Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Frances Ryan

@francesryan.bsky.social

28K followers 120 following 1.6K posts

Guardian columnist and journalist. Commentator of the Year 2024. Author of Who Wants Normal? and Crippled. E: [email protected]

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · Apr 17

Four years on an iPhone in bed later, Who Wants Normal? is finally out in the world today.

Part memoir, part guide, it features 50+ of Britain’s best known disabled women. I hope it makes you laugh, possibly cry, and feel seen.

Order all formats here: linktr.ee/WhoWantsNormal

“We all need this book” - Jameela Jamil

Three images of the book in all three formats are below the quote.

9 48 180

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 9h

“Israel forbade people from celebrating the prisoners’ release on Monday, firing teargas at family members and journalists waiting near Ofer prison.”

Some Palestinians have been held prisoner with little food for decades but it was this detail that really got me. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘Locked up for 24 years’: joy and sorrow as Palestinian prisoners and detainees return home

Nearly 2,000 people, including about 1,700 seized from Gaza and held without charge, set free from Israeli jails

www.theguardian.com

1 27 52

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 1d

That’s so kind! I hope you enjoy the book it’s an extract from, Who Wants Normal? Jokes as well as tears, I promise.

1 1

Reposted by Frances Ryan

La Femme Fatali @toomanycommas.bsky.social · 1d

This article is 6 months old but I found it a really compelling read and as someone who doesn't suffer from any condition not of my own making, I'm always trying to educate myself on how to be a better ally and advocate for people not like me (and people like me!)

Highly encourage the read.

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · Apr 9

I’m excited (and slightly nauseous) to say The Guardian is launching Who Wants Normal? into the world with two exclusive extracts from today.

This is the most personal thing I’ve ever written but is for anyone going through a tough time with their health. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

‘I’m still sick. I’m still disabled. But I’m proud of my body’: Frances Ryan’s manifesto for disabled women

Women with disabilities are the biggest minority group in the world, but are still shut out of society. In an extract from her new book, the writer reveals how that is changing – and what more needs t...

www.theguardian.com

2 5 25

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you so much! Lovely to hear and do hope you enjoy the book.

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you! Really hope you enjoy the book it’s an extract from: Who Wants Normal?

1 1

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 1d

For this weekend’s TV column, I previewed Rylan and Prof Alice’s new show investigating the Essex witch trials. Think Blackadder crossed with CSI plus a sprinkle of Philomena Cunk. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Much of the action takes place in an “incident room” – AKA a budget studio in which Rylan and Alice write on a board with a big pen above mugshots of the key characters. At one point, Rylan sticks a photograph of “Attorney General Gilbert Gerard” – one of the main prosecutors to implement Elizabeth I’s 1563 law criminalising witchcraft – and Alice nods in recognition. That she is actually recognising the actor Sky has hired to play Gilbert Gerard rather than presumably congratulating Rylan for discovering the earliest known camera roll on Earth is neither here nor there. This is history coming to life! We’re in the moment!

1 2 28

Reposted by Frances Ryan

Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 2d

For Trump, the cruelty is the point.

55 310 1.1K

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 2d

It’s about the witch trials of Essex. Sadly, the ladies will just have to get all the attention this time round.

1 1

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 2d

Haha it’s almost as if witch hunters were misogynists and the vast majority of people murdered were women.

1 1

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you!

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 2d

I’m on TV column duty in today’s Saturday Guardian mag and previewing the greatest concept since monkey tennis: Rylan and Prof Alice go to Essex to play CSI and investigate women killed as witches in the 16th century. (Actually quite educational, tbf.) www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Witches of Essex: Rylan and Prof Alice’s look at one of history’s most shameful periods is unfailingly moving

This engaging if slight show sees the unlikely duo reopen witch trials from 400 years ago on the hunt for justice. It’s Blackadder crossed with CSI – with a sprinkling of Philomena Cunk

www.theguardian.com

10 10 44

Reposted by Frances Ryan

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 4d

Nigel Farage accuses teachers of "poisoning our kids" on race issues.

Here's a reminder of what teachers and fellow pupils at Farage's own school remember of his own views on that subject.

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/nigel-fara...

