Ellen
@ellenoffrell.bsky.social
book lady, cheese fiend. school librarian. writing a novel. opinions own
Pinned
new #substack: on being fundamentally incompatible with your therapist #writersky
where do you feel that in your body? / horchata
the problem, fundamentally, was the maine coon.
ellenmunroedmunds.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:07 PM
new #substack: on being fundamentally incompatible with your therapist #writersky
New post: on having a few people over open.substack.com/pub/ellenmun...
at this point you're probably aware i'm having a few people over / improvised red wine gravy
on hostessing with the mostest-ing
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:11 AM
New post: on having a few people over open.substack.com/pub/ellenmun...
new on my #substack: my thoughts on growing up at the tail-end of mass radio-listenership and a blue cheese and leek pasta
#foodsky #blogsky #substacksky #writersky
#foodsky #blogsky #substacksky #writersky
what's cracklin? / blue cheese n leek spaghetti
the statistics do not support the idea that 'video killed the radio star'
substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:16 PM
new on my #substack: my thoughts on growing up at the tail-end of mass radio-listenership and a blue cheese and leek pasta
#foodsky #blogsky #substacksky #writersky
#foodsky #blogsky #substacksky #writersky
Giving our library a freshen up
November 27, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Giving our library a freshen up
Oh nice!
Great to see #Budget25 include £1,447 for each secondary school in England to buy books, expert librarians can help ensure the investment is best spent assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6926eb...
November 26, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Oh nice!
Peter Apps is the GOAT when it comes to untangling London’s housing crisis. Show Me The Bodies was as gripping as a thriller and left me in tears. This one is basically showing me the straight line you could draw between landlord greed and schools cutting support staff - including librarians
November 24, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Peter Apps is the GOAT when it comes to untangling London’s housing crisis. Show Me The Bodies was as gripping as a thriller and left me in tears. This one is basically showing me the straight line you could draw between landlord greed and schools cutting support staff - including librarians
New on substack: my thoughts on taking up swimming for my stupid mental health as an adult after a fraught childhood experience with it
a swim in the local leisure centre in the rain
on my fraught journey back to the pool, and the struggles of having a big heid.
open.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:40 AM
New on substack: my thoughts on taking up swimming for my stupid mental health as an adult after a fraught childhood experience with it
Right #LibrarySky and #Booksky — what are your top #kidlit books of 2025? Particularly keen to read stuff on the MG/YA boundary!
November 18, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Right #LibrarySky and #Booksky — what are your top #kidlit books of 2025? Particularly keen to read stuff on the MG/YA boundary!
I've not made much of a secret of the fact that my mental health has been a little less than stellar of late. Have decided to revisit a teenage coping mechanism, blogging. (This is my roundabout way of saying I've started a substack)
#Substack
#Substack
puddle / paneer
not a recipe, a journal maybe, maybe cope.
open.substack.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:48 PM
I've not made much of a secret of the fact that my mental health has been a little less than stellar of late. Have decided to revisit a teenage coping mechanism, blogging. (This is my roundabout way of saying I've started a substack)
#Substack
#Substack
Boyfriend and I have a back and forth on the go at the moment. He recently finished reading Don Quixote, for context.
Me: We need to get you a new book to read.
Him: Nah, I've finished reading. Finished all the books.
Me: You literally just read the first one.
Me: We need to get you a new book to read.
Him: Nah, I've finished reading. Finished all the books.
Me: You literally just read the first one.
October 15, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Boyfriend and I have a back and forth on the go at the moment. He recently finished reading Don Quixote, for context.
Me: We need to get you a new book to read.
Him: Nah, I've finished reading. Finished all the books.
Me: You literally just read the first one.
Me: We need to get you a new book to read.
Him: Nah, I've finished reading. Finished all the books.
Me: You literally just read the first one.
I grew up right at the perfect golden time to make friends on the internet, who have become some of my closest IRL friends. I got to go to one's wedding a couple year's back! I went to another's birthday party on Wednesday. I feel sad for kids now that a lot of these opportunities seem closed off
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
October 10, 2025 at 8:01 AM
I grew up right at the perfect golden time to make friends on the internet, who have become some of my closest IRL friends. I got to go to one's wedding a couple year's back! I went to another's birthday party on Wednesday. I feel sad for kids now that a lot of these opportunities seem closed off
Reposted by Ellen
“Where do you get your ideas from, Ms Le Guin?” From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading road signs backwards, naturally. Where else?
October 8, 2025 at 5:37 PM
“Where do you get your ideas from, Ms Le Guin?” From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading road signs backwards, naturally. Where else?
I always hate the way Blinkist frames its services like "read a book in 15 minutes" as if you would get away with telling your pals you'd read the Count of Monte Cristo when actually all you'd done was read the synopsis on Wikipedia.
Abridging has always been in vogue. Now, apps like Blinkist take entire books and crunch them down to a series of what are called Blinks—which amount to around 2,000 words. “Is that what books are coming to, a handy social lubricant?” Anthony Lane asks.
Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?
Phone apps now offer to boil down entire books into micro-synopses. What they leave out is revealing.
www.newyorker.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:11 AM
I always hate the way Blinkist frames its services like "read a book in 15 minutes" as if you would get away with telling your pals you'd read the Count of Monte Cristo when actually all you'd done was read the synopsis on Wikipedia.
Happy #NationalPoetryDay. I picked Lochan by Kathleen Jamie for a school assignment in primary school and it's still my favourite to this day
October 2, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Happy #NationalPoetryDay. I picked Lochan by Kathleen Jamie for a school assignment in primary school and it's still my favourite to this day
Reposted by Ellen
We agree but add this: the #GreatSchoolLibraries campaign highlights that all children need a school library because adequately funded, staffed school libraries deliver enhanced & independent learning as well as reading & curriculum support & contribute to building lifelong readers. #Staffed
Rachel Reeves pledges a library in every primary school in England
Rachel Reeves pledges a library in every primary school in England
Exclusive: Chancellor also set to unveil plans to get young people back into work in party conference speech
Rachel Reeves will deliver a library in every primary school in England as part of Labour’s plans to give all children the best start in life regardless of their background.
The scheme, which will create libraries in the 1,700 primaries currently without them, will be funded from £132.5m of dormant assets that will be unlocked to give young people access to cultural opportunities. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2025 at 10:32 AM
We agree but add this: the #GreatSchoolLibraries campaign highlights that all children need a school library because adequately funded, staffed school libraries deliver enhanced & independent learning as well as reading & curriculum support & contribute to building lifelong readers. #Staffed
Omg this is so delightful for him how gorgeous
Y’all they’re bringing back Reading Rainbow with Mychal the librarian!!!!
September 29, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Omg this is so delightful for him how gorgeous
Reposted by Ellen
September 29, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Ellen
I think we're lurching back into a worrying period of matchmaking for practical circumstance. I know a lot of people who work in the arts/humanities whose wages provide no long term safety so they're looking for it in a partner.
September 29, 2025 at 10:37 AM
I think we're lurching back into a worrying period of matchmaking for practical circumstance. I know a lot of people who work in the arts/humanities whose wages provide no long term safety so they're looking for it in a partner.
Reposted by Ellen
This is a very welcome development indeed IF the recurrent costs of funding school librarians is fully budgeted. ‘A pile of books is no more a library than a crowd of soldiers is an army’ to quote Gabriel Naudé who figured this out … 400 years ago… www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Rachel Reeves pledges a library in every primary school in England
Exclusive: Chancellor also set to unveil plans to get young people back into work in party conference speech
www.theguardian.com
September 29, 2025 at 6:42 AM
This is a very welcome development indeed IF the recurrent costs of funding school librarians is fully budgeted. ‘A pile of books is no more a library than a crowd of soldiers is an army’ to quote Gabriel Naudé who figured this out … 400 years ago… www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
The year 8 reading drop off, observable in every school I've ever set foot in, is due to a massive resource drop off, no timetabling of library time (or lack of library/librarian) and the teenage sense that reading is terminally dull (led by lack of library/librarian). More testing = more tedium.
Exclusive: The government plans to introduce a mandatory reading test for year 8 pupils in its upcoming schools white paper, amid fears poorer children are disengaging in the early years of secondary school
schoolsweek.co.uk/year-8s-to-s...
schoolsweek.co.uk/year-8s-to-s...
White paper to usher in year 8 reading test
Move to ensure poorer pupils are not shut off from wider curriculum
schoolsweek.co.uk
September 26, 2025 at 11:36 AM
The year 8 reading drop off, observable in every school I've ever set foot in, is due to a massive resource drop off, no timetabling of library time (or lack of library/librarian) and the teenage sense that reading is terminally dull (led by lack of library/librarian). More testing = more tedium.
One of my pals who isn't a big reader recently got herself an eReader and she's been sending me updates on everything she's been reading since. She's legit read like three books in the last month. Proud librarian and proud pal! #LifelongReaders #LibrarianSky
September 26, 2025 at 7:55 AM
One of my pals who isn't a big reader recently got herself an eReader and she's been sending me updates on everything she's been reading since. She's legit read like three books in the last month. Proud librarian and proud pal! #LifelongReaders #LibrarianSky
Every day I come to work and I am approached by a fully sentient, walking, talking child, born after the London 2012 Olympics. Still trying to figure out how this is possible.
September 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Every day I come to work and I am approached by a fully sentient, walking, talking child, born after the London 2012 Olympics. Still trying to figure out how this is possible.
Reposted by Ellen
London literary types, I’d love for you to come along to this event we’re putting on next month! Tickets here - www.thehorsehospital.com/events/reenc...
September 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
London literary types, I’d love for you to come along to this event we’re putting on next month! Tickets here - www.thehorsehospital.com/events/reenc...