Polly Atkin
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pollyrowena.bsky.social
Polly Atkin
@pollyrowena.bsky.social
Writer, Lake-swimmer, Bookseller.
FRSL
hEDS/Haemochromatosis/all the comorbs
she/her
rep @PortyLiterary

Basic Nest Architecture
Much with Body
Recovering Dorothy
Some Of Us Just Fall
The Company of Owls

https://linktr.ee/pollyatkin
I don’t know who signed off on this seating arrangement but I’m not sure it was in my best interests.
November 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM
I couldn’t believe how many different groups of #TawnyOwls I heard yesterday afternoon at dusk. They’re in charge now. Tune in to #TweetOfTheDay on radio 4 tomorrow morning and on BBC sounds afterwards to hear me talk about my tawny neighbours and what they mean to me a little. #TheCompanyOfOwls
November 8, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Bats!
November 7, 2025 at 12:04 AM
What is it they say? Slow it down and get a skeleton to sing it?

Me and my haunted piano possessed by a snippet of the new Florence and the Machine. #OneOfTheGreats #EverybodyScream #TheChronicLife #Piano #Halloween
November 1, 2025 at 12:44 AM
I see @oxfordunipress.bsky.social are cancelling independent scholars and researchers. I couldn't have written #RecoveringDorothy without an individual subscription and this is going to make similar work impossible for me going forward, including contributions to scholarly editions. What BS.
October 30, 2025 at 12:03 PM
#Caturday night at the smithkin burrow.
October 25, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Fire-engine on the way!
October 23, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Unexpected sight of a bus on fire between Workington and Whitehaven on the A595 just now! @itvborder.bsky.social
October 23, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Just got the last of today's #lakelight for a brief swim - the light on the shore just before I got in, and gone, just after.
October 22, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Please enjoy some autumn colours from Rydal this afternoon.
October 20, 2025 at 8:01 PM
I am doing every small thing in my power to hold on to my baseline. I want to keep working because my work really matters to me. But if I can't - be very clear - it is not me who has failed - it is society, it is our leaders, it is community. #InfectionIsNotInevitable #PlagueYearSeason6
October 18, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Today, I became one of those people in all the news articles who turned up for their covid and flu jabs, as booked, as told to book, as told my eligibility was my the infernal NHS app, and was denied a covid jab.

This is my face while I was waiting for staff to confer and confirm.
October 18, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Paperback publication day for these owls! Get them now, tell owl your friends! Now approx 1/3 more pocketable and affordable and still just as adorable. #BookSky #NatureWriting #Owls #TheCompanyOfOwls
October 16, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Spotlight on #TheCompanyOfOwls paperback - officially out tomorrow - though if you know anything about these tawnies, you'll know they do what they want when they want to do it, so no surprise some of them have branched early. Let me know if you spot one roosting near you! #BookSky #NatureWriting
October 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Are you a @societyofauthors.bsky.social member? Remember to vote in the management committee elections! Follow me as I go to post my ballot voting for Jen Calleja, Mohamed Tonsy & Matt Abbott.
October 8, 2025 at 4:28 PM
lovely! leaves here turning now and looking lovely - hope the forecast sun arrives later in week to light it all up.
October 6, 2025 at 9:32 PM
And here's me trying to be dignified and serious whilst recording in my pyjamas. #BeMoreOwlet #Owls #TawnyOwls #NatureWriting #BookSky
October 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Which turned out to be my author copies of the paperback of #TheCompanyOfOwls! #Booksky #NatureWriting #Owls
October 3, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Actual footage of me a little bit ago when I opened the door for a delivery ...
October 3, 2025 at 2:01 PM
On October 16th the paperback of #TheCompanyOfOwls is out - approx 30% more pocketable and more affordable than the beautiful hardback - but just as iconic thanks to Matt Underwood's #TawnyOwl print. Get an early copy at my (free!) talk in Ambleside, Oct 7th. #BookSky #NatureWriting #BookTalk
October 1, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Absolutely beautiful September weather for #AppleDay at Hutton in the forest today and all the autumn flowers heaving with butterflies and bees.
September 28, 2025 at 4:04 PM
My favourite Tony Harrison story (other than a slightly alarming secondhand one about him making someone interview him when he was in the bath) is that he was allowed to etch his name into Dove Cottage window, next to the pencilled line written in 1891 he includes in his poem 'Remains'.
September 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
September 25, 2025 at 9:25 PM
As if in response, the tawnys who live directly across the road now (one of 2023's owlets from the book and her partner I think) were really giving it some welly right outside the house just after midnight last night. #Owls #TawnyOwls #AutumnVibes #OwlWitchAutumn #TheCompanyOfOwls
September 25, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Yesterday brought the October issue of The Simple Thing magazine through my letter box, including words on #Owls by me, with a beautiful illustration by Zuza Misko, to mark the paperback release of #TheCompanyOfOwls from @eandtbooks.bsky.social on October 16th. #TawnyOwls #NatureWriting #Booksky
September 25, 2025 at 1:18 PM