Gemma Bristow
@konallis.bsky.social
UK. Technical writer with a background in humanities. Posts about the Imagist poets, children's books, history, and green politics. All comments personal, all errors my own.
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Gemma Bristow
@konallis.bsky.social
· Nov 7
Hi! You want to check out my writing and see my sugar shaker collection? My website is www.helical-library.net. Fellow charity shop maven? I post finds and decor pics on Instagram (@konallis_gem).
Received an email containing the phrase 'a hare's breath away,' which is such accidental poetry that it seems a shame to tell them what the correct idiom is.
December 2, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Received an email containing the phrase 'a hare's breath away,' which is such accidental poetry that it seems a shame to tell them what the correct idiom is.
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
As set out in this thread, the causes of the court backlog are chronic lack of funding and absurd inefficiency.
The government has made no proposals to address either. Their answer is to remove juries.
Rather than fix the leaking roof, their solution is to burn the house down.
The government has made no proposals to address either. Their answer is to remove juries.
Rather than fix the leaking roof, their solution is to burn the house down.
Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇
December 2, 2025 at 9:03 AM
As set out in this thread, the causes of the court backlog are chronic lack of funding and absurd inefficiency.
The government has made no proposals to address either. Their answer is to remove juries.
Rather than fix the leaking roof, their solution is to burn the house down.
The government has made no proposals to address either. Their answer is to remove juries.
Rather than fix the leaking roof, their solution is to burn the house down.
Excellent book haul yesterday. I went to the big Oxfam shop in Cambridge, where I rarely fail to find something. (Although I was supposed to be Christmas shopping, which didn't go so well.)
November 30, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Excellent book haul yesterday. I went to the big Oxfam shop in Cambridge, where I rarely fail to find something. (Although I was supposed to be Christmas shopping, which didn't go so well.)
#FridayReads The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault. In the 1930s, an inexperienced teenager leaves her feuding parents and joins the bohemian, bisexual, boaty menage of her older sister.
November 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
#FridayReads The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault. In the 1930s, an inexperienced teenager leaves her feuding parents and joins the bohemian, bisexual, boaty menage of her older sister.
Watched Edgar Wright's new film of The Running Man. It was entertaining throughout, injecting a fair bit of humour and cartoonish excess into the grim material, and stuck quite close to the book - until the ending where, like The Long Walk, the film-makers soft-pedaled it.
November 24, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Watched Edgar Wright's new film of The Running Man. It was entertaining throughout, injecting a fair bit of humour and cartoonish excess into the grim material, and stuck quite close to the book - until the ending where, like The Long Walk, the film-makers soft-pedaled it.
#FridayReads Julia by Sandra Newman, a retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four from Julia's point of view (with some unexpected twists and turns).
November 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
#FridayReads Julia by Sandra Newman, a retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four from Julia's point of view (with some unexpected twists and turns).
#FridayReads The Killer Question by Janice Hallett. Murder mystery set in the cutthroat world of pub quizzes, told in Hallett's signature 'found documents' format and with plenty of humour amid the bloodshed.
November 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
#FridayReads The Killer Question by Janice Hallett. Murder mystery set in the cutthroat world of pub quizzes, told in Hallett's signature 'found documents' format and with plenty of humour amid the bloodshed.
So much promising research in the autoimmune field right now.
Epstein-Barr virus appears to be trigger of lupus disease, say scientists
Epstein-Barr virus appears to be trigger of lupus disease, say scientists
Connection of near-ubiquitous EBV to autoimmune disease affecting about 1 in 1,000 people may spur hunt for vaccine
A common childhood virus appears to be the trigger for the autoimmune disease lupus, according to groundbreaking research.
The study suggests that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which for most people is harmless, can cause immune cells to “go rogue” and mistakenly attack the body’s own tissues. The team behind the work said that uncovering the cause of lupus could revolutionise treatments. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:33 PM
So much promising research in the autoimmune field right now.
