Philippa East (Author)

a man in a blue sweater is standing in front of a shelf with cereal boxes and says wild wild stuff . Alt: a white man in a blue sweater (Jerry Seinfeld) is standing in front of a shelf with cereal boxes and says with a subtle grin “wild wild stuff”.

Wait until you hear about the novel that she wrote *before* The Salt Path…

a woman sitting in a chair with the words wait what written on her face Alt: a white woman reacts with total shock and says “wait, what?“

The podcast series is EXTREMELY eye-opening. Well worth a listen.

Episode 127: No One Knows Where to Shelf This: On Unclassifiable Books We tend to think of books as belonging somewhere: novel, memoir, biography, fantasy, history.

Happy Thursday! @bibliopaul.bsky.social and I got a chance to talk with @ofbooksandbikes.bsky.social about unclassifiable books, and I had a great time! Here is our new episode! open.substack.com/pub/mookse/p...

2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist locusmag.com/2026/03...

Tickets to all 15 of our talks are £30 per person (£15 concessions) with individual sessions priced at £5 each (£3 concessions). If you regularly attend our Beyond the Spectrum workshops, please sign up using the link sent to your email. Otherwise, scroll down to find out more about our festival programme. BEYOND THE SPECTRUM WORDS UNWOUND AN ONLINE FESTIVAL OF AUTISTIC WRITING 23RD - 28TH MARCH 2026 £30 TICKETS/£20 BTS MEMBERS/£15 CONCESSIONS a £5 FOR INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS VISIT BEYONDTHESPECTRUM.UK TO BOOK

Ooo, this looks fantastic!
Online week-long writing festival for autistic writers with #BeyondTheSpectrum.
Monday 23rd—Sunday 28th March.
Full details here: beyondthespectrum.uk/product/onli...

change.org Keep trans players on the court - basketball is for everyone. S 1,621° Verified signatures v 63 people signed today Recent signers: Philippa East • 24 seconds ago Stella Moore • 42 minutes ago Laur: Thanks to your support this petition has a chance at winning! We only need 879 more signatures to reach the next goal - can you help? Decision Maker: Basketball England Take the next step! 8 Supporter Voices The Issue • We believe that all people belong in basketball, including trans people. • Our experience provides us with evidence and confidence that Basketball England's existing Transgender Inclusion Policy ensures fair competition. • We ask Basketball England to listen to us when we say that we want you to keep trans players on the court.

I’ve just signed 🙏🙏🙏

www.change.org/p/keep-trans...

Arg! Will repost

A picture of a boxes of trail mix called “pick me ups“, except a discount sticker is placed over the wording so it looks like it reads “fuck me ups”

For anybody out there who just needs a little giggle.

Me at Fiction Fest, and the covers of four of my books including CRAWLSPACE, STRANGER THINGS: DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, STAR WARS: MASTER OF EVIL and STAR WARS: SHADOW OF THE SITH.

Super stoked to be at Fiction Fest, a brand new literary festival coming to Manchester on April 11. I'm hosting the panel "Monsters in the Margins" featuring @garethlpowell.bsky.social, @manylittlewords.bsky.social, @melliver.bsky.social & @voidcricket.bsky.social! Tickets at www.fictionfest.co.uk!

yup 😆

No problem!
Just to make things more confusing, people often muddle up:

the EHRC = Equality and Human Rights Commission

with the ECHR = European Convention on Human Rights or European Court of Human Rights 🤪🤪🤪

Cats Can’t Live on the Moon—Lauren Kardos At least, that’s what the man tells the young girl. While scrounging for provisions the other week, he found her sleeping in an overturned mini-van on the highway, one in a sea of stalled vehicles.…

"Where were her parents? Did any friends or family make it? The girl answers nothing, only whispers the cat’s name. Mrs. Cookie."

Gorgeous speculative piece by @lkardos.bsky.social in @crowkeys.bsky.social and now I am so in love with Mrs Cookie.

crowcrosskeys.com/2026/02/25/c...

Hate but love but hate but love, okay, gimme

Cool, cool

🤣

Transparent Action plans to respond to the draft Guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education, published on 12 February by the Department for Education (DfE). This Guidance will affect how trans, non-binary and gender-diverse children are treated in schools. We’d like you to answer some questions about your child’s experience at school. We’re keen to hear from parents of children of all ages – children and adults – about their experiences in education now and in the past. Click on the link in the comments below. This will help us shed light on the real life challenges that trans, non-binary and gender-diverse young people face at school, how that has changed over time and how they might be better understood and supported. As always, your privacy is very important to us and all responses will be kept private and only quoted anonymously. We will use your responses in our formal reply to the consultation. We need your response by 31 March 2026 to be included. We will also be working with other organisations to create a template for parents who want to submit their own responses to the DfE. You can find the draft Guidance on the DfE website. There are two main sections that affect trans, non-binary and gender-diverse young people - ‘Regulations and safeguarding requirements relating to school premises’ (toilets, changing rooms and showers) and ‘Children who are questioning their gender’.

