iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Want to see my intrepid hound crossing the tallest aqueduct in the world in a canoe? Thought you did! Handsome beast on Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Due to the fickleness of teenagers, I'm selling 2 tickets to see Kendrick Lamar - 19 July, Cardiff secure.ticketmaster.co.uk/rs/3500624A8...

media.tenor.com

a man in a blue varsity jacket with the letter p on it

ALT: a man in a blue varsity jacket with the letter p on it

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Lying on a spiky acupuncture mat (or floor, bed, mat or what have you), listening to countless P.G. Wodehouse books. Or walking in the drizzle, doing the same. That's my newfound prescription for the blues.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

2 years ago I got a paeony for my birthday, but it's never flowered. Waiting, in my north-facing garden, with excitement. Soon, my pretty 😍

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Reposted by Donna Coonan

Kit de Waal @kitdewaal.com · 29/05/2025

Call out for writers with lived experience of homelessness or poverty to submit monologues for a new anthology to highlight the complexity of the experiences of homelessness and poverty – struggles, resilience, hope, humour. Please share :) mtos.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/anthology/

Photo of five people, black and white, young and older, looking happy

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

I took my friend for a surprise birthday day out, and it was magical. Charleston, followed by celeb spotting the magnificent John Agard, who read, right there & then, the poem he was writing. Unforgettable.

The studio at Charleston House, with paintings and a bust of Virginia Woolf

The decorated fireplace in the studio at Charleston house. There is a deity on the mantlepiece, perhaps of Kwan Yin, among other items, mainly photographs.

A sculpture of a supine woman floating beside a pond. Sunny, spring day.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Bloody hell - this is exciting!

A little asparagus spear poking up from the bed I planted 2 weeks ago

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Tentatively planted the asparagus bed. It's a long-term relationship - even if they don't die, I won't be eating them for 2 years.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

I've resisted binning the kids' lockdown art projects for long enough 😟

5 foot sarcophagus made made by 8 year old in the recycling bin. Bin is outside house with a yellow door. It's the night before bin collection and the lights are on in the house. The king painted on the sarcophagus is resigned to his fate.

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Reposted by Donna Coonan

Raven Books @ravenbooks.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Victoria Amelina Looking at Women Looking at War

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Prince Charles Cinema @princecharlescinema.com · 10/02/2025

As part of #SaveThePCC, we are looking to cement our status as a culturally significant institution. We need examples as to why you love what we do & want to hear your most cherished memories of the cinema. So tell us: #ILovePCC because… Tell us here: princecharlescinema.typeform.com/ILovePCC

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

I am having the most perfect morning. Rare lie-in.

Picture of cup of tea, cinnamon bun, book (Deacon King Kong by James McBride) and sleeping dog on bed.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I miss Hilary Mantel's writing so very much - her wry, knowing, humane take on the world. This book is just wonderful - I am savouring every page. Everything from Robocop to Jane Austen. Here she is on the 2016 US election but the words are being whispered in my ear as if written today.

Picture of the book 'A Memoir of My Former Self' by Hilary Mantel

Picture of text, including 'Mr Trump has promised a world where white men and rich men run the world their way, greed fuelled by undaunted ignorance.'

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

I'm really sad to see the 'closing down' signs on my local WHSmith - & to read of its wider demise. Although it's derided, in poorer areas Smiths is often the only place to buy books - and access is everything. Yes, we'd all love a local indie, but I've never lived anywhere close to one.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Obsessed with this site & have wasted many hours wondering how to incorporate ecclesiastical items into home decor. (Would a pulpit be a good standing desk? I want the confessional box, but how?... Ooh, that silk alter cloth is a steal, a bit Pucci. Blinds?) #LapsedCatholic churchantiques.com

churchantiques.com

Home

We are the top supplier of Antique Ecclesiastical Furnishings and fixtures in Great Britain. We always have pews and chairs for sale.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Been to my first party of the New Year - it's as glittering & waspish as I'd hoped. I've paid my respects to the aunt, taken in the men's various heights, admired beautiful Helene admiring her own beautiful shoulders. I like Pierre, so young & unaware. 1st impressions of W&P -surprisingly funny.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

My kids actually took note of something I said I wanted to do last year and bought me these for Christmas, with their own money. I was so touched. Tonight, the long-awaited journey begins - #WarandPeace with @yiyunli.bsky.social

A picture of two books: 'Tolstoy Together - 85 Days of War and Peace' by Yiyun Li and 'War and Peace' by Leo Tolstoy

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Ooh, Merry Jolabokaflod! Very happy with my present 😊

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Bons mots, delivered completely deadpan, by my 15-yr-old in the last few days. Did you mean to choose your most eccentric clothes for parents' evening? Why DO you cackle like that? Withering, I tell you! Withering!

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Well, I needed a pick-up and I must say I'm finding this rather delightful. Serendipitously, it's set during the festive season. 'The WomEn in Black' by Madeleine St John (not to be confused with 'The WomAn in Black' which, other than sartorially, is its polar opposite.)

Picture of novel, 'The Women in Black' by Madeleine St John. Christmas tree in background.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

There is so much wrong with this article that I can't quite fathom where to start.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

While watching the final series of Wolf Hall, I've spent hours gazing at the photos I took of the magnificent Holbein exhibition earlier this year. He and Mantel breathe such life into the Tudor court. The men & women are fully human & fallible in their work. Masterpieces.

