involvement in anti-suffrage is an interesting lacuna in her archive. Plenteous notes on the Milk Marketing Board, many many papers on Govt of India Bill, folder upon folder on the by-election, nada zilch zip on Scottish National Anti Suffrage League or Anti Suffrage Review.
Why not round off #IWD by reading about how Scotland's first woman MP changed her mind about women's suffrage? (By me)
research.reading.ac.uk/astor100/iwd...
Absolutely love this story about Queen Victoria
It seems we will always have to fight for women’s rights, and we will have to teach our daughters - and our sons - to keep on fighting too
Again, government by memelord is a terrible idea
What on earth is William Wallace in there for? There is nothing about him and his fight for freedom which is like this conflict
UK arts must not be sacrificed for speculative AI gains, peers say
I am revisiting #WutheringHeights for the first time since I was a teenager and I cannot understand how anyone can view Heathcliff as a romantic idol. He spends most of the second half of the book beating up children.
They could interview my 98yo Nana about the delights of chip barm pey wet in Wigan. She has some trenchant views on George Orwell she'd be happy to share.
This year they include Pablo and Splash (excellent books) and Bunny vs Monkey, which are the most popular books among primary school boys at the moment.
That figure from @literacy-trust.bsky.social
1 in 4 pupils receiving Free School Meals said the £1 book they 'bought' with their £1 #WorldBookDay book token was the first book of their own. If you're in any doubt as to why today is important, that should bring it home.
Operation Mincemeat is coming to @artstheatrecamb.bsky.social in October and already there are only a handful of single tickets left for every performance!
SO DELICIOUS you must try it WHY HAVEN'T YOU TRIED IT
Someone once told me that beans on toast with marmite and followed by an apple is a nutritionally complete meal and that is my forever comfort fact.
Marmite on the toast under the beans
If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.
When we get to the end of a chapter of the Famous Five or even Biggles, my 7yo regularly wails “But that’s the WORST place to stop!”
For #womenshistorymonth, here are some of the best books by women about women which I drew on when writing Red Duchess. Eleanor Rathbone, Edith Summerskill & Thelma Cazalet-Keir are all fascinating. (There's no biog of Florence Horsburgh & there really ought to be, for anyone in search of a subject)
My autistic son finds it quite discombobulating that his Beano arrives on a different day each week, and sometimes two together. Wish Royal Mail could be relied on for a predictable day!
Our local Spar has a newspaper delivery. 6th formers are the delivery boys. Used to arrive before 7am, been nudging 9am recently. But it is amazing for our kids to see the physical news every day and 7yo is better informed than many teens.
