Claire Read
@readthewriter.bsky.social
Freelance writer and editor – healthcare; public sector/not-for-profit; cycle sport – and, on Tuesdays, a House of Commons committee reporter. Apostrophes in all the right places. 📽️🎮📺🎶 fan. Also naps. I like naps.
Send help – the scaredy cat’s watching a horror film.
February 7, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Send help – the scaredy cat’s watching a horror film.
Someone on the train has put Netflix on without headphones and is watching, of all things, the Letby documentary. She’s also dropped litter on the floor and put her bag on the seat next to her.
I can call the British Transport Police, surely?
I can call the British Transport Police, surely?
February 4, 2026 at 9:36 PM
Someone on the train has put Netflix on without headphones and is watching, of all things, the Letby documentary. She’s also dropped litter on the floor and put her bag on the seat next to her.
I can call the British Transport Police, surely?
I can call the British Transport Police, surely?
My favourite part of #Hamnet? When Shakespeare’s Mrs watches the first scene of the play he’s written based entirely on their recent lives and, even so, yells: “What are they talking about?!”
Yeah, love, we’ve all been there with your husband. I’d pop out and get the York Notes if I were you.
Yeah, love, we’ve all been there with your husband. I’d pop out and get the York Notes if I were you.
January 31, 2026 at 3:40 PM
My favourite part of #Hamnet? When Shakespeare’s Mrs watches the first scene of the play he’s written based entirely on their recent lives and, even so, yells: “What are they talking about?!”
Yeah, love, we’ve all been there with your husband. I’d pop out and get the York Notes if I were you.
Yeah, love, we’ve all been there with your husband. I’d pop out and get the York Notes if I were you.
There are only really two times I hate being freelance:
1) When I'm ill
2) Tax return season
January, cursed month, has brought both. The sinus infection is done with, and now the tax return – which brought me to the brink of tears on five separate occasions – is too.
I want a nap. And a hug.
1) When I'm ill
2) Tax return season
January, cursed month, has brought both. The sinus infection is done with, and now the tax return – which brought me to the brink of tears on five separate occasions – is too.
I want a nap. And a hug.
January 23, 2026 at 7:53 PM
There are only really two times I hate being freelance:
1) When I'm ill
2) Tax return season
January, cursed month, has brought both. The sinus infection is done with, and now the tax return – which brought me to the brink of tears on five separate occasions – is too.
I want a nap. And a hug.
1) When I'm ill
2) Tax return season
January, cursed month, has brought both. The sinus infection is done with, and now the tax return – which brought me to the brink of tears on five separate occasions – is too.
I want a nap. And a hug.
Struggling with a misbehaving feature article for the past three days, and the answer has finally come to me: a pull-out box.
Of course it's a pull box. The answer, my friends, is ALWAYS a pull box. This glorious truth has revealed itself to me time and again over the past four decades.
#amwriting
Of course it's a pull box. The answer, my friends, is ALWAYS a pull box. This glorious truth has revealed itself to me time and again over the past four decades.
#amwriting
a cardboard box with a face on it
ALT: a cardboard box with a face on it
media.tenor.com
January 18, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Struggling with a misbehaving feature article for the past three days, and the answer has finally come to me: a pull-out box.
Of course it's a pull box. The answer, my friends, is ALWAYS a pull box. This glorious truth has revealed itself to me time and again over the past four decades.
#amwriting
Of course it's a pull box. The answer, my friends, is ALWAYS a pull box. This glorious truth has revealed itself to me time and again over the past four decades.
#amwriting
Please can the next major secret revealed on #TheTraitors be that Tom Basden used James as the model for Robin in #HereWeGo? Put me out of my misery. It's bloody uncanny.
January 16, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Please can the next major secret revealed on #TheTraitors be that Tom Basden used James as the model for Robin in #HereWeGo? Put me out of my misery. It's bloody uncanny.
Dig Dug x Sweetcorn x All Snuggled Up
In the final picture he’s captured mid lip lick. Note how he’s already gazing up at me to enquire if another kernel might be on its way. (No, Diggy Dug. Two’s enough.)
🌽 🐹
In the final picture he’s captured mid lip lick. Note how he’s already gazing up at me to enquire if another kernel might be on its way. (No, Diggy Dug. Two’s enough.)
