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Lesley Curwen

@elcurwen.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.1K following 182 posts

Poet, broadcaster, journalist, ex-BBC presenter, sailor, sea-swimmer.

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Reposted by Lesley Curwen
Parlyaree Press @parlyareepress.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Reminder: Don't miss the free online poetry reading this Saturday to celebrate the launch of Stephen Paul Wren's PINE/NEEDLES! Featuring: @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social @citizen-chris.bsky.social @elcurwen.bsky.social Satya Bosman
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Literature Works @literatureworks.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Just announced: a watery writing workshop with the Plymouth Laureate of Words, R.C. Thomas! 🌊 Join us from 4pm at Royal William Yard on 4th September to discover 'A New Mythology for Plymouth Sound'. £5 includes a boat trip. All the details are here: literatureworks.org.uk/whats-on/a-n...
literatureworks.org.uk
A New Mythology for Plymouth Sound - Literature Works
A New Mythology for Plymouth Soundwith Plymouth Laureate of Words R.C. ThomasFriday 4th September, 4-6.30pmTickets £5 A writing workshop for all abilities, including a boat trip! Families welcome (age...
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
So grateful to @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social for these words about 'Sticky with Miles'. 🙏
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Emma Harding @emmaharding.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Expect lively differences of opinion in A Good Read 3pm Mon 29 Jun @BBCRadio4 when @pperry.bsky.social & @stuartmaconie.bsky.social join @harriettsg.bsky.social @hayfestival.bsky.social to discuss favourite books. Producer Maggie Ayre #books #nonfiction #fiction www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Philippa Perry and Stuart Maconie
Guests talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they love and loath, at the Hay Festival 2026.
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Emma Harding @emmaharding.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Once Upon a Time… 5 modern fairy tales each eve 22.45 @BBCRadio4 We start with @davidjalmond.bsky.social reimagining The Little Mermaid on Holy Island. Magical new stories by @jolloyds.bsky.social @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social Ben Okri & Katherine Rundell www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - Once Upon a Time..., Mermaid by David Almond
David Almond reimagines The Little Mermaid on Holy Island.
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Emma Harding @emmaharding.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Poetry Please @BBCSounds Gwyneth Lewis, former National Poet of Wales, joins Roger McGough with her selection of listener requests from Edward Thomas & Alun Lewis to Kathryn Bevis & Kathleen Jamie. Produced by Ellie Richold #poetry www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Thanks to The Marrow Poetry Journal for choosing my poem, Doll. It's wonderful to be in this company of poets from across the world. #poetry #coercivecontrol
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
So grateful to be part of this brilliant event. Huge congratulations to all the commended and winning poets.
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Thanks to @magmapoetry.bsky.social and @betarish.bsky.social for last night's celebration of all the winners and commended poets in the Magma Prize. Congratulations to everyone who read their poems. A brilliant night in a unique 'theatre on a ship' in Canary Wharf.
A microphone stands in front of a pink-lit stage with a backdrop that says Magma competition 2025/26.
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Thanks to @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social for including my poems in this anthology of responses to Eliot's The Wasteland.
