Love love LOVE to see my boy Marlowe getting his recognition, and by folks from my beloved QMUL, where I wrote my MA dissertation on Marlowe too. Listen in, it's a treat!

I'm in it too 😎

Last month I had the pleasure of recording a segment for this 10-part essay series on BBC Radio 3 with the one and only @jerrybrotton.bsky.social . 'The Death and Life of Christopher Marlowe' starts tonight - don’t miss it; it promises to be sensational. 🕵️

[foreign office 2025]

CIVIL SERVANT: Prime Minister we have news on Mandelson's vetting, it turns out-

STARMER: no don't tell me, I want it to be a surprise when the scandal comes out in 8 months' time

CIVIL SERVANT: I really insis-

STARMER: god forbid we have any MYSTERY in our lives any more

@valouriousknight.bsky.social did recently christen me 'chicken guru' and if I haven't been into my local pub for a while there's usually someone who goes 'hi, it's chicken lady!' so I guess this is also A Brand

There is nothing so delightful as feeding the curiosity of small humans

Just recorded a 4 minute video for my friend's son answering his questions about why chicks are a different colour to chickens and why bird poo is white. I have a niche, and it is definitely 'weird auntie'

An albino English Bluebell

1 in 10,000

Lenny, a yellow labrador looks at the camera with his mouth open in a big goofy smile. He is on a green meadow where he has been running around like an idiot.

I think on balance, our dog is a big fan of Patrick Ness. He was the bemused but grateful recipient of a lot of book-trauma-related snuggles thanks to Mr Ness 🥹

A stack of books by Patrick Ness on a train table. The original Chaos Walking trilogy, as well as the new book, 'Piper at the Gates of Dusk'.

There are few things I respect more than seeing adults talk to children on their level, and it was a joy to see an author in action with a young fan today.

Sometimes it really is OK to meet your heroes.

Plus he was a gent who signed my dog-eared and much-loved copies of the original trilogy.

After all the exasperation at 'HE'S NOT REAL! GET OVER IT' silliness earlier, Ness gave a serious, heartfelt and thoughtful answer as to what the dog's death does for the story - progressing the plot and developing the characters. He answered respectfully, and gave kiddo things to think over.

In all seriousness, there was a lot of good natured exasperation at how cut up *everyone* gets about Manchee's demise, but right at the end of the Q&A an 11 year old girl asked 'but why did you have to kill Manchee?'

Friends, I watched a masterclass in how to drink your 'respect children' juice

A screenshot of the name of a group chat called 'Book club (fuck Todd). The latest message in the group chat mentions that 'There's been a lot of questions about Manchee' (Manchee is Todd's dog), to which Chris has responded with a crying emoji.

We read the first book together recently, my husband immediately hated the protagonist, Todd, for how he treated his dog. This has been the name of our book club chat ever since 😭

I found him wrapped around our dog doing a little cry when he read that book, and I don't think he's over it.

Had the absolute best time this evening seeing @patricknessbooks.bsky.social talk about his latest Chaos Walking book. I am very very excited to read it, almost 20 years (oof) after I read the first one.

I think it's time to remind people that if you think about it, Waluigi is just the version of Luigi that fucks

No apologies will be accepted at this present time! You are not a robot-generating robot! Have a lovely gentle day 🥰

This is very @valouriousknight.bsky.social coded

YouTube Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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You're welcome

Right OK but you've seen the eastern European version that was performed using heavy machinery and cars right?

"the good news is that we have found a relatively cheap and easy way to prevent the cast from going through puberty. the bad news is that not everybody in this room is going to like it".

Delightful!

Feel like it would probably be more than just a day brightener as an awkward train nerd adult also

Share with the class please, I spent much of my PhD patiently explaining that NO I DON'T WEAR COTTON GLOVES that I gotta see this

Is it a 'p' abbreviation? Not an apostrophe above, just the top of the 'p'? This has the hallmarks of 'blindingly obvious once you know it'

I think it's "o'er", but the little dash below gives me pause (missing letter insertion?) and the flourish on the terminal 'r' is very deep. Does "o'en" work? Like "o^p^en"?

Screenshot from a BBC educational website. The expanded section reads: "10. How to be polite and show respect In the old days of feudal Japan, a samurai warrior would shout You are trying to view Flash content, but you have no Flash plugin installed."

Remembering the ancient ways

Maya Forstater posting a selfie of her at Transmission

The gender crits just care about women's rights. That's why they spent their money and their Wednesday evening turning up to a trans solidarity concert, and then posted about it. Very normal!

Mayhem's been buried with a big handful of corn. Newest member of the upstairs flock has been sent on her way to meet the others. ❤️

A selfie of Amanda with a small chick perched on top of her head. The chick is called Mayhem, and she is about 3 weeks old here. She has fluffed her feathers up, tucked her head to her chest, and gone to sleep on Amanda's head.

The same chicken is perched on Amanda's head again, but this time she's two years old and really quite large to be napping on someone's head. There's a reason we called her Mayhem.

Mayhem Miller, my beloved chaotic weirdo of a chicken, was found dead this morning. She was almost 4 years old. House Brunton will be in mourning for the foreseeable. 😔

A waste disposal van labelled 'whole man disposal services'. Falling out the back of the van are several iconographic depictions of men (like the ones on toilet doors). Underneath, it says in quotation marks and all caps, "YES, THE ENTIRE MAN."

In so far as we can all agree it would not be a crime to enact physical or psychological violence on this man?