Matthew Teller
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Matthew Teller
@matthewteller.com
1.7K followers 460 following 400 posts
Author • DAYBREAK IN GAZA • NINE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM • linktr.ee/matthewteller • Rep: Ampersand Agency • He/him • Donate to support: https://ko-fi.com/matthewteller
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An advisory opinion
October 22, 2025 at 7:05 PM
matthewteller.com
By Adam Olearius. Within 15 years of writing this, "they" had become "we"...
They Drink, with their Tobacco, a certain black water, which they call Cahwa, made of a Fruit brought out of Egypt, and which is in colour like ordinary Wheat, and in taste like Turkish Wheat, and is of the bigness of a little Bean. They fry, or rather burn it in an Iron pan without any Liquor, beat it to powder, and boyling it with fair water, they make this Drink thereof, which hath as it were the tast of a burnt Crust, and is not pleasant to the Palate. It hath a Cooling quality, and the Persians think it allays the Natural heat. Whence it comes, that they often drink of it, inasmuch as they would avoid the charge of having many Children, nay they are so far from dissembling the fear they have thereof, that some of them have come to our Physician for remedies of that kind. But he being a merry disposed Person, made answer that he would rather help them to get Children, than give them aught to prevent the getting of them. I say the Persians are persuaded this water is able absolutely to smother all Natural heat, and to take away the power of engendering; and to this purpose they tell a story of one of their Kings, named Sultan Mahomed Caswin, who Reigned in Persia before Tamerlane's
August 31, 2025 at 12:23 PM
matthewteller.com
Rarely been this excited to read a 24-page booklet…
August 17, 2025 at 10:05 PM
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Coming up:

www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...
August 9, 2025 at 11:43 AM
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Over? In their dreams
June 9, 2025 at 7:26 AM
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June 6, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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June 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
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Bit pathetic, really
June 6, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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Mood
June 5, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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Artist & activist Shaden Qous explaining the history of her Afro-Palestinian community in the Old City of Jerusalem. I quoted her father Musa, who sadly died in Feb, in my 2022 book NINE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM. Israeli authorities unjustly arrested Shaden for incitement, charges are still pending
May 11, 2025 at 12:42 PM
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ثورة / revolution
May 8, 2025 at 6:54 AM
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wtaf google translate
May 7, 2025 at 9:27 AM
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Tel Aviv terminal 1 literally empty yesterday. Took me 9 minutes from kerbside to airside (I tick all their disgusting racial profiling boxes, unlike many). Houthi win
May 7, 2025 at 9:24 AM
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Good morning
April 27, 2025 at 5:41 AM
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Especially today
April 16, 2025 at 11:07 AM
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This ⤵️ will be good
March 27, 2025 at 3:15 PM
matthewteller.com
Books change minds. Bookselling is not a crime.

Supporting the Educational Bookshop and booksellers everywhere facing censorship, intimidation and violence.

Image is free to use. Please copy and share.
Poster text: BOOKSELLING IS NOT A CRIME - celebrating the right to read in support of the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem
March 26, 2025 at 10:46 AM
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Two events for the book "Daybreak in Gaza"—profits to Medical Aid for Palestinians:

➡️ OXFORD LitFest: 1 Apr, 4pm
➡️ Sheldonian, OX1 3AZ
➡️ £8-15
➡️ oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...

➡️ STROUD: 3 Apr, 7pm
➡️ Stroud Hotel, GL5 3AP
➡️ £5-7
➡️ eventbrite.co.uk/e/daybreak-i...

@saqibooks.bsky.social
March 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM
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Today is #BooksellingIsNotACrime day, organised in support of Jerusalem's Educational Bookshop by 3 mighty but tiny publishers: @saqibooks.bsky.social @versobooks.bsky.social & @plutobooks.bsky.social.

But where are Penguin Random House? Macmillan? HarperCollins? Why have they not pledged support?
February 22, 2025 at 10:17 AM
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On 9 February, Israeli police arrested my friend and co-author Mahmoud Muna with his nephew Ahmad in their bookshop in Jerusalem.

They were accused of disturbing public order—a malicious and fabricated charge.

But booksellers are not criminals, and
#BooksellingIsNotACrime
February 22, 2025 at 10:15 AM
matthewteller.com
I've resigned from the UK Society of Authors
After much thought, and with great regret, I am resigning my membership of the SoA. When my friend and co-author - a writer, bookseller, publisher and cultural advocate - has his premises ransacked by police and is dragged away in handcuffs in front of his 11-year-old daughter, then dumped in a cell while police confiscate hundreds of books imported from global corporate and independent publishing houses on the absurd accusation of incitement, and my own trade union turns its back, I cannot let it stand. This statement https://societyofauthors.org/2025/02/13/a-statement-from-the-soa-board/ added insult to the injury. It omits mention of my friend’s name, his identity, his location, his bookshop, the identity of those arresting and abusing him and the facts of what took place. I would have hoped my trade union would have taken this opportunity to illuminate the evils of state censorship and defend those who seek to practise freedom. Instead, it obscured understanding of the issues with platitudes and irrelevant assertions. It was an abject failure. The police were Israeli. The location was Jerusalem. The writer and bookseller they abused is named Mahmoud Muna. He was arrested with his relative Ahmad Muna. They are Palestinian. The bookshop is not a nameless, generic institution: it is a business that trades under the name of The Educational Bookshop. I have no idea why my trade union chose, under these circumstances, to make erroneous claims as to the nature of the democracy prevailing within the country that sent armed police to jail a bookseller, but my suspicion is it may have formed a cack-handed attempt to exculpate the oppressors. Either way, my patience has run out. I am cancelling my direct debit today, until such time as the SoA finds its backbone and starts standing up for me and writers like me. With regret, in fury Matthew Teller
February 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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Joanna Hodgkin writes about when her mother Nancy Myers—first wife of Lawrence Durrell—lived and worked in Gaza in 1944:

joannahodgkin.com/a-different-...
February 18, 2025 at 12:07 PM
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London, 2 March. Book now. It's going to be quite an event

actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...
February 15, 2025 at 6:40 PM
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Freezing rain in small-town Leamington Spa today
February 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
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Ahmad Muna was released earlier today, and Mahmoud Muna in the last hour - both under house arrest and other restrictive conditions, though the charges against them are obviously fabricated. Even the Israeli judge recognised that the police have no case. When will our complicit governments act?
February 11, 2025 at 12:06 PM