A poetry book showing what might be a boat on fire on water, in front of city lights
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Thanks to Jess at Abingdon Library for hosting the launch of Blood Women by @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social, a series of moving poems about the women in his life. I was honoured to support Stephen at his launch, reading poems about my own sister. Huge thanks to the kind and thoughtful audience.
A man in tee shirt and jeans and a woman with a long summer dress are sitting on a blue sofa with library shelves behind them.
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Stephen Paul Wren @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
My deepest thanks to Abingdon library for hosting the launch of Blood Women @parlyareepress.bsky.social yesterday. The interactions with the audience were so moving (thanks for your questions) and @elcurwen.bsky.social’s words were unforgettable. In-person readings make poems come alive, don’t they?
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Stephen Paul Wren @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
A chance to hear the incredible poetry of @elcurwen.bsky.social !
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Very much excited to take part in the launch of this wonderful book by @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social!
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
So pleased to be supporting @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social on Saturday at the in-person launch of Blood Women, his collection of extraordinary poems about the women in his life. 11am at Abingdon Library.
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Acropolis Journal @acropolisjournal.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
PHOTOGRAPHY: ILLUMINATIONS BY LESLEY CURWEN ACROPOLIS JOURNAL ISSUE 11 @elcurwen.bsky.social   acropolisjournaluk.wixsite.com/acropolisjou...
acropolisjournaluk.wixsite.com
Issue Eleven | Acropolis Journal
Acropolis Journal Issue Eleven 11 poetry artwork
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Acropolis Journal @acropolisjournal.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
PHOTOGRAPHY: FOG CANNON BY LESLEY CURWEN ACROPOLIS JOURNAL ISSUE 11 @elcurwen.bsky.social   acropolisjournaluk.wixsite.com/acropolisjou...
acropolisjournaluk.wixsite.com
Issue Eleven | Acropolis Journal
Acropolis Journal Issue Eleven 11 poetry artwork
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Acropolis Journal @acropolisjournal.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
PHOTOGRAPHY: ABBEY BY LESLEY CURWEN ACROPOLIS JOURNAL ISSUE 11 @elcurwen.bsky.social   acropolisjournaluk.wixsite.com/acropolisjou...
acropolisjournaluk.wixsite.com
Issue Eleven | Acropolis Journal
Acropolis Journal Issue Eleven 11 poetry artwork
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Thanks to @livecanon.bsky.social for choosing my pamphlet Orca Mother as one of the winners of the Pamphlet Competition. Congratulations to all the winners and shortlisted poets!
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Happy to say my #poem won Third Prize in the #Magma Poetry Judge's Prize. Huge thanks to @betarish.bsky.social and congratulations to all the winners and commended #poets.
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Excited to be appearing at the #Plymouth #Poetry Festival next month, with amazing local poets and our Laureate of Words, R C Thomas. Tickets via the link. www.eventbrite.com/e/between-ci...
eventbrite.com
Between City and Sea
A Showcase of Local Poets with Plymouth Laureate of Word R.C. Thomas.
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Stephen Paul Wren @moleculesunlimited.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Still buzzing about this book. Written with @elcurwen.bsky.social and published by Atomic Bohemian.
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
For #fragmentsfriday and @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social:
Glow stick

