Author | Lightnews

Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · 3d

Brilliant - thanks!

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks so much! Is it a firm or an individual? May I know the name?
Thanks again.

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · 3d

Blimey - that’s very generous! Would they need the usual package?

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · 3d

Wrote the novel this year. But many years of academic writing - on videogames and children’s lit!
Did you get an agent first?

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · 3d

Very impressed by your publications! I need advice! Thanks for reposting my blurb.

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · 3d

Hi Lucy!
I am! But deep into the agent query game … One novel of a quartet complete and into the second. How about you?

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Reposted by Aidan Ghyll

Camus @camusfolk.bsky.social · 8d

Our new set of rants, coming up on the next album! Here’s a live version from our last gig.

youtu.be/4UoChU-XUfw?...

CAMUS RANT SET

YouTube video by CAMUS MUSIC

youtu.be

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Reposted by Aidan Ghyll

UCL Institute of Education @ioe.bsky.social · 22d

"It is a time to engage with literature written by scholars of colour–voices that are too often marginalised in mainstream academic discourse. It is also a time to challenge the dominant narratives that shape our curricula, our research frameworks, and our institutional cultures" uclioe.info/bhm2025

Monochrome photo of Victoria with a wide smile, with the words: "Black History Month is a vital time for reflection, recognition, and renewal. To truly honour Black history and Black futures, we must embrace culturally responsive pedagogy in our teaching - Professor Victoria Showunmi Vice Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Chair of Athena Swan IOExBHM2025".

Monochrome photo of Victoria with a wide smile, with the words: "Decolonising research is not simply about inclusion; it is about transformation. Black History Month is not just about the past - it is about our future. Professor Victoria Showunmi Vice Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Chair of Athena Swan IOExBHM2025".

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Reposted by Aidan Ghyll

UCL Institute of Education @ioe.bsky.social · Sep 19

The national curriculum should respond to the climate and nature crisis, emphasises a new policy proposal by UCL academics from @ucl-cccse.bsky.social

www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/...

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Sep 10

Excited to complete first chapter of second book in the series. All the hard world-building in the first book is paying off!

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 26

Draft blurb for my novel, The Phantom Flame: In the mighty city of Cant, high above the drowned fenlands of a broken Albion, servant girl Chas Berryman inherits an ancient stone of power. She and her friends are swept into a world of spies, rebels and junk-pirates. And the mysterious Grey Heron.

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 20

First felt like a writer at age 11, when I won this prize at school for a description of a coral reef in Malaysia where I lived then. The choice of book indicates also an abiding interest in horror, later to be my PhD subject!

Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 17

Animal Farm at 80 - exposé not so much of communism as of tyrannical populism - never more relevant. theconversation.com/animal-farm-...

Animal Farm at 80: why the animals really matter in Orwell’s parable about communism

Orwell wrote his short, shocking novel at a time when it was considered scientifically inadmissible for animals to be granted thoughts or even feelings.

theconversation.com

Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 17

That’s what I call pressure.

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 15

I’ve drawn maps in my novel. Big fan of literary maps - Ransome, Tolkien, Stevenson, Lewis. Fascinating project @lancasteruni.bsky.social on Chronotopic Cartographies. Here are my maps of the future (2154) city of Cant.

Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 14

I’m drawing the characters in my novel. I’m not intending it to be illustrated, apart from cover art. It’s more like casting them for a film adaptation. Thinking of authors who draw … Mervyn Peake’s haunting sketches; Lewis Carroll’s unfunny drawings of Alice; St-Exupery’s naive watercolours…

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 13

It’s very weird to have taught literature my whole life and now be writing it. Can’t find the right metaphor … anyway, maybe I’m getting used to it.

Reposted by Aidan Ghyll

Sidmouth Folk Festival @sidmouthfolkfest.bsky.social · Aug 12

Join us next year 31st July - 7 August 2026.
A limited number of season tickets are now on sale (online only) at 2025 Super Early bird rates. This is the lowest these tickets will be. sidmouthfolkfestival.co.uk/tickets/

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 11

I reckon an academic book is 80% writing, 20% editing. I’m coming to realise that a novel is the complete inverse.

Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 10

Enjoying the (admittedly interminable) process of self-editing my novel. Completely different from academic books I’ve written. Continuities, false notes, tone and texture. Unpicking and restitching bits in a tapestry. “Polissez-le sans cesse et le répolissez” - Boileau nailed it.

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Aug 9

Fascinating discovery of letter by the young ST Coleridge. We sometimes forget that the greatest writers were prone to self-doubt.

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Reposted by Aidan Ghyll

Sidmouth Folk Festival @sidmouthfolkfest.bsky.social · Jul 23

This week we caught up with the wonderful @jackieoates.bsky.social to explore her fascinating new show she’s bringing to Sidmouth this summer and hear about some of her favourite Sidmouth moments…

Read the full piece here: sidmouthfolkfestival.co.uk/q-a-with-jac...

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Reposted by Aidan Ghyll

Camus @camusfolk.bsky.social · Jul 23

Looking forward to our five events @sidmouthfolkfest.bsky.social - three Northumbrian workshops, a concert and a talk on children’s folklore! Come and unleash your inner Northumbrian!

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Aidan Ghyll @aidanghyll.bsky.social · Jul 21

There’s a novel or two in this, for sure.

Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk · Jul 21

These images are taken from a 14th Century codex in Middle English & Latin.

The first illumination shows a man, 'Harry the Hayward', and his dog, 'Talbat'. Although the talbot is a dog breed, there are other medieval examples of this being used as a dog name – notably in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

An image from a medievla manuscript with text that reads 'Harry the Hayward' above a figure blowing a horn wearing a red hood, a smock in green and brown, and a pair of tights which are red on one side and green on the other. He's holding a red elash with a dog labelled 'Talbat' next to him.

A picture showing the Labour of the Month for December, which is feasting. A man wearing a crown is seated at a table, holding a ceremonial chalice. The table is laid with food including the head of a boar and roasting meat.

A medieval illumination showing the Labour of the Month for July (or 'Iulius'). A man clad in green and brown is holding a scythe and threshing.

An illustration showing the Labour of the Month of 'Mayus', or May. A man wearing a crown is seated on a horse holding a flower aloft with a kestrel on his other gloved hand. The kestrel represents falconry which is one of the Labours of the Month for mAY.

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Reposted by Aidan Ghyll

Lewis Wood @lewiswoodmusic.bsky.social · May 17

The new Granny’s Attic album Could Blows The Wind is out now!

www.grannysattic.org.uk/product/cold...

Cold Blows The Wind / Granny's Attic - Granny's Attic

Cold Blows The Wind, released 16th May 2025 on Grimdon Records Also available as a download on Bandcamp

www.grannysattic.org.uk

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