The Bee
@beelitmag.bsky.social
A home for working-class readers and writers
https://thebeemagazine.com
https://thebeemagazine.com
We're proud and excited to say our Working Class Library podcast episode about The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, featuring David Nicholls, is now available on all good podcast platforms, and on our site. We loved doing this, and hope you like it too 🐝
The Working Class Library Episode 5: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend
Richard and Claire are joined by novelist David Nicholls to consider Sue Townsend’s 1982 novel The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾.
thebeemagazine.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:10 PM
We're proud and excited to say our Working Class Library podcast episode about The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, featuring David Nicholls, is now available on all good podcast platforms, and on our site. We loved doing this, and hope you like it too 🐝
A little taster of the full episode, which we'll be posting on on Monday.
November 14, 2025 at 6:12 PM
A little taster of the full episode, which we'll be posting on on Monday.
Congratulations to @newlands.bsky.social for this deserved recognition.
Tom was on our Writing Chance programme for working-class writers in 2024, and we are very proud for him.
Tom was on our Writing Chance programme for working-class writers in 2024, and we are very proud for him.
November 13, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Congratulations to @newlands.bsky.social for this deserved recognition.
Tom was on our Writing Chance programme for working-class writers in 2024, and we are very proud for him.
Tom was on our Writing Chance programme for working-class writers in 2024, and we are very proud for him.
Reposted by The Bee
“We live in a time when standards of masculinity are being dictated to us by deeply problematic men.”
This Memoir Takes A Sledgehammer to Notions of Masculinity - Electric Literature
Adam Farrer’s “Broken Biscuits” uses vulnerability and incisive humor to deconstruct his relationship with his father, brothers, and male friends
buff.ly
November 13, 2025 at 9:00 PM
“We live in a time when standards of masculinity are being dictated to us by deeply problematic men.”
Reposted by The Bee
I wrote one of the episodes for the newly relaunched Play For Today, which starts tonight (my episode is on in a couple of weeks). This is an article about that .
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
Play for Today: The revival hoping to save British TV from a class crisis
Play for Today’s one-off films were a seminal moment in television in the Seventies and Eighties, writes Hannah J Davies. Decades later, Channel 5 is bringing them back, and aiming to diversify small-...
www.independent.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 8:32 AM
I wrote one of the episodes for the newly relaunched Play For Today, which starts tonight (my episode is on in a couple of weeks). This is an article about that .
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...
One of our favourites
Watch out for our Working Class Library podcast episode about her and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, featuring guest David Nicholls, coming soon.
For an introduction, see thebeemagazine.com/a-guide-to-the-secret-diary-of-adrian-mole-aged-13-3-4-by-sue-townsend/
Watch out for our Working Class Library podcast episode about her and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, featuring guest David Nicholls, coming soon.
For an introduction, see thebeemagazine.com/a-guide-to-the-secret-diary-of-adrian-mole-aged-13-3-4-by-sue-townsend/
November 12, 2025 at 6:06 PM
One of our favourites
Watch out for our Working Class Library podcast episode about her and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, featuring guest David Nicholls, coming soon.
For an introduction, see thebeemagazine.com/a-guide-to-the-secret-diary-of-adrian-mole-aged-13-3-4-by-sue-townsend/
Watch out for our Working Class Library podcast episode about her and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, featuring guest David Nicholls, coming soon.
For an introduction, see thebeemagazine.com/a-guide-to-the-secret-diary-of-adrian-mole-aged-13-3-4-by-sue-townsend/
Working-class & comic novels receive little scholarly attention in the UK. Funny working class novels really struggle, however loved they are.
Seems less so in Europe, which explains why Sue Townsend's work receives more scholarly attention there.
This is nice: www.ethesis.net/townsend/tow...
Seems less so in Europe, which explains why Sue Townsend's work receives more scholarly attention there.
This is nice: www.ethesis.net/townsend/tow...
A comprehensive study of the non-dramatic work of Sue Townsend. (Jurgen
Willems)
www.ethesis.net
November 11, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Working-class & comic novels receive little scholarly attention in the UK. Funny working class novels really struggle, however loved they are.
Seems less so in Europe, which explains why Sue Townsend's work receives more scholarly attention there.
This is nice: www.ethesis.net/townsend/tow...
Seems less so in Europe, which explains why Sue Townsend's work receives more scholarly attention there.
This is nice: www.ethesis.net/townsend/tow...
