Oliver J. Tooley (Olli Tooley)
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otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Oliver J. Tooley (Olli Tooley)
@otooleyauthor.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.8K following 810 posts
Writer, publisher, woke lefty, he/him, founder of Blue Poppy Publishing, in North Devon.
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otooleyauthor.bsky.social
The people who came up with "Black Dog" as a brand of free range eggs, and then designed this sign, didn't entirely think it through did they?
Or am I the only person who thinks Dog Egg is a euphemism?
Sign advertising what turns out to be a brand of regular chicken eggs. The brand is "Black Dog" The sign says Black Dog Eggs, straight from the farm in the heart of Devon.
November 22, 2025 at 2:32 PM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Fuck you Co-op, not just for this shitty label which is impossible to peel, so I can't read the instructions, but also for not being on Bsky but I bet you are still on Twitter. So much for ethics.
An almost completely destroyed label from a joint that had the instructions peel here except that it cannot be peeled off
November 19, 2025 at 6:42 PM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
This is remarkably close to the current averages (as given on Wikipedia) with (rounded) Reform 30%, Labour 18%, Con 17%, Green 14%, and LibDem 13%
November 16, 2025 at 11:07 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
❤️
Everything looked like it had been painted with ten coats of moonlight.
November 15, 2025 at 10:48 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Just gasped audibly at "a spoonful of laughter"
What a lovely turn of phrase.
#BookSky
A snippet of text from "The Barrow Ship" by John Wilkinson, "Finch waited. His mum and dad were pottering about in the kitchen before going to bed. He heard a spoonful of laughter, light as thistledown, from his mum."
November 15, 2025 at 8:50 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Odysseus is a right pain in the backside but he's not too bad when he is like this.
#Doggo
Odysseus, a dark brown dog with cappuccino highlights. He's half cocker, half collie, all idiot. Gently curled up and snoozing on the armchair.
November 14, 2025 at 7:59 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
TIL vanilla extract doesn't taste very good when licked off my fingers.
Making low-syn chocolate and vanilla dessert for #SlimmingWorld taster session tonight.
Pot of 0% fat Greek yoghurt with vanilla essence ready to mix. Here's some I prepared earlier. Chocolate yoghurt on the bottom, vanilla on top, these taster pots are half a syn each.
October 28, 2025 at 3:46 PM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
... and just look at the direction of travel!
See #AltText for explanation and source
Yes, we still have a way to go, but we are shifting.
Graphical summary (screenshot) from Wikipedia. This shows the local regression or LOESS (locally estimated scatterplot smoothing). In simple terms that even I can understand it's a rolling average of all the polls over time. The Green Party line is at the bottom on almost 13% but it is trending upwards at a more than 45 degree angle while Labour (red) on about 19% is dropping at a similar rate. LibDems (orange) flat on 13.5%, Tories (blue) flat on 17.5%, and Reform (light blue) flat on 30%.
October 28, 2025 at 11:53 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
"Not you, Odysseus, you're only half collie."
Odysseus, my doggo, who is half cocker half collie. I think that makes him cocky? He's dark brown (almost black) with peanut eyebrows and honey paws, chest, tummy, and muzzle.
October 13, 2025 at 8:00 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
"We are open 'ordinary' "
en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/everyday
Why you NEED a #Proofreader #Editor for professional applications.
Sign for a café which says we are open everyday, when it should say we are open every day. Everyday means mundane or ordinary. Every day means on all days.
September 17, 2025 at 11:14 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Also working on a YA fantasy, loosely based on DnD, called "The Chosen One"
A town has sent over thirty orphan boys on a quest to fulfil a prophecy.
All have either died or are MIA.
But this year will be different, right?
Well, yes, the Chosen One's girlfriend follows him, and her mum follows her.
Eve, a forty-something mother of six must leave her town to help her youngest daughter who has been banished for helping the Chosen One on his quest. Here she is, dressed in a hooded cloak, her clothes are drab browns and beige. She has several bags on her waist and her husband's bow and quiver. Her careworn face is covered in ashes where she has mourned the loss/banishment of her daughter. Now she is setting off to find her.
May 21, 2025 at 5:43 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Something for #EarthDay #BookSky 📚💙
Four great titles from @bluepoppypub.bsky.social featuring the #environment and #ecology. They have plenty more. Most of the catalogue is like that.
