Verity Holloway
@verityholloway.bsky.social
Strange fiction, weird history. Lost member of the PRB. Marfan syndrome. Will-o’-the-wisp. Victorians, folklore, bad medicine. THE OTHERS OF EDENWELL and CHEER THE SICK out now. 🦇🖋️🇬🇮
Pinned
Reposted by Verity Holloway
Working on writing up my review, but TL;DR: Tales of Occult Britain is great! A beautifully produced volume of short stories intended as a companion for the Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain. Read if you love @helleborezine.bsky.social, folklore, folk horror, and stories with a sense of place.
December 9, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Working on writing up my review, but TL;DR: Tales of Occult Britain is great! A beautifully produced volume of short stories intended as a companion for the Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain. Read if you love @helleborezine.bsky.social, folklore, folk horror, and stories with a sense of place.
Environmental storytelling today on the dog walk:
Kopparberg bottle
Kopparberg bottle
Three puddles of purple vomit
An empty canister of laughing gas
Two bras
Kopparberg bottle
Kopparberg bottle
Three puddles of purple vomit
An empty canister of laughing gas
Two bras
December 9, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Environmental storytelling today on the dog walk:
Kopparberg bottle
Kopparberg bottle
Three puddles of purple vomit
An empty canister of laughing gas
Two bras
Kopparberg bottle
Kopparberg bottle
Three puddles of purple vomit
An empty canister of laughing gas
Two bras
Reposted by Verity Holloway
totally, fatally obsessed with this gorgeous cover design by Julia Lloyd at @titanbooks.bsky.social for my debut novel THE RED SACRAMENT! Ahhh!!!
December 3, 2025 at 5:18 PM
totally, fatally obsessed with this gorgeous cover design by Julia Lloyd at @titanbooks.bsky.social for my debut novel THE RED SACRAMENT! Ahhh!!!
Reposted by Verity Holloway
My religion tells me that if you meet Buddha on the road you should kill him, and also that if you're a newspaper editor, no one is holding a gun to your head to give money to this bigoted Oxbridge ghoul.
I’ve become convinced that the most tedious psuedo-clever argument is that something is kind of like religion
December 8, 2025 at 8:04 PM
My religion tells me that if you meet Buddha on the road you should kill him, and also that if you're a newspaper editor, no one is holding a gun to your head to give money to this bigoted Oxbridge ghoul.
Reposted by Verity Holloway
One of my career highlights is the Time I Phoned Her Majesty's Receiver Of Wrecks, because washed up whales and sturgeon technically belong to the monarch. She was super helpful! (The receiver of Wrecks, not the queen)
Please report all floating bananas to HM Coastguard's Receiver of Wreck, the most metal job title in the land.
www.itv.com/news/meridia...
www.itv.com/news/meridia...
www.itv.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:41 AM
One of my career highlights is the Time I Phoned Her Majesty's Receiver Of Wrecks, because washed up whales and sturgeon technically belong to the monarch. She was super helpful! (The receiver of Wrecks, not the queen)
Reposted by Verity Holloway
Keep forgetting to say that my novel is *ideal* for cold weather, full of candle-spots of warmth swallowed up by the chill gloom. Victorian London and West Country folklore tied into a seasonal bundle.
Also has an artist heroine, unrequited/inadvisable love, and a chap who's back from the dead.
Also has an artist heroine, unrequited/inadvisable love, and a chap who's back from the dead.
December 8, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Keep forgetting to say that my novel is *ideal* for cold weather, full of candle-spots of warmth swallowed up by the chill gloom. Victorian London and West Country folklore tied into a seasonal bundle.
Also has an artist heroine, unrequited/inadvisable love, and a chap who's back from the dead.
Also has an artist heroine, unrequited/inadvisable love, and a chap who's back from the dead.
Reposted by Verity Holloway
Being a strictly tropical fruit the banana is not the natural enemy of British shipping, but like all predators, when given an opportunity its natural instincts will kick in...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Banana containers cause shipping disruption in Solent
The containers came off a cargo ship near Bembridge on Saturday evening.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 7, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Being a strictly tropical fruit the banana is not the natural enemy of British shipping, but like all predators, when given an opportunity its natural instincts will kick in...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I politely emailed this guy to ask why his newsletter consistently contained so many racist dogwhistles, and not only did he not respond, he had me taken off his mailing list.
Unsurprising mask-off racism from Nick Timothy here.
Upset at the abolition of the two-child limit - because some of (British) kids who will benefit have (British) parents who are the wrong colour (were born in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, etc).
archive.ph/rycVD
Upset at the abolition of the two-child limit - because some of (British) kids who will benefit have (British) parents who are the wrong colour (were born in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, etc).
archive.ph/rycVD
Strip residency of migrants who are a net financial drain, urges Tory MP
Ministers should withdraw permanent residency from those who draw more in welfare than they contribute, a former No 10 adviser has said
www.thetimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:58 AM
I politely emailed this guy to ask why his newsletter consistently contained so many racist dogwhistles, and not only did he not respond, he had me taken off his mailing list.
