Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

😢

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Sep 26

Menzies Campbell, former Liberal Democrat leader, dies at 84

Campbell was North East Fife MP for nearly three decades and was made a peer, and once held UK 100m record Menzies Campbell, the long-serving Liberal Democrat MP who also led the party for 18 months, has died aged 84, his family have said. Lord Campbell, usually known as Ming, died in London after a period of respite care, his grandson Gregor Grant-Suttie said in a statement. He had spent some of his final days watching last weekend’s Lib Dem conference. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

September 26, 2025 at 11:05 AM

Reposted by Emma O’Driscoll

Michael H Whitworth

@profmhwhitworth.bsky.social

On the subject of Melvyn Bragg, I think of this Private Eye cartoon more frequently than I care to admit, when I’m struggling to raise the energy for a lecture or graduate supervision

Cartoon Melvyn Bragg raises issues of fierce philosophical complexity with a stubbly & bleary-eyed crew of academics, one of whom responds “fucking hell, Melvyn, it’s a bit early for all that.”

September 3, 2025 at 8:18 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

#Brussels ☀️🇧🇪

September 4, 2025 at 6:40 AM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Just saw @mattgreencomedy.com at the Edinburgh Fringe - best thing I’ve seen so far! Check it out if you can!

August 18, 2025 at 1:46 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Channelling my inner Miss Lemon this week - my to-do list WILL get done 💪

May 12, 2025 at 1:15 PM

Reposted by Emma O’Driscoll

Micah

@rincewind.run

the fundamental disconnect between the manosphere and reality is that they are incapable of understanding that this is - according to every woman I’ve ever met - the sexiest thing a man has ever done

shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · May 7

eight years ago today we all watched the glory of zendaya falling madly in love with tom holland and the internet was never the same

May 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

😢

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Mario Vargas Llosa, giant of Latin American literature, dies aged 89

Nobel laureate, a star of the international boom in Latin American literature, also once ran for president in Peru

www.theguardian.com

April 14, 2025 at 4:53 AM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Made the longlist!

The Crime Writers' Association @thecwa.bsky.social · Apr 12

The CWA is proud to announce the longlist for the 2025 Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition! Congratulations, authors, and best of luck in the next round!

April 12, 2025 at 1:31 PM

Reposted by Emma O’Driscoll

Joel Morris

@gralefrit.bsky.social

Luckily my mortgage provider and electricity and gas supplier both accept “excitement at the new publishing venture from the former Unbound team” instead of money, so I’m fine.

March 27, 2025 at 5:31 PM

Reposted by Emma O’Driscoll

Kit de Waal

@kitdewaal.com

Vi

Vintage greetings card, a nurse and doctor stand over a patient. The doctor says 'I'm afraid you're suffering from Auto Correct Syndrome'. The patient answers. 'I didn't even know I was I'll.'

March 21, 2025 at 11:08 AM

Reposted by Emma O’Driscoll

Alasdair Beckett-King

@misterabk.bsky.social

Will the detective investigating your murder be sad?

A spoof of an infographic showing a map of Europe, colour-coded by which countries will offer food to visitors. The caption is "Will the detective investigating your murder be sad?" The Nordic territories are labelled "sad", Northern Europe is labelled "sad & wet", Eastern Europe, Southern France and Northern Italy are labelled "sad and drunk" and the Mediterranean nations are labelled "sexy". It's less funny when you explain it, to be honest.

October 7, 2023 at 5:22 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Finally caught up on BBC’s Towards Zero. Angelica Houston and Matthew Rhys were excellent but the pace of the first two episodes was far too slow, and they crammed the investigation into the final hour 🤨 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC One - Towards Zero

Murder strikes at a coastal estate, where a volatile mix of guests have gathered.

www.bbc.co.uk

March 18, 2025 at 10:45 AM

Reposted by Emma O’Driscoll

The Puzzle Doctor

@puzzledoctor.bsky.social

Out now from @severnhouse.bsky.social - a marvellous tribute to Simon Brett from The Detection Club including @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social, @kateellisauthor.bsky.social, @radiomukhers.bsky.social, @michaeljecks.bsky.social - and a Charles Paris tale from Simon

classicmystery.blog/2025/03/07/p...

Playing Dead (2025) by The Detection Club

The Detection Club has been running since 1930, a group of mystery writers who meet for dinner and shenanigans. Simon Brett has achieved a lot in his life in crime writing (and other things) but on…

classicmystery.blog

March 7, 2025 at 9:00 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Recently I found out I’d won 🥈 in a short story competition; I couldn’t make it to the award ceremony but maybe that was a good thing as now I have a recording of one of my literary heroes, Simon Brett, reading my story at the ceremony! #SimonBrett #shortstory #detectionclub

March 14, 2025 at 9:03 AM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

🤣

March 13, 2025 at 8:12 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Spoilt for choice with cosy crime radio adaptations right now - this is apparently starting tomorrow 🤩

March 8, 2025 at 4:42 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Just pre-ordered this in hardback - as a huge fan of Cluedo and murder-mystery party games it might just be my dream novel! 🤩

Martin Edwards @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social · Mar 5

A trailer for my next novel - a mystery with plenty of clues and puzzles. And of course a Cluefinder 😀https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Ax9gOG6bU

Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards Cover Reveal

YouTube video by Head of Zeus

www.youtube.com

March 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

Definitely going to have a go at this over the weekend 🤩

Jamie Bernthal-Hooker @jcbernthal.com · Feb 28

How do I entertain myself? By attempting elderly crosswords, it seems. This 'Crime and Detection'-themed trivia crossword appeared in The Times in December 1938 and very Golden Age-y.

