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Reposted by Helen McClory

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 17h

Nigel Farage accuses teachers of "poisoning our kids" on race issues.

Here's a reminder of what teachers and fellow pupils at Farage's own school remember of his own views on that subject.

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/nigel-fara...

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Electric Sheep @electricsheepsf.bsky.social · 3d

This week's guest is Helen McClory!

First up is "The Companion" in Wigleaf!

"At this time of day, the risk of attack was minimal, and all she had was that noise, that taste, the treachery beneath, and the cold air around."

@helenmcclory.bsky.social @wigleaf.bsky.social

McClory: 'The Companion'

Fiction by Helen McClory

wigleaf.com

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Electric Sheep @electricsheepsf.bsky.social · 2d

"The sound was high and wrenching. There was a strong, wild smell now. She and I stood watching the second wave of the storm as it broke, droplets spattering, dense as white oil."

Love the relationship amid the storm!

@helenmcclory.bsky.social @wigleaf.bsky.social

McClory: 'White Rain'

Fiction by Helen McClory

wigleaf.com

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Myna Chang @mynachang.bsky.social · 1d

"None of the snakes were awake, but the music made you think something violent was going to happen. I suppose the violence was in the man, not the snakes."

I love this story! All of Helen's stories are full of quirky happenings & gorgeous language.

@helenmcclory.bsky.social

Electric Sheep @electricsheepsf.bsky.social · 1d

"I want to tell you about this other film I saw, one night when you were out sticking twigs in your hair and shoving your hand into the mouths of foxes, you dank, fleshy monster."

Every bit of this story is unexpected! And sharp as a snakebite.

@helenmcclory.bsky.social in Winter Tangerine!

The Language of Heaven — Winter Tangerine

www.wintertangerine.com

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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 5d

My dad has turned up this photo from a visit "many years ago" to the Forth Bridge. I think it's taken from what he calls the howff, just below track level, used by the maintenance workers.

I guess when you're engaged in a proverbially endless task, you need a wee cup of tea once in a while.

Black and white photo showing a kettle on the sill of a very dirty window. Immediately outside the window is the very recognisable steelwork of the Forth Bridge.

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 8d

Book Cover of the Day:

SOME•HAUNTED HOUSES.
ELLIOTT O'DONNELL
Deep blue cover decorated with bat across moon, trees, silhouette of castle turrets

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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 8d

“Necessity is not the mother of invention; play is”
—Ian D. Suttie

It gets late early out here
in the lacklustre places,
wind in the trees and the foodstalls’
ricepaper lamplight, fading and blurred with rain…

—John Burnside, “Travelling South, Scotland, August 2012”
#nationalpoetryday #play #poem

John Burnside
Travelling South, Scotland, August 2012

“Necessity is not the mother of invention; play is”
—Ian D. Suttie

It gets late early out here
in the lacklustre places,
wind in the trees & the foodstalls’
ricepaper lamplight, fading & blurred with rain,
the wire fence studded with fleece
& indelible traces
of polythene wrapping; marrowfat clogging the drains
on the road that runs out to the coast
then disappears.
A last bleed of gold in the west, like a Shan Shui painting,
then darkness.

The animals are gone
that hunted here:
wolves coming down from the hills, that
immaculate hunger,
rumours of bear & cat, quick
martens & raptors.
The rain is darker now,
though not so black,
oil-iridescent, streaked with the smell of lard
– it gets late early out here; though late, out here,
has a different meaning:

stars in the road
& the absence of something more
than birchwoods or song,
pallet fires, tyre-tracks,
grubbed fields clouded with grease
& palm oil, hints
of molasses and lanolin, tarpaper,
iron filings.
A narrow band of weather on the road,
then houses; though we scarcely think of them
as that.

I remember a meadow at dusk
in another rain
(and this is nostalgia now); I remember
I stood in a wind like gossamer and watched
three roe fawns and a doe
come quietly, one by one, through the silvering grasses,
wary, but curious, giving me just enough space
to feel safe,
their watchfulness reminding me of something
lost, a creaturely
awareness I could only glimpse

in passing.
That meadow is gone, and dusk
isn’t dusk any more
– or not out here –
just miles of tract and lay-by on the way
to junkyards and dead allotments,
guard dogs on tether,
biomass, factory outlets,
the half-light of ersatz dairies petering out
on rotting fields
of rape and mustardseed.

We’ve been going at this for years:
a steady delete
of anything that tells us what we are,
a long
distaste for the blood warmth and bloom
of the creaturely: local
fauna and words for colour, all the shapes
of ritual and lust
surrendered where they fell, beneath a fog
of smut and grime and counting-house
as church, the old gods

buried undead beneath the rural sprawl
that bears their names, or wandering the hills
of Lammermuir and Whitelee, waiting out
the rule of Mammon, till the land returns
– with or without us –
chainlink going down
to bindweed, drunken
thistles in a sway
of wind and goldfinch on the dead estates, fat
clusters of moss
and gentian, broken

tarmac with new shoots
of coltsfoot breaking through
like velvet, till the darkness of the leaf
unfurls into a light we could have known
but failed to see
by choosing not to find
the kingdom-at-hand:
this order;
this dialectic;
this mother of invention,
ceaseless play.