Also, if you like the idea of picking up free beach bananas, you might like to know that doing so in the 18th century would get you hanged. I've written about dark history of smuggling and 'wrecking' in this issue of Hellebore:
helleborezine.com/products/hau...
helleborezine.com/products/hau...
December 8, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Also, if you like the idea of picking up free beach bananas, you might like to know that doing so in the 18th century would get you hanged. I've written about dark history of smuggling and 'wrecking' in this issue of Hellebore:
helleborezine.com/products/hau...
helleborezine.com/products/hau...
Please report all floating bananas to HM Coastguard's Receiver of Wreck, the most metal job title in the land.
www.itv.com/news/meridia...
www.itv.com/news/meridia...
www.itv.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Please report all floating bananas to HM Coastguard's Receiver of Wreck, the most metal job title in the land.
www.itv.com/news/meridia...
www.itv.com/news/meridia...
Reposted by Verity Holloway
then, the transphobes , feeling victorious at how many people they have made unhappy and despairing in the previous week, move on to anything else that has a spectrum and the possibility of more colours than they can conceive - such hateful people - they cannot understand anything that is not THEM
December 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM
then, the transphobes , feeling victorious at how many people they have made unhappy and despairing in the previous week, move on to anything else that has a spectrum and the possibility of more colours than they can conceive - such hateful people - they cannot understand anything that is not THEM
They pinky promise not to monetise NHS data, though. www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechn...
December 7, 2025 at 4:14 PM
They pinky promise not to monetise NHS data, though. www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechn...
Reposted by Verity Holloway
Christos Lawton is a pleasure to have in class. #TerrorCamp
December 7, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Christos Lawton is a pleasure to have in class. #TerrorCamp
Reposted by Verity Holloway
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’
December 7, 2025 at 8:31 AM
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’
I've been reading about the remarkably well-preserved St Bees Man and wondered if anyone could shed some light of the hair (not his own) arranged around his neck in the coffin. Was that something people did in the 1300s?
(There are autopsy photos in the link)
stbees.org.uk/home/village...
(There are autopsy photos in the link)
stbees.org.uk/home/village...
Verifying Your Connection
stbees.org.uk
December 7, 2025 at 10:29 AM
I've been reading about the remarkably well-preserved St Bees Man and wondered if anyone could shed some light of the hair (not his own) arranged around his neck in the coffin. Was that something people did in the 1300s?
(There are autopsy photos in the link)
stbees.org.uk/home/village...
(There are autopsy photos in the link)
stbees.org.uk/home/village...
Reposted by Verity Holloway
The Holly King, in the sanctuary of St Mary-le-Wigford in Lincoln today
December 6, 2025 at 2:15 PM
The Holly King, in the sanctuary of St Mary-le-Wigford in Lincoln today
Reposted by Verity Holloway
The first school to market itself as AI free is going to corner the market on people interested in actually learning. And I would not be surprised if rich families and the children of people creating this tech were the first movers.
My employer, Dartmouth College, today boasts it's 1st Ivy "to launch AI at an institutional scale." It is doing this by partnering--"more than a collaboration"--with Anthropic, a company that stole the books of many faculty, me included, which many of us are suing.
December 5, 2025 at 1:40 AM
The first school to market itself as AI free is going to corner the market on people interested in actually learning. And I would not be surprised if rich families and the children of people creating this tech were the first movers.
I moved in with my Livejournal friend and he's still here.
December 5, 2025 at 6:16 PM
I moved in with my Livejournal friend and he's still here.
A new addition to the living room.
December 5, 2025 at 3:56 PM
A new addition to the living room.
I’m looking forward to Terror Camp a normal amount.
December 5, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I’m looking forward to Terror Camp a normal amount.
Reposted by Verity Holloway
Krampus, get to work, man.
(My two Gentleman Krampus illustrations. Gouache, ink, colored pencils.)
(My two Gentleman Krampus illustrations. Gouache, ink, colored pencils.)
December 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Krampus, get to work, man.
(My two Gentleman Krampus illustrations. Gouache, ink, colored pencils.)
(My two Gentleman Krampus illustrations. Gouache, ink, colored pencils.)
Reposted by Verity Holloway
An independent taskforce *just* did a huge review of ADHD in England, and the conclusion was that it's "under-recognised, under-diagnosed and under-treated."
www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/re...
www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/re...
NHS England » Report of the independent ADHD Taskforce: Part 1
April 2025
www.england.nhs.uk
December 4, 2025 at 12:48 AM
An independent taskforce *just* did a huge review of ADHD in England, and the conclusion was that it's "under-recognised, under-diagnosed and under-treated."
www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/re...
www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/re...
Reposted by Verity Holloway
'Very pretty. Fine giraffes.'
December 5, 2025 at 1:42 PM
'Very pretty. Fine giraffes.'