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Lesley Watts

@ljwattswales.bsky.social

1.2K followers 1.1K following 1K posts

Retired librarian with 27 years in the rip-roaring world of libraries (last 13 years in a school library) Books, films, gardens, nature and fretting about climate emergency. https://mrswatts101.edublogs.org/

mrswatts101.edublogs.org

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · Nov 17

As the UK School Librarians starter pack has grown, I thought I would repost. For those with school library experience working in the UK. Let me know if you have school library connections and would like to be added
go.bsky.app/5zhmETr

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 21h

Timeline cleanse. No music or voiceover, just a farmer, his lamb and her rock

youtu.be/7l89lPnSAk4?...

Lamb And Her Rock

YouTube video by Lee Walters

youtu.be

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 1d

When I achieve world domination this is one of the first changes I’m introducing. I have to go through my receipts with a highlighter and mark the date before I do anything else.

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 1d

I thought it would be too late for my dahlias to bloom this year due to the drought, but first one out today - American Dawn! (Maybe it’s an omen)

Close up of a pinky-purply dahlia flower

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 2d

I once forgot to take my keys to work when my husband went on a business trip & had to break into house by smashing a back window, climbing in, then boarding up the pane with the back off my spice rack. Spent nervous night waiting for burglars. Neighbours heard nothing.

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 2d

Oh yes! That’s the one I didn’t re-read. There’s a very dodgy scene in Octavia too. Think Prudence and Imogen were my favourites.

Reposted by Lesley Watts

Backlisted Podcast @backlisted.bsky.social · 2d

And here is that episode, on Imogen by Jilly Cooper, with guests Daisy Buchanan and Ian Patterson. In Jilly’s own words, “it was all such terrific fun”. RIP. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/84-...

Andy Miller @iammilliam.bsky.social · 2d

RIP lovely Jilly Cooper, the only subject of a @backlisted.bsky.social episode to write us all thank you letters afterwards. ❤️

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals and Riders, dies aged 88

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 2d

The first one I read was Imogen which left a big impression on me. She certainly had a ‘type’ as a hero. I now want to tell them to stop being so bossy and patronising, but loved them at the time.

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 2d

I read and re-read these when I was young. They were great fun and she always wrote so beautifully about the natural world too (not a euphemism) Also, thank you Jilly for having a library assistant as a heroine. #RIPJillyCooper

Octavia, Imogen, Harriet, Emily, Bella and Prudence by Jilly Cooper.

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Reposted by Lesley Watts

BookTrust @booktrust.org.uk · 2d

📚 NEW: The #GreatBooksGuide 2025-26 is here!

The guide is packed with 100 reading recommendations, carefully curated to engage and excite children from 4 to 11.

Explore the guide here 👇

https://bit.ly/46zY4Xx

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 3d

Finished bingeing series 3 of the excellent #BlueLights Edge of the seat stuff!

Four of the main characters in BBC police drama Blue Lights

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 3d

Have just finished the excellent 'Pet' by Catherine Chidgey, which, like these other titles, explores a dark, teacher-student relationship

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Seventeen: a coming of age story by Joe Gibson

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 3d

At last! I agree and never understand why this isn’t a more common opinion.

Reposted by Lesley Watts

Dr Delyth Badder @folklorewales.com · 3d

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 3d

It’s wonderful!

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 3d

Recently enjoyed The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, so am reading another of hers. She writes so well about childhood and controlling adults.

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 5d

Kenneth Oppel is an underrated writer here (not sure if that’s the case in his native Canada)

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 5d

I don’t often read sci-fi, but these were fairly popular in my school library www.fantasticfiction.com/h/hugh-howey...

www.fantasticfiction.com/c/liu-cixin/...

Oops! The Hugh Howey ones were a trilogy last time I looked, but have expanded.

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 5d

Did teacher ever ask why you were chuckling to yourself?

