A.F. Harrold
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afharrold.com
A.F. Harrold
@afharrold.com
970 followers 720 following 250 posts
Poet, performer, children's author.

The Imaginary, The Worlds We Leave Behind, Fizzlebert Stump, Greta Zargo and others.

www.afharroldkids.com
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afharrold.com
A new hat came in the post this morning.
A poet wearing a hat made from post and a beard made from beard.
November 26, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
claresdraws.bsky.social
The Worlds We Leave Behind by @afharrold.com is brilliantly unsettling. Highly recommend. Plus Levi Pinfold's illustrations are spectacular.
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.
October 31, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
bloomsburyed.bsky.social
🎃 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
October 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
attielime.bsky.social
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
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
September 18, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
rdgwhatson.bsky.social
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...
Poster for Activity Day at Battle Library with details of the event (which you can also find via the link in this post)
August 4, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
kitdewaal.com
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
July 20, 2025 at 5:24 AM
afharrold.com
When it's too hot to actively hate one another...
Two melted cats, Vincent and Susan, ignoring one another, in seperate puddles.
July 3, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
ianduhig.bsky.social
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?
June 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
techconnectify.bsky.social
"digital asbestos" is fantastic framing.
caseyexplosion.bsky.social Casey Explosion @caseyexplosion.bsky.social · Jun 24
I'm going to be honest here, I think AI is going to do so much damage to the usable internet that even after it's inevitably crashes out, it's going to take years to disentangle from every space it's polluted, like digital asbestos it's gonna be time consuming effort and likely expensive venture.
jametc.bsky.social jess m. @jametc.bsky.social · Jun 24
I think AI is going to eventually tank in the longterm, but...

the only real way to combat this is single-interest communities. Forums, user comms, etc, with a barrier to entry. They become trustable knowledgebases. It's really the only way forward is to return to what worked best the first time
June 25, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
kaymedway.bsky.social
#poetry #poem

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

@afharrold.com
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.
June 27, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
argonautbooks.bsky.social
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
June 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
afharrold.com
Further adventures in comfortable pillow land. Susan and some Joan Aiken/Quentin Blake loveliness.
Susan, a ginger cat, on a windowsill leaning her cheek on the pointy edge of some books.
June 16, 2025 at 7:09 AM
afharrold.com
Everybody needs a rocking chair for a pillow, everybody needs a rocking chair...

Or so Vincent thinks.
Grey cat, Vincent, using a rocking chair as a pillow. Grey cat, Vincent, using a rocking chair as a pillow.
June 1, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
literaryvegan.bsky.social
Poets'R'Us @afharrold.com
May 30, 2025 at 7:06 PM
afharrold.com
Had a nice visit to Waterstones, Finchley Road, this afternoon. Plenty of signed books left for you all!

@bloomsburyed.bsky.social @literaryvegan.bsky.social
@waterstones.bsky.social
Poet (AF Harrold) with books (Pocket Book of Pocket Poems).
May 30, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
bloomsburyed.bsky.social
A.F. Harrold has a whole load of poems that he’d like to share with you!🥳

He’s a word wonder, herding unexpected ideas into unusual shapes!

Don't miss his session at the St Austell Festival of Children's Literature on June 14th. Tickets here: bit.ly/3FnXd1s @afharrold.com
May 28, 2025 at 10:27 AM
afharrold.com
My cat. Not my cat.
Vincent. Lucifer.
May 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
whatsfsaid.bsky.social
Reading with children changes their lives forever, and EVERY SINGLE CHILD is entitled to this right! That's why I support the #ReadingRights campaign. The full report is out today from @booktrust.org.uk & @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social: please read & share!
www.booktrust.org.uk/about-us/rea...
Poster supporting the BookTrust/Children's Laureate Reading Rights campaign, with illustration by Chris Riddell of a reader with books
May 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
afharrold.com
Just read this excellent kids-folk-horror-walk-away-from-Omelas-wickerman-is-a-river-adventure from @darrensimpson44.bsky.social and @pushkinchildrens.bsky.social. Gripping, gruesome, dark and dripping. Beware the woods and the reanimated child corpses... #Thirst out in September. A Good Thing.
Red book cover. Blue stream/zombie. Title is 'Thirst', written by Darren Simpson. Back cover: 'Simpson is a compelling writer... He has a marvellous sense of the uncanny' PHILIP WOMACK A deliciously spine-tingling novel about a cursed river and the town that worships it, from the two-time Carnegie Medal nominated author, Darren Simpson. Perfect for fans of spooky, action-packed teen reads, such as Alan Garner's The Owl Service, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree. Darren Simpson's previous books have been widely acclaimed: his first novel Scavengers was a Guardian Book of the Year, and Furthermoor was a Waterstones Best Book of the Year. A Sarah Odedina Book PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2025 • £9.99 9781782695721 PAPERBACK • B-FORMAT PB ORIGINAL WITH FLAPS 198 X 129MM FOR PUBLICITY ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT VICKI@PUSHKINPRESS.COM Back cover: A Sarah Odedina Book PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2025 • £9.99 9781782695721 PAPERBACK • B-FORMAT PB ORIGINAL WITH FLAPS 198 X 129MM FOR PUBLICITY ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT VICKI@PUSHKINPRESS.COM First page: 1 HOUNDS AND HARES Gorse felt the scratch of thorn, the trickle of blood. But still he ran on, ducking along the undergrowth and diving through bramble. The forest's canopy rolled by above his head, and though his breaths came loud and hard, he could hear his pursuer gaining on him, kicking through shrubs not far behind. "Hop with baste, ob little hare," sang a panting voice. "This hungry hound your flesh will tear." Gorse couldn't outrun Burdock-he'd always been the slower of the two — so he tried to outmanoeuvre him by gripping a low branch and swinging himself around its tree. He was sprinting suddenly in the opposite direction, and Burdock - skidding to a stop as Gorse whipped by —swore and stretched out his fingers. He grasped at empty air, just short of Gorse's sleeve.
May 19, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
dapsdraws.bsky.social
It also ties into how people not only view kidlit as something that’s “easy to create” (even tho every time they try it comes out shit)…they also see making children’s books as a way to make a quick and easy buck.