🌽 🐹
January 15, 2026 at 9:23 PM
Dig Dug x Sweetcorn x All Snuggled Up
In the final picture he’s captured mid lip lick. Note how he’s already gazing up at me to enquire if another kernel might be on its way. (No, Diggy Dug. Two’s enough.)
🌽 🐹
In the final picture he’s captured mid lip lick. Note how he’s already gazing up at me to enquire if another kernel might be on its way. (No, Diggy Dug. Two’s enough.)
🌽 🐹
Dig Dug moonlighting as one of Santa’s little helpers 🐹
December 29, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Dig Dug moonlighting as one of Santa’s little helpers 🐹
Christmas and Hanukkah, Trafalgar Square 🎄🕎
December 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Christmas and Hanukkah, Trafalgar Square 🎄🕎
Seen seven so far, only three of which I fell asleep in 🤘
Very pleased that "Sorry, Baby" – one of my favourite films of the year – makes the top 10.
Very pleased that "Sorry, Baby" – one of my favourite films of the year – makes the top 10.
And the winner is… ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Paul Thomas Anderson’s incendiary portrait of modern America has been voted best film of 2025 by our critics
Find out what Sight and Sound critics have voted as the 50 best films of the year
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
Paul Thomas Anderson’s incendiary portrait of modern America has been voted best film of 2025 by our critics
Find out what Sight and Sound critics have voted as the 50 best films of the year
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
The 50 best films of 2025
Our annual international critics’ poll of 2025's best movies shows cinema thriving in a year of troubles
www.bfi.org.uk
December 5, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Seen seven so far, only three of which I fell asleep in 🤘
Very pleased that "Sorry, Baby" – one of my favourite films of the year – makes the top 10.
Very pleased that "Sorry, Baby" – one of my favourite films of the year – makes the top 10.
Friday night aims:
Home, pyjamas, sofa, blanket, latest episode of Pluribus, bed, 14 to 16 hours of sleep.
Obstacle:
Lengthy article I could really do with getting finished today and which stubbornly remains only a quarter written.
Home, pyjamas, sofa, blanket, latest episode of Pluribus, bed, 14 to 16 hours of sleep.
Obstacle:
Lengthy article I could really do with getting finished today and which stubbornly remains only a quarter written.
December 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Friday night aims:
Home, pyjamas, sofa, blanket, latest episode of Pluribus, bed, 14 to 16 hours of sleep.
Obstacle:
Lengthy article I could really do with getting finished today and which stubbornly remains only a quarter written.
Home, pyjamas, sofa, blanket, latest episode of Pluribus, bed, 14 to 16 hours of sleep.
Obstacle:
Lengthy article I could really do with getting finished today and which stubbornly remains only a quarter written.
Usual Friday chat with the owner of my fave local coffee shop turned to Crimbo plans. She explained she's not going away this year as it's her mum's 50th soon after Xmas.
And that's how I discovered I'm only three years off being old enough to be the mother of the local coffee shop owner 👵
And that's how I discovered I'm only three years off being old enough to be the mother of the local coffee shop owner 👵
November 21, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Usual Friday chat with the owner of my fave local coffee shop turned to Crimbo plans. She explained she's not going away this year as it's her mum's 50th soon after Xmas.