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 5d

Getting them out for a re-read right now

Barmy by Victoria Wood and Up to You, Porky by Victoria Wood

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 5d

So many gems! RIP Patricia Routledge.
Photo of her as Kitty on Victoria Wood and an excerpt from one of her monologues.

Black and white photo of Patricia Routledge as Kitty as written by Victoria Wood

Kitty is about fifty-three, from Manchester and proud of it. She speaks as she finds and knows what's what. She is sitting in a small bare studio, on a hard chair. She isn't nervous.
Good evening. My name's Kitty. I've had a boob off and I can't stomach whelks so that's me for you. I don't know why I've been asked to interrupt your viewing like this, but I'm apparently something of a celebrity since I walked the Pennine Way in slingbacks in an attempt to publicise Mental Health.
They've asked me to talk about aspects of life in general, nuclear war, peg-bags...
I wasn't going to come today, actually. I'm not a fan of the modern railway system. I strongly object to paying twenty-seven pounds fifty to walk the length and breadth of the train with a sausage in a plastic box. But they offered me a chopper from Cheadle so here I am.
I'm going to start with the body - you see I don't mince words.
Time and again I'm poked in the street by complete acquaintances - Kitty, they say to me, how do you keep so young, do you perhaps inject yourself with a solution deriving from the placenta of female gibbons? Well, no, I say, I don't, as it happens. I'm blessed with a robust constitution, my father's mother ran her own abbatoir, and I've only had the need of hospitalisation once - that's when I was concussed by an electric potato peeler at the Ideal Home Exhibition.
No, the secret of my youthful appearance is simply - mashed swede. As a face-mask, as a night cap, and in an emergency, as a draught-excluder. I do have to be careful about my health, because I have a grumbling ovary which once flared up in the middle of The Gondoliers. My three rules for a long life are…

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 5d

They look great too!

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 5d

Barrington Stoke books are great. They publish authors like Patrice Lawrence, Anthony McGowan, Phil Earle and Keith Gray and their books can be enjoyed by everyone

collins.co.uk/collections/...

Barrington Stoke Books Collection | Dyslexia Friendly Books

Explore super-readable, accessible books for all children from Barrington Stoke. Written by top UK writers and illustrators. Find the perfect book by interest or reading age. Browse books today!

collins.co.uk

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Reposted by Lesley Watts

Debz @debzholland.bsky.social · 6d

I am on the scrounge for @worldbookdayuk.bsky.social books! @hotkeybooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social @barringtonstoke.bsky.social as suppliers out of stock! My cohort of secondary students, myself will be forever grateful. Can anyone point me in the right direction? #libraryhelp

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Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 6d

Series 3 of #BlueLights and it’s as good as ever.

Lesley Watts @ljwattswales.bsky.social · 6d

A poem for poets on National Poetry Day - Engineer’s Corner by Wendy Cope

Why isn’t there an Engineers’ Corner in Westminster Abbey? In
Britain we’ve always made more fuss of a ballad than a blueprint
. . . How many schoolchildren dream of becoming great engineers?
Advertisement placed in The Times by the Engineering Council

We make more fuss of ballads than of blueprints –
That’s why so many poets end up rich,
While engineers scrape by in cheerless garrets.
Who needs a bridge or dam? Who needs a ditch?

Whereas the person who can write a sonnet
Has got it made. It’s always been the way,
For everybody knows that we need poems
And everybody reads them every day.

Yes, life is hard if you choose engineering –
You’re sure to need another job as well;
You’ll have to plan your projects in the evenings
Instead of going out. It must be hell.

While well-heeled poets ride around in Daimlers,
You’ll burn the midnight oil to earn a crust,
With no hope of a statue in the Abbey,
With no hope, even, of a modest bust.

No wonder small boys dream of writing couplets
And spurn the bike, the lorry and the train.
There’s far too much encouragement for poets –
That’s why this country’s going down the drain.

— Wendy Cope