Ken Worpole
kgeorgew.bsky.social
Ken Worpole
@kgeorgew.bsky.social
Surprised and delighted to be alongside Philip Hoare as writing one of the New Statesman’s ‘Books of the Year 2025’, chosen by Geoff Dyer. Dyer is kind and generous to us both, characterising Hoare’s writing as ‘ecstatic, kaleidoscopic and visionary’, and mine as consistently thoughtful and moving.’
December 7, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Jeremy Seabrook died one year ago today aged 85. One of the most original & pioneering voices for social justice, human rights & dignity in post-war Britain. He asked: “Why is it that the rich must become immeasurably more rich before the poor can become even fractionally less poor?”
November 30, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Damilola Taylor: The fight to protect young lives www.bbc.com/news/article...

And the full-frame image from his memorial on the Peckham Estate #DamilolaTaylor
November 27, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
My new book, all about how, in the 1970s and 80s, the good architects and planners of the Peterborough Development Corporation tried to create pedestrian-friendly places to live. Available here: theradburnidea.bigcartel.com/product/the-...
November 26, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
‘Designing social housing for later life is too often reduced to a simple provision of service. Appleby Blue, however, is a provision of pure delight . . . high-quality spaces that are generous and thoughtful, blending function and community . . .’

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Spa vibes with a grow-your-own-dinner option: Britain’s best new building is a revamped almshouse
With its shimmering ginkgo trees, tinkling pools and a rooftop garden, the Appleby Blue Almshouse housing complex for older people is a worthy winner of RIBA’s prestigious Stirling prize
www.theguardian.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
I'm too inactive here, but just to say I have an exhibition opening this weekend, plus events etc coming up... If you are in an Essex direction pls come by! firstsite.uk/event/into-t...
October 2, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
We should all be deeply grateful for Emma Warren’s timely cultural history of the youth club (@faberbooks.bsky.social), writes social historian and former youth worker Ken Worpole (@kgeorgew.bsky.social) www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/09/up-t...
September 16, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Please join us at Swedenborg House on Thursday 25 September 7pm-9pm (doors open 6.30pm) for 'BUILDING A WINDMILL | KEN WORPOLE & MELISSA BENN IN CONVERSATION.'

FREE. For more information please visit: www.swedenborg.org.uk/events/build...

@kgeorgew.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
August 11, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Just published, two inspiring collection of essays on the prospects for rural Britain in the future. Vol 1: Land, food & farming. Vol 2: Housing, planning & construction. From Assemble, Little Toller Books and the inestimable Common Ground. Fabulous photos by Kaye Song, designed by Polytechnic.
August 14, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Child and art, Child Welfare, Netherlands Stamps, 1964. Designed by Ootje Oxenaar designreviewed.com/artefacts/ch...
August 14, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Thanks to @thetcpa.bsky.social for commissioning this article for the latest edition of their Journal. Hope you enjoy the read. 😊
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
August 2, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Why Unicef almost always concludes that Dutch children are the happiest in the world. Me on what makes a good childhood, based partly on having grown up in the Netherlands
@financialtimes.com on.ft.com/45o0cjh
The magic of childhood in the Netherlands
[FREE TO READ] And what other countries can learn from it
on.ft.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Looking forward to seeing old friends at the wonderful Wivenhoe Bookshop on Friday, 5 September, 2025 at 7pm. I'll be talking about rural socialism, artists's colonies, post-industrial landscapes, and eco- futurism, all part of the county's febrile 20th century history.
August 8, 2025 at 9:39 AM
This documentary history of Frating Hall Farm in Essex, a unique pacifist community - taped interviews, photographs, letters, diaries - has now been given its own archive at Essex Record Office.

'What Worpole's account attests to is the paradise of making paradise...'

Olivia Laing, TLS, 2021
August 3, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Interesting new publication from @littletollerbooks.bsky.social arrived today. First in a series. You can find out more on their website 👍
July 30, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
☀️☀️ MORE SUMMER PICKS ☀️☀️ lrb.me/e63

David’s pick of summer treats, ft. new novels from Gary Shteyngart & Nicola Barker, an ecofictional fable from Sarah Hall, a final collection of essays from the much-mourned Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and a pair of primers on environmental futures from Little Toller
July 24, 2025 at 11:08 AM
'No one knows where I am and that's the way I like it.' Congratulations to Jeff Young & Little Toller Books for winning the TLS Ackerley Prize last night for Wild Twin, the definitive British post-Kerouac road trip and dream diary.
July 24, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Congratulations to Jeff Young, winner of this year’s TLS Ackerley Prize for his highly original and exhilaratingly written memoir ‘Wild Twin’, published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
July 23, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
"As Worpole so beautifully puts it, ‘we are always living in different periods simultaneously; time is malleable within our inner selves. To be wholly modern would be to have no inner life at all." Lovely @luketurner.bsky.social review of the new Ken Worpole

www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...
Caught by the River Book of the Month: April | Caught by the River | Caught by the River
www.caughtbytheriver.net
April 23, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
“Landscape is a combination of the human world and the natural world and therefore people are very important in it” hard recommend for the great Ken Worpole on the @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social podcast…

open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...
The New English Landscape with Ken Worpole: Uncanny Landscapes podcast S2E4
The influential writer and social historian talks about his life and his new book, Brightening from the East: Essays on Landscape and Memory
open.substack.com
April 10, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Our music features in this fascinating podcast from writers Justin Hopper and Ken Worpole. A wonderful conversation on notions of landscape and Essex (subjects very close to our hearts) give it a listen. XX

@claypipemusic.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...
The New English Landscape with Ken Worpole: Uncanny Landscapes podcast S2E4
The influential writer and social historian talks about his life and his new book, Brightening from the East: Essays on Landscape and Memory
open.substack.com
April 4, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Published in 1987, this overlooked London-Irish novel is marked by a Beckett-like mixture of comedy and tragedy. Written by publican & novelist, Jerry O' Neill, once of The Duke of Wellington in Balls Pond Road, two Irish labourers set themselves 24 hours to raise funds to bury their friend.
July 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Nothing more serendipitous than ordering a recommended book that sounds quite interesting but probably published years ago. Then finding that it’s unputdownable, that it addresses much of your current thinking - and THEN, that it’s actually published today @littletollerbooks.bsky.social #Landscape
March 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
Newly published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social, Book of the Month is Ken Worpole's 'Brightening From the East’, which tells stories of arcadian dreams among the shabby plotlands of eastern England. Read an extract on The Peculiar People of Essex: www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...
April 1, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Ken Worpole
BOOK OF THE MONTH: @luketurner.bsky.social‬ reviews Ken Worpole’s ‘Brightening from the East’ (@littletollerbooks.bsky.social), finding the richness of humanity brought to life in its pages www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...
April 16, 2025 at 2:22 PM