Merle Read
@read-edit.co.uk
Non-fiction book/journal/website editor. CIEP Advanced Professional Member.
Reposted by Merle Read
Today is your LAST CHANCE to get involved with our Christmas appeal, in association with @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social 📕
Find out how you can give a child the gift of reading HERE: www.heraldscotland.com/opin...
Find out how you can give a child the gift of reading HERE: www.heraldscotland.com/opin...
December 24, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Today is your LAST CHANCE to get involved with our Christmas appeal, in association with @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social 📕
Find out how you can give a child the gift of reading HERE: www.heraldscotland.com/opin...
Find out how you can give a child the gift of reading HERE: www.heraldscotland.com/opin...
Reposted by Merle Read
One of the weirdly English things about Reform is that they keep forgetting Britain’s other indigenous languages. It’s true Glasgow is a big international city with lots of “foreign” languages. It’s also true that it’s a city where thousands speak Scots and Gaelic as well as English.
Feeling proud of the intelligent multi-lingual children in our city!
This tweet and the Farage video in it about "the cultural smashing of Glasgow" is getting rightly roasted by the good people of Glasgow on the other place...
This tweet and the Farage video in it about "the cultural smashing of Glasgow" is getting rightly roasted by the good people of Glasgow on the other place...
December 3, 2025 at 6:57 PM
One of the weirdly English things about Reform is that they keep forgetting Britain’s other indigenous languages. It’s true Glasgow is a big international city with lots of “foreign” languages. It’s also true that it’s a city where thousands speak Scots and Gaelic as well as English.
Reposted by Merle Read
This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform.
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 6:43 AM
This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform.
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Merle Read
Research on this is clear: the uncertainty created by this policy will lead to people integrate less into British society. It is trading-off the reasonable policy goal of integration for the useless symbolism of immigration numbers. Bad policy to appease the far right.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Research on this is clear: the uncertainty created by this policy will lead to people integrate less into British society. It is trading-off the reasonable policy goal of integration for the useless symbolism of immigration numbers. Bad policy to appease the far right.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Merle Read
📚Calling all contacts in Scottish arts, culture, literature and publishing: Please do all you can to help support and spread the word about The Herald's Christmas appeal with the Scottish Book Trust.📚
Scottish novelist Andrew O'Hagan is backing The Herald's Christmas Appeal, in association with @scottishbooktrust.bsky.social 📚
www.heraldscotland.com/busi...
www.heraldscotland.com/busi...
November 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
📚Calling all contacts in Scottish arts, culture, literature and publishing: Please do all you can to help support and spread the word about The Herald's Christmas appeal with the Scottish Book Trust.📚
Reposted by Merle Read
I'm appearing at Aye Write (yipee) on Friday 7th of Nov at the Mitchell Library. It would be lovely to see some of you there #sheilawakefield #maxmulgrew #catherineogston #ayewrite www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/post...
Postbox 12 launch: Colette Coen, Max Mulgrew and Catherine Ogston with Sheila Wakefield - Glasgow Life
Aye Write 2025 presents Postbox 12 launch: Colette Coen, Max Mulgrew and Catherine Ogston with Sheila Wakefield
www.glasgowlife.org.uk
October 9, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I'm appearing at Aye Write (yipee) on Friday 7th of Nov at the Mitchell Library. It would be lovely to see some of you there #sheilawakefield #maxmulgrew #catherineogston #ayewrite www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/post...
Interesting thread 👀 #amEditing
repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
October 9, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Interesting thread 👀 #amEditing
Reposted by Merle Read
"The rhetoric & especially the tropes — the boats spewing out their unwelcome cargo, the swarthiness of the incomers’ skins, their tendency to stick with their own — are startlingly similar." My @heraldscotland.bsky.social column on lessons from the UK's 1940 programme of mass internment.
Why the scapegoating of migrants by Nigel Farage is nothing new
It is clear Nigel Farage’s scapegoating of immigrants is not an innovation, but an ugly leitmotif of history.
www.heraldscotland.com
September 7, 2025 at 10:53 AM
"The rhetoric & especially the tropes — the boats spewing out their unwelcome cargo, the swarthiness of the incomers’ skins, their tendency to stick with their own — are startlingly similar." My @heraldscotland.bsky.social column on lessons from the UK's 1940 programme of mass internment.
Reposted by Merle Read
“I had to break the news to my wife. She hasn’t been able to stop crying since she heard the news. What is the value of this life if you have to be separated from the people you love? Both of us are completely shattered by this.”
This heartbreak a thousand times, for what?
This heartbreak a thousand times, for what?
‘It kept me going’: halt to refugee reunion scheme in UK shatters hopes
‘It kept me going’: halt to refugee reunion scheme in UK shatters hopes
Afghan man seeking asylum and permission to bring wife to Britain describes shock at home secretary’s announcement
www.theguardian.com
September 3, 2025 at 6:43 AM
“I had to break the news to my wife. She hasn’t been able to stop crying since she heard the news. What is the value of this life if you have to be separated from the people you love? Both of us are completely shattered by this.”
This heartbreak a thousand times, for what?