And that's how I discovered I'm only three years off being old enough to be the mother of the local coffee shop owner 👵
And that's how I discovered I'm only three years off being old enough to be the mother of the local coffee shop owner 👵
Rainbow over St John Street, consolation for a generally dark and rainy day 🌈
November 10, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Rainbow over St John Street, consolation for a generally dark and rainy day 🌈
You can ask me to watch pretty much any film and I will enthusiastically do it. Just not horror, because I’m a jump scare-hating scaredy cat with permanently shot nerves. Sinners with a Q&A has made me pluck up my courage however… plus put on my comfiest non-PJ clothes and pack three fidget toys 😬
November 8, 2025 at 1:07 PM
You can ask me to watch pretty much any film and I will enthusiastically do it. Just not horror, because I’m a jump scare-hating scaredy cat with permanently shot nerves. Sinners with a Q&A has made me pluck up my courage however… plus put on my comfiest non-PJ clothes and pack three fidget toys 😬
One of my clients needs me to complete IT security training. The online course has repeatedly assured me poorly written content is a way to spot any suspicious activity. On the basis of this end of module question, I should now apparently whether the education provider itself is a cybercriminal 🤨
November 7, 2025 at 9:11 PM
One of my clients needs me to complete IT security training. The online course has repeatedly assured me poorly written content is a way to spot any suspicious activity. On the basis of this end of module question, I should now apparently whether the education provider itself is a cybercriminal 🤨
Reviewing Joachim Trier's credits off the back of growing eagerness to see "Sentimental Value" and longstanding intention to watch "The Worst Person in the World", I suddenly realise that in 2015 he made the film my mum still talks about as the weirdest and least satisfying I've ever taken her to 🫤
November 7, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reviewing Joachim Trier's credits off the back of growing eagerness to see "Sentimental Value" and longstanding intention to watch "The Worst Person in the World", I suddenly realise that in 2015 he made the film my mum still talks about as the weirdest and least satisfying I've ever taken her to 🫤
I'm appalled to announce that Pret is playing Christmas songs.
November 5, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I'm appalled to announce that Pret is playing Christmas songs.
I had to turn the difficulty down to the literal baby level (check out the little faces at the top of the page), but a perfect’s a perfect. I’ll take it.
#PlatypusReclayed @claymatic.games #SteamDeck
#PlatypusReclayed @claymatic.games #SteamDeck
November 2, 2025 at 8:57 PM
I had to turn the difficulty down to the literal baby level (check out the little faces at the top of the page), but a perfect’s a perfect. I’ll take it.
#PlatypusReclayed @claymatic.games #SteamDeck
#PlatypusReclayed @claymatic.games #SteamDeck
Spent Saturday night watching a two and a half hour long Japanese/German film about a man cleaning toilets in Tokyo via notoriously arty streaming platform MUBI; spending Sunday lunchtime watching an animated kids’ film about a K-pop girl band fighting demons.
Believer in broad tastes ✌🏻
Believer in broad tastes ✌🏻
November 2, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Spent Saturday night watching a two and a half hour long Japanese/German film about a man cleaning toilets in Tokyo via notoriously arty streaming platform MUBI; spending Sunday lunchtime watching an animated kids’ film about a K-pop girl band fighting demons.
Believer in broad tastes ✌🏻
Believer in broad tastes ✌🏻
The Guardian is Guardianing particularly hard this morning.
October 23, 2025 at 8:24 AM
The Guardian is Guardianing particularly hard this morning.
Waiting for an #LFF screening to start, listening to someone tell mates about another festival film.
“Was it good?”
“Yeah… I mean, it was weird. But it was good.”
That’s how you know you’re festivalling right. And how I know the two of us have the same taste, because I also saw the film in question.
“Was it good?”
“Yeah… I mean, it was weird. But it was good.”
That’s how you know you’re festivalling right. And how I know the two of us have the same taste, because I also saw the film in question.
October 11, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Waiting for an #LFF screening to start, listening to someone tell mates about another festival film.
“Was it good?”
“Yeah… I mean, it was weird. But it was good.”
That’s how you know you’re festivalling right. And how I know the two of us have the same taste, because I also saw the film in question.
“Was it good?”
“Yeah… I mean, it was weird. But it was good.”
That’s how you know you’re festivalling right. And how I know the two of us have the same taste, because I also saw the film in question.
Reposted by Claire Read
This being the funniest 8 seconds of television all year 😭 #CelebrityTraitors #TheTraitors
October 8, 2025 at 9:26 PM
This being the funniest 8 seconds of television all year 😭 #CelebrityTraitors #TheTraitors
Yay for representation on #TheTraitorsUK! So powerful to see myself on screen – a cuddly bespectacled bag of nerves with hyperhidrosis, a voice that carries, an inability to lie, and a suspicious manner when with a secret. Oh, Alan, love. Hope you packed Mitchum and Propranolol #CelebrityTraitors
October 8, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Yay for representation on #TheTraitorsUK! So powerful to see myself on screen – a cuddly bespectacled bag of nerves with hyperhidrosis, a voice that carries, an inability to lie, and a suspicious manner when with a secret. Oh, Alan, love. Hope you packed Mitchum and Propranolol #CelebrityTraitors