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Reposted by Donna Coonan

Colson Whitehead @colsonwhitehead.com · 14/12/2024

Semi-colon party all night long! Say what? Semi-colon party all night long!!

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

The novel by I'm most thrilled to see included in @sandtclassics.bsky.social 's new list is 'The Country of the Pointed Firs' by Sarah Orne Jewett, which I discovered during lockdown. It's a consoling marvel of a book and not nearly as well known as it deserves to be.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

These beauties are from @sandtclassics.bsky.social, a new classics list brilliantly curated by Brandon Taylor & Allison Woodnutt. The choices are inspired & the quality is 🤌 Bravo! I love innovations in classics publishing - here, instead of an introduction, there's a dialogue between 2 readers.

Four books by new classics publisher Smith & Taylor - titles by Victor Hugo, Edith Wharton, Sarah Orne Jewett and George Gissing. Photographed on a marble table, with dried flowers

Letter from beginning of book, from the publishers, explaining their aim to find forgotten works.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

This is a fantastic charity that uses surplus food and helps to alleviate loneliness and food poverty in communities. They're new here, so please take a look, share, maybe even volunteer.

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Reposted by Donna Coonan

Stella Duffy @stellduffy.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

It’s important to remember that many middle class women of a certain age grew up as working class girls who were, and are, fierce as fuck. With long memories.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I bought my dog his first ever coat as he was a bit shivery last week. Elwood thought he'd lost use of his front legs, poor untrusing hound, and couldn't move for a few minutes. 🤣 The cruelty!

Elwood, small black and white dog, wearing warm fleecy coat. His crouching stance shows him to be very untrusting of it.

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Reposted by Donna Coonan

George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

A remarkable stat: Heidi Alexander’s appointment as Transport Secretary means the cabinet is now 100% state-educated for the first time in history.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Welcome to Prairie Dawn - I love her! Wish I'd known this. Sesame Street has always been so damned cool.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I have, at last, read Katherine Heiny's 'Standard Deviation', which I spluttered and marvelled my way through. Can't decide if I loathe Audra or want to be more like her. Maybe both, but I loved reading her.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Listening to Bruce Springsteen's terrific memoir, 'Born to Run'. So many stories, beautifully told, but what I'll take with me is a brilliant passage describing Elvis's effect on Bruce and the world - the perfection of calling him a 'Jukebox Dionysius'.

media.tenor.com

a man with a beard is standing in front of a building and looking at the camera .

ALT: a man with a beard is standing in front of a building and looking at the camera .

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Well, news of the return of the #NowYoureAsking podcast has made my day. It's like sitting at the kitchen table with your funniest, kindest, wisest friends and I LOVE it! 🫖

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

What a day for an early morning stroll with the faithless, squirrel-obsessed hound.

Black and white dog sitting against early morning backdrop of Lindon from Greenwich Park.

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Reposted by Donna Coonan

Celeste Ward-Best @celestewb.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Hello, hi. I’ve made an inexhaustive starter pack of the bookish people I’ve found here so far 📚 go.bsky.app/EeTCv2s

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Reposted by Donna Coonan

Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Stephen King, master of the horror novel, just quit Twitter because it'd become too "dark." That's how horrifying Twitter is right now. There may never be a more perfect expression of this fact.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

I actually stopped in the street and gasped when I just saw this restaurant. How?

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

I'm spending much of my evening waiting round in the car being kid taxi - which means my imagination has free range to play this over in my head, adding more details. I so hope it's true.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

I'm always anxious about watching adaptations of books I love (still haven't watched 'The English Patient'). So, what's the verdict on 'Small Things Like These'?

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Yay! The skies are truly azure now at Bluesky! Pretty much the only reason I stuck with the other place is because I love Derek's content so much. Now I can leave there happily.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 27/01/2024

Just learnt that 'All of Us Strangers' is based on 'Strangers' by Taichi Yamada - a haunting story that summons up the Asakusa of the protagonist's youth, which he becomes addicted to - I've pushed it on people for close to 2 decades. Believe me, it's brilliant! Interested to see the film.

Cover of the novel 'Strangers' by Taichi Yamada, depicting the back of a woman in a long black dress, standing in a corridor, holding her heeled shoes.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 31/12/2023

Good riddance 2023! It's been a bloody gnarly one - the most challenging of my life, where I had to make hard decisions that left me feeling untethered. My hopes are on you, 2024.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 11/12/2023

After reading 2 cracking novels about the publishing industry (that could only be seen as satire by those who haven't worked in it -'Yellowface' & 'The Other Black Girl'), I'm hungry for one about a minority fast becoming a dying breed - the 45+ publishing professional.

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 05/12/2023

I was describing a wildly popular book I've just read that I sort of enjoyed, but it wasn't all that. 'Why do you say it's "not your type of book?"' 'Too feelgood, I guess', I muttered into my scarf. Is there a German word for a sudden self realisation that you're not sure you entirely approve of?

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Donna Coonan @donna1.bsky.social · 04/12/2023

So, newbie here - what's this place like? Have you crept over tentatively from the flap-bird place, toe in the water, and kept your old avatar going, or have you fully embraced BlueSky, abandoning your old account to ash? Any recs on who to follow?

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