colours deep enough

to swallow or

shallow

asa Blackpool paddle

lime-light lifeboat-orange

pistachio-ice bruise-mauve
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
My latest book is Permanence, written with Stephen Paul Wren, a surreal dive into the world of microplastics. @betarish.bsky.social said: 'a series of striking reflections on plastic, how it has shifted from wonder substance to menace.' Published by Atomic Bohemian. DM me for a signed copy.
Three turquoise poetry books titled Permanence in yellow, a spoon full of plastic multi coloured bits, and in black the names of the Authors, Lesley Curwen and Stephen Paul Wren.
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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Gordon Brown is not a man without faults (and goodness knows the media made it their job to make sure we knew all about them), but he IS a living rebuke to the corrosive idea that all politicians are the same and all corrupt.
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Black Bough Poetry @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
‘this is poetry as bright and fleeting as embers’ 🔥 Our Black Bough book of the month is Louise Longson’s ‘The How in the World’ - Hedgehog poetry. Reviewed by @victoriaspires.bsky.social @louisepoetical.bsky.social @hedgehogpress.co.uk www.blackboughpoetry.com/book-reviews...
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Rhona Greene @rhonagreene.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
⚡️⚡️⚡️ Just arrived!PERMANENCE A poetry collaboration on plastics and microplastics from chemist Stephen Paul Wren & historical plastics collector Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social published by @ Atomic Bohemian⚡️ 👏👏👏
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions. It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.
The Legislation
Upon winning a general election, a Reform government under Prime Minister Nigel Farage will:
1) Leave the ECHR
2.) Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.
3.) Pass The Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill:
This Bill will:
Create a legal duty to remove illegal migrants for the Home Secretary
The Bill opens with a blunt obligation for the Home Secretary: "The Secretary of State shall ensure the removal from the United Kingdom of each person who does not have extant leave to remain and is not an Irish citizen or otherwise protected by regulations made under this Act."
The following parts of the legislation are introduced on an emergency basis, with an in-built sunset clause after 5 years:
Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention (ECAT)
Derogation is justified under the Vienna Convention doctrine of state of necessity: Britain faces a national emergency in which uncontrolled illegal migration undermines public order.
These treaties will otherwise be used by activist judges to frustrate deportations, even after the repeals of the HRA and ECHR.
Create Detention Power Without Hardial Singh Constraints
This means illegal migrants can be detained until they are deported. Activist lawyers routinely use Hardial Singh to secure their client's bail, after which the client absconds.
If you came to the UK illegally, you are ineligible for asylum. End of story
All asylum claims will become inadmissible if made by a person within the Act's scope. If you came to the country illegally, you are ineligible for asylum in the UK. This strips the Home Office, the immigration tribunals and the higher courts of jurisdiction to even consider claims. A claim that cannot be considered cannot suspend removal and therefore, cannot delay a flight.
Re-entering after deportation and destroying ID becomes a serious criminal offence
Re-entry after deportation will be…The Operational Plan
We will create an enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command, including an Illegal Migrant Identification Centre - harnessing cutting edge data fusion
A Reform government will create a cutting edge enforcement data centre to relentlessly identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK. Using powers granted by the new legislation, it will automatically share data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police. It will power bulk warrants, including mandatory biometric capture during any police encounter. Each power addresses a failure mode observed over the past decade - for example, banks and GP surgeries unaware of a customer's status, or overstayers slipping through because a warrant covered only a single property.
Secure Immigration Removal Centres (SIRC) will be built rapidly to detain up to 24,000
Detention capacity for up to 24,000 will be created within 18 months. The Home Office will build Secure Immigration Removal Centres. This will be modular accommodation built in remote parts of the country. Conditions are basic but not punitive: prefabricated two-person rooms, canteen catering, on-site medical suites. Robust perimeters and internal movement controls prevent escapes.
This enables detention-on-arrest: no more bail. This capacity would allow for up to 24,000 illegal migrants to be deported per month.
Initial Voluntary Return Window
A six-month Assisted Voluntary Return window precedes large-scale raids. Illegal migrants will be offered a financial incentive to self-deport. An app will be launched to facilitate this.
The Deportation Flights
The Home Office will scale up charters to 5 flights per day. To guard against last-minute aircraft unserviceability, the RAF will keep one Voyager aircraft on six-hour 'hot-spare' readiness. If a commercial charter breaks down, detainees can still be flown out that night, preserving operational integrity. The legal reset will mean activist lawyers will no longer be able preven…
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Rishi Dastidar @betarish.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
What would be really useful is if the good folks at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social War Studies dept put on a series of rapid public lectures towards the end of this term, under the heading 'What the f--- is going on?' They'd sell out.
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Ink Sweat & Tears @inksweatandtears.co.uk · 14/01/2026
Light is abundant in Lesley Curwen's 'Valentia Light', offering both protection from and disguising the dangers of an anticipated storm. @elcurwen.bsky.social Watch it here: inksweatandtears.co.uk/lesley-curwe... #FilmPoem #InkSweatAndTears
