Swithun
@swithuncooper.bsky.social
Stay-at-home mother of none
I'd quite like a transgender for every member of my family, especially at Christmas. Just a designated trans person for each of us. Nobody else in the family meets them. But they are there for us when we need time away from whatever drama starts brewing. Not a volunteer service! I would pay!
Trump: "Transgender for every member of your family. If they're not feeling well that night, let's just change their sex."
December 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM
I'd quite like a transgender for every member of my family, especially at Christmas. Just a designated trans person for each of us. Nobody else in the family meets them. But they are there for us when we need time away from whatever drama starts brewing. Not a volunteer service! I would pay!
Baudrillard's stages of semiotics and simulacra except applied to the fact that Matt from Busted is now playing the Emcee in Cabaret
December 10, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Baudrillard's stages of semiotics and simulacra except applied to the fact that Matt from Busted is now playing the Emcee in Cabaret
Eavesdropping on my partner getting a £10 refund from B&Q on the phone. Terrified. Partly by his no-bullshit attitude ("there has been poor communication on your part") but also he just KNOWS the phonetic alphabet? Spelling out his email like "alpha romeo tango" without thinking. How
December 6, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Eavesdropping on my partner getting a £10 refund from B&Q on the phone. Terrified. Partly by his no-bullshit attitude ("there has been poor communication on your part") but also he just KNOWS the phonetic alphabet? Spelling out his email like "alpha romeo tango" without thinking. How
Spent the last two days editing & rewriting what turns out to be almost 45,000 words, to send out for approval. Feel entirely unhinged, brain like wet cotton wool. Please someone cook me a hot meal
December 5, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Spent the last two days editing & rewriting what turns out to be almost 45,000 words, to send out for approval. Feel entirely unhinged, brain like wet cotton wool. Please someone cook me a hot meal
Reposted by Swithun
Note how these awful people are getting exactly the exclusions of children that they demanded and *that still isn’t enough for them*: they demand everyone be delighted about it and kiss their arses for being brilliant.
December 4, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Note how these awful people are getting exactly the exclusions of children that they demanded and *that still isn’t enough for them*: they demand everyone be delighted about it and kiss their arses for being brilliant.
Reading an article on Charles Dickens that calls Miss Wade a "crypto lesbian", so now I'm picturing her walking in, kicking off her Birkenstocks, adjusting her shades and telling Tattycoram to invest in Bitcoin
December 4, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reading an article on Charles Dickens that calls Miss Wade a "crypto lesbian", so now I'm picturing her walking in, kicking off her Birkenstocks, adjusting her shades and telling Tattycoram to invest in Bitcoin
Reposted by Swithun
‘Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia’
December 2, 2025 at 9:11 AM
‘Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia’
Reposted by Swithun
I spent a number of years as a HIV nurse. By then, the meds meant people could live full lives, but the stigma still existed. And access to preventative measures & meds varies
This #WorldAidsDay, as I lead prayers at @mancathedral.bsky.social, I'll be praying for justice, awareness & reduced stigma
This #WorldAidsDay, as I lead prayers at @mancathedral.bsky.social, I'll be praying for justice, awareness & reduced stigma
December 1, 2025 at 8:21 AM
I spent a number of years as a HIV nurse. By then, the meds meant people could live full lives, but the stigma still existed. And access to preventative measures & meds varies
This #WorldAidsDay, as I lead prayers at @mancathedral.bsky.social, I'll be praying for justice, awareness & reduced stigma
This #WorldAidsDay, as I lead prayers at @mancathedral.bsky.social, I'll be praying for justice, awareness & reduced stigma
Turns out five hours' sleep is exactly the right amount of not-enough-sleep to make you cry at all the shots of babies and old people in 'Of Time and the City'
November 28, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Turns out five hours' sleep is exactly the right amount of not-enough-sleep to make you cry at all the shots of babies and old people in 'Of Time and the City'
Buffalo Stance is a Christmas single the way Die Hard is a Christmas movie
November 28, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Buffalo Stance is a Christmas single the way Die Hard is a Christmas movie
Salt, bread, cake and cheese: the only food groups my digestive system now recognises
November 23, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Salt, bread, cake and cheese: the only food groups my digestive system now recognises
Me, skim-reading an article about how eating eggs reduces the risk of dementia, and promptly ordering a poached egg with my hotel breakfast: Ooh I'll remember this 🥲
November 22, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Me, skim-reading an article about how eating eggs reduces the risk of dementia, and promptly ordering a poached egg with my hotel breakfast: Ooh I'll remember this 🥲
Time between arriving in Madrid and seeing a woman with a haircut right out of early Almodovar: 19 minutes
November 21, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Time between arriving in Madrid and seeing a woman with a haircut right out of early Almodovar: 19 minutes
Forgot to do airport maths while booking my ticket, so my 10am flight means getting to Gatwick by 7.30 which means getting a train at 6.30 which means AWAKE AND ANXIOUS BEFORE 5AM 🙃🙃🙃
November 21, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Forgot to do airport maths while booking my ticket, so my 10am flight means getting to Gatwick by 7.30 which means getting a train at 6.30 which means AWAKE AND ANXIOUS BEFORE 5AM 🙃🙃🙃
Suddenly change of plans, sorry Tuesday
November 17, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Suddenly change of plans, sorry Tuesday
The synopsis, the dead skin on the underside of the novel's heel
November 16, 2025 at 10:13 PM
The synopsis, the dead skin on the underside of the novel's heel
I'm not teaching until 2pm today 😇
November 13, 2025 at 11:53 AM
I'm not teaching until 2pm today 😇
I did it. I achieved the impossible. I submitted an extract of a novel-in-progress to my writing group. The first person ever to have done so
Writing. Some days it's like pulling teeth. Some weeks it's like pulling teeth. For a month now it's been like pulling teeth, though somehow I've pulled about 6,000 new teeth (words) to work on.
Stopping with the tooth thing now. But at least it makes the writing seem as gross as it's felt.
Stopping with the tooth thing now. But at least it makes the writing seem as gross as it's felt.
November 12, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I did it. I achieved the impossible. I submitted an extract of a novel-in-progress to my writing group. The first person ever to have done so
Reposted by Swithun
🔴 EXC from @lucascumiskey.bsky.social: babies and toddlers have been referred to the government’s controversial counter-terrorism scheme Prevent hundreds of times since 2016, new data reveals.
November 12, 2025 at 11:12 AM
🔴 EXC from @lucascumiskey.bsky.social: babies and toddlers have been referred to the government’s controversial counter-terrorism scheme Prevent hundreds of times since 2016, new data reveals.
The bus driver closed the doors onto me so I got squished like a bug. I wasn't even trying to leap on, just the second of two people aboard, standing politely while the woman in front tapped her Oyster. Am I invisible
November 7, 2025 at 9:31 AM
The bus driver closed the doors onto me so I got squished like a bug. I wasn't even trying to leap on, just the second of two people aboard, standing politely while the woman in front tapped her Oyster. Am I invisible
Writing. Some days it's like pulling teeth. Some weeks it's like pulling teeth. For a month now it's been like pulling teeth, though somehow I've pulled about 6,000 new teeth (words) to work on.
Stopping with the tooth thing now. But at least it makes the writing seem as gross as it's felt.
Stopping with the tooth thing now. But at least it makes the writing seem as gross as it's felt.
November 6, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Writing. Some days it's like pulling teeth. Some weeks it's like pulling teeth. For a month now it's been like pulling teeth, though somehow I've pulled about 6,000 new teeth (words) to work on.
Stopping with the tooth thing now. But at least it makes the writing seem as gross as it's felt.
Stopping with the tooth thing now. But at least it makes the writing seem as gross as it's felt.
Arrived at campus to realise I'd forgotten my lecture notes and the annotated copy of the essay I'm teaching. Somehow couldn't get them from my laptop to the campus printers - so guess who's making a 2.5hr round trip to collect them instead of having the morning free to write in the library!!
November 3, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Arrived at campus to realise I'd forgotten my lecture notes and the annotated copy of the essay I'm teaching. Somehow couldn't get them from my laptop to the campus printers - so guess who's making a 2.5hr round trip to collect them instead of having the morning free to write in the library!!
Fifth contemporary novel in a row that seems to believe the idea sentence has no words in. How many more must I read with paragraphs all as dry & cold as an ancient bone? Please! Stop! The people beg for juice
October 31, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Fifth contemporary novel in a row that seems to believe the idea sentence has no words in. How many more must I read with paragraphs all as dry & cold as an ancient bone? Please! Stop! The people beg for juice
My boyfriend just stopped me from putting the recycling out because for Halloween he "might want to go as Sexy Recycling"
October 28, 2025 at 8:46 PM
My boyfriend just stopped me from putting the recycling out because for Halloween he "might want to go as Sexy Recycling"
Thinking about which "big brand names" came before DNA so we could be programmed to be comforted by them. Is the Croc shop older than humanity
Nigel Newton, CEO of Bloomsbury, telling us why AI is good for publishing with this fun caveat: “We are programmed deep in our DNA to be comforted by the authority and the reliability of big brand names, & that applies more than ever to the names of big writers."
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief
Publisher last week reported jump in revenue in academic and professional arm thanks to AI licensing deal
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Thinking about which "big brand names" came before DNA so we could be programmed to be comforted by them. Is the Croc shop older than humanity