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Andrew Okey

@andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social
733 followers 720 following 199 posts

Author of literary historical fiction. Winner of the 2025 Paris Prize @ Farnham Literary Festival. Mountain photographer. Thalassaphobe. #t1d. Hull City fan. Lives in Lancaster. MA Creative Writing, Lancaster University

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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 9h
At last - a pair of socks that exactly summarise my footballing ability! 😅
My new Hull City football socks, both left feet fitting
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
There are few places lovelier in early autumn than the Lake District😍
Hartsop Dodd seen across Ullswater
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
M&S food...(French version)😅 I reckon they're visited by hundreds of disappointed British tourists every year...
A fast food joint in Valence with the coincidental name of M&S food
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Today's required reading 😉 #hcafc
Copy of Ian Graham's "How to win the Premier league "
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Due to this summer's exceptional heat and humidity, Lancaster's candy floss harvest may be the best ever
Blossom on trees in Lancaster, UK. And no, I don't know what sort of trees. What am I, a botanist?
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Eclipse...😍
10% sun through cloud, solar eclipse 12/08/26
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Argentina have been playing for penalties since 10pm on Wednesday evening
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
We've been adopted by one of the local cats. My wife has, brilliantly, named him 'Kitler'😅
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This isn't a football match, it's attritional warfare
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I'm currently re-reading Tom Holland's magnum opus to celebrate how, by no more than the happenstance of his christening, he has managed to make Elon Musk look like a colossal throbber😅
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I consider a day's walking in the high mountains to be a crucial element of my writing process. There's no better way to gain a big dollop of uplift and inspiration😊
High Crag and Fleetwith Pike basking under perfect summer skies, Cumbria, UK
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Editing is the thief of time😥 ##writingcommunity
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
#amwriting #booksky #writingcommunity. I've spent the last few days telling myself it is simply far too hot to write, and now I fear that June Goat is judging me...
The June goat from my Goats in Trees 2026 calendar
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Football deserves better than FIFA. Football fans deserve better than this bloated, hydration-stoppaged, queasily-politically-charged, World Cup.
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I've now been writing my current WIP for exactly two years. I've never before needed longer than eleven months to complete a novel. How can a simple melodrama about a large cast of conniving chancers trying to produce a politically subersive opera in a country house in Estonia be this hard?😅
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Reposted by Andrew Okey
Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
british fan chat
cartoon for the guardian by Stephen Collins - script as follows:

[Scene is a darkened LOFT. Amongst the boxes and junk are FOUR KNACKERED OLD FANS - three tower fans and one circular, with cracked grey plastic and buttons missing. One fan, TOWER FAN 1, is a bit taller than the others, and is addressing them]

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TOWER FAN 1:
Right lads, get ready.

2
TOWER FAN 1:
This is our time.

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TOWER FAN 1:
The time when we remember who we are, and why we’re here.

4
TOWER FAN 1:
We are the four crap fans in a British person’s loft,

and we are here to make absolutely no difference whatsoever.

5
TOWER FAN 1:
I know what you’re 
thinking, lads:

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TOWER FAN 1:
Surely this will be the year they finally replace us?

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TOWER FAN 1:
Our plastic’s gone all brown... I haven’t oscillated since 2018...

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TOWER FAN 1:
Dave here sounds like a spitfire and blows like a sad cat’s sigh… 

TOWER FAN 2:
Cheers mate

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TOWER FAN 1:
But no. These people are British, and every year, they forget the sun exists.

By the time they remember, 
new fans will cost *four million pounds* on Amazon.

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TOWER FAN 1:
So we’ll be back down there... shovelling thick air across the moaning faces of a species that cannot comprehend the concept of air conditioning, or even just closing the curtains when it’s hot out...

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TOWER FAN 1:
...while they incessantly bang on about normally hot countries which this country is now temporarily a bit hotter than.

12
[The loft hatch opens and a person comes up the ladder]
PERSON:
APPARENTLY IT’S HOTTER THAN GREECE, LISA
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
There are moments in your life that stay with you forever
Oli McBurnie scores the winning goal, Hull City vs Middlesbrough, Wembley stadium, May 23rd 2026
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
A large gathering of football fans outside the O'Neills on Euston Road. My lot - #hcafc - sing, then their lot sing, politely taking turns. A red flare is set off. Charmingly, excited tourists stop and take photos of this exotic cultural phenomenon...
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Breaking news.#hcafc To show their contrition, Southampton have offered to send Middlesbrough their videos of the Tigers' last three training sessions.
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Bloody. Hell. #hcafc 😊
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
[Scene is the Tudor royal court. ladies and gentlemen standing round. In the corner a very fat HENRY VIII is hunched over playing a lute.]
 
1 
LADY:
Hey Anne Boleyn -
Who’s that lute player?

ANNE BOLEYN:
I dunno 

[Determined face]

But I’m gonna find out.

[Title lettering panel]:

THIS SUMMER

[Scene is now two musicians - one with a harp, the other is Henry VIII again playing the lute]

HARPIST:
Yo Henry VIII  -  

Who wrote that sick lute riff yo’ jamming?

HENRY VIII:
Why...

[Looking around, modest, surprised at the attention]

I did…!

[Title lettering panel]:

SEE THE STORY

[Scene is now a tudor record producer with ruff and wearing dark sunglasses]:

PRODUCER:
Congratulations Henry 
Your lute thing is a hit and your story is now one of uncomplicated musical success!

[Show a panel with lots of Beatlemania-style scenes of success for Henry the musician - swooning tudor girls, playing lute on stage, waving to fans as he descends from his golden carriage. In the middle of it in Tudor lettering are the words]:

“UNCOMPLICATED MUSICAL SUCCESS MONTAGE”.

[Another scene - a man is saying to Henry]:

MAN:
Say Henry VIII -
Are you doing anything outside this narrative that is very bad or weird?

HENRY VIII:
No.

[Title lettering panel]:

…OF A MUSICAL GENIUS
who definitely didn’t do anything outside this narrative that was very bad or weird

[Scene with Thomas Cromwell]

THOMAS CROMWELL:
Hang on Henry aren't you also a - 

HENRY VIII [jumping in front of him with his lute held aloft]:
LUTE SOLO!

[Final film title panel]:

HENRY VIII: 
Rock Biopic
[rated U]

[Ends]
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Reposted by Andrew Okey
Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Happy 100th Birthday to Sir David Attenborough Thank you for being a friend to all animals and for helping the world to cherish us x
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Happy 100th birthday, Sir David!😊
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
A mountain is only ever as dramatic as the sky that serves as its backdrop
Esk Buttress, Cumbria, UK
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
The place we call 'Acer Corner' is my absolute favourite part of our garden
Acer in full leaf under an azure sky
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The more he thought about it, the more certain Brian became that he had been adopted.
A very yellow duckling and his many brown siblings
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
The 1957 World Manspreading Championships was declared a dead heat.
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
I was chatting to a friend about a band and he said "I've liked some of their tunes but I wouldn't consider myself an affectionado of theirs". I totally love this new word, and intend to slip it into polite conversation whenever possible 😀
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
housing is more expensive now, but also a lot safer. this kind of home was considered cream of the crop in the 1980s
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
##amwriting. Its taken so much more time and effort than I'd hoped🥵, but I've finally finished Act I of the WIP. Looks like bad news for my beta readers, though I'm still hopeful the whole thing'll come in at under 100,000 words 🤞
My laptop screen, showing I've now written 52,000 words of my current WIP
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
You know you've truly arrived as an author when your book cover is put on a birthday cake 🎂
A cake marking the 50th birthday of Grizedale College,  Lancaster University.
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
A classic moment from ITV's "Marple". Might be a death threat, though I'd prefer to think that the recipient has just been invited to dinner by a northerner.
Still from At Bertrams Hotel.
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Exploring the opportunities to experiment offered by the Premier Inn breakfast bar: I can report that cocoa pops doused in Greek yoghurt makes a surprisingly pleasant breakfast option 😀
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Finally my WIP hit 50,000 words and I feel like I'm on the downward slope towards completion🥵. Meanwhile, I think I need to lie down in a darkened room, possibly for a few days #amwriting
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Swiss train fail🙄. The very foundations of the world are crumbling
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Only when the clouds cleared did I realise our street is graced by the world's largest Toblerone logo...
The Matterhorn after heavy snow, seen above Zermatt
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Reposted by Andrew Okey
The Society of Authors @societyofauthors.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
An important message beautifully presented by writer/illustrator and SoA Fellow Sarah McIntyre.
A handwritten letter to Sarah McIntyre's MP. It asks him to stand up for the UK's children's book illustrators and their copyright and is illustrated with a picture of a serious-looking mouse holding a large pencil.
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
On the train from Paris to the High Alps, a we're all (over)dressed for the Alps already and the train heating is up high and we're all🥵🥵🥵
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Reposted by Andrew Okey
Gina Jolliffe @gina72.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
50 years ago. 1976: Figure skater John Curry was the first male from Britain to win an Olympic gold in the sport - it was also the country's first medal at the winter games for 12 years.
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Jen Bowden @jenbowden12.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
'Publishers need to understand that Northern writing in no way has to be about the North.' Northern Voices is back and the first episode of 2026 features prize-winning writer @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social discussing writing, winning and the North. on.soundcloud.com/9sgItHGJrHxP...
A photo of Andrew from the shoulders up against a plain white wall background. He is side-on to the camera so that his body faces to the left but his face is looking directly at us. He has short, dark hair and glasses and he is smiling. He is wearing a bright green and black striped t-shirt.The Tyne Bridge is pictured in the centre of the frame over a still, reflective River Tyne in Newcastle, UK. Either side of the bridge are buildings with a warmer glow as the sun rises. The words Northern Voices in white lettering feature in the bottom centre of the image.
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Some days I knock out 1000 words and barely notice I'm writing. Today I chiseled out just 200, fighting to be productive in at least some small way. And I ask you - which is the greater win? #amwriting
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Rob Bignell, Editor/Author @inventingreality.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
#WritingTips #writingcommunity #indieauthor #bravewrite #writing
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Editing. It's a rollercoaster ride between the extremes of "this is terrible" and "this is brilliant" with occasional stops at that especially weird waystation marked "I don't remember any of this. Did I write this?"
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Crazy wild out in the mountains today
Levers Water in a snow shower
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
So I'm 45,000 words into writing novel #5, but this morning I started writing novel #6. I've done that "getting distracted by the next shiny idea" thing, haven't I?😒 #amwriting
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
The Cumbrian Fells, early morning, seen across Morecambe Bay. Who said you could only ever see Alpenglow in the Alps?
Wetherlam painted pink at sunrise
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Andrew Okey @andrewokeyauthor.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
🎊🎉🥂😊
Announcement of my win in the Farnham First Five competition,  2025
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