I hope so too. I've not recognised my country through all this nonsense.
Hardest working man in teaching. Lead Practitioner in English. Book reading quiz teaming woke art lover. He/him. #Booksky #Edusky libraryrinth.substack.com
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I hope so too. I've not recognised my country through all this nonsense.
I'm looking forward to going back, seeing everyone and welcoming new staff. Last year was tough, but I think this time around I'll be better prepared. 🤞🤞🍀🍀
Good luck #Edusky if you're back at school tomorrow. Even an Inset can be a shock, so be kind to yourself. It always takes me a while to get match fit, especially in September.
Thanks - so far so good!
Really pleased to pick up a secondhand copy of this - been after one for years. Full of great stories. #Booksky
Good luck fella!
Yeah, they help me focus too.
It was cringeworthy. First time I thought the country had lost its mind - first of many.
This is my country, not the hotel botherers.
I did find taking notes useful. Still do, although you can't get everything down.
👏👏👏
We holidayed in Rhodes a few years back. One of the best we've ever had - food was spectacular, great history, lovely people.
Which part did you enjoy the most?
Book 38 of 2025 A wild ride. But lots of heart, too. And the writing just sings. Dorothy Parker on poppers. #Booksky
That's where I got it! Enjoy.
It's the students furiously taking notes you should worry about.
Book 37 of 2025 I'm a big fan of the Sewing Bee, and I've been wanting to read this for a while. I got the audiobook, which was good fun. #Booksky
Liking the new gaff. Lots of storage.
Oh yes.
(Farage explodes)
London/South East England English Miaow
Day out in London: steak, frites, red wine, art. Cheers!
I'm still pretty sure Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey are the same person.
The idea that Farage is not part of the 'managerial class' is frankly nonsense.
Well said.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit. Trump on the other hand wants to burn the forest to the ground.
Fabulous. I very much look forward to reading it.
Of course he is.
Nigel Farage and the Reform Party’s Taliban Tax means sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat.
Disheartened by the recent Reform UK announcements on immigration, I've written to my MP. The text is below, if you'd like to do the same:
Come on, Labour - why aren't you speaking out against this? Most people find it abhorrent.
It took an Irish journalist, Claire Byrne, to hand Farage’s arse to him on a plate. Depressing not to see more of this in British broadcasting. Anyway, enjoy how the big mouth has nothing to say for once after she plays him some very embarrassing footage…
📢 @jdportes.bsky.social "We have yet to hear a Cabinet Minister point out that migrants now fill 1/5 jobs in the UK, that they are more likely to be employed & less likely to claim benefits. Diversity should be our greatest strength, and it is that argument that anti-immigration zealots fear most."
The correct way of doing it is actually much simpler: Go into Word File Options Copilot Uncheck box
Just asked Copilot how to disable Copilot in Word, and it gave me a completely inaccurate set of steps. Figures.
You can contact your MP via: members.parliament.uk/members/Comm...
Disheartened by the recent Reform UK announcements on immigration, I've written to my MP. The text is below, if you'd like to do the same:
Coffee. Or tea.
An excellent evening out with a pal: axe throwing, live poetry, curry, and YES: beer and wine.
I've started using Duckduckgo as my search engine. AI much less invasive.
Not good. Where are you, Labour?
This is the strangers’ case; And this your mountainish inhumanity. William Shakespeare, The Book of Sir Thomas More, Act II Scene 4
Whet their detested knives against your throats, Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements Were not all appropriate to your comforts, But chartered unto them, what would you think To be thus used?
Go you to France or Flanders, To any German province, to Spain or Portugal, Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England, Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased To find a nation of such barbarous temper, That, breaking out in hideous violence, Would not afford you an abode on earth,
and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another. Say now the king Should so much come too short of your great trespass As but to banish you, whither would you go? What country, by the nature of your error, Should give you harbour?
I’ll tell you: you had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an aged man, For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, With self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you,
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got?
AI is permanently shitfaced.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
I go. I try. And I will keep trying, even though it feels like a losing battle. Because I remember the whole point of the far-right astroturfing of social media is to make it feel like a losing battle, to make us give up. Anyway, a few snippets on small boat crossings and immigration.
