Sign in

Claire Dean

@clairedean.bsky.social
322 followers 238 following 130 posts

Writer, maker & conservator. Short stories, zines, book arts. Escaped academic who retrained in conservation. Repairs & cares for old manuscripts, maps, plans, photographs & the curious objects that end up in archives. 📍Lancashire, North of England

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Claire Dean
Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Great to see M. John Harrison on the Booker shortlist. We were honoured to have him contribute to A Personal Anthology, picking and introducing a dozen favourite short stories, with some writers you'll expect, some you won't and some you just love to see: apersonalanthology.com/category/m-j...
apersonalanthology.com
M John Harrison (as editor) – A Personal Anthology
M. John Harrison was born in 1945. He published his first story in 1966 and his first novel, The Committed Men, in 1968. Climbers won the Boardman Tasker prize for Mountain Literature in 1989. His …
13910
Reposted by Claire Dean
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I've shared this before. It was set up by my friend Tori after a hospice cared so well for her husband Richard. Re-sharing in memory of my wonderful mother-in-law who received hospice care at home this last week. Hospices are so vital, please sign & share: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Fully fund Specialist Palliative Care provided by hospices
Hospices provide vital care yet are dependent on fundraising. Palliative care costs are lower in a hospice than hospital. UK hospices are in financial crisis, having to drastically reduce specialist s...
041
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I've shared this before. It was set up by my friend Tori after a hospice cared so well for her husband Richard. Re-sharing in memory of my wonderful mother-in-law who received hospice care at home this last week. Hospices are so vital, please sign & share: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Fully fund Specialist Palliative Care provided by hospices
Hospices provide vital care yet are dependent on fundraising. Palliative care costs are lower in a hospice than hospital. UK hospices are in financial crisis, having to drastically reduce specialist s...
041
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Loved Christa Gattringer's practical workshop on making her K2 book covers at #ARA2026. I accidentally left two bits unfolded in my first attempt but I quite like the fact the book ended up with wings!
Conference table with black cloth and glasses and a chaos of paper, bonefolder and a small brightly coloured book with white paper cover and two flaps mistakenly left unfolded.
040
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Today, I feel like I achieved peak conservator-conferencing by using a handy free nail kit (thank you Ancestry exhibition stand) in a great workshop on remoistenable repair tissues by Lou Blackmore from TNA #ARA2026
Green cutting board, pink sponge, bone folder, tweezers, deaccessioned torn document on a blotter, tissue samples, and mini yellow kit with tiny scissors, tweezers and mysterious scoopy tool.
0111
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Niche post, but this was such a satifying tear repair on fragile 100-year-old tracing paper at work today (remoistenable microfibrillated cellulose film with gelatine - it will be pretty much invisible from the front) #conservation
A brown sheet of tracing paper with a winding path of whitish repair strips bridging a tear.
060
Reposted by Claire Dean
Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.
The Times: Net zero risks blackouts. Below a photo of French wildfires.
23247492019
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
My friends' daughter made me this lego Claire and I think she captured me perfectly ❤️. I had no idea you could get lego heads with hearing aids!!
Lego minifigure with grey messy hair piled up in a ponytail, a little blue hearing aid, pale blue top and long blue skirt with stars. Also a lego cake.
030
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
My shadow up a tower's shadow over swirling reedbeds and trees
030
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
#MorecambeBay looking beautiful (and feeling lovely on my toes)
060
Reposted by Claire Dean
Dr Matt Mahmoudi @docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
So we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
11899462
Reposted by Claire Dean
Sarah Bodman @sarahbodman.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
This is an excellent resource:
071
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Very excited to have made it onto the letters page of this week's New Statesman. I think this means I'm a proper grown up now! #MorecambeBay
Photo of letter published in new statesman
070
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
A bit of boat washed up on the beach in Morecambe yesterday carring barnacles. If you look very closely, you can see it has also become a kind of photograph of seaweeds over time. #MorecambeBay #AlternativePhotography
Fibreglass boat panel, faded orange colour with darker images of seaweed at its edges. Tiny blue barnacles have colonised its crevices.
0100
Reposted by Claire Dean
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
If you're in the UK, please consider signing and sharing this petition set up by a friend whose husband died last year. He received wonderful hospice care and it made a huge difference to him, her and their two young children. Proper funding is needed. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Fully fund Specialist Palliative Care provided by hospices
Hospices provide vital care yet are dependent on fundraising. Palliative care costs are lower in a hospice than hospital. UK hospices are in financial crisis, having to drastically reduce specialist s...
022
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
If you're in the UK, please consider signing and sharing this petition set up by a friend whose husband died last year. He received wonderful hospice care and it made a huge difference to him, her and their two young children. Proper funding is needed. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Fully fund Specialist Palliative Care provided by hospices
Hospices provide vital care yet are dependent on fundraising. Palliative care costs are lower in a hospice than hospital. UK hospices are in financial crisis, having to drastically reduce specialist s...
022
Reposted by Claire Dean
Katy Wimhurst @sylphsea.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Two of my favourite short story collections of all time by indie presses on #indiepressday #indiepress by @dumb-belles.bsky.social and @clairedean.bsky.social
163
Reposted by Claire Dean
BTO | British Trust for Ornithology @btobirds.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
1/ Spotted a yellow leg flag on a Curlew? Please share the sighting with us, as this could be one of our headstarted birds. 😀 Report via bit.ly/ReportACurlew #Ornithology #WorldCurlewDay
A Curlew walks on grassy ground, showing a yellow leg flag and orange ring on its leg. Wording below reads: Please report sightings of Curlew with yellow leg flags. Image credit reads: Rob Robinson.
15831
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Finding it quite hard to readjust to normal life after a wonderful scholarship week living and writing in a library @gladlib.bsky.social
View from a desk at Gladstone's Library. Two floors of bookshelves and sweeping wood beams.
070
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Peepshows, paper theatres and zoetropes at the Bowes Museum (got to introduce my 19-year-old to some lovely old plastic View-Masters too!)
A glass display cabinet holds a selection of paper peepshows with bellows stretched and the metal drum of a zoetrope. Bookshelves are visible through the cabinet.
081
Reposted by Claire Dean
The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Lepus leaping. From the Aratea, a 9th-century manuscript on astronomy featuring constellations comprised of words. More here: buff.ly/34uIsEa
010231
Reposted by Claire Dean
Simon Groth @simongroth.com · 21/01/2026
Ok, with the new book properly underway, I guess I'm going to embrace 'narrative art' as a description for...[waves hand]. www.simongroth.com/marginalia/2...
simongroth.com
The art of narrative
The precise context of how it came about is now a bit fuzzy, but a few years ago there came a moment when I had to find a better description of what I do. Writer? Sure. Editor? Sometimes. Publisher? U...
052
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
A wet and windy #MorecambeBaySketchClub at Half Moon Bay
Windblown charcoal drawing of wave marks in the sand and seaweed-smothered boulders. The beach and grey line of the sea stretch into the distance.
090
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
First commute of 2026 (miraculously there are still trains to Barrow today despite them seemingly going nowhere else!) #MorecambeBay
View from train. Sun rising over the Leven estuary. Heysham nuclear power station in the distance. Chapel Island and the ripples of waves are closer.
070
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
An attempt at drawing the last of the light #Morecambe #Solstice
A pastel drawing of rocks and seaweed on the muddy beach with the sea and the last of the light in the distance
090
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Lantern parade in the rain #Morecambe
Rain pours and water streams from overflowing guttering onto a ragtag of performers in feathers and billowing plastic beneath the More Music sign.A luminous puppet with sea like skirts leads the parade through the West End's streets.Lanterns and windows glowing in the darkness
040
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
#MorecambeBay
Three barnacles living on yellow plastic netting on a pebbly beach in the sunshine
090
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Sketching stone on stone paper at #MorecambeBaySketchClub today
Black line drawing on white stone paper showing ripples in the sandstone doorway above.
090
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Sand patterns
Morecambe beach sand dimpled by the tide. The low winter sun reflected in the slick of saltwater.
060
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
In the attic at Salts Mill, Bradford
Skeins of blue fabric stretched across a flagged floor. A beam of sunlight pierces the glass roof in a derelict attic space.
070
Reposted by Claire Dean
Myriam Frey @dustynewrose.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
My new short story colllection The Building Inspector is now available from @nightjarpress.bsky.social on nightjarpress.weebly.com
0165
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
It was an absolute joy to be at the launch of Myriam Frey's (@dustynewrose.bsky.social 's) first collection, 'The Building Inspector', published by the indomitable @nightjarpress.bsky.social
Myriam reading from her book in Saul Hay gallery. A white woman with glasses and great earrings, casual clothes and white trainers.Myriam smiles as publisher Nick Royle gestures to the contents page of the book. Nick is a white man with grey beard and thick black rimmed glasses.The red brick gallery from the outside and Myriam can be seen signing copies of her book through the four-paned window.
150
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
A podcast has just been released of my story 'Feather Girls' read by MyAnna Buring: wordtheatre.org/weekly/
wordtheatre.org
Weekly Stories · WORDTheatre
075
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
October commute
View from train window crossing the River Leven estuary in Morecambe Bay. Strata of sand, grey water, grey sky and a window full of raindrops.
