the grime punk artist stood in the wings of the Glastonbury stage, pre-show nerves jangling. "I really hope the government likes this", he thought

Fantastic post. I’m also delighted to flag up that on #WorldIBDDay NHS Lothian’s RefHelp team, working with the WGH GI consultants launched an updated RefHelp page about IBD, as well as a new dedicated referral pathway for patients with a possible new diagnosis of IBD.

As I’ve landed back in hospital with unexpected cancer treatment complications, I’m going to try and channel @hayleygullen.com energy in this post!

Absolutely! I think nursery and school based education on dental care is fine- I remember getting it when I was at school in the 80s, but it shouldn't be added to the overfull workload of education staff, but delivered by community dental nurses, backed up with free accessible NHS dentistry.

On Falling promo image. Film's title in large yellow capital letters above various film festival wreaths, over an image of a woman with hair tied back, wearing work gloves, shifting yellow crates in a warehouse

Last night I saw the Scottish premiere of On Falling by @lauracarreira.bsky.social and it is a special film. I admired the careful restraint of its storytelling, and its insistence on our capacity for kindness and beauty. It announces Carreira as a film maker of real courage and humanity. See it!

When life’s all a bit too cancery, checking out Hayley’s brilliant work always helps me understand what I’m feeling.
She’s awesome. If you don’t know her work - you really should!

Was discussing this album at the weekend with Arlo, who’s listened as part of his album-listening-project. And we’re sad to say you’re incorrect. The opinion of this dumpy-bald-pushing50-GenXer disnae really matter, but it warms my heart the 15 yr old agrees with me 😁 (and the uilleann pipes are 👌)

I feel this with every bone in my body. So perceptive, as always.

So grateful to have joined cRxeate for this last night. What a wonderful evening!

Yup! Such a good use of everyone’s time and skills. I’ve been thinking it could be a great first year med school activity: look at this ridiculous clinical scenario and point out all the ways it doesn’t make any sense.

I had a brilliant English teacher for all 5 years of high school. I left at 16, headed to study medicine, but with her urging to do "do something with my writing" stored somewhere. Was a joy to write to her 30 yrs later to say I'd finally listened, and now had an MA Creative Writing with the OU.

It's just awful. I've composed a dozen pithy responses about why it is so awful, but wit and pith aren't really my lasting emotions since seeing this yesterday. It's despair. It really is.

Argh, just saw this now. Are these regular sessions? Looks right up my street!

In a mediocre school, I had a brilliant English teacher. I don't remember loathing but do remember loving: Steinbeck's The Pearl, Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Antigone, Norman MacCaig, some Margaret Atwood, some Alice Walker, plays by Ann Marie Di Mambro and Liz Lochhead, and a wee bit of Orwell.

It really is a joy. I love it when my two realise they're surpassing (often eclipsing) any of me and P's (minor) achievements - but the joke's on them cause my delight in their skills and engagement in the world always, always exceeds any pride I have in anything I've done. Ha!

A collage of thirteen images, with a quote from each chapter of The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, bookended with a seascape with the quote: “When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back; Three from the circle, three from the track; Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone; Five will return, and one go alone.”

As #Twelthnight ends, so does the annual #TheDarkIsRising read along

Black text, white background, of all my reads for 2024: 2024 Things Seen by Annie Ernaux The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper The Ravens Nest by Sarah Thomas The Plague by Jacqueline Rose A Horse at Night by Amina Cain The Years by Annie Ernaux Happening by Annie Ernaux Love's Work by Gillian Rose Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux A Man's Place by Annie Ernaux August Blue by Deborah Levy Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti A Midsummer Night's Death by K M Peyton A Silent Language by Jon Fosse What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto Dead End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness Doppelganger by Naomi Klein Knite by Salman Rushdie The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt Fi by Alexandra Fuller The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au Tell Me What I Am by Una Mannion Tom Lake by Ann Patchett Notes from an Island by Tove Jansson & Tuulikki Pietila Eleven by Patricia Highsmith Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Orbital by Samantha Harvey Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers Hospitales by CIC Comics Youth Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson

2024 Reading … Highlights …
Annie Ernaux

If I can’t have more #Vera, I’d like a wee special with #Kenny and #Billy from Shetland, where they solve a crime and where Jimmy Perez and Vera are too busy enjoying their new lives to do any cameos.

Laid up with winter lurgy, and the extra stress that being on targeted therapy #Abema brings to any infection. But the (bittersweet) sliver lining is the chance to watch the last episodes of #Vera and the special doc. Such good good TV.

The Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize now for the "unputdownable" novel f RT on unpublished women. The winner will receive a £1,500 prize, and all shortlisted authors get a one-on-one consultation with a literary agent.

Please share.

www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/fictionprize

Daily reminder that the underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.

That's a great selection. I'm especially fond of the Jeanette Winterson. Since I was gifted it five years ago, I read it every festive season - a story a day starting on the 20th December, finishing on the 31st. Every year I take something different from the stoires. Happy Reading!

This sums it up, yes.

Literary algebra:
(MA in Creative Writing ✖️ Supportive Tutor ✖️ Space to write)
➗
(Prolonged cancer treatment ✖️
writing rejections) 🟰 Writer ➡️ “Used to do some writing” - obligate past tense

All the feels .. all the solidarity … all the tears ❤️

A photo of countryside in winter - in the foreground of the photo is snow, with some gorse breaking through. In the distance is a tree covered hill, the trees are spattered with snow. On the sky a quote has been added: “He was crystal-clear awake, in a Midwinter Day that had been waiting for him to wake into it since the day he had been born, and, he somehow knew, for centuries before that.” Midwinter Day, The Dark is Rising

#thedarkisrising
#susancooper
#thedarkisrisingreadalong

Spending some time there is definitely on my post-cancer treatment wish list.

Photo of me, newly hairless (due to chemo) at the beach, sunglasses on. First bald selfie.

And that’s a fierce photo! Thank you for sharing! This is my “I’m going to do this” photo.

That’s fair. I think it’s different for everyone and for me, when a narrative is thrust upon me that I didn’t choose, especially by those who haven’t been through the rigours of all that cancer treatment involves, that’s what I find hard. Hope you are well x

So pleased to find fellow #TheDarkIsRising readers over here on Bluesky. It’s one of my winter favourite traditions.