Sophie Duncan
@sophieduncan.bsky.social
Writer and theatre type
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Am pretty sceptical of this but it would be an epic by-election
Left-wing Labour MP offers Burnham his seat to replace Starmer on.ft.com/4801Vg4
Left-wing Labour MP offers Burnham his seat to replace Starmer
Move by Clive Lewis reflects increasing discontent with prime minister’s leadership
on.ft.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Am pretty sceptical of this but it would be an epic by-election
Happy World Prematurity Day! 1 in 10 babies arrives prematurely. Usually we don’t know why. My beautiful daughter was born at 29 weeks and 5 days in March, by category 1 c section. The JR in Oxford saved her life and mine. She’s thriving. Ask me anything and donate to Borne or Bliss to help out.
November 17, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Happy World Prematurity Day! 1 in 10 babies arrives prematurely. Usually we don’t know why. My beautiful daughter was born at 29 weeks and 5 days in March, by category 1 c section. The JR in Oxford saved her life and mine. She’s thriving. Ask me anything and donate to Borne or Bliss to help out.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
What's from Chicago, hates Illinois Nazis, and is holy as fuck?
It's the Pope in 1982.
It's the Pope in 1982.
November 13, 2025 at 1:37 AM
What's from Chicago, hates Illinois Nazis, and is holy as fuck?
It's the Pope in 1982.
It's the Pope in 1982.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Hobbes must’ve felt like a fucking god telling the illustrator about this insane cover concept
November 9, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Hobbes must’ve felt like a fucking god telling the illustrator about this insane cover concept
Ok, how does one get a ticket to the long-ago recording of the pro numbers? Pretending the Sunday night show is live is mad; but this pro number was obviously AGES ago. #Strictly
November 9, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Ok, how does one get a ticket to the long-ago recording of the pro numbers? Pretending the Sunday night show is live is mad; but this pro number was obviously AGES ago. #Strictly
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Directing to you all to this piece from 2021 in advance of the BBC and the Times maliciously raking up and rewriting painful history this week
www.theguardian.com/books/2021/a...
www.theguardian.com/books/2021/a...
Pointing out racism in books is not an ‘attack’ – it’s a call for industry reform | Monisha Rajesh
I was called aggressive for criticising passages in Kate Clanchy’s memoir. But the real problem lies deep in the overwhelmingly white world of publishing
www.theguardian.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Directing to you all to this piece from 2021 in advance of the BBC and the Times maliciously raking up and rewriting painful history this week
www.theguardian.com/books/2021/a...
www.theguardian.com/books/2021/a...
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Some fool tried to tell me how steel wool is made, like in a factory or something. Everybody knows you get steel wool from these sheep
November 2, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Some fool tried to tell me how steel wool is made, like in a factory or something. Everybody knows you get steel wool from these sheep
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
I'm thrilled to say that my collection "Dirt Rich" will be published by Carcanet in January. I've been working at it for almost 30 years: love poems, elegies, lamentations, jokes... The aim is "all killer no filler". Please buy it if you can. Here's Andrew Latimer's brilliant cover:
October 24, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I'm thrilled to say that my collection "Dirt Rich" will be published by Carcanet in January. I've been working at it for almost 30 years: love poems, elegies, lamentations, jokes... The aim is "all killer no filler". Please buy it if you can. Here's Andrew Latimer's brilliant cover:
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
1993: Stephen Lawrence is murdered by racists.
1999: The MacPherson Inquiry recommends recording of non-crime hate incidents.
2005: After the Discrimination Law Review, non-crime hate incidents begin being recorded by UK police.
2025: Mainstream transphobia ends a harm reduction policy that worked.
1999: The MacPherson Inquiry recommends recording of non-crime hate incidents.
2005: After the Discrimination Law Review, non-crime hate incidents begin being recorded by UK police.
2025: Mainstream transphobia ends a harm reduction policy that worked.
Met Police says it will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents
The move comes as an investigation into Father Ted creator Graham Linehan is dropped, after his arrest over a post on X.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 21, 2025 at 5:19 AM
1993: Stephen Lawrence is murdered by racists.
1999: The MacPherson Inquiry recommends recording of non-crime hate incidents.
2005: After the Discrimination Law Review, non-crime hate incidents begin being recorded by UK police.
2025: Mainstream transphobia ends a harm reduction policy that worked.
1999: The MacPherson Inquiry recommends recording of non-crime hate incidents.
2005: After the Discrimination Law Review, non-crime hate incidents begin being recorded by UK police.
2025: Mainstream transphobia ends a harm reduction policy that worked.
www.oxfordstudent.com/2025/10/11/p... I found this protest horrifying. The images were grotesque; the size of shopfronts. In Baby Loss Awareness week. Kids saw them (the images I mean aren’t in the article). The anti-choice protestors are the offshoot of a US group which uses Holocaust images too.
October 11, 2025 at 8:40 PM
www.oxfordstudent.com/2025/10/11/p... I found this protest horrifying. The images were grotesque; the size of shopfronts. In Baby Loss Awareness week. Kids saw them (the images I mean aren’t in the article). The anti-choice protestors are the offshoot of a US group which uses Holocaust images too.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
www.broadwayworld.com/westend/arti... Hamlet National Theatre review.
Review: HAMLET, National Theatre
“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.” Given the National Theatre’s history with one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, a new production of Hamlet is a natural fit in Indhu Rubasingha...
www.broadwayworld.com
October 3, 2025 at 10:25 AM
www.broadwayworld.com/westend/arti... Hamlet National Theatre review.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
A glorious new Hamlet at the National. Never seen a more heartbreaking portrayal than Hiran Abeysekera’s. With Francesca Mills’ Ophelia at least as affecting. Whole cast impeccable & beautifully staged. Absolute privilege to be there tonight.