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
Cursed shelves and ghoulish libraries... 👻
Dive into fourteen tales featuring bewitched books in The Haunted Library, for lovers of the weird and the written word.
Available now: shop.bl.uk/products/the-haunted-library-tales-of-cursed-books-and-forbidden-shelves
Dive into fourteen tales featuring bewitched books in The Haunted Library, for lovers of the weird and the written word.
Available now: shop.bl.uk/products/the-haunted-library-tales-of-cursed-books-and-forbidden-shelves
November 13, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Cursed shelves and ghoulish libraries... 👻
Dive into fourteen tales featuring bewitched books in The Haunted Library, for lovers of the weird and the written word.
Available now: shop.bl.uk/products/the-haunted-library-tales-of-cursed-books-and-forbidden-shelves
Dive into fourteen tales featuring bewitched books in The Haunted Library, for lovers of the weird and the written word.
Available now: shop.bl.uk/products/the-haunted-library-tales-of-cursed-books-and-forbidden-shelves
This week's episode of the Shedunnit podcast (focused on themes and issues in 'golden age' detective fiction) is about Georgette Heyer's mystery novels and why they aren't more famous in the canon. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Shedunnit - The Case of Georgette Heyer - BBC Sounds
Why aren’t her dozen detective novels better known?
www.bbc.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 6:53 PM
This week's episode of the Shedunnit podcast (focused on themes and issues in 'golden age' detective fiction) is about Georgette Heyer's mystery novels and why they aren't more famous in the canon. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
The poetic epilogue to Death of a Hero is a sign of psychological survival. The novel's narrator, an unnamed poet, explicitly tells us that he's writing the book as an act of cleansing and atonement, to purge negative emotions. And there at the end, everything shifts -
Richard Aldington's Epilogue to Death of a Hero.
Always worth revisiting on Remembrance Sunday.
Always worth revisiting on Remembrance Sunday.
November 10, 2025 at 9:20 AM
The poetic epilogue to Death of a Hero is a sign of psychological survival. The novel's narrator, an unnamed poet, explicitly tells us that he's writing the book as an act of cleansing and atonement, to purge negative emotions. And there at the end, everything shifts -
Added to my collection of Penguin Peacocks, with this 1969 TV tie-in edition of The Owl Service by Alan Garner. Not much design effort was spent on this edition; it looks exactly like a Puffin with the Peacock name and logo swapped in.
November 8, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Added to my collection of Penguin Peacocks, with this 1969 TV tie-in edition of The Owl Service by Alan Garner. Not much design effort was spent on this edition; it looks exactly like a Puffin with the Peacock name and logo swapped in.
Gift for the modernism fan who has everything: a replica of the sculpture 'Toy' by Henri Gaudier- Brzeska, which belonged to critic and poet T.E. Hulme. Looks cool and you can play with it. shop.kettlesyard.co.uk/products/hen...
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska Toy Replica
Actual size replicaDimensions: 160 x 40 x 30 mm This jesmonite replica has been made exclusively for Kettle's Yard by a local maker, using moulds taken from the original bronze. Toy – otherwise known ...
shop.kettlesyard.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Gift for the modernism fan who has everything: a replica of the sculpture 'Toy' by Henri Gaudier- Brzeska, which belonged to critic and poet T.E. Hulme. Looks cool and you can play with it. shop.kettlesyard.co.uk/products/hen...
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
London Lives
www.londonlives.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
Man in antique shop, squinting at a label: 'Cas...tration?'
Man's female companion: 'Cast iron!'
Man's female companion: 'Cast iron!'
November 5, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Man in antique shop, squinting at a label: 'Cas...tration?'
Man's female companion: 'Cast iron!'
Man's female companion: 'Cast iron!'
Correctly deduced which character faked their own death in Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue. The fish were a bit too obvious ('A red herring swallowed one...').
November 2, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Correctly deduced which character faked their own death in Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue. The fish were a bit too obvious ('A red herring swallowed one...').