55 710 1.4K

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 4d

Really enjoying @jonathanliew.bsky.social’s new opinion column, including this excellent piece on the ethics of British comedians playing the Saudi Riyadh comedy festival. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We know what the comedians got out of the Riyadh comedy festival. What about the Saudi regime? | Jonathan Liew

The tawdry event was an ultimately doomed attempt by the Saudi government to buy the kind of authentic grassroots culture it is unwilling to countenance, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew

www.theguardian.com

3 21

Reposted by Frances Ryan

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 5d

ME/CFS is a devastating condition that has long been denied, dismissed, psychologised and underdiagnosed. Research is at last starting to catch up with it, with glimmers of hope for those who have been left untreated for so long.
There's a huge BUT coming ...🧵
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Scientists develop first ‘accurate blood test’ to detect chronic fatigue syndrome

Research could offer hope for ME patients – but some experts urge caution and say more studies needed

www.theguardian.com

58 630 1.5K

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 4d

I have no idea what “you” means in this context but I’ve been a vocal critic of this genocide since day one. I’ve written a column about the people disabled by Israel and those who are disabled already left without basic medicine and care. None of us can ever do enough, myself included.

Reposted by Frances Ryan

Resisting Fascism @allmyownphotos.bsky.social · 5d

#Gaza
#GazaGenocide

Thanks to @theguardian.com for this extremely valuable article.

Bookmarked.

Have only just begun to study it.

Incredibly sad yet dignified presentations.

One example, in a screenshot.

(No words can adequately convey the full sense of grief — and outrage — in such a story.)

theguardian.com - Private

هند رامي اياد رجب
Hind Rami Iyad Rajab
5 years old

Israeli gunfire

29 January 2024

"I'm so scared, please come," were some of the last words Hind said in a telephone call to rescuers after her family's car came under fire in Gaza City as they attempted to flee approaching Israeli forces. Hind's uncle, aunt and three cousins were killed initially. Hind and another cousin, 15-year-old Layan, survived and contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Layan was later also killed, having made a harrowing call for help herself. "They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We're in the car, the tank is right next to us," Layan screamed in a clip shared on social media, amid intense gunfire in the background, before she went quiet and the gunfire stopped. Hind was left stranded in the vehicle for hours on the phone, surrounded by her dead relatives, as paramedics attempted to rescue her. The rescue team eventually arrived in the area, but contact was lost with them and Hind. Hind and the paramedics were later also found killed. A Forensic Architecture investigation concluded that an Israeli tank had likely fired 335 rounds on the car.

Read more.

2 13 18

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 5d

Physically hurts to see her face, doesn’t it.

1 2

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 5d

This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

www.theguardian.com

12 200 330

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 6d

“The electoral decline of the Tories followed by the rise of Reform feels akin to an exterminator getting rid of the rats from your basement only to say he’s found a termite infestation rotting the walls. Out with one, in with another.”

My col. on conference www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It’s Badenoch’s Tory show, 2025: like Britain seeing an old flame and remembering why we blocked their number | Frances Ryan

The conference offers a flailing leader, Trumpite policies and rivals jockeying for position. It is comical, but also worrying, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

www.theguardian.com

1 6 29

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 7d

Thanks!

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 7d

“If last year’s general election marked the death of the Conservative party, this week’s conference in Manchester is the wake. Based on the policies unveiled in recent days, one can only assume there’s an open bar.”

My col. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It’s Badenoch’s Tory show, 2025: like Britain seeing an old flame and remembering why we blocked their number | Frances Ryan

The conference offers a flailing leader, Trumpite policies and rivals jockeying for position. It is comical, but also worrying, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

www.theguardian.com

2 7 47

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 7d

“Tory conference 2025 has the air of your ex-boyfriend screaming incoherently on the driveway, begging for another chance. Suddenly, it’s very clear why you blocked his number.”

My col. (following the mantra ‘if you didn’t laugh you’d cry’.) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It’s Badenoch’s Tory show, 2025: like Britain seeing an old flame and remembering why we blocked their number | Frances Ryan

The conference offers a flailing leader, Trumpite policies and rivals jockying for position. It is comical, but also worrying, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

www.theguardian.com

9 42

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 9d

Ha thank you!

Reposted by Frances Ryan

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 12d

Apparently 5% of Reform voters think they are racist.

56 87 320

Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 13d

Very kind!