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Emma Harding @emmaharding.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
When I Met Jane Austen: each day this week 11.45 & 13.45 @BBCRadio4 250 years after the birth of #JaneAusten, ten writers & thinkers discuss her work, wit & influence - incl @realbaddiel.bsky.social & @valmcdermid.bsky.social in conversation with Paula Byrne www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, When I Met Jane Austen, David Baddiel on the invention of the modern novel
Writers and thinkers tell Dr Paula Byrne when they met Jane Austen. First, David Baddiel.
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Rebecca Goss @gosspoems.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Beginning life here with three new poems in Ambient Receiver www.ambientreceiver.org/rebecca-goss
ambientreceiver.org
. Ambient Receiver | Journal of Creative Ecologies
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Black Bough Poetry @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Our hardback Christmas and Winter anthology adorning the Christmas tree. Packed with festive, poetic gems! www.blackboughpoetry.com/news
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Copies of Permanence have arrived! Thanks to co-author Stephen Paul Wren, publisher Atomic Bohemian, and to @betarish.bsky.social and Greta Stoddart for their kind words. Come to our online launch on Thursday! www.eventbrite.com/e/state-of-t...
Three blue poetry books, title Permanence by Lesley Curwen and Stephen Paul Wren, showing a spoon filled with multicoloured blobs of plastic.
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Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
A starter pack of Journalists on BlueSky featuring @zamirarahim.bsky.social @elcurwen.bsky.social @rosannamcglone.bsky.social and many more. Please follow and repost if you can
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
www.instagram.com/p/DRRi5fIDTG...
instagram.com
Atomic Bohemian on Instagram: "✨️PRE-ORDER NOW✨️ Permanence by Lesley Curwen and Stephen Paul Wren is available for pre-order! Link in bio, or head to www.atomicbohemian.com 🥄💙 #poetry #poetrycommuni...
atomicbohemian on November 19, 2025: "✨️PRE-ORDER NOW✨️ Permanence by Lesley Curwen and Stephen Paul Wren is available for pre-order! Link in bio, or head to www.atomicbohemian.com 🥄💙 #poetry #poetry...
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Alice Stainer @alicestainer.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
This was such a lovely surprise!Thank you to @catherineredford.bsky.social & @tarawheeler.bsky.social for this vote of confidence 🤩
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𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕪 𝕆𝕨𝕖𝕟 @markantonyowen.com · 08/11/2025
Wow! This feels like it was an AGE ago ... when in fact, it's been less than a year since this appeared. My thanks, still, to @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social, @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social, and my former BBC journalist interviewer @elcurwen.bsky.social. 🙏🏼
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Paul Lewis @paullewismoney.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Never buy leasehold (if you can avoid it) part 94 bit.ly/4qG8soL “escalating charges, poor service quality, opaque fees and a lack of communication” MB these are failings, not alleged failings.
bit.ly
Forced out of retirement by a £25k bill: MPs probe freeholder over service charges
Residents launch fightback against Britain’s biggest freeholder’s fees
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Dr Rachel Broady @drrachelbroady.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
It's not a grassroots working class movement. "Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler." manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
manchestermill.co.uk
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
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Rhona Greene @rhonagreene.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ So excited for tomorrow’s Dublin launch @eatthestorms.com Issue V when we will celebrate with some of our wonderful contributors whose stunning work makes this issue so special. It’s been amazing to be subeditor to our phenomenal EIC Damien B Donnelly. Time to Shine Stormers!⭐️🍾 🥂 ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Sounds like @bbcradio 4 has been speeded up on the Sunday programme debate on the Church of England! Surely no one speaks that fast? OMG!!
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Lesley Curwen @elcurwen.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Thanks to Damien @eatthestorms.com and @rhonagreene.bsky.social for making me a Stormer for Issue V.
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 04/10/2025
President Macron: “We were very naive to leave our public space to social media networks controlled by US or Chinese companies that don’t share our interests and not interested in survival of our democracies.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggN...
youtube.com
French President Macron Speaks at German Unity Day Ceremony | WION LIVE
YouTube video by WION
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Literature Works @literatureworks.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
We’re pleased to share a new piece of writing by the Quay Words Summer 2025 writer-in-residence Kirsteen McNish. Here's ‘There are tides everywhere.’ quaywords.org.uk/there-are-ti...
quaywords.org.uk
Quay Words at Exeter Custom House | ‘There are tides, everywhere.’ by Kirsteen McNish
Kirsteen McNish was the Quay Words writer-in-residence for Summer 2025. During her ‘Tides’ residency at Exeter Custom House, she set out to explore the tides’ influence on our psyche, excavate…
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Cat Neilan @catneilan.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
My colleague @thejohnsimpson.bsky.social has done a terrific deep dive into the financial links between US tech billionaires and Tommy Robinson Well worth a read observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk
US cash turned Tommy Robinson into the poster boy of UK f...
Outside the Old Bailey in 2018, a reinvented Tommy Robinson flashed his perfect new teeth to 2,000 diehard supporters at a “free Tommy” rally on a stage ...
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