Shelley Harris
@shelleyharris.bsky.social
Writer (JUBILEE and VIGILANTE, W&N), Creative Writing lecturer at the University of Reading. Dogs, food and various forms of anguish.
The general right-wing freakout about London as a multicultural city doesn’t stand up very well to … an actual awareness of history, does it? This twelfth-century text (William fitzStephen’s biography of Thomas Becket) sees it as part of what makes the city thrive.
September 25, 2025 at 2:49 PM
The general right-wing freakout about London as a multicultural city doesn’t stand up very well to … an actual awareness of history, does it? This twelfth-century text (William fitzStephen’s biography of Thomas Becket) sees it as part of what makes the city thrive.
Last week: we roll out the red carpet for a fascist.
This week: our Health Secretary has to go on morning television to reassure the public that, counter to that same fascist’s claims, paracetamol does not *checks notes* cause autism.
This week: our Health Secretary has to go on morning television to reassure the public that, counter to that same fascist’s claims, paracetamol does not *checks notes* cause autism.
September 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Last week: we roll out the red carpet for a fascist.
This week: our Health Secretary has to go on morning television to reassure the public that, counter to that same fascist’s claims, paracetamol does not *checks notes* cause autism.
This week: our Health Secretary has to go on morning television to reassure the public that, counter to that same fascist’s claims, paracetamol does not *checks notes* cause autism.
Gutted not to be at the anti-Trump march today. If you’re going - thank you! Please shout for those of us who won’t be there. No quarter for fascists.
September 17, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Gutted not to be at the anti-Trump march today. If you’re going - thank you! Please shout for those of us who won’t be there. No quarter for fascists.
Please enjoy my mother-in-law’s painting, which I like to call ‘Man with Levitating Cat’.
August 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Please enjoy my mother-in-law’s painting, which I like to call ‘Man with Levitating Cat’.
Yeah, not quite what I expected when a human rights lawyer became PM. Thought he might mind a bit more about genocide, but OK yeah, yeah , cool.
August 11, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Yeah, not quite what I expected when a human rights lawyer became PM. Thought he might mind a bit more about genocide, but OK yeah, yeah , cool.
Unexpectedly beautiful pommes dauphinoise prep making me think of Whoopi Goldberg.
August 8, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Unexpectedly beautiful pommes dauphinoise prep making me think of Whoopi Goldberg.
Reposted by Shelley Harris
Reposted by Shelley Harris
Not just one, a triptych.
August 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Not just one, a triptych.
As someone also born overseas, it strikes me that quite a few Times journalists probably were.
1 in 3 doctors were born overseas.
1 in 2 builders were born overseas.
1 in 6 nurses were born overseas.
1 in 4 transport workers were born overseas.
1 in 7 UK business founders were born overseas.
1 in 5 university academics were born overseas.
The UK would be screwed without them.
1 in 2 builders were born overseas.
1 in 6 nurses were born overseas.
1 in 4 transport workers were born overseas.
1 in 7 UK business founders were born overseas.
1 in 5 university academics were born overseas.
The UK would be screwed without them.
August 1, 2025 at 6:05 PM
As someone also born overseas, it strikes me that quite a few Times journalists probably were.
I love this piece so much I once wrote a flash fiction about it.
We’ve adorned our bodies since forever. This would look utterly banging on anyone in the twenty-first century.
We’ve adorned our bodies since forever. This would look utterly banging on anyone in the twenty-first century.
Fabulous Roman gold body chain with jewelled mount set with amethyst & garnets. Rear clasp set with a gold solidus coin of Gratian (AD 367-83). Late 4th century.
From the Hoxne Hoard which was discovered by a metal detectorist in Suffolk in 1992.
British Museum 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
From the Hoxne Hoard which was discovered by a metal detectorist in Suffolk in 1992.
British Museum 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
August 1, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I love this piece so much I once wrote a flash fiction about it.
We’ve adorned our bodies since forever. This would look utterly banging on anyone in the twenty-first century.
We’ve adorned our bodies since forever. This would look utterly banging on anyone in the twenty-first century.