Because with the delay, the trial will continue for longer?
Awww, love that. You are very welcome.
Thanks, Creepy Jester, for going to such lengths.
I remember hearing about this as a kid - glad it is still a thing.
Could they get into a t-shirt?
That was his? Very chic.
Good line.
Reform Voters, the gene pool is shallow
True. In Aristophanes' comedy The Knights, old men complain about youngsters with their bad behaviour and long hair. It was written 2,300 years ago.
Excellent list. The usual suspects, plus several I wasn't aware of. Banned! The 20 books they didn’t want you to read www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
A privilege of teaching; and also much needed today, when I'm feeling down.
Ran into a former pupil in town, who's doing well at uni - great kid, and lovely to catch up. Also had an email from a Y11, thanking me for getting them a pass - another terrific kid, who definitely deserved it.
Here's an envelope I illustrated, which will be auctioned with other designs by celebs to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society. I'll post details of how you can bid in due course. Reposts appreciated. #caricature #art
I teach English, but thoroughly enjoyed the 'Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England' - I was after Shakespearean context, and got a whole lot more.
I had no idea, and I'm just down the road. I'll try and get there before it closes.
I like him, so I will if I can.
Frightening, isn't it? How the most vulnerable - as always - pay the price for past failures of government.
As if that would be more accurate.
Good to hear. I do think I could get better at that. Although I often tell classes that Shakespeare is something you grow into over time, so don't panic if you feel a bit at sea.
And then the final redemption was nothing short of miraculous, as it should be. Pure theatre.
What regrets does an 18-year old have, really? Whereas now, Leontes' yearning in Act 5 for the family he could have loved (had it not torn it to pieces) reminded me of what I've lost in the last 30 years.
Also a factor of ageing. I absolutely think we should study Shakespeare at school, but also in the knowledge that there are large swathes of it we won't appreciate (or understand) until much later in our lives.
I did 'A Winter's Tale' at A-Level, and was pretty sniffy about it at the time. More evidence that teenagers know nothing.
A very strong production, much darker than other versions I've seen. And I was moved to tears at the end - very powerful.
No, not yet - is that the Mark Gatiss one? I like what I've heard about it.
'He is the heretic who sets the fire, not he who burns in it.'
It's my mum's fault, the Shakespeare habit. She took me to see Derek Jacobi as Richard III in the West End when I was 13 or 14, and I've had that damn Stratford monkey on my back ever since.
We ate in the theatre's rooftop restaurant. Excellent service, and food wasn't bad. Nice rioja.
Stratford, with my mum. Lunch, then 'The Winter's Tale' at the RSC Theatre.
Possibly..? Yeah, I think.
Not good, not bad. Bit of both, or hard to tell which.
It's been a really... odd day.
New on my substack... open.substack.com/pub/libraryr...
Book 36 of 2025 Blasted through this in 24 hours. Plagiarism in the publishing world, and a really unsympathetic protagonist. #Booksky
Very good. And not just because I rode on the Alton Towers bobsleigh ride before they closed it down.
National Portrait Gallery.
Tickets booked for the Jenny Saville show at the NPG, which I'm going to with our youngest. Steak lunch beforehand, too...
Him and Julie Christie together were such a great-looking couple. Apart from being terrific actors.
The whole EU delegation should turn up in fatigues and camo gear. Disgraceful if true.
'Fuckin' Dante!'
That's the fella!
Guy Thingy, who went for a job interview and ended up on BBC News.
Book 35 of 2025 No exaggeration when I say this is one of the best books I've ever read. Great story, characterisation and description, and genuinely moving. Also a wild coincidence towards the end that made me hoot with delight. #Booksky
Good piece. Revolutionaries continue to be very thin on the ground where I live.
Yeah, I know what you mean. Very tightly written.
I can see why.
Does he not get how it looks, or he just doesn't care? Both?
What if they were stealing fruit? How's that a deterrent?
I often think about good meals I've had. Best steak I've ever eaten was in Southwold - the White Swan? Always meant to go back.