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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶

@jrberkeley.bsky.social

1.3K followers 580 following 610 posts

John (he/him) aka. John Berkeley; Leovinas. UK-based writer of SFF, player of RPGs, Classics/archaeology/ancient history PhD, process/telecoms specialist. The sort of gay lefty Liberal your mother warned you about. Views my own, etc. (no TERFs or AI, ta)

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · Nov 16

I'm still not over seeing my name in print - and yes, this is a shameless plug for the IWTTO collection from @bonabooks.bsky.social, which includes my first published short story.

It's a very fun collection of the queer pulp SFF stories you never realised you needed. And it's now on sale! 😁

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 5h

Was very sad to see Clare, Ruth, and Tom go. Tameka was robbed, as well.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13h

This is your periodic reminder not to quote-post to dunk, not to screengrab from the Hell Site™️, and not to use AI even just to prove how crap it is.

This is Bluesky, darling. 🦋💙

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 14h

I blame Mike Okuda.

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 1d

What might that enforcement look like?

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 1d

Amazing news from Bona Books! 🩷 Can't wait.

Bona Books 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🤘🏼 @bonabooks.bsky.social · 2d

ANNOUNCEMENT🎺🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Introducing our bona new quarterly literary magazine:

FANTABULOSA!

Pushing the boundaries of bold, authentic, QUEER storytelling. Bringing you stories of the uncanny, the dangerous and the fantastical.

& thanks to our brilliant #WrathMonth backers, we're fully funded for 2026 🤘

Bona Books Presents

A new queer literary magazine

FANTABULOSA!

Tales of the uncanny, the dangerous and the fantastical, from radical and unapologetic queer voices.

Science fiction, fantasy and horror
Short fiction & poetry

Submissions open now

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Reposted by John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶

Bona Books 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🤘🏼 @bonabooks.bsky.social · 3d

If anyone intended to pre-order Wrath Month and hadn't got round to it yet, we're currently £8 away from a cool £40,000 and it...

is...

driving...

us...

a close up of a woman with curly hair and a hair clip in her hair making a funny face .

ALT: a close up of a woman with curly hair and a hair clip in her hair making a funny face .

media.tenor.com

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 4d

Oh god.

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 4d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"Schliemann got here first."

🦇🤘 Rigg-or mortis 🔶️🏳️‍🌈 @rigg.lgbt · 4d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Janice's keyboard isn't working

Queen Olivia III @queenoliviaiii.com · 4d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“The tapes wouldn’t start”

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 4d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"The Switches are flooded."

🦇🤘 Rigg-or mortis 🔶️🏳️‍🌈 @rigg.lgbt · 4d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Janice's keyboard isn't working

Queen Olivia III @queenoliviaiii.com · 4d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“The tapes wouldn’t start”

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 5d

Sounds great!

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 6d

Of course, the picture that always does the rounds about this event - which was lovely, btw - is always this one, which while great, happens to include me sneezing beneath the R and the A of the 'Liberal'...

LGBT+ Liberal Democrats 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @pluslibdems.bsky.social · 6d

We thought the Brighton Centre looked much better when the @libdems.org.uk had our conference there a year ago.

A picture of a huge crowd of Lib Dems, including Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP and various MPs, standing outside the Brighton Centre, which has a huge Liberal Democrats decal on the main windows, all holding an enormous Trans Pride flag in the sunshine, at their Autumn Conference in 2024.

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 6d

And, it's really good. Recommend it.

JD Rivers | OUT NOW: Wish of a Dragon @jd-rivers.com · 6d

🐺 A downtrodden ex-soldier.
🦭 A lost inn-owner.
❤️ Blossoming feelings.
🗡️ A dead body.
🏝️ An island, where justice is deadly.

Selkie x werewolf
Urban fantasy!

Buy direct: tinyurl.com/DPPSalt
duckprintspress.itch.io/the-salt-in-...

GR: tinyurl.com/ys57r2rm
TSG: tinyurl.com/2shv5aed

📚🌈📚💙📚🪐

The front cover of a book entitled The Salt in the Sea by J. D. Rivers. Stylized artwork shows two men in a loose embrace, one shorter, light-skinned, and pale-haired, the taller one dark haired and darker skinned, both in casual modern-esque clothes. The taller one kisses the shorter one on the forehead, his hand clasping the shorter one's cheek. They stand before a blood-red circle with a star on it, and a brilliant blue wave surges behind them.
Illustration by: planetsandmagic
Typesetting by: Hermits Writes

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 6d

And mind you don't fall into the Trappe of thinking it's all going be Gouda once you have one.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 7d

Jays literally sound like dinosaurs too.

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 7d

Thriplow.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 8d

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 9d

"The Human Centipede of content" - welp, that's what I'm calling it now.

Robin Williams' daughter pleads for people to stop sending AI videos of her dad

The filmmaker said it is not what her dad, who died in 2014, would have wanted.

www.bbc.co.uk

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 9d

It's flies.

There's a buzz at Conservative conference, says Kemi Badenoch

The Conservative leader says the conference is no longer

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶

Aieee-Iain Clark @iainjclarkart.com · 9d

Part of Russell T Davies' speech on being awarded Outstanding Contribution to Television at the Bafta Cymru awards. (via www.instagram.com/baftacymru)

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13d

Found one:
youtu.be/bSYZSFiLKJY?...

Kitty 3 - with Patricia Routledge - BBC

YouTube video by maxinebendix

youtu.be

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13d

Look up the Kitty monologues, written for her by Victoria Wood. Iconic.
youtu.be/bSYZSFiLKJY?...

Kitty 3 - with Patricia Routledge - BBC

YouTube video by maxinebendix

youtu.be

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13d

Patricia Routledge. What a gem. Everyone knows about Hyacinth Bucket, but look up the Kitty monologues from the Victoria Wood show - you're in for a treat if you've never seen them before. Iconic.

PinkNews @pinknews.bsky.social · 13d

Patricia Routledge, who played camp comedy icon Hyacinth Bucket, dies aged 96
https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/10/03/patricia-routledge-who-played-camp-comedy-icon-hyacinth-bucket-dies-aged-96/?utm_content=1759502404&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Patricia Routledge, who played camp comedy icon Hyacinth Bucket, dies aged 96

Much-loved Keeping Up Appearances star Dame Patricia Routledge has died, her agent has confirmed. She was 96. In a statement, Routledge’s agent said:

www.thepinknews.com

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13d

Well, those pearls won't clutch themselves, you know.

John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13d

Curses, alt text didn't work. Picture is a meme of Quark (Armin Shimmerman) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, with a slightly creepy expression saying "Females..." in the way Ferengi often did on that show. It's not unproblematic but it's always the first place my brain goes to when I hear the term.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13d

The new Archbishop of Canterbury is a woman, which is great, but am I the only one who finds the constant use of "female" a bit creepy? She's not a holly bush and you're (probably) not a Ferengi.

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John Berkeley Grout 🏳️‍🌈🔶 @jrberkeley.bsky.social · 13d

There's a wonderful chain called Home Sense that often stocks this sort of thing. They had a fuzzy velvet magenta Buddhai one year.