050
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Barrow looking beautiful on my dinnertime wander yesterday.
Red brick promenade, railings, bright blue sea in the Walney channel and house in the distance on Walney island under a blue sky with small white scudding clouds.
040
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
At my dayjob in an archive today, workmen started bringing me the retro rubbish they found in the loft, including a 1960s fag packet and a 1990s coke can. There was also a 1980s page 3 (not pictured 😂)
White and blue pack of 10 embassy regal (empty) and crumpled red coke can.
180
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Drawing the seaweed pools on Hest Bank Wharf at today's #MorecambeBaySketchClub
Sketchbook with charcoal swirls held just above a pool full of sand, stones, broken shells and seaweedGutweed-covered stones rise from a pool with grey sea and sky above.
050
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Moved my eldest for university yesterday. He's still in the north but right across at the other side 😭
Image of roadworks, no entry sign, the silver humps of the Sage Gateshead building, Newcastle in the distance, all under a stormy sky with rainbow.
180
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
This is a bit exciting :) Tickets available here: www.brasseriezedel.com/events/wordt...
MyAnna Buring reads 'Feather Girls' by Claire Dean. Photos of MyAnna and Claire. Seasons of Yearning. Best British Short Stories. 20th September 2pm at The Crazy Coqs. Word Theatre UK.
Seasons of Yearning. Word Theatre UK. Headshots of five actors and five writers. Full event details via link in post
1124
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Sometimes my dayjob brings niche excitements, like how ridiculously happy I was to get a reduction in rat wee staining with minimal moisture migration using low cost, cut-to-size gellan gum gel yesterday.
1920s landscape design plan on thin paper showing a pencil, ink and watercolour gate and walls with two large brown stains and nibble marks along the bottom edgeThe same plan with the brown stains much reduced.
050
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Thrilled that an old story of mine 'Feather Girls' is being performed at this event!
050
Reposted by Claire Dean
Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Pls stop what you are doing and read this entire report on Israel's murder of journalist Anas al-Sharif and five colleagues in Gaza City. "He characterized Israel’s threats as 'Silence or Death,' and he vowed not to be silent." It ends with his final message. www.dropsitenews.com/p/anas-al-sh...
dropsitenews.com
The Israeli Assassination of Journalist Anas al-Sharif and Five Colleagues in Gaza City
“We understand these are our last days.”
13799381
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
My wonderful parents-in-law. Married 60 years ago in Yorkshire ❤️
A wedding photograph outside a church. A black Jamaican family and white Yorkshire family united and happily smiling at the camera.
030
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
Sketched the lovely cool, still-damp seaweed today at #MorecambeBaySketchClub
A sketchbook open on a continuous line drawing in black ink of curtains of seaweed on the rocks above the mud. The sea is in the far distance with the hills of the Furness peninsular behind.Long strands of brown seaweed hanging down over the rocks and pooling on the mud.
040
Reposted by Claire Dean
Nightjar Press @nightjarpress.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
We’re delighted that @deadinkbookshop.bsky.social is now stocking Nightjars. Little interview about it here deadinkbookshop.com/blogs/requir...
deadinkbookshop.com
Nightjar Press: An Interview with Nicholas Royle
We’ve just started stocking short story chapbooks from Nightjar Press. If you, like us, are fans of the gothic, the weird, the surreal, and the supernatural, we recommend you check them out here in th...
0269
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Early morning cloud train to Carlisle
View from train window: the green hills of the Lune Valley Gorge with a layer of white cloud part way up, running alongside the train track. The sun shines through the haze in a blue sky.
040
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
According to a brilliant book I'm reading (The Lichen Museum by A.Laurie Palmer) these little wonders make up about 8% of the biomass of the world. Growing quietly everywhere and nearly always unnoticed.
A stone wall with three whitish crustose lichens growing on it. Ivy climbing above and leafy trees in the background.
0173
Reposted by Claire Dean
Prof. Liz Oakley-Brown @earlymodlancs.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University - 1 in 4 people will be made redundant But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action? Please read 👇 Sign the petition 👇 chng.it/7F52bThYqn
chng.it
Sign the Petition
Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable
39494
Claire Dean @clairedean.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Beach architecture by honeycomb worms
A reef constructed of sand and broken-shell tunnels extended out from barnacle-covered rocks over a pool of seawaterClose up of the worm's sand tunnels clustered in a honeycomb formation and strewn with bright green gutweed
030
Reposted by Claire Dean
Arielle Zibr👻k @zibrak.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Books.
09527