@transparentaction.bsky.social are doing some fantastic work coordinating responses to the Government consultation on the new draft “Keeping Children Safe in Schools” guidance.

See details here:
m.facebook.com/story.php?st...

Our letter sent today to  Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP - TransLucent Our letter sent today to  Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP

translucent.org.uk/our-letter-s...

Done 😢😢😢

Days left to act: Ban cruel cages for hens Right now we have a unique opportunity to stop this industrial-scale torture: The UK government has proposed ending the use of cages for hens, and they have launched an official consultation to ask th...

Can you do me a quick favour today? ✍️

The government is finally asking if they should ban cages for hens in the UK. 🐔🐔 Lobbyists are trying to block it, so we need huge numbers to show them that the public wants this ban NOW: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/en...

@nellarthur.bsky.social 🙌

Picture of the book cover showing a orange spiral going down into the black depths

My #RecentRead*
#TheHole by #HyeYoungPyun

*books I’ve really liked/loved

Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP We write to express our grave concern that individuals who hold gender-critical views are being permitted to participate in decisions directly affecting trans healthcare, including within regulatory and clinical settings, and that trans people themselves are often excluded from the same processes. The fact that Professor George has been recused from the MRA puberty blocker panel is a clear recognition that certain framings of sex and gender can distort clinical decision-making. However, the issue extends far beyond one individual, reaching into the wider healthcare workforce, including a minority of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals with gender-critical views who continue to influence or scrutinise trans-affirming care beyond trans people's involvement. We need to be explicit that no person whose gender-critical beliefs result in discriminatory conduct towards trans people should hold any role in the delivery or governance of trans healthcare. Where such discrimination is identified, existing disciplinary and employment frameworks must be used to remove those individuals from positions of influence. In the longer term, robust safeguards should be developed to prevent such individuals from being appointed to roles that shape or oversee trans healthcare in the first place. Those decisions must be taken by people with lived experience of being trans. Trans people are experts in their own health and wellbeing, and their voices must be central to the design, monitoring, and reform of trans-inclusive services. We recognise that gender-critical beliefs are protected under Article 9 ECHR and the Equality Act 2010, and we fully respect the right of individuals to hold such beliefs. However, when those beliefs are manifested in ways that discriminate against trans people, restrict access to care, or undermine trans-affirming treatment, they cross the line into what can reasonably be described as an "objectionable manifestation of belief".

Trans people in the UK continue to face significant prejudice and discrimination, and a substantial portion of that prejudice is rooted in gender-critical ideology, which frequently targets trans identities and gender-affirming care. That pattern of animus is commonly understood as transphobia. While there is currently no statutory definition of transphobia - just as there is none for antisemitism - the City of Portsmouth, where TransLucent is based, has adopted a local definition grounded in the United Nations framework. The council's motion, passed in November 2024, defines transphobia as "the dislike, prejudice, discrimination, denial of identity, hatred or violence towards people who identify as transgender or gender-diverse". We would also draw your attention to the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), which has designated certain organisations that promote transphobic narratives, including opposition to gender-affirming healthcare, as "hate groups". The SPLC defines a hate group as an organisation whose beliefs or practices attack or malign an entire class of people, typically based on immutable characteristics. Two international gender-critical organisations that actively promote concerns about gender-affirming care and have considerable influence within the UK have been identified by the SPLC as meeting this hate group threshold. Their interventions in UK policy debates cannot be treated as neutral or simply "academic": they are part of a broader pattern of hostility towards trans lives. TransLucent has always maintained a tolerant and respectful approach, seeking to engage constructively with those who do not share our goals. We operate in accordance with the Nolan Principles and are transparent about our research and data collection, publishing our findings publicly, including on issues such as the safety and acceptability of trans people's use of single-sex spaces.

However, when organisations or individuals use prejudicial or discriminatory views to target trans people, or to propagate misinformation about the services they are entitled to, it is both necessary and proportionate to highlight those facts. Failing to do so risks normalising hostility and embedding t into the structures of the healthcare system itself. This deliberately reduces the access to care of rans people, which is clearly a form of discrimination We urge your department to take concrete steps to ensure that trans healthcare is free from gender-critical discrimination and that trans people are not only consulted but are central to the design and oversight of services that affect them.