This heartbreak a thousand times, for what?
Reposted by Merle Read
Labour's cowardice in the face of extremism iandunt.substack.com/p/labours-co...
August 29, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Labour's cowardice in the face of extremism iandunt.substack.com/p/labours-co...
Reposted by Merle Read
👉OUT NOW!👈
"A Handbook of Integration with Refugees: Global Learnings from Scotland"
Edited with @alisonphipps.bsky.social and @esaldegheri.bsky.social
The book is FREE to download from www.multilingual-matters.com
"A Handbook of Integration with Refugees: Global Learnings from Scotland"
Edited with @alisonphipps.bsky.social and @esaldegheri.bsky.social
The book is FREE to download from www.multilingual-matters.com
August 13, 2025 at 6:02 PM
👉OUT NOW!👈
"A Handbook of Integration with Refugees: Global Learnings from Scotland"
Edited with @alisonphipps.bsky.social and @esaldegheri.bsky.social
The book is FREE to download from www.multilingual-matters.com
"A Handbook of Integration with Refugees: Global Learnings from Scotland"
Edited with @alisonphipps.bsky.social and @esaldegheri.bsky.social
The book is FREE to download from www.multilingual-matters.com
Reposted by Merle Read
pay very close attention to Wikipedia to find a way out of the AI slop internet www.404media.co/wikipedia-ed...
Wikipedia Editors Adopt ‘Speedy Deletion’ Policy for AI Slop Articles
“The ability to quickly generate a lot of bogus content is problematic if we don't have a way to delete it just as quickly.”
www.404media.co
August 5, 2025 at 3:43 PM
pay very close attention to Wikipedia to find a way out of the AI slop internet www.404media.co/wikipedia-ed...
Reposted by Merle Read
WRITERS!
New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on prose. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue.
#writers #writing
Pls RT 👇
asls.org.uk/new-writing-...
New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on prose. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue.
#writers #writing
Pls RT 👇
asls.org.uk/new-writing-...
July 29, 2025 at 3:34 PM
WRITERS!
New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on prose. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue.
#writers #writing
Pls RT 👇
asls.org.uk/new-writing-...
New Writing Scotland seeks a new co-editor for English- & Scots-language work. Applicants should be currently based in Scotland & have a strong publishing record, with a focus on prose. Post is up to 3 years: stipend £1500 per issue.
#writers #writing
Pls RT 👇
asls.org.uk/new-writing-...
Reposted by Merle Read
Martin Dewhirst reviews 'The Spy in the Archive: How one man tried to kill the KGB' by Gordon Corera - #RightsinRussia www.rightsinrussia.org/dewhirst-24/
Martin Dewhirst reviews 'The Spy in the Archive: How one man tried to kill the KGB' by Gordon Corera - Rights in Russia
Corera concludes that Mitrokhin ‘had been one of the very few who understood what was taking place. […] A hydra was rising again.’
www.rightsinrussia.org
July 29, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Martin Dewhirst reviews 'The Spy in the Archive: How one man tried to kill the KGB' by Gordon Corera - #RightsinRussia www.rightsinrussia.org/dewhirst-24/
Reposted by Merle Read
BREAKING: The EU Commission has released a mandatory template for AI developers to disclose training data. Unlike the Code of Practice, this is not optional. It could have global fallout, as rights holders abroad might use it to sue over copyright.
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e...
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e...
Explanatory Notice and Template for the Public Summary of Training Content for general-purpose AI models
The Template annexed to this Explanatory Notice aims to provide a common minimal baseline for the information to be made publicly available in the Summary of Training Content for general-purpose AI mo...
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu
July 24, 2025 at 10:10 AM
BREAKING: The EU Commission has released a mandatory template for AI developers to disclose training data. Unlike the Code of Practice, this is not optional. It could have global fallout, as rights holders abroad might use it to sue over copyright.
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e...
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e...
Reposted by Merle Read
Banner of the Glasgow Typographical Society (1817), an early trade union founded by the letter-press printers of Glasgow.
Imagine carrying that at a rally, knowing that every single person present was surreptitiously checking the kerning.
(Pic: pistachio.gla.ac.uk/case-studies/)
Imagine carrying that at a rally, knowing that every single person present was surreptitiously checking the kerning.
(Pic: pistachio.gla.ac.uk/case-studies/)
July 22, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Banner of the Glasgow Typographical Society (1817), an early trade union founded by the letter-press printers of Glasgow.
Imagine carrying that at a rally, knowing that every single person present was surreptitiously checking the kerning.
(Pic: pistachio.gla.ac.uk/case-studies/)
Imagine carrying that at a rally, knowing that every single person present was surreptitiously checking the kerning.
(Pic: pistachio.gla.ac.uk/case-studies/)
Reposted by Merle Read
I’m with @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social here on his wet blanket. Writers who try to render accents phonetically assume everyone reading speaks the same way they do – frequently RP. It’s extremely distracting to read on a page, often comes across as patronising and snobbish, and is sometimes baffling.