Reposted by Shelley Harris
NOVELIST starter pack featuring @kitdewaal.com @regretteruane.bsky.social @susannacrossman.bsky.social @drewgum.bsky.social @salmanshaheen.bsky.social @anna-orridge.bsky.social @jendiagammon.bsky.social @tammykomoff.bsky.social & many more. Please follow & repost the pack #booksky #writingcommunity
July 31, 2025 at 9:20 PM
NOVELIST starter pack featuring @kitdewaal.com @regretteruane.bsky.social @susannacrossman.bsky.social @drewgum.bsky.social @salmanshaheen.bsky.social @anna-orridge.bsky.social @jendiagammon.bsky.social @tammykomoff.bsky.social & many more. Please follow & repost the pack #booksky #writingcommunity
Reposted by Shelley Harris
The National giving us the best front cover of all time @scotnational.bsky.social
July 25, 2025 at 2:36 PM
The National giving us the best front cover of all time @scotnational.bsky.social
Reposted by Shelley Harris
World Central Kitchen has been able to provide water & fresh bread while their food is stuck at the border.
www.worldcentralkitchen.org/donate
www.worldcentralkitchen.org/donate
World Central Kitchen | Donate
www.worldcentralkitchen.org
July 24, 2025 at 8:58 PM
World Central Kitchen has been able to provide water & fresh bread while their food is stuck at the border.
www.worldcentralkitchen.org/donate
www.worldcentralkitchen.org/donate
Are we meant to consider this a big leap?
July 21, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Are we meant to consider this a big leap?
@isabelrogers.bsky.social Donating plasma. Look at this beauty. (Mint Club also available.)
July 16, 2025 at 9:15 AM
@isabelrogers.bsky.social Donating plasma. Look at this beauty. (Mint Club also available.)
Chabon.
Amid the ongoing thing about AI and people's increasing reliance on it, a question: do you have a writer, or writers, who you look to as exemplary makers of good sentences? Because this seems to be something which AI either can't do, or doesn't consider "worth doing".
July 12, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Chabon.
The Salt Path has never appealed to me. Redemptive memoirs are really not my thing.
But if Penguin had pitched it as an audacious heist getaway story...
But if Penguin had pitched it as an audacious heist getaway story...
July 6, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Blimey, America. I’ve never felt so divided about a country that isn’t my own.
Trump voters: may everything you wish on immigrants happen to you.
Non Trump voters: my brothers, sisters and non-binary siblings, I am with you. If you run and need a place to crash, I’ve washed the spare duvet.
Trump voters: may everything you wish on immigrants happen to you.
Non Trump voters: my brothers, sisters and non-binary siblings, I am with you. If you run and need a place to crash, I’ve washed the spare duvet.
July 1, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Blimey, America. I’ve never felt so divided about a country that isn’t my own.
Trump voters: may everything you wish on immigrants happen to you.
Non Trump voters: my brothers, sisters and non-binary siblings, I am with you. If you run and need a place to crash, I’ve washed the spare duvet.
Trump voters: may everything you wish on immigrants happen to you.
Non Trump voters: my brothers, sisters and non-binary siblings, I am with you. If you run and need a place to crash, I’ve washed the spare duvet.
Reposted by Shelley Harris
Rant alert. Mega rant alert. How about our leaders stop wringing hands, issuing feeble denunciations, and actually DO something? Stop the moral equivalency. Stop pretending we’re helpless. There’s plenty we could do if genuinely committed. Here’s some suggestions for starters. 🧵
"Israeli soldiers in Gaza told Haaretz that the army has deliberately fired at Palestinians near aid distribution sites..."
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
IDF soldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid
***
www.haaretz.com
June 29, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Rant alert. Mega rant alert. How about our leaders stop wringing hands, issuing feeble denunciations, and actually DO something? Stop the moral equivalency. Stop pretending we’re helpless. There’s plenty we could do if genuinely committed. Here’s some suggestions for starters. 🧵
Superlative stuff. Got me thinking about other novels which take an encompassing / dispassionate gaze across time (no ‘plot’ as we’d understand it, no hero). John McGregor’s Reservoir 13, I think. Any others…?
New episode up now. The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner, with Tanya Kirk in conversation with Andy Miller, Una McCormack and Nicky Birch. An hour of Mother Superior book chat. @tanyakirk.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/242...
242. The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner — Backlisted
Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them (1948) is the subject of this episode, almost ten years since Backlisted covered the same author's classic debut Lolly Willowes ...
www.backlisted.fm
June 25, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Superlative stuff. Got me thinking about other novels which take an encompassing / dispassionate gaze across time (no ‘plot’ as we’d understand it, no hero). John McGregor’s Reservoir 13, I think. Any others…?
Not now, Pulsing Something.
Something is ‘pulsing’ beneath the Earth, scientists say – and could tear a continent apart
Something is ‘pulsing’ beneath the Earth – and it could tear a continent apart
Rhythmic surges are like a ‘heartbeat’ under the ground
www.independent.co.uk
June 25, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Not now, Pulsing Something.
Happy solstice! (I’m at a cocktail bar on an iron age hillfort).
June 21, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Happy solstice! (I’m at a cocktail bar on an iron age hillfort).