A short piece about Manchester and poetry for @robmclennan.bsky.social and periodicities.
The pictures, courtesy of David Gaffney, are from the above/ground press readings last week with me, @ggaffa.bsky.social and @lydiaunsworth.bsky.social at Saul Hay Gallery.
bsky.app/profile/robm...
Writers - check out these free workshops in Rochdale...
www.eventbrite.com/cc/roch-tale...
Please circulate.,..
Thanks so much for the great review!
Thanks to @wjdavies.bsky.social & @review31.bsky.social for this great review of four recent @nightjarpress.bsky.social publications by @rlsummerling.bsky.social @bookishleels.bsky.social @ggaffa.bsky.social & Joe Stretch
the free tickets for this are going fastโฆ.
Trying to get back out there a bit more in 2026. Looking forward to this event at the end of next month. I read Lakes of Titan by David Gaffney in December and loved it. Hope to meet some people there! @ggaffa.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abovegroun...
loved that book- second one is great too
Ill be launching my latest pamphlet on Thursday 26 Feb at the amazing Saul Hay gallery. expect weird surreal readings from @lydiaunsworth.bsky.social @tomjenksuk.bsky.social and me - plus free wine (you'll need it) Free tickets here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1979710024...
Ill be launching my latest pamphlet on Thursday 26 Feb at the amazing Saul Hay gallery. expect weird surreal readings from @lydiaunsworth.bsky.social @tomjenksuk.bsky.social and me - plus free wine (you'll need it) Free tickets here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1979710024...
Copies available here!
david-gaffney.sumupstore.com
Lakes of Titan by David Gaffney, published this month by Above/Ground Press.
What a great piece of work by David Gaffney inspired by a long train journey and the hours before and after it. How many different minutes can you fit into an hour? I would really recommend getting this. And long live the Chuckle Brothers.
Well done for taking a stand
This is the saddest day of my professional life. Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage. I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys. I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show, A show that I named and helped develop over all those years. Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry. These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenter
In a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices. Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'. โข I chose the latter. It broke my heart. I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make. I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer. I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence. One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career.
I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more. I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost". James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice. Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences. I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness. Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire. I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal. I am so sorry to let you down. I hope that you can understand my reasoning. I have to accept that I am not what the current BBC expects of their freelance presenters.
Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not "just a job" I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world. From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too. The strawberry is dead. Long live the strawberry. B
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
Outย now!
Lakesย ofย Titanย is a short pamphletย by me publishedย byย Above/Groundย press
Youย canย orderย now atย theย knockย downย priceย ofย 5.00
david-gaffney.sumupstore.com/product/lake...
theย everydayย hallucinatory,ย fuelledย byย theย powerfulย narcoticsย ofย disorientation,ย hypervigilanceย andย fatigue.ย Tomย Jenks
If youโre in Manchester tomorrow (Saturday, 4pm), it would be dead good to see you at the 50th Peter Barlowโs Cigarette โ 50th, blimey! Amazing readers: Frances Presley, Jeremy Over and David Gaffney. Oh, and *cough* me. Free as well and the venue is ace โ bring your headtorch and your pocket money.
๐ฅ ๐ ๐ Tonight at book/record shop & public drinking rooms Ad England Impiety Hour (aka Peste), itโs the launch of essay collection The Carbon Arc, with four readers โ David Gaffney, Nicholas Royle, Anne Worthington & David Savill โ plus film clips, introduced by editor Richard Skinner. Free entry.
If you are in Manchester tonight this will be fantastic! Introduced and published by @richardnskinner.bsky.social
readings by @anne-worthington.bsky.social @ggaffa.bsky.social @nicholasroyle.bsky.social & David Savill, at ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฏ๐๐๐ AKA "O! Peste Destroyed"/ "Annihilation Eve"
The Carbon Arc will launch in Manchester November 12th, published by @richardnskinner.bsky.social work by @anne-worthington.bsky.social @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social @ggaffa.bsky.social @nicholasroyle.bsky.social Maria Fusco, Gareth Evans, Sam Mills et al. richardskinner.weebly.com/lsquothe-car...
@smallpublishers.bsky.social Haul! I 'Flight Paths' by @ggaffa.bsky.social/@nightjarpress.bsky.social , NaoKo TakaHashi' & @intergraphiabooks.bsky.social 'Blabbermind' by Andrew Kotting, @susiecampbell.bsky.social & @guillemotpress.bsky.social ,SJ Fowler/ Sampson Low. Fantastic reading from all ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ
Come to @smallpublishers.bsky.social today.
We will be there later this afternoon!
Nightjar publisher @nicholasroyle.bsky.social in conversation with Ma Bibliothรจque publisher Sharon Kivland @smallpublishers.bsky.social photo by @emmabolland.bsky.social
A new story by David Gaffney is always something to celebrate. Flight Paths, published by @nightjarpress.bsky.socialโฌ, is one of his most intriguing โ tautly edgy, deftly organised. nightjarpress.weebly.com/flight-paths.html
I'm off to watch Carlisle play Altrincham this afternoon -come on the blues! I hope they are good in rain - coming from cumbria they're probably well used to it....
m.youtube.com/watch?v=uURN...
If your neighbourhood is infested with flags on lampposts, email your councillor and request that they be taken down. In some areas, they have done so; the more people who contact them, the better.
Alternatively, organise a small group, get a ladder and some cable tie cutters, and do it yourselves.
My instagram has become videos only! Iโve looked at settings but cant seem to change it - anyone else had this or know how to fix it?
I am on the crossing where Jean-Paul Belmondo dies after being shot in A Bout De Souffle by Jean Luc Godard - this appears in my essay on film locations in the new anthology The Carbon Arc - available now! richardskinner.weebly.com/lsquothe-car...
Thanks Ian!
Front cover of Flight Paths, a short story chapbook by David Gaffney, published by Nightjar Press. Image shows a brick building with two windows above a sign saying 'Enigma'.
I loved @ggaffa.bsky.social's previous @nightjarpress.bsky.social story, and this is as good if not better. A flight path signals something much deeper in the narrator's life, darker and more unsettling
nightjarpress.weebly.com