Our designer David has a game called fantasy classics, where he chooses books he thinks should be published as classics. With him all this way on this one.
Look out for an episode of our Working Class Library podcast about it, featuring the great novelist and Mole fan David Nicholls, coming soon.
Look out for an episode of our Working Class Library podcast about it, featuring the great novelist and Mole fan David Nicholls, coming soon.
November 10, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Our designer David has a game called fantasy classics, where he chooses books he thinks should be published as classics. With him all this way on this one.
Look out for an episode of our Working Class Library podcast about it, featuring the great novelist and Mole fan David Nicholls, coming soon.
Look out for an episode of our Working Class Library podcast about it, featuring the great novelist and Mole fan David Nicholls, coming soon.
Now we've closed our first open submissions, we made a little list offering some thoughts on what makes proposals stand out, and where writers might think about tuning them up.
thebeemagazine.com/advice-for-w...
thebeemagazine.com/advice-for-w...
Advice for writers
Feedback from our editors following the Bee’s first open submissions.
thebeemagazine.com
November 5, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Now we've closed our first open submissions, we made a little list offering some thoughts on what makes proposals stand out, and where writers might think about tuning them up.
thebeemagazine.com/advice-for-w...
thebeemagazine.com/advice-for-w...
We started off looking at social class in Dracula as a bit of fun really, but it's more interesting than you might think.
It's fairly well known that vampires were often used to refer to the parasitical rich in the 18th and 19th centuries - in this picture by Walter `Crane.
It's fairly well known that vampires were often used to refer to the parasitical rich in the 18th and 19th centuries - in this picture by Walter `Crane.
October 31, 2025 at 8:15 PM
We started off looking at social class in Dracula as a bit of fun really, but it's more interesting than you might think.
It's fairly well known that vampires were often used to refer to the parasitical rich in the 18th and 19th centuries - in this picture by Walter `Crane.
It's fairly well known that vampires were often used to refer to the parasitical rich in the 18th and 19th centuries - in this picture by Walter `Crane.
We'll be recording our episode on class in Dracula at Whitby Lit Fest in November.
Join us if you dare 🧛🏻♀️
whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/the-wo...
Join us if you dare 🧛🏻♀️
whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/the-wo...
October 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
We'll be recording our episode on class in Dracula at Whitby Lit Fest in November.
Join us if you dare 🧛🏻♀️
whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/the-wo...
Join us if you dare 🧛🏻♀️
whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/the-wo...
We'll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of this modern working-class classic on Wednesday, with @helenmort.bsky.social . If you're in the area, join us if you can 🍊
October 20, 2025 at 9:06 PM
We'll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of this modern working-class classic on Wednesday, with @helenmort.bsky.social . If you're in the area, join us if you can 🍊
RIP Tony Harrison.
One of the great 20th-century British poets and indescribably inspiring to working-class writers
"Next millennium you'll have to search quite hard
to find my slab behind the family dead,
butcher, publican, and baker, now me, bard
adding poetry to their beef, beer and bread."
One of the great 20th-century British poets and indescribably inspiring to working-class writers
"Next millennium you'll have to search quite hard
to find my slab behind the family dead,
butcher, publican, and baker, now me, bard
adding poetry to their beef, beer and bread."
September 27, 2025 at 11:20 AM
RIP Tony Harrison.
One of the great 20th-century British poets and indescribably inspiring to working-class writers
"Next millennium you'll have to search quite hard
to find my slab behind the family dead,
butcher, publican, and baker, now me, bard
adding poetry to their beef, beer and bread."
One of the great 20th-century British poets and indescribably inspiring to working-class writers
"Next millennium you'll have to search quite hard
to find my slab behind the family dead,
butcher, publican, and baker, now me, bard
adding poetry to their beef, beer and bread."
"I don’t think I’ll ever really be middle-class," says Stephen Tuffin. It’s like being British and going abroad – I tell other middle-class people I’m just there in their world as a visitor.”
Read his heartbreaking short story about a boy left alone with his father when his mum leaves, here:
Read his heartbreaking short story about a boy left alone with his father when his mum leaves, here:
The Gift
The bus was empty but for one passenger who sat halfway down the seats on the lower deck. The woman was the man’s wife and the boy’s mother and she was leaving.
thebeemagazine.com
September 23, 2025 at 8:40 AM
"I don’t think I’ll ever really be middle-class," says Stephen Tuffin. It’s like being British and going abroad – I tell other middle-class people I’m just there in their world as a visitor.”