Front cover for The Whispering Trees by Alice Allan. A three part lino print featuring a prominent small hill in the middle ground, trees and shrubs including rowan and alexanders in the foreground, and rolling hills to the distance. A full moon shines over the hill which is topped by a circle of rowan trees. Front cover for "Down the Combe and Into the Meadow" by David Selby, a beautiful nonfiction book about our nature learning centred on Weston Combe in Devon. It shows a painting of the combe by a local artist. A steep path goes between a riot of meadow flowers to the sea below. Magpie Mouse by Kirsty Jackson, front cover art by Rebecca Frost. It shows the titular mouse with her bag in which she places items collected from the beach. Things like flip-flops and diving masks left by careless humans. Sally the Seagull by Naomi Taylor, illustrations by Pat Fricker. Sally is perched on a bollard with the fictional seaside harbour village of Port-O-Tat in the background. It looks a lot like Ilfracombe where the author and illustrator both live. Sally gets trapped in a plastic bag and is rescued by a surprising saviour.
April 22, 2025 at 8:05 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Does anyone know what the difference is between all these?
Got two lactose intolerant people in the family. Learning too much right now.
Photo of various oat drinks in Tesco Light, organic, barista edition, semi and whole, are the options for the major brand!
November 20, 2024 at 9:12 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
I'm only going to recycle this one tweet I promise. Tragic that it was the most popular thing I ever tweeted.
How much is the right amount of Marmite?
1 = No Marmite
12 = a whole 25g jar
(sorry this will mean nothing to anyone in the USA)
Twelve pictures of toast numbered from 1 to 12 Number one has no Marmite on it, then there is a little more Marmite each time until number twelve has a whole 250g jar on it. If you don't know what Marmite is then nothing will explain this image to you.
November 15, 2024 at 3:02 PM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
I read somewhere that it is the LAW that you have to post at least one #CatPic #Cats on #Bsky
I can't find the post now and a quick search neither confirms nor denies this so just going to go ahead in case it's true.
#BookSky 💙📚
Cover of Not Lost: Susie the Dorchester Cat by William Parmiter, Kerry Martin, Emily Burr, and illustrated by Catherine L. Owen. It shows Susie with her distinctive pink collar sitting in front of one of the many shops she frequents in Dorchester. The real Susie posing (but maybe not very well - hence the blurring of her head) beside the book about her. I'm not sure she either knows or cares. Drawing of Suzie beside her book. This time there's no blurring, obviously. Susie is a tabby with green eyes. She wears a pink collar which now has a tracker fitted so that her owner can keep "tabs" on her movements. From left to "write", illustrator Catherine L. Owen, and writers Emily Burr, William Parmiter, and Kerry Martin at the launch which was attended by over a hundred people. The three writers are all adults with learning difficulties who decided to write this book about the famous Dorchester cat, Susie. With the assistance of Laura who runs People First Dorset, and Catherine who did the amazing illustrations, these lovely people, with the full approval of Susie's owner, have already helped to raise a huge amount of money for the charity.
November 10, 2024 at 11:26 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
I think the crowning achievement of my publishing and book designing career to date has to be "Down the Combe and Into the Meadow" by David Selby. It's a work of art. It is also a fabulous resource on nature learning.
It deserves to be in every university and secondary school in the country.
3D mock-up of hardback edition of Down the Combe and into the Meadow: Reflections on Nature and Learning - by David Selby. Features stunning artwork by a friend of the author depicting Weston Combe the starting point of the book's journey. Back cover of Down the Combe and Into the Meadow The back cover copy reads as follows. At first glance, one might be forgiven for thinking this book is simply a paean to Weston Combe, a small and unremarkable valley on the Jurassic Coast. However, this seemingly narrow focus belies the global reach of what is a hugely significant contribution to the case for the conservation and restoration of the natural world. Written in an engaging diary style, the month-by-month chapters initially focus on the natural history of an East Devon coastal valley before stretching out to consider a significant nature-related issue and its wider implications for our living and learning. Issues addressed include human disconnect from the natural world, climate breakdown, rewilding, biodiversity loss and confronting environmental despair. Both the landscape and its denizens are captured in 138 stunning photographs, including 51 images by award winning nature photographer David White. David Selby draws on a lifelong love affair with nature, a wide and deep knowledge of environmental issues as well as an astonishing breadth of source material, the latter offered to the reader through copious enlightening endnotes and suggestions for further reading. Down the Combe and Into the Meadow is a treasure trove for nature lovers as well as essential reading for teachers and students of environmental topics. Accessible to the lay-reader, this book will be equally at home in lecture theatres and schools as on coffee tables. A page from inside the book featuring an open seed pod of stinking iris (Iris foetidissima) with bright red berry like seeds.
November 9, 2024 at 9:47 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
The Whispering Trees by Alice Allan already has five star reviews from the first edition. From 1st November it will also be available as print-on-demand and kindle.
Preorder live now
www.amazon.co.uk/Whispering-T...