I encounter this a lot with people wanting to get into making kidlit.
deecherrywriter.bsky.social Danny Cherry Jr (twitter/Insta/tiktok: @Deecherrywriter) @deecherrywriter.bsky.social · May 18
The fact that AI generated kid-lit is a thing shows that some people view kids' media as something meant to distract children, and not something that's integral to cognitive development.
May 19, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
whatsfsaid.bsky.social
An island of strangers? Just imagine British children's books without the work of migrants & their children – all of these & more!
www.sfsaid.com/2017/02/one-...
Graphic showing British children's book covers: Matilda, The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Meg and Mog, Coming To England, The Gruffalo, Who's Going On A Bear Hunt, Horrid Henry, Journey To The River Sea, A Monster Calls, How I Live Now, Noughts & Crosses, The Girl Of Ink & Stars, Tall Staroy, Oliver & The Seawigs, Face, Varjak Paw
May 14, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
deecherrywriter.bsky.social
The fact that AI generated kid-lit is a thing shows that some people view kids' media as something meant to distract children, and not something that's integral to cognitive development.
May 18, 2025 at 6:51 PM
afharrold.com
Just read this excellent kids-folk-horror-walk-away-from-Omelas-wickerman-is-a-river-adventure from @darrensimpson44.bsky.social and @pushkinchildrens.bsky.social. Gripping, gruesome, dark and dripping. Beware the woods and the reanimated child corpses... #Thirst out in September. A Good Thing.
Red book cover. Blue stream/zombie. Title is 'Thirst', written by Darren Simpson. Back cover: 'Simpson is a compelling writer... He has a marvellous sense of the uncanny' PHILIP WOMACK A deliciously spine-tingling novel about a cursed river and the town that worships it, from the two-time Carnegie Medal nominated author, Darren Simpson. Perfect for fans of spooky, action-packed teen reads, such as Alan Garner's The Owl Service, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree. Darren Simpson's previous books have been widely acclaimed: his first novel Scavengers was a Guardian Book of the Year, and Furthermoor was a Waterstones Best Book of the Year. A Sarah Odedina Book PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2025 • £9.99 9781782695721 PAPERBACK • B-FORMAT PB ORIGINAL WITH FLAPS 198 X 129MM FOR PUBLICITY ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT VICKI@PUSHKINPRESS.COM Back cover: A Sarah Odedina Book PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2025 • £9.99 9781782695721 PAPERBACK • B-FORMAT PB ORIGINAL WITH FLAPS 198 X 129MM FOR PUBLICITY ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT VICKI@PUSHKINPRESS.COM First page: 1 HOUNDS AND HARES Gorse felt the scratch of thorn, the trickle of blood. But still he ran on, ducking along the undergrowth and diving through bramble. The forest's canopy rolled by above his head, and though his breaths came loud and hard, he could hear his pursuer gaining on him, kicking through shrubs not far behind. "Hop with baste, ob little hare," sang a panting voice. "This hungry hound your flesh will tear." Gorse couldn't outrun Burdock-he'd always been the slower of the two — so he tried to outmanoeuvre him by gripping a low branch and swinging himself around its tree. He was sprinting suddenly in the opposite direction, and Burdock - skidding to a stop as Gorse whipped by —swore and stretched out his fingers. He grasped at empty air, just short of Gorse's sleeve.
May 19, 2025 at 2:26 PM
afharrold.com
The view from my desk, this morning!
A fox on a fence.
May 18, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by A.F. Harrold
whatsfsaid.bsky.social
If we care about the future of our children, we need a library & a librarian in every school, to help every child find the books that will make them readers. Libraries & librarians change children's lives FOREVER - and they're more vital now than ever! #libraries #librarians #literacy
May 16, 2025 at 1:56 PM