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student
Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student
Fitzwilliam Museum has uncovered student’s work from 1977 that revealed Cambridgeshire location of child’s burial place
An A-level pupil found the lost grave of the Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano’s daughter, revealing a story of love and solidarity in 18th-century rural England.
Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, escaped enslavement to become a celebrated author and campaigner in Georgian England. His memoir, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, was a bestseller. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
Has anyone ever done a study of serialized novels from the 1920s and 1930s? I've searched for a number of writers like Evelyn Shuler (author of Dangerous Cinderella) in JSTOR and several other sources and found almost nothing. Surely these weren't all forgettable.
October 31, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Has anyone ever done a study of serialized novels from the 1920s and 1930s? I've searched for a number of writers like Evelyn Shuler (author of Dangerous Cinderella) in JSTOR and several other sources and found almost nothing. Surely these weren't all forgettable.
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
The last survivor of the Crimean War died in 2004.
"Timothy" spent 40 years in the Navy. After retirement, having moved in with the Earl of Devon, she revealed she was a girl.
She would wander round his garden wearing a sign that said. "My name is Timothy. I am very old. Pease do not pick me up".
"Timothy" spent 40 years in the Navy. After retirement, having moved in with the Earl of Devon, she revealed she was a girl.
She would wander round his garden wearing a sign that said. "My name is Timothy. I am very old. Pease do not pick me up".
October 31, 2025 at 12:48 PM
The last survivor of the Crimean War died in 2004.
"Timothy" spent 40 years in the Navy. After retirement, having moved in with the Earl of Devon, she revealed she was a girl.
She would wander round his garden wearing a sign that said. "My name is Timothy. I am very old. Pease do not pick me up".
"Timothy" spent 40 years in the Navy. After retirement, having moved in with the Earl of Devon, she revealed she was a girl.
She would wander round his garden wearing a sign that said. "My name is Timothy. I am very old. Pease do not pick me up".
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
![[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS]
1
NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]:
Hello there
2
[A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk].
DAD:
Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids?
3
NT EMPLOYEE:
Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail!
4
MUM:
That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids?
5
NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]:
Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot!
6
NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]:
Listen - that's their call
[Calls emanating from the landscape]:
tut-tut
woke-woke
7
NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]:
They are extremely sensitive and fragile...
But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery.
8
KIDS [pointing]:
There they are!
[Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure].
[Little people noises]:
woke-woke
tut-tut
woke-woke
9
[Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]:
Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house.
[Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]:
tut-tut
woke-woke
10
MUM [pointing]:
What's that one doing there?
NT EMPLOYEE:
Oh, that's so sweet…
11
[We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away].
NT EMPLOYEE:
I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph…
12
[We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]:
Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE?
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreib7lt736b6rmzinml5s7kxjdaapo2a36xp4d4lssypimx3taqicdm@jpeg)
October 31, 2025 at 9:02 AM
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n]
October 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n]
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
The least frightening films ever – ranked!
The least frightening films ever – ranked!
A Halloween screening doesn’t have to mean being scared witless. From serene sushi-making to a shell with shoes on, we run down the finest films for those of a nervous disposition
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM
The least frightening films ever – ranked!
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
NHS makes morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England
NHS makes morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England
Those in need of free emergency contraception no longer have to see their GP or attend a sexual health clinic
The NHS has made the morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England in an effort to reduce a “postcode lottery” of access to emergency contraception.
Almost 10,000 pharmacies are now able to offer the pill without charge, saving those in need of free emergency contraception from having to visit their GP or to get an appointment at a sexual health clinic. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:10 AM
NHS makes morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England
Reposted by Gemma Bristow
This hotels saga isn’t really about asylum seekers: it’s a window on to a far bigger scandal | Gaby Hinsliff
This hotels saga isn’t really about asylum seekers: it’s a window on to a far bigger scandal | Gaby Hinsliff
A blistering new report tells a tale of billions wasted and vulnerable people left traumatised, while companies profit from a blundering state, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:08 AM
This hotels saga isn’t really about asylum seekers: it’s a window on to a far bigger scandal | Gaby Hinsliff