Read his heartbreaking short story about a boy left alone with his father when his mum leaves, here:
Read his heartbreaking short story about a boy left alone with his father when his mum leaves, here:
Really enjoyed this from @damianbarr.bsky.social
Such a good understanding of how social class doesn’t just influence lives, but also silences voices. Damian unions how that works, and how it feels.
Such a good understanding of how social class doesn’t just influence lives, but also silences voices. Damian unions how that works, and how it feels.
September 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Really enjoyed this from @damianbarr.bsky.social
Such a good understanding of how social class doesn’t just influence lives, but also silences voices. Damian unions how that works, and how it feels.
Such a good understanding of how social class doesn’t just influence lives, but also silences voices. Damian unions how that works, and how it feels.
One Conservative commentator says it's time we stopped "sanctifying" "working-class credentials" 😐
It's one of those moments when you realise some middle class people's idea of what being working class involves doesn't have much to do with reality.
thebeemagazine.com/are-working-...
It's one of those moments when you realise some middle class people's idea of what being working class involves doesn't have much to do with reality.
thebeemagazine.com/are-working-...
Are working class people saints?
Britain needs to stop its “sanctification” of working-class people, says one conservative commentator. We weren’t aware it had ever started.
thebeemagazine.com
September 11, 2025 at 7:00 PM
One Conservative commentator says it's time we stopped "sanctifying" "working-class credentials" 😐
It's one of those moments when you realise some middle class people's idea of what being working class involves doesn't have much to do with reality.
thebeemagazine.com/are-working-...
It's one of those moments when you realise some middle class people's idea of what being working class involves doesn't have much to do with reality.
thebeemagazine.com/are-working-...
One reason literature tends to be seen as “middle class” is working-class writers and books being class-washed – presented and adapted in ways that strip out their working-class identity.
Lark Rise to Candleford is a prime example.
Lark Rise to Candleford is a prime example.
September 5, 2025 at 3:30 PM
One reason literature tends to be seen as “middle class” is working-class writers and books being class-washed – presented and adapted in ways that strip out their working-class identity.
Lark Rise to Candleford is a prime example.
Lark Rise to Candleford is a prime example.
Becka White, you may remember, is a working-class writer from south-east London with a rare gift for combining the personal and the political in her work. We published her story In Search of the Perfect Mushroom Omelette in July.
This time, she has written a coruscating critique of local...
This time, she has written a coruscating critique of local...
September 2, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Becka White, you may remember, is a working-class writer from south-east London with a rare gift for combining the personal and the political in her work. We published her story In Search of the Perfect Mushroom Omelette in July.
This time, she has written a coruscating critique of local...
This time, she has written a coruscating critique of local...
In order to want to save the planet, a person must feel they belong in it. Yet Black people are often told they do not belong in certain places.
August 31, 2025 at 10:36 AM
In order to want to save the planet, a person must feel they belong in it. Yet Black people are often told they do not belong in certain places.
We're proud to publish @darrenmcgarvey.bsky.social on the UK's health lottery & why health inequality is a political choice.
Right now there's a lot of bogus blaming in the news that distracts from real issues like this.
This is an honest assessment, based on real experience.
Right now there's a lot of bogus blaming in the news that distracts from real issues like this.
This is an honest assessment, based on real experience.
Class & the Health Lottery
Why can’t all the fat, lazy, poor people be as healthy and successful as right-wing political commentators?
thebeemagazine.com
August 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
We're proud to publish @darrenmcgarvey.bsky.social on the UK's health lottery & why health inequality is a political choice.
Right now there's a lot of bogus blaming in the news that distracts from real issues like this.
This is an honest assessment, based on real experience.
Right now there's a lot of bogus blaming in the news that distracts from real issues like this.
This is an honest assessment, based on real experience.
Often mistaken for a middle-class Oxbridge graduate, much to his annoyance. In fact a great champion of working-class talent, and supporter of what we're trying to do. This interview seems to have pleasantly surprised a few people, hope you enjoy it:
Mark Gatiss, the boy that Dr Who books made
The League of Gentlemen star and creator of Bookish on his work, snobbery in the arts, and advice for working-class writers.
thebeemagazine.com
August 24, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Often mistaken for a middle-class Oxbridge graduate, much to his annoyance. In fact a great champion of working-class talent, and supporter of what we're trying to do. This interview seems to have pleasantly surprised a few people, hope you enjoy it: