iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 28/06/2026

Portait of the poet as an anglerfish. New hat.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 19/04/2026

I feel like I've been followed all day.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 24/01/2026

Vincent is unimpressed by my new hat.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 10/12/2025

I may be a bit behind, but it's time to turn the calendar... (from Susan and Vincent, to Vincent and Susan).

November 2025. Susan eating a biscuit like a t-rex. Vincent standing legs akimbo like a Tory.

December 2025. Vincent and Susan guarding the after eights like dignified cats.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 26/11/2025

A new hat came in the post this morning.

A poet wearing a hat made from post and a beard made from beard.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 03/08/2025

I honestly have no idea what actual kids (teens, I guess?) would make of it, but Fishfolk, by Steven Quincy-Jones (pub. by Firefly), is the best mythic-Doggerland-survival-tale-written-in-Beowulf-footed-prose-poetry, I've read for yonks. I think you'd dig it, Louie, if you've not found it already.

Fishfolk book cover. Blue-green Hokusai-ish wave with added tentacles, threatening a couple of figures by a straggly tree. By Steven Quincey-Jones. Smashing book.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 03/07/2025

When it's too hot to actively hate one another...

Two melted cats, Vincent and Susan, ignoring one another, in seperate puddles.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 16/06/2025

Further adventures in comfortable pillow land. Susan and some Joan Aiken/Quentin Blake loveliness.

Susan, a ginger cat, on a windowsill leaning her cheek on the pointy edge of some books.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 01/06/2025

Everybody needs a rocking chair for a pillow, everybody needs a rocking chair... Or so Vincent thinks.

Grey cat, Vincent, using a rocking chair as a pillow.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 30/05/2025

Had a nice visit to Waterstones, Finchley Road, this afternoon. Plenty of signed books left for you all! @bloomsburyed.bsky.social @literaryvegan.bsky.social @waterstones.bsky.social

Poet (AF Harrold) with books (Pocket Book of Pocket Poems).

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 25/05/2025

My cat. Not my cat. Vincent. Lucifer.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 19/05/2025

Just read this excellent kids-folk-horror-walk-away-from-Omelas-wickerman-is-a-river-adventure from @darrensimpson44.bsky.social and @pushkinchildrens.bsky.social. Gripping, gruesome, dark and dripping. Beware the woods and the reanimated child corpses... #Thirst out in September. A Good Thing.

Red book cover. Blue stream/zombie. Title is 'Thirst', written by Darren Simpson.

Back cover:

'Simpson is a compelling writer... He has a marvellous sense of the uncanny'
PHILIP WOMACK

A deliciously spine-tingling novel about a cursed river and the town that worships it, from the two-time Carnegie Medal nominated author, Darren Simpson.

Perfect for fans of spooky, action-packed teen reads, such as Alan Garner's The Owl Service, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree.

Darren Simpson's previous books have been widely acclaimed: his first novel Scavengers was a Guardian Book of the Year, and Furthermoor was a Waterstones Best Book of the Year.

A Sarah Odedina Book
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2025 • £9.99 9781782695721
PAPERBACK • B-FORMAT PB ORIGINAL WITH FLAPS 198 X 129MM
FOR PUBLICITY ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT VICKI@PUSHKINPRESS.COM

Back cover:

A Sarah Odedina Book
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2025 • £9.99 9781782695721
PAPERBACK • B-FORMAT PB ORIGINAL WITH FLAPS 198 X 129MM
FOR PUBLICITY ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT VICKI@PUSHKINPRESS.COM

First page:

1
HOUNDS AND HARES
Gorse felt the scratch of thorn, the trickle of blood. But still he ran on, ducking along the undergrowth and diving through bramble. The forest's canopy rolled by above his head, and though his breaths came loud and hard, he could hear his pursuer gaining on him, kicking through shrubs not far behind.
"Hop with baste, ob little hare," sang a panting voice. "This hungry hound your flesh will tear."
Gorse couldn't outrun Burdock-he'd always been the slower of the two — so he tried to outmanoeuvre him by gripping a low branch and swinging himself around its tree.
He was sprinting suddenly in the opposite direction, and Burdock - skidding to a stop as Gorse whipped by —swore and stretched out his fingers. He grasped at empty air, just short of Gorse's sleeve.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 18/05/2025

The view from my desk, this morning!

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 06/05/2025

Have you got your tail under control? Vincent has.

Vincent, a cat, has his tail under control.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 24/04/2025

Vincent knows where his tail is. It is his.

Vincent, a grey cat, has two paws on his tail. It is under control. No one knows it so well as he.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 18/04/2025

Vincent knows where his tail is. Do you?

Vincent, a beautiful grey cat, is dozing on his rocking chair, with one one paw holding down his tail, as usual.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 12/04/2025

This was Vincent, Wednesday evening, in my shed, waiting for folks to arrive for DnD. He was the TPK they never saw coming...

A beautiful, but stupid, grey cat, sat very neatly on a map on a table set up for gaming, in a shed at the end of the garden where nerdy things happen. (Including, occasionally, some writing.)

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 07/04/2025

For any teachers looking for a treat for their class this summer term (or in the autumn), or for anyone else thinking they're bored of the usual tosh that lands on their doormats, why not consider signing up for a handwritten-poems-on-postcards subscription? www.afharroldkids.com/poetry-postc...

Picture of a whole bunch of random postcards with some poems written on them...

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 04/04/2025

Sometimes Vincent doesn't want to think about his feet.

Vincent is a grey cat on a rocking chair and all his feet are over there.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 29/03/2025

These are the times, from my pal Chris Riddell...

Picture of big yellow Trump with little Vance, from Instagram.

Chris's comment says: "I was invited to contribute a piece to the Dr Seuss exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book fair.
They asked me to take How The Grinch Stole Christmas as inspiration. Like me, Theodore Geisel, aka Dr Seuss exhibition at, was a political cartoonist who famously lampooned the 'American First' movement in World War Two so I decided to lampoon a modern day successor. I thought Dr Seuss would have approved.
However today I was informed that my image was too political and the Dr Seuss estate was withdrawing permission for it to be displayed. Theodore would have been outraged..."

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 28/03/2025

Oh, and the magnolia's started up...

Little magnolia tree with pink-white petals that taste of ginger and will fall off in the slightest breeze.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 27/03/2025

Every now and then I like to remind myself that Charles Mingus had a toilet trained cat. Big Kitty.

Photo from a book of Big Kitty, a black and white cat, on the toilet.

Excerpt from book:
"That summer, the Minguses moved to 1594 3rd Avenue. For $70 a month, they lived a year in the hotel-sized room with a kitchenette in one corner. It was next
to the El, whose noise woke them up each day at 6:00 A.M.

He painted one wall with an abstract mural he'd laid out with masking tape And he toilet-trained his cat.

Mingus found Big Kitty under a car outside a club. When the neighbors complained about the litter box on the fire escape, he remembered a Phoenix couple hed stayed with on a Norvo trip. They had toilet-trained Siamese cats.

He knew exactly how to do it. He rigged a cardboard box on the toilet with ropes to lift it off, and cut a small hole in the bottom, spread a lot of paper, then cut the sides of the box down to that level. He gradually made the box disappear.
It was as ingenious as his shoeshine box.
Cheap window air-conditioners didn't exist, so in summer millions headed to movie theaters, which were chilled to meat-locker temperatures. It was one way the industry was counterattacking TV.
Charles and Celia went to the movies a lot. Art films like Jean Cocteaus Blood of a Poet and Orphée were among his favorites, because of the way they dealt with the trials of the Romantic artist.
In the middle of a heat wave, they went to Orchard Beach one night. He brought baloney and cheese and good bread and fruit and spread out a blanket.
When the temperature suddenly plunged, they nearly froze.
Max Roach told them about Camp Unity, a spot upstate started by commu-"

Book cover: Myself When I Am Real, the lufe and music of Charles Mingus, by Gene Santoro.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 18/03/2025

One of these feet is not like the others, one of these feet is out on its own... Oh, Vincent's lovely feet.

Grey cat with four feet, three together, one in a different postcode.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 14/03/2025

Penultimate school of World Book Day month...

School visitor sticker with picture of a poet on it.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 09/03/2025

Vincent sleeps as if his feet have been drawn by AI.

Vincent, a grey cat, on a rocking chair, in the sunshine, with too many feet at eldritch angles.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 04/03/2025

Ouch, this hurts. No designers available that day.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 27/02/2025

Am on a train to visit a school in Cambridge, so I'll share this nugget of advice I remembered from the childhood times following mum round the front of department stores trying the free perfumes. From #TheBookOfNotEntirelyUsefulAdvice by me & @mini3grey.bsky.social (@bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social)

Book page. Dog wrapped in string of sausages, with a poem. (See next picture for poem text.)

Gravy is Not Perfume

People who dab gravy
on their wrists
and below their ears
get eaten by dogs
more often than people who don't.

So, if your mother says to do it,
be sure to say you won't.

Book cover. Big yellow. With mouse and poet and lots of badges, not badgers.

The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice.
Spectacularly silly poems by
A.F. Harrold
Fizzingly fun illustrations by
Mini Grey

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 27/02/2025

Vincent's sleeping hard this morning...

A grey cat sleeping on his head. Very curled up like a curling stone, sans handle.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 20/02/2025

Here's a good troll, engaging empathy and eating ducks, from my poetry collection, #ThingsYouFindInAPoetsBeard, illustrated by #ChrisRiddell. #KidsLit #poetry

Poem on a book page:

Troll Song

"It wasn't always my ambition to live under a bridge.
There came a point though where a decision had to It was either here or in a swamp or in a cave.
be made.
On the plus side, there's cold running water all the time.
On the minus side, am living under a bridge.
There's little privacy and less in the way of respect.
It's only a small bridge. My feet stick out when I sleep.
I bang my head more than I'd like.
I get into arguments with ducks.
People look down on me, living under a bridge.
But it's a tradition, my mum said, and tradition's tradition.
Sometimes I eat the ducks. Those are arguments l've won.
On either river bank are pastures. Lush-lands. like the smell in spring of the hundred different flowers.
I never mention this when other trolls come to visit.
I read a lot of books. They contain other worlds.
For a time I can imagine l'm not living under a bridge.
You can learn things in books too, important useful things:
I eat every goat I see these days, just to be on the
safe side."

Picture of a troll undee a bridge, reading. Drawn by Chris Riddell.

Book cover. Big yellow beard. Things
FIND in a Poet's Beard
AF Harrold
ILLUSTRATED BY CHRIS RIDDELL

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 19/02/2025

Frankly, Susan's had enough of all this.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 13/02/2025

Now (still) in paperback! Try #TheWorldsWeLeaveBehind, by me and #LeviPinfold. A strange and shadowy kids book for our times, puzzling over revenge/justice/forgiveness in the dark woods of ethics. An other-people's-shoes machine, with the creepiest art I know. I like it, you/your kids might too...

Bearded man sat at table pondering the book in the post.

The book mentioned in the post on a table in Waterstones.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 12/02/2025

There's been a murder! Murder for Two, by @niylafarook.bsky.social, from #PiccadillyPress, cover by #CarolineGarcial. I'm only halfway, no spoilers please! (Dead good so far. Literally.)

Book cover: A Tariq Twins Mystery: Murder for Two, by Niyla Farook. Blue shattered glass backdrop with glimpses of buildings and people. Two 11 year old girls in front, one in stripes with curly hair whispering into the ear of her twin in a green hijab. Looks exciting.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 11/02/2025

Somebody found something, or something found somebody, in the garden today. Can't see another similar hole anywhere else. I hope it was tasty...

Hole in mud, dug by a pointy thing (bird beak, I assume...).

Hole in mud, dug by a pointy thing (bird beak, I assume...) with my feet for scale (the hole is smaller than my feet).

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 10/02/2025

Just did my favourite thing: opening a new school library at Redlands Primary here in Reading. Happy days!

Visitor pass for the school with the poet in question making a stupid face.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 09/02/2025

Susan lives at the edge of things...

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 07/02/2025

We got a bigger radiator fitted back in the autumn. They've not actually said thank you yet, but...

Susan, a ginger cat, on the radiator. Vincent, a grey cat, on a chair, beside thr radiator, bum-warming.

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A.F. Harrold @afharrold.com · 06/02/2025

Me and @philtite.bsky.social in his school by the book-vending machine. Books are rewards for the kids when do good stuff. I was good but didn't get a token for a book. Apparently I'm 'not a pupil' and 'can afford to buy my own books', which was fair enough. Amazing teacher who gets kids reading.

AFH and Phil Tite, schoolteacher extraordinaire, looking excited and slightly anxious beside a vending machine filled with brilliant kids books of all different sorts. Kids fo something noteworthily good in class and they a token to go choose a book of their own to take home and keep for free. Amazing!

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