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Mags L Halliday

@magslhalliday.bsky.social

1K followers 350 following 4.7K posts

Writer. Waffler. Former redhead. Occasional public sector comms person. All views my own. She/Her. Please use alt text on images. www.magslhalliday.co.uk or https://linktr.ee/magslhalliday

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · Jan 12

It’s the 2025 “books I’ve read” thread.

I made a mistake and had three non-fiction books on the go at once. This always slows me right down.

a woman is talking to a man in a room and asking him if he reads every one of these books .

Alt: Belle, a beautiful woman, is talking to a man who is a beast. They’re in his library, and she is asking him if he has read every one of the books.

media.tenor.com

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 2h

I am quietly sure Struzan's art reinforced my teen feels for Harrison Ford because he made him look *stunning*.

🎃 Hell-en Shang 🎃 @helenshang.bsky.social · 3h

I've always loved Drew Struzan's cover for INDIANA JONES AND THE DINOSAUR EGGS. It's simple but I love it. He could draw Harrison Ford like nobody else. Sigh.

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 5h

You know that morning when you wake up, sniff the air and think "ah, autumn?"

It's the morning after the night the worker wasps all die.

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 8h

Watching the Moonlighting pilot and I need to give a major “hell yeah” for when Maddie says “I’m not Miss March, or Miss May or Miss Anything Else. For your information I am *Ms* Madeline Hayes.”

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 9h

None of my household appliances are smart. Except the smartmeter but that's so dumb it can't pick up the signal from the gas meter that is *in the same part of the house*.

So, yeah. No tech dependent home for me.

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 10h

Cornwall's Reform is having a time of it.

Cllr Rob Parsonage has stepped down as leader of the group at the county council, days after the deputy leader quit to become an independent and a month after his wife, also a Reform councilor, took a special leave of absence.

Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 1d

Reform UK leader in Cornwall suddenly resigns

www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwal...

Shock resignation of Reform UK leader in Cornwall

Reform's deputy leader in Cornwall left the party only days ago. A member of the party has slammed Rob Parsonage's leadership and said Reform is in 'a mess' in the Duchy

www.cornwalllive.com

Reposted by Mags L Halliday

Gemma Clark 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 @gemmaclark.bsky.social · 11h

There are many antiabortion centres masquerading as clinics in the U.K. They spread wild disinformation e.g. that abortion causes breast cancer and are funded by American orgs and THE NATIONAL LOTTERY. Read! 👇🏻 www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

What is the truth about crisis pregnancy centres in the UK?

Crisis pregnancy centres which have been known to “misinform” women around abortion have become increasingly “professionalised” in the UK.

www.bigissue.com

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Reposted by Mags L Halliday

Doug Clow @dougclow.bsky.social · 15h

This is not good. We need to substantially improve the insulation on older properties and two government schemes to do that have been a disaster, with a deeply-failed QA body, and the afflicted homes blighted.

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 15h

98% of homes with external wall insulation installed under the government’s ECO scheme require work to correct major issues that will cause problems such as damp and mould - our new @nao.org.uk report www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... (full report www.nao.org.uk/reports/ener...)

Thousands of homes with botched eco insulation 'must be fixed'

Insulation programmes costing billions of pounds have led to widespread problems with damp and mould.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 11h

She's now Sinéad Roan.

(My Irish great-great grandmother was a Roan.)

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 11h

Me: I need to give this character, Sinéad, a family name as part of fleshing her out.

Also me: O'Conner sounds good. Let's make her O'Conner.

Me, a minute later: No, wait a minute. I see what I did there. And it's not just spelling Conner wrong.

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 11h

I loathed the Da Vinci Code so much I nearly threw it out of a train window.

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 11h

I treated myself to a set of Pevsners for the region as I'd been borrowing them from the library. Most of the ones I bought were second hand and pristine.

It took me several days to think "wait, these are mine. I can use pencil in them."

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 12h

One of the posts that got me flamed back in the old place was when I said I didn’t fetishise books as objects and wasn’t bothered if their owners wanted to rip them in half to make their baggage lighter or chuck them in the recycling once they’ve read them or whatever. Some people went ballistic

Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 1d

The veneration of Books As Objects misses the point entirely. If you're reading a book, turn the corners down, break the spine, spill soup on it. It's your book, go nuts. A pristine, unread book is a tragedy in a way that a beloved, much-read book that looks like the dog's been at it could never be.