To spread my wet blanket a bit wider... This is why the rendering of accents in fiction is such a problem. Written English isn't phonetic - which means, wonderfully, that it belongs to all of us. It's one of our few universalities. And when you do stuff like this, you're surrendering it all to RP.
Wet blanket here. These stupid things never fucking work because *obviously* people in Manchester already read Aldi as Aldeh. They'll read Aldeh as a different word. You London-centric pricks. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
July 4, 2025 at 9:37 AM
I’m with @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social here on his wet blanket. Writers who try to render accents phonetically assume everyone reading speaks the same way they do – frequently RP. It’s extremely distracting to read on a page, often comes across as patronising and snobbish, and is sometimes baffling.
Reposted by Merle Read
Welcome to Balfron Book Festival, a brand new festival celebrating books & storytelling in the Stirlingshire village of Balfron. From author events & creative writing to family storytelling sessions,we’re excited to bring you a fun-filled programme for readers of all ages
www.balfronbookfestival.com
www.balfronbookfestival.com
June 21, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Welcome to Balfron Book Festival, a brand new festival celebrating books & storytelling in the Stirlingshire village of Balfron. From author events & creative writing to family storytelling sessions,we’re excited to bring you a fun-filled programme for readers of all ages
www.balfronbookfestival.com
www.balfronbookfestival.com
Reposted by Merle Read
“I don’t write about people that are nice people. They’ve got to be sinners, with a wee touch of goodness here and there, you know.”
Giving “people like that” a voice: a conversation with Agnes Owens (1926–2014) – born #OTD, 24 May
A 🎂 🧵
1/5
journals.openedition.org/etudesecossa...
Giving “people like that” a voice: a conversation with Agnes Owens (1926–2014) – born #OTD, 24 May
A 🎂 🧵
1/5
journals.openedition.org/etudesecossa...
Giving “people like that” a Voice
Agnes Owens was born in Milngavie, near Glasgow, in 1926. After a couple of years of gruelling travel, “marching” around the Highlands of Scotland with husband and baby looking for work, pitching t...
journals.openedition.org
May 24, 2025 at 1:49 PM
“I don’t write about people that are nice people. They’ve got to be sinners, with a wee touch of goodness here and there, you know.”
Giving “people like that” a voice: a conversation with Agnes Owens (1926–2014) – born #OTD, 24 May
A 🎂 🧵
1/5
journals.openedition.org/etudesecossa...
Giving “people like that” a voice: a conversation with Agnes Owens (1926–2014) – born #OTD, 24 May
A 🎂 🧵
1/5
journals.openedition.org/etudesecossa...
Reposted by Merle Read
Starmer's language was deplorable.
It was grotesquely offensive, accusing people who have brought their gifts to this country of doing "incalculable" "damage"; & politically foolish, in endorsing Farage's claims of an establishment conspiracy.
But bad analogies with Powell miss the key problem. 🧵
It was grotesquely offensive, accusing people who have brought their gifts to this country of doing "incalculable" "damage"; & politically foolish, in endorsing Farage's claims of an establishment conspiracy.
But bad analogies with Powell miss the key problem. 🧵
May 14, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Starmer's language was deplorable.
It was grotesquely offensive, accusing people who have brought their gifts to this country of doing "incalculable" "damage"; & politically foolish, in endorsing Farage's claims of an establishment conspiracy.
But bad analogies with Powell miss the key problem. 🧵
It was grotesquely offensive, accusing people who have brought their gifts to this country of doing "incalculable" "damage"; & politically foolish, in endorsing Farage's claims of an establishment conspiracy.
But bad analogies with Powell miss the key problem. 🧵
Reposted by Merle Read
Per @washingtonpost.com: 'President Donald Trump on Thursday fired Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress — the first woman and first African American to hold the position. She was informed of the decision in a terse, two-sentence email'.
#DrCarlaHayden #LibraryofCongress.
#DrCarlaHayden #LibraryofCongress.
May 9, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Per @washingtonpost.com: 'President Donald Trump on Thursday fired Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress — the first woman and first African American to hold the position. She was informed of the decision in a terse, two-sentence email'.
#DrCarlaHayden #LibraryofCongress.
#DrCarlaHayden #LibraryofCongress.
Reposted by Merle Read
Dr. Carla Hayden has been dismissed as Librarian of the Library of Congress with immediate effect.
Held in great respect by the profession, Dr Hayden was the 1st professional librarian to hold the post since '74, the 1st woman & the 1st African American to hold the post.
apnews.com/article/dona...
Held in great respect by the profession, Dr Hayden was the 1st professional librarian to hold the post since '74, the 1st woman & the 1st African American to hold the post.
apnews.com/article/dona...
President Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden
President Donald Trump has abruptly fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.
apnews.com
May 9, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Dr. Carla Hayden has been dismissed as Librarian of the Library of Congress with immediate effect.
Held in great respect by the profession, Dr Hayden was the 1st professional librarian to hold the post since '74, the 1st woman & the 1st African American to hold the post.
apnews.com/article/dona...
Held in great respect by the profession, Dr Hayden was the 1st professional librarian to hold the post since '74, the 1st woman & the 1st African American to hold the post.
apnews.com/article/dona...