Fashionably late as usual, here’s my regular round up of the best books I’ve read this month - October 2025
Only three this month, but each one represents a very different way of telling a true story.
#booksky
Emma Inch
@emmainch.bsky.social
401 followers 275 following 200 posts
multi award-winning writer | academic | UK Beer Writer of the Year 2018 | co-author: World’s Greatest Beers | producer: Same Again? mental health podcast | erstwhile rockabilly DJ | she/her | 🏳️🌈 | trans ally 🏳️⚧️ www.fermentationonline.com
![Pride still triggers homophobic pub goers
When Hazel Southwell took over the