October 2, 2025 at 9:20 PM
A glorious new Hamlet at the National. Never seen a more heartbreaking portrayal than Hiran Abeysekera’s. With Francesca Mills’ Ophelia at least as affecting. Whole cast impeccable & beautifully staged. Absolute privilege to be there tonight.
We just had the last preview of Hamlet. The best show by the best writer with the best gang in the best place. Angel of a director, gorgeous design and music. Sensational cast. If you’re wise you’ll book soon.
Hello lovely new followers. Glad you’re here. On my way home to wife and sleepy baby post preview FOUR of Hamlet. Noting the show a different vibe when amongst normal audience in row E not the team in back row.
October 1, 2025 at 10:17 PM
We just had the last preview of Hamlet. The best show by the best writer with the best gang in the best place. Angel of a director, gorgeous design and music. Sensational cast. If you’re wise you’ll book soon.
Hello lovely new followers. Glad you’re here. On my way home to wife and sleepy baby post preview FOUR of Hamlet. Noting the show a different vibe when amongst normal audience in row E not the team in back row.
September 29, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Hello lovely new followers. Glad you’re here. On my way home to wife and sleepy baby post preview FOUR of Hamlet. Noting the show a different vibe when amongst normal audience in row E not the team in back row.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
BREAKING: The police have confirmed they won't be charging any of the violent far-right rioters with terrorism because they only do that for grandmas in wheelchairs who hold up signs they don't like ♥️
September 14, 2025 at 9:38 AM
BREAKING: The police have confirmed they won't be charging any of the violent far-right rioters with terrorism because they only do that for grandmas in wheelchairs who hold up signs they don't like ♥️
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Didn’t you call them chavs and yobs for 20 years until you realised you could ventriloquise your posh-boy racism through them?
August 31, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Didn’t you call them chavs and yobs for 20 years until you realised you could ventriloquise your posh-boy racism through them?
Today we had our monthly post-NICU group at the JR, in which the baby favoured the OT with gorgeous smiles & we saw how big the baby’s lcomrades are getting. She is too, she is LONG & round. A nice thing about having a baby is hanging out with babies, if, like me, you’re a fool for babies.
August 28, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Today we had our monthly post-NICU group at the JR, in which the baby favoured the OT with gorgeous smiles & we saw how big the baby’s lcomrades are getting. She is too, she is LONG & round. A nice thing about having a baby is hanging out with babies, if, like me, you’re a fool for babies.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Which brings us to migration.
Oh, you don't like it? Tsk, what a shame, because the only other option is 4: make a decision to stop all nursing care and pensions. That means for you too, when you're 83. In the meantime you have to give up work to be an unpaid carer for nana.
Oh, you don't like it? Tsk, what a shame, because the only other option is 4: make a decision to stop all nursing care and pensions. That means for you too, when you're 83. In the meantime you have to give up work to be an unpaid carer for nana.
August 25, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Which brings us to migration.
Oh, you don't like it? Tsk, what a shame, because the only other option is 4: make a decision to stop all nursing care and pensions. That means for you too, when you're 83. In the meantime you have to give up work to be an unpaid carer for nana.
Oh, you don't like it? Tsk, what a shame, because the only other option is 4: make a decision to stop all nursing care and pensions. That means for you too, when you're 83. In the meantime you have to give up work to be an unpaid carer for nana.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Also consider this: the ratio of workers-to-pensioners is falling every year as birth rates drop.
1985: 4:1 (4 workers for every pensioner)
Now: 3.2:1
2050: 2:1
By 2050 half your income will pay somebody else's pension. Add police, education, etc, and basic tax will need to be 65% at least.
1985: 4:1 (4 workers for every pensioner)
Now: 3.2:1
2050: 2:1
By 2050 half your income will pay somebody else's pension. Add police, education, etc, and basic tax will need to be 65% at least.
August 25, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Also consider this: the ratio of workers-to-pensioners is falling every year as birth rates drop.
1985: 4:1 (4 workers for every pensioner)
Now: 3.2:1
2050: 2:1
By 2050 half your income will pay somebody else's pension. Add police, education, etc, and basic tax will need to be 65% at least.
1985: 4:1 (4 workers for every pensioner)
Now: 3.2:1
2050: 2:1
By 2050 half your income will pay somebody else's pension. Add police, education, etc, and basic tax will need to be 65% at least.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
A word on immigration. Don't prejudge this, just listen to the data, and then consider what the solution is.
The UK has a falling birth rate. This means that - unless things change - each generation will be 25% smaller than the one before.
The UK has a falling birth rate. This means that - unless things change - each generation will be 25% smaller than the one before.
August 25, 2025 at 5:48 PM
A word on immigration. Don't prejudge this, just listen to the data, and then consider what the solution is.
The UK has a falling birth rate. This means that - unless things change - each generation will be 25% smaller than the one before.
The UK has a falling birth rate. This means that - unless things change - each generation will be 25% smaller than the one before.
I may be biased but Hamlet dir Rob Hastie is going to be sensational. Lyttelton theatre. I’ve had a nice day today.
August 12, 2025 at 7:08 PM
I may be biased but Hamlet dir Rob Hastie is going to be sensational. Lyttelton theatre. I’ve had a nice day today.
Reposted by Sophie Duncan
Residents of Dean have erected placards protesting against the arrival of American vice-president J.D. Vance in the tiny West Oxfordshire village. They say that they are “extremely angry”, but that the police presence which has sealed off the village has made a “proper protest” impossible.
August 11, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Residents of Dean have erected placards protesting against the arrival of American vice-president J.D. Vance in the tiny West Oxfordshire village. They say that they are “extremely angry”, but that the police presence which has sealed off the village has made a “proper protest” impossible.