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Find a book club
Find a Book Club, a club that does what it says on the tin, asked me to recommend 10 books for book clubs (including two of my own).
Author Archives: Angela
Reading as a writer. Writing as a reader. And the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021
Last week a friend of mine and I talked about the six books shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. We’ve done it before and it’s always illuminating (and fun) but because we both write fiction, our conversations are often … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Creativity, Fiction, Literary Prizes, Psychology, reading, Writers, Writing, Writing Courses
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Black Minds Matter (BMM) : donations #BMMUK21K
I’ve been in therapy, but the reasons for my therapy have never included the trauma of racism, of living inside a black or brown skin in a white-supremacist society. Nor have I been misinterpreted because the colour of my therapist’s … Continue reading
Posted in Antiracism, Fiction, Health, Mental Health, Psychology, Racism, Writing
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Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021
This week is the week of the Women’s Prize Virtual Shortlist Festival. For the (almost invisible) amount of £12 you’ll have access to three evenings of readings by the shortlisted writers: there are some wonderful works to hear extracts from on … Continue reading
Posted in Antiracism, Books, Creativity, Equality, Human Rights, Literary Prizes, Psychology, Racism, White Fragility, Women, Writing
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Stephen Lawrence Day, 22 April 2021
We will no longer ignore, the racism we all deplore. We will never forget Stephen Lawrence. Directed by Simon Frederick. Written by Simon Frederick, Marcus Jones & Max Cyrus. Narrated by Max Cyrus And, from the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation website: Stephen … Continue reading
Posted in Antiracism, Art, Books, Democracy, Equality, History, Human Rights, Morality
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: Bill Gates (& Gordon Brown)
In this Guardian review of Bill Gates’s How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Gordon Brown writes: Success [in combating climate change] will come by demonstrating that the real power countries can wield to create a better world is not the … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Politics
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A Valentine to the Earth: Terra Carta
On 11 January the Prince of Wales announced Terra Carta, Earth Charter, a Magna Carta for the twenty-first century: the basis of a recovery plan for nature, people and the planet. A valentine to the earth, I thought. He said: Humanity … Continue reading
Feeling Low? Try karunavirus. Seriously.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling pretty low about the state of our corona-contaminated world (not to mention other depressing events) so I went looking for something uplifting. And I found karunavirus. Seriously. Nothing to do with … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Coronavirus, Creativity, Good News, Good Things, Love, News, Science, Uncategorized
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When This Is Over … and some Christmas Lights for the dark Winter Nights
When this is over, may we never again take for granted a handshake with a stranger, full shelves at the store, conversations with neighbours, a crowded theatre, Friday nights out, the taste of communion, a routine check-up, the school rush … Continue reading
Posted in Christmas, Coronavirus, Creativity, Good News, Good Things, Love, Poetry
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Bookshop.org: an online bookshop that supports indie bookshops. And, ‘It’s easier to be a Dad, this morning … .’
Bookshop.org, as the Guardian articles below suggest, is exactly what the publishing world has been waiting for. Bookshop.org supports independent bookshops (it doesn’t undercut them, as the unmentionable does) and it makes it possible for independent bookshops to benefit from online sales … Continue reading
Posted in Antiracism, Books, Bookshops, Democracy, Equality, Fiction, Good News, Good Things, History, Human Rights, Living Standards, Morality, News, News Outlets, Politics
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October is Black History Month in the UK. But shouldn’t Black history be taught all the time?
Black History Month began in America as an annual History Week, in 1925. That year, Black historian Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History, announced Negro History Week: A celebration of a people that many in this country at the time believed … Continue reading
Posted in Antiracism, Democracy, History, Human Rights, Psychology, Racism
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The Doll Test and the heartbreakingly detrimental effects of segregation
In the 1940s, in America, Doctors Kenneth and Mamie Clark designed and conducted a series of tests known colloquially as The Doll Tests. Children between the ages of three and seven were asked to identify the race of the dolls … Continue reading
Posted in Antiracism, Equality, Psychology, Racism
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Deborah Alma’s Poetry Pharmacy: Poetry Prescriptions
Last week I had a telephone consultation with a pharmacist. Not an unusual thing to do in these corona-times, but this pharmacist doesn’t dispense drugs. Deborah Alma is a Poetry Pharmacist. Before corona I’d planned to go to The Poetry … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Bookshops, Creativity, Fiction, Love, Mental Health, Poetry, Psychology, reading
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What does it mean to be white? It means I’m racist
In a recent interview, Robin DiAngelo, a white person, said that to understand my racism, as a white person, I need to ask myself: What does it mean to be white? She said that if I ask myself if I’m racist … Continue reading
Posted in Antiracism, Equality, Human Rights, Psychology, Racism, White Fragility, Writers, Writing
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George Floyd: I Can’t Breathe: BlackOut Tuesday 2 June 2020
LA Reid, record producer and founder of HitCo, posted this on twitter two days ago: And George Floyd’s brother, Philonese, says this on YouTube. He calls for peaceful protests and for people to use their votes in the coming US election … Continue reading
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Shonaleigh Cumbers: Grief is Love with Nowhere to Go; and One Green Thing: clean aviation fuel
Shonaleigh Cumbers is a Drut’syla. To quote from here: She’s a living tradition holder. It’s a tradition you probably won’t have heard of. It’s a tradition that flourished in Jewish families, but that was wiped out during the holocaust. Almost wiped … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Coronavirus, Creativity, Good News, Good Things, Health, Love, One Green Thing, Storytelling
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Stories for Children in Lockdown
At the beginning of April Yahoo set up a short story competition for stories to entertain children during the lockdown. Yesterday, 27 April, they announced the 20 shortlisted stories and mine, FLYING COLOURS, is one of them. The stories are now … Continue reading
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Poems for these Coronavirus Times
Read by Christopher Eccleston, written by Matthew Kelly for his partner, Jill Scully, who is a district nurse. And here’s one from our poet laureate, Simon Armitage, which, as explained in this Guardian article, moves from the outbreak of bubonic plague … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus, Poetry
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Wise and kind words for the Coronavirus pandemic by Adrie Kusserow
This poem for these strange times is written by Adrie Kusserow after Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese : it speaks for itself. Mary Oliver for Corona Times, thoughts after the poem Wild Geese, by Adrie Kusserow, ethnographic poet You do not have to … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus, Creativity, Poetry
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