A crossword grid, labelled 'Crime and Detection'

ACROSS

1 Headquarters, not of 14, but of 13 (two words) (5, 6).
7 His name may suggest study and the lamp (two words) (5, 5).
13 The first called the second "my dear" (five words) (8, 6, 3, 2, 6).
15 Not the hangman’s island (5).
16 It’s a name for corruption (7).
17 Formed a branch establishment, perhaps (6).
18 See 38 (4).
20 This detective novelist fills 18 with noise (two words) (3, 4).
23 The Manderson affair (three words) (6, 4, 4).
26 Vessel notorious for an intended abduction (6).
27 Learned characters in 49, 21 (4).
28 He helped Hanaud in 40 across (7).
31 This is only half a sentence (4).
34 41’s trouble was that he wanted to (3).
35 Here wrong is right (4).
36 Creator of Lecoq (8).
38 This 18 was found not to have 46 anyone with "Strong Poison" (7).
40 Mason’s characters, who refused to act like kings and queens, &c. (four words) (4, 7, 2, 8).
45 Destination of Sir John Magill’s last journey (7).
47 They were described as just 58 (two words) (5, 3).
48 Sign of a criminal fellowship (4).
50 A girl, anyway (3).
52 This Philip Macdonald story is a singular place for an Agatha Christie murder (4).
53 Its use caused "Unnatural Death" (7).
54 Underworld resort of malefactors (4).
55 Old punishment for murderers (6).
58 "The Squeaker" is (three words) (2, 5, 7).
61 Vague as it is, it seems tactless to ask a crook if he has done it (7).
63 In short the principal scene of 49, 21 (4).
64 The cause of 14 years’ hard labour (6).
66 Lord Peter’s were finally successful in Latin (7).
67 Contingent (5).
70 Catholic virtue in cases of detection (five words) (3, 9, 2, 5, 5).
72 Slang phrase for a shocking death (three words) (3, 3, 4).
73 He dies, according to Agatha Christie (two words) (4, 7).

D 1 A sinister name which suggests resorts for sunbathing (7).
2 What The 9 Tailors really rang (5).
3 CID men find the old hands know these (5).
4 He’s cut short himself, and others are upset (3).
5 A case of bringing a person up for examination (10).
6 The puzzle was that it was fastened on the inside (six words) (3, 7, 2, 3, 6, 4).
7 Scene of a 43 mystery (7).
8 They, at any rate, feel that they have nothing to conceal (7).
9 For long a suspect in the case of the 53 (5).
10 Gem which held a prisoner (4).
11 A rascal in disguise (6).
12 Poirot does, and so does Parker Pyne (11).
14 These, if mentioned in a crime story, are pretty sure to be 4s (7).
16 A Kipling mystery (4).
19 This killed a queen (3).
21 See 49 (5).
22 The professional in fiction is often compared with the amateur (5).
24 Disguise of Soapy Sam in The Terror (5).
25 Like W. W. Jacobs's paw (6).
29 Queen’s sort of orange mystery (7).
30 No gentlemen (6).
32 Philip Macdonald’s is white (4).
33 He said his was a dream of a murder (4).
37 Bismarck’s bloodless policy.
39 18’s man’s man (6)
40 An intermediary, who is new yet made up (6)
41 He made a mess of his inheritance (4)
42 Annoyed like a gangster (4)
43 His sleuth is French (two words) (5, 6)
44 Punishment for a candidate who has failed at honours? (two words) (4, 8)
46 See 3
49 Highly toured darkness, with 21 (5)
50 A case of the missing 52 in defence? (5)
51 Electrical device like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (10)
54 Traitors often suffered by this manoeuvre (two words) (4, 3)
56 One of 47 in Shakespeare who might be termed 30 (3)
57 One was the scene of a moving mystery (4)
59 A person who, perhaps, hopes for a reduction in his time (7)
60 Creature like one of the 55 (7)
62 He ran away from the chief executioner’s wife (6)
65 Approximately a French author (5)
67 Deprive of valuable cover, as they do in 63 (5)
68 By it the sleuth knows when he is on the scent (5)
69 A part of proceedings in Chancery (4)
71 Her son was a murderer; her island is 58 (3)

February 28, 2025 at 5:44 PM

Reposted by Emma O’Driscoll

Curtis Brown Creative

@cbcreative.bsky.social

'Good crime novels set up multiple layers of intrigue and a range of questions that demand answers' 🕵️‍♂️

Bestselling crime novelist and chair of @thecwa.bsky.social , @vaseemkhanuk.bsky.social shares his tips on how to set clues in your crime novel:

How to set clues in your crime novel

Award-winning crime novelist Vaseem Khan shares his advice on leaving a compelling trail of clues for your reader to follow, from foreshadowing to red herrings.

www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk

February 12, 2025 at 3:56 PM

Emma O’Driscoll

@eodwrites.bsky.social

My first short mystery story is being published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine today! Thanks to @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social for encouraging me to submit it!

February 11, 2025 at 3:50 PM