Reposted by Mags L Halliday

Paul Clammer @paulclammer.bsky.social · 12h

A while back, Bristol Central Library had an exhibition of all the decades of bookmarks it had found left in its returned books, and it was one of the most glorious things I saw all year - everything from fancy leather bookmarks to old receipts and everything in between.

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Reposted by Mags L Halliday

Andrew | TheSpoilist @thespoilist.bsky.social · 12h

How do method actors rationalise any of the other shit on a movie set?

"Why have these people taken me, Ares, to a luxury trailer and asked for my lunch order?"

Lady Emily ☄️ @ladyemily.nebula.tv · 1d

Finding out that Jared Leto kept doing his method acting shit and insisted on staying in character on the set of Tron Ares and would only answer to the name of Ares is so funny, like making a big ass douche of yourself for the third Tron movie where you play “computer program that gains feelings”

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 12h

I should disclaimer that with, despite being married to a 40K novelist, I know nothing. I decided it was Too Much Lore and noped out.

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 12h

I feel sure there could be space marine shanties.

Soon may the razorback come
To bring us armour and tea and guns
One day when the grimdark’s done
We’ll take our leave and go.

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Reposted by Mags L Halliday

Kitty Dorkling @kittydorkling.bsky.social · 12h

There just aren't very many folk songs about Warhammer... yet.

the wicker mang @mangmangmang.bsky.social · Aug 14

People are always rightly pointing out that Warhammer contributes more to the British economy than the fishing industry, but the problem is that there just aren't very many folk songs about Warhammer

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 12h

I was just thinking about this piece. It’s a useful primer for anyone watching the show for the first time because it’s the celeb edition.

The editors must have been thrilled the cameras caught that Tom Daley eye roll.

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 13h

Because it’s back on the telly, here’s the piece I wrote about how The Traitors is edited, and what it tells us about storytelling.

open.substack.com/pub/joelmorr...

'The Traitors', Agatha Christie, and The Kierkegaard Edit

How we consume story, versus how it's made.

open.substack.com

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 13h

Because it’s important to realise our care workers are experiencing the racism not just at work but in their everyday life. In the bus. At the shops. At the school gate.

It’s vile.

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 13h

I’ve never forgotten a care worker saying they’d had people move away from them on the bus.

In the 2020s.

The kind of racism I’d not seen in the West Midlands in the 1970s or South Yorkshire in the 1990s.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 15h

‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Mags L Halliday

Patrick Galey @patrickgaley.bsky.social · 13h

Sorry, what? There is no “race debate”. There is racism, there are racists.

This isn’t a legitimate political polemic, this is hate speech and hate crime.

Can we stop trying to wedge the bigotry of fragile white men in to public discourse? Doing so is hate-washing and we need to stop it.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 15h

‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Mags L Halliday

Andy Robertson 🔜 London ComicCon @geekdadgamer.bsky.social · 14h

I'm working on a Roblox story for a national outlet and keen to talk to parents of older teens (12-16) who play Roblox games:
✅ Which games do they play?
✅ Why play that rather than a console game?
✅ How do they find new Roblox games?

Shares appreciated #JournoRequest

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Reposted by Mags L Halliday

James Alistair Henry @jamesbluecat.bsky.social · 15h

All literary novels should have little b+w illustrations every few pages to remind you what the characters look like.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 1d

You’ve misunderstood the 1967 Act.

Getting an abortion remains a crime unless the specific steps set out in the 1967 Act are taken. That’s why there’s a need to decriminalise it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

MPs debate rival bids to decriminalise abortion

Two amendments to the Policing Bill are aimed at ending police investigations into abortion.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 1d

And you might think this is pedantry but no women were prosecuted for decades. Until 5 years ago. Something shifted.

Women, including a teenage girl, have been arrested after having a miscarriage under suspicion they had had an illegal abortion.

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 1d

Abortion is currently only legal “with the approval of two doctors”. That’s a medical hoop a woman needs to get through to access a legal abortion. It remains illegal unless that approval is given.