A.F. Harrold

Soz!

I often think of the Half-Man Half-Biscuit version: 'That's when I was watching Junior Kickstart.'

Poet in hat, with sleeping cat.

Poet in hat with woken up cat.

Vincent is unimpressed by my new hat.

Poet in hat.

Wistful poet in hat.

Poet in hat attacked by comedian.

Fizzlebert Stump Book series ad. YouTube video by Naeem Tadayon

If you do manage to get them, you can share this amazing animated advert with the kids: m.youtube.com/watch?v=aAMX...

Yes, good luck!

Yes, the first couple of Fizzlebert Stump books are (or were (I assume they're still in print over there)) published in Farsi (in Iran) by Hoopa. Well remembered!

A poet and his cat, white a white beard and tall hat.

Me and Vincent.

A poet in a Nike, 'Just Do It', hat.

Another hat.

November 2025. Susan eating a biscuit like a t-rex. Vincent standing legs akimbo like a Tory.

December 2025. Vincent and Susan guarding the after eights like dignified cats.

I may be a bit behind, but it's time to turn the calendar... (from Susan and Vincent, to Vincent and Susan).

A poet wearing a hat made from post and a beard made from beard.

A new hat came in the post this morning.

Cover of The Worlds We Leave Behind. Pale green forest with a small river running through it. Some young people are balancing their way along the river bank, their backs to us.

The Worlds We Leave Behind by @afharrold.com is brilliantly unsettling. Highly recommend. Plus Levi Pinfold's illustrations are spectacular.

🎃 Celebrate all things spooky this #HalfTerm with
PoetryJoe’s deliciously eerie poem Halloween Crumble! 🍇👻

A tasty treat from A. F. Harrold's Midnight Feasts collection: bit.ly/474JDer
#MidnightFeasts #Poetry @afharrold.com

Thank you!

My favourite book.

To take your first in the other direction: Sausage Dogs.

Perhaps followed bythe nice and simple: 101 Sausages.

Memorable informational documentaries...

Contents Quick! Outside Wonderful Word Here Comes Winter Things I Looked up Online to Put on My Christmas List Grandma's Poinsettia The First Message from the Elf on the Shelf Dear Santa, Love Sam 8 Alternatives to a Christmas Stocking

“Perfect poems, rhythmically rambunctious and lyrically lively." A.F. Harrold

My festive poetry book, A Welly Full of Christmas is out 6 weeks today with @tinytreebooks.bsky.social! 🎉🎄 The most splendiferous @afharrold.com said some lovely things about it. And here's a sneak peek of the contents! Pre-orders available now from all the usual places ❤️🎄#UKKidLit #KidLitUK

I'll never not vote for Barbara Firth and Martin Waddell's Big Bear/Little Bear books, starting with Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?

Yep.

Thanks for the shout out!

Poster for Activity Day at Battle Library with details of the event (which you can also find via the link in this post)

This Thursday, Battle Library are hosting a fun-filled activity day to support the Story Garden Summer Reading Challenge, with games, workshops and local poet/author/beardmeister @afharrold.com!

All sessions are FREE but best to book in advance - whatsonreading.com/venues/readi...

Fishfolk book cover. Blue-green Hokusai-ish wave with added tentacles, threatening a couple of figures by a straggly tree. By Steven Quincey-Jones. Smashing book.

I honestly have no idea what actual kids (teens, I guess?) would make of it, but Fishfolk, by Steven Quincy-Jones (pub. by Firefly), is the best mythic-Doggerland-survival-tale-written-in-Beowulf-footed-prose-poetry, I've read for yonks. I think you'd dig it, Louie, if you've not found it already.

As Bookbanks new Ambassador I’d like to spread the word about this brilliant charity giving books with food at food banks.

Please share and support if you’re able :)

www.bookbanks.co.uk

Glad you enjoyed! And hooray for libraries!

Two melted cats, Vincent and Susan, ignoring one another, in seperate puddles.

When it's too hot to actively hate one another...

How many editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Not sure about this wording: it could be read as meaning editors have sex in light bulbs! Also, do we really "screw in" UK light bulbs? Don't we tend to use bayonet caps? Rewrite and bring it back in your own time, OK?

Have you finished yet?

"digital asbestos" is fantastic framing.

Twister Lolly Green and Trumpet Yellow by Kay Medway If my pocket houses my poem, it is clear on one condition: its contents are from simpler, cameraless times, like waiting at the aviary’s gates in the park, for a peacock’s feathers instead of sparks, its still firework-like fan display of delights. Park café baskets of gold chips, ice cream vans on hills with Twister lolly green or Calippo lollies for sale, queasiness on spinning castle outdoor play area seats, easiness on the tennis courts. School fields used for fetes, county dancing skirts of trumpet yellow, and for racing by holding bean bags in hands and on heads; Cyprus souvenir dresses, suede summer clogs, and volumes of gingham hair ribbons.

#poetry #poem

I loved reading A.F. Harrold's Pocket Book of #Poems yesterday. It inspired me to write my words.

@afharrold.com

Tasty penny paper bag pick n mix newsagent nostalgia mellow fruitfulness and summer park poem - thank you, took me right back! x

We were robbed last night. When it’s our stock or our money that is targeted, there’s insurance and systems in place for this, but when it’s stealing from a charity in an extremely direct way then we just can’t abide it.

scottishbooktrust.com/donate

@scottishbooktrust.bsky.social