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Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 8d

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

A printed poem which reads:

I hav for breakfast Weetabix

I hav for lunch some meat

I have for tea 2 sosajis and thats enuf to eat

Peter Hazel, 5

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Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 9d

IT WAS IN FACT @helenmcclory.bsky.social

Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 11d

Talking about Robert Aickman with a customer (good, good!). He said there is a woman writer whose stories are comparable. These stories are VERY short...
but he couldn't remember the name.

Who do you imagine he had in mind? I have no idea

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Helen McClory @helenmcclory.bsky.social · 9d

!!! Incredibly generous comparison!

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 13d

the political policy cure for “male loneliness” is

- more time to hang with the fellas (4 day work week)

- more money to spend with the fellas (higher wages)

- more things to do with the fellas (taxing the rich and building 3rd spaces)

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Alex Bulat @labouralexb.bsky.social · 16d

Did you notice how quickly the debate moved from “it’s not about you, you came here legally and integrated, it’s illegal immigration” to “people with indefinite leave to remain should have their status retrospectively removed”

The more we legitimise anti-migration narratives, the worse it’ll get.

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Helen McClory @helenmcclory.bsky.social · 18d

Congratulations! I went once, years ago. It's stunning!

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Helen McClory @helenmcclory.bsky.social · 24d

A single tear trickles down a monitor's cheek

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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 29d

every time there's political violence discourse i think about how jo cox was assassinated in broad daylight by a fascist who shouted "britain first" as he shot her, and now nine years later her party is dedicating every moment in power to placating the ideology of her murderer

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Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · Sep 10

A simple but important way to support Palestinian writers is to read their work. A helpful list is in the link below but please do explore @arablit.bsky.social more widely as well as publishers like @commapress.bsky.social

ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly @arablit.bsky.social · Sep 10

This should not be limited to English. We've reached out to people who can help with lists of Palestinian lit in Turkish, Indonesian, Malayalam, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German. If you can help with these or other languages, please message.

arablit.org/2025/09/08/l...

List in Progress: Palestinian Literature Forthcoming Fall 2025 or 2026

Although we generally focus on literature in translation, this encompasses literature written by Palestinians in any language (and a few additional titles at the end). Please let us know if you hav…

arablit.org

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Alan Fisher @amfisher.bsky.social · Sep 3

📌

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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · Aug 30

Naoise Dolan, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed young novelists, will be boarding the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza.

Irish novelist Naoise Dolan is boarding a flotilla to break the siege on Gaza.

Naoise Dolan, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed young novelists, has announced that she will be boarding the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza. Dublin writer and activist Dolan—t…

buff.ly

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · Aug 28

I feel like this job (horror scholarship!) would be a great fit for a load of people I know or that follow me on here!

Pass it on!

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOM520/r...

Research Associate at University of Glasgow

Discover Research Associate jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

www.jobs.ac.uk

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Helen McClory @helenmcclory.bsky.social · Aug 26

This feels a bit like that A Street through Time book share.google/FSrYTWCgU5C2...

'Prehistoric Eden' unexpectedly unearthed by archaeologists in Scottish town

A PREHISTORIC “Eden” has been “unexpectedly” discovered in Fife as archaeologists have unearthed artefacts and structures spanning over…

share.google

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Reposted by Helen McClory

Anton Hur @antonhur.com · Aug 23

Also people keep asking me if I find AI translation helpful in my work and AI TRANSLATION IS NOWHERE NEAR COMMERCIAL QUALITY and NO I DON'T EDIT AI TRANSLATION BECAUSE IT'S MUCH FASTER FOR ME TO JUST DO THE ACTUAL TRANSLATION THAN EDIT CRAP because PAINTING CRAP WITH GOLD DOESN'T TURN CRAP INTO GOLD

Anton Hur @antonhur.com · Aug 23

Someone recently wrote a book using ChatGPT and emailed it to me, asking if it's any good, as if I would ever waste a second of my time reading it? Why are people so shameless? Why do people want to be seen as "writers" so much? Why can't they use AI to get a lucrative job in coding instead?

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · Aug 23

Just received a blanket pitch from a children's book author (sent, presumably, to many indie bookstores) pitching a clearly AI-illustrated book. In the interest of public service, this was my response. I'm fucking done with being nice to these people.

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Helen McClory @helenmcclory.bsky.social · Aug 22

A friend of mine told me the course of the heart @mjohnharrison.bsky.social was the best English novel of the last fifty years. I'm half way through and it may not be hyperbole.

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m john harrison @mjohnharrison.bsky.social · Aug 22

this is a bit of a surprise...

Serpent's Tail @serpents-tail.bsky.social · Aug 22

#TheCourseOfTheHeart by @mjohnharrison.bsky.social is included in the Daily Mail's roundup of the best literary fiction.

www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/a...

An electrifying, visceral storyteller: The best new Literary Fiction

Stephanie Cross reviews the best Literary Fiction out now.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Helen McClory @helenmcclory.bsky.social · Aug 22

I've had the same- one emailed me three times!

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Aug 21

“Children, especially in early developmental stages, are acutely sensitive to tone, timing, and emotional mirroring. A child playing with an AI toy will believe they’re being understood, when in fact, the system is only predicting plausible next words.”

Could an AI Barbie Take the Place of Real Friends?

Are AI toys the future of playtime or a risk to emotional development? A collaboration between Mattel and OpenAI raises sobering questions.

spectrum.ieee.org

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