#BookSky 💙📚
October 29, 2024 at 2:02 PM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
#BookSky peeps, thoughts on the cover please?
Thank you. 💙📚
Front cover of "On The Edge: A Rural Tale of Jealousy & Obsession on the South West Coast Path" written by Clare S. Mudd. The image features silhouettes of a man and woman on a coastal pathway, the sea ahead of them with the sun low on the horizon.
October 29, 2024 at 9:04 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
I'll plug one that I published if that's alright.
Very proud of the advance review from none other than Robert Macfarlane.
Only available from UK bookshops until 1st November when it will be available as a PoD and Kindle, worldwide.
Cover of "The Whispering Trees" by Alice Allan, featuring a three part lino-cut print. The image is of a prominent small hill, topped with a circle of trees, in the mid-ground with more rounded hills beyond against an evening sky with a full moon. In the foreground there are rowan berries, and Alexanders. There is a roundel with the words, "A terrific book" Robert Macfarlane. Back cover of the book the copy says; “They call me a witch, Liv, and maybe I am, in a manner of speaking.” Olivia doesn’t believe in magic. No sensible person does. So why, when the family moves to Devon after her dad’s accident, does the hill speak to her? The hill’s guardian, Annie Tilke, can't – or won't – explain. At school, sparky Sadie takes Olivia under her wing, but what about smouldering Robert Enticott and devoted but hopeless Wadsy? Are they friend or foe? Olivia’s dad is not getting better and her mum wants to move back to the city. But for Olivia, telling her parents she wants to stay in Devon to become a vet is the least of her worries. Old Annie’s tormentors are becoming more menacing, the natural world is in trouble, and the mysterious voice on the hill has an urgent message that only Olivia can interpret. Followed by two reviews; "The Whispering Trees is a terrific book: at once haunting, witty and witchy, with the tang of the real to it as well as the shiver of the uncanny. Here are shades of Susan Cooper, echoes of Michael Morpurgo, all in a living landscape set just askew from what might be expected." Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways, Underland, The Lost Words, etc. "A thrilling tale about growing up, finding your own path, connecting with nature, and respecting our planet." Maria Oliver, author of Once Upon a Time, You ...
October 27, 2024 at 11:25 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Not Lost: Susie the Dorchester Cat book launch at Dorford Centre, Dorchester. One of the best I have ever attended. About a hundred people turned up.
Proceeds to to People First Dorset which helps adults with learning difficulties.
www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/2467631...
Susie the Dorchester Cat poses beside the new book all about her adventures. She is a tabby wearing a pink collar with a tracker fitted. Laura Kerr, of People First Dorset, holds up a cat carrier containing ... not Susie, but a plushie of Susie hand-made by Catherine L. Owen who illustrated the book.
October 26, 2024 at 9:27 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Today I delivered a thousand books to a client in Dorchester.
Then we visited a few English heritage sites.
A bit of an old ruin. Thanks Henry Tudor! A sheep enjoying the lush grass on Maiden Castle Maiden Castle near Dorchester Ruin of a Romano-British temple.
October 14, 2024 at 6:15 PM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
If you see this post a vampire
It's just a big gold framed mirror with nothing reflected in it.
September 28, 2024 at 7:36 PM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
I hurt my leg and a few other bits yesterday, so I hope you forgive me not getting up to take a proper photo of my bookstall at South Molton pannier market today.
I have to pack up early and race to Appledore later as I am on a self-publishing expert panel.
Busy day. I wish I wasn't in so much pain.
Lazy photo of my bookstall from my chair. You can see a few book edges and, in the background, the fruit and veg stall. Don't judge me. Everything hurts today.
September 21, 2024 at 8:18 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
Doesn't seem like a big deal right now but might be quite cool years from now
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #6,092,132!
Apparently I was the six million, ninety-two thousand, one hundred and thirty-second person to join.
September 17, 2024 at 6:24 AM
otooleyauthor.bsky.social
The interior of Tuckers Hall awaiting the launch of Merchants and Mayors. Author Maggie Rice gave an interesting talk about the book. The Earl of Devon and the Lord Mayor of Exeter were in attendance.
I didn't get to meet either of them though. It was crazy busy with people buying books.
Interior of the Tuckers Hall, Fore Street Exeter showing the timber beam ceiling which is original 15th century. There are decorative bosses at various points on the beams and crossed halberds on the far wall. Hanging from the centre is a gilt chandelier with actual candles. (It was warm in the room that day). An audience awaits the talk by author Margaret A. Rice although the Earl of Devon has not yet arrived. He would later be seated near the front in the large chair provided for him.
September 15, 2024 at 4:49 PM