Clearer version here, with alt text 🤗🤗🤗
Huge thanks to @stephrichards.bsky.social for putting this together.
TransLucent’s letter to the minister for health and social care, sent earlier today.

Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP We write to express our grave concern that individuals who hold gender-critical views are being permitted to participate in decisions directly affecting trans healthcare, including within regulatory and clinical settings, and that trans people themselves are often excluded from the same processes. The fact that Professor George has been recused from the MRA puberty blocker panel is a clear recognition that certain framings of sex and gender can distort clinical decision-making. However, the issue extends far beyond one individual, reaching into the wider healthcare workforce, including a minority of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals with gender-critical views who continue to influence or scrutinise trans-affirming care beyond trans people's involvement. We need to be explicit that no person whose gender-critical beliefs result in discriminatory conduct towards trans people should hold any role in the delivery or governance of trans healthcare. Where such discrimination is identified, existing disciplinary and employment frameworks must be used to remove those individuals from positions of influence. In the longer term, robust safeguards should be developed to prevent such individuals from being appointed to roles that shape or oversee trans healthcare in the first place. Those decisions must be taken by people with lived experience of being trans. Trans people are experts in their own health and wellbeing, and their voices must be central to the design, monitoring, and reform of trans-inclusive services. We recognise that gender-critical beliefs are protected under Article 9 ECHR and the Equality Act 2010, and we fully respect the right of individuals to hold such beliefs. However, when those beliefs are manifested in ways that discriminate against trans people, restrict access to care, or undermine trans-affirming treatment, they cross the line into what can reasonably be described as an "objectionable manifestation of belief".

Trans people in the UK continue to face significant prejudice and discrimination, and a substantial portion of that prejudice is rooted in gender-critical ideology, which frequently targets trans identities and gender-affirming care. That pattern of animus is commonly understood as transphobia. While there is currently no statutory definition of transphobia - just as there is none for antisemitism - the City of Portsmouth, where TransLucent is based, has adopted a local definition grounded in the United Nations framework. The council's motion, passed in November 2024, defines transphobia as "the dislike, prejudice, discrimination, denial of identity, hatred or violence towards people who identify as transgender or gender-diverse". We would also draw your attention to the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), which has designated certain organisations that promote transphobic narratives, including opposition to gender-affirming healthcare, as "hate groups". The SPLC defines a hate group as an organisation whose beliefs or practices attack or malign an entire class of people, typically based on immutable characteristics. Two international gender-critical organisations that actively promote concerns about gender-affirming care and have considerable influence within the UK have been identified by the SPLC as meeting this hate group threshold. Their interventions in UK policy debates cannot be treated as neutral or simply "academic": they are part of a broader pattern of hostility towards trans lives. TransLucent has always maintained a tolerant and respectful approach, seeking to engage constructively with those who do not share our goals. We operate in accordance with the Nolan Principles and are transparent about our research and data collection, publishing our findings publicly, including on issues such as the safety and acceptability of trans people's use of single-sex spaces.

However, when organisations or individuals use prejudicial or discriminatory views to target trans people, or to propagate misinformation about the services they are entitled to, it is both necessary and proportionate to highlight those facts. Failing to do so risks normalising hostility and embedding t into the structures of the healthcare system itself. This deliberately reduces the access to care of rans people, which is clearly a form of discrimination We urge your department to take concrete steps to ensure that trans healthcare is free from gender-critical discrimination and that trans people are not only consulted but are central to the design and oversight of services that affect them.

Clearer version here, with alt text 🤗🤗🤗
Huge thanks to @stephrichards.bsky.social for putting this together.
TransLucent’s letter to the minister for health and social care, sent earlier today.

This Friday, as part of @yorklitfest.bsky.social two fabulous Cli Fi writers, @johnironmonger.bsky.social and @amylilwall.bsky.social will be presenting a talk about Climate Fiction and the future of the planet. It looks great!
@flyonthewallpress.bsky.social

EHRC = the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the UK’s national human rights body.

They’re tasked with upholding & enforcing the Equality Act, to protect the rights of all in the UK.

Over the last few years they’ve actively undermined the rights of UK trans people.

www.equalityhumanrights.com

And to you and Domino!

bsky.app/profile/phil...

Yes, I know and I’m really sorry for using their references. I can’t access the Radio clip otherwise because I’m not subscribed to the Times.
Thank you for flagging who SEEN are 🙏🙏🙏

@cajardinemp.bsky.social 🙏🙏🙏
See above ❤️

In the Radio Times interview that you can find a clip of here, Newman speaks to MP Christine Jardine, which means it’s made it into Parliament.
Hopefully Christine Jardine will follow through on asking important questions about this of the Minister for Women and Equalities

x.com/JournalismSE...

Oh we love asking these questions!