Jo F

Nine regional and country winners of The British Book Awards 2026 (#Nibbies) Independent Bookshop of the Year have been revealed today, all with a "through-line of energy, innovation, entrepreneurship" ✨

Read more here 👉 www.thebookseller.com/news/...

"Bookshops are the quiet pulse of the high street, places where, with each book browsed and each page turned, imagination can take flight. They are the gateway to stories we all cherish, whatever our age. I've been lucky enough to visit many beautiful bookshops recently, and the care they take in serving their communities is deeply heartening. From a party for local families and school talks with P&G Wells in Winchester, to an extremely jolly signing with Hungerford Bookshop, and a pleasingly large pile of international orders in Backstory Books in Balham, I feel honoured to have been supported by these and many more."

We ❤️ bookshops: where imagination can take flight 🚀

This World Book Day, we're thrilled to discuss the magic of bookshops with Hugh Bonneville, star of Paddington and author of Rory Sparkes and the Elephant in the Room! 🐘📕✨

@pgwells.bsky.social @hungerfordbookshop.bsky.social #BackstoryBooks

Helen in Wonderland's London Marathon for BookTrust Help Helen Tamblyn-Saville raise money to support BookTrust

£22.78 to go to hit my fundraising target for BookTrust and a long run to do this morning. Can I get there before I get back? 🤔

www.justgiving.com/page/helen-t...

#kidlituk

And on Kobo 👍

I love Owl's lacy wings!

Yes that'll be part of it - finally found a reading i can get on with!

Cover image of The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick NESs

Listening to the first Chaos Walking book by Patrick Ness while decorating. I don't usually manage to follow plots via audio but this is fab so far

Perfect, thank you so much.

All the kids I've shown my proof to have LOVED this! What's the best way to contact you or publicist about an event enquiry, please? If you might fancy a trip to Winchester?

Out of all the modules in my history undergrad degree, it's the one on gender in Italian fascism that haunts me the most by being CONSTANTLY relevant to daily life

There's a photo of me as a baby in the arms of Ruth Madoc in her Hi-De-Hi costume.

[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS] 1 NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]: Hello there 2 [A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk]. DAD: Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids? 3 NT EMPLOYEE: Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail! 4 MUM: That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids? 5 NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]: Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot! 6 NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]: Listen - that's their call [Calls emanating from the landscape]: tut-tut woke-woke 7 NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]: They are extremely sensitive and fragile... But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery. 8 KIDS [pointing]: There they are! [Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure]. [Little people noises]: woke-woke tut-tut woke-woke 9 [Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]: Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house. [Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]: tut-tut woke-woke 10 MUM [pointing]: What's that one doing there? NT EMPLOYEE: Oh, that's so sweet… 11 [We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away]. NT EMPLOYEE: I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph… 12 [We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]: Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE? [ends]

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

Oops - i meant Shadow Creatures (Chris Vick)... possibly also shadow thieves, but i haven't read it yet!

I'd be so into Shadow Thieves and Impossible Creatures for sure

Snap!

Cover image of 'Almost Everything There Is To Know' by Hunkin, the pinnacle of 20th-century illustrated non-fiction

I still have my beloved copy of this:

From the paper of record to the bulletin board for embarrassing middle aged people who cooked their brains online

BIG YES to all of these!

The energy I bring to social events: Ai is 💀 the planet and chat gpt is making you stupid

People love it

Yeah, that's probably the way round it works in this. Avoiding duplicates is useful to check in on and a well timed reminder

I'm going to go and ponder how this works with a non-fiction project I'm working on. Thank you!

Trello might help

All famines are man-made, all famines are political. Historians of empire and humanitarianism have known this forever. Gaza is not starving, Gaza is being starved, by Israel, and this starvation is enabled by our government and by every other government that does not step in to force food and aid.

Happy St Swithun's Day from Winchester, where the cathedral bells have been busy already. Weather report here is there's been some gentle rain overnight, and now it's a lovely sunny morning but not too hot. Fingers crossed for the next 40 days

I can't donate any more - if you can, please do! It's such a great way to show some love to our fellow humans.

What a title! 😍

Oh, huge congratulations! Very well deserved x

Chris Haughton - Shh! We Have A Plan! is a favourite of mine. Bold shapes, lots of repetition of a couple of key phrases, scope for funny voices, and a surprise pay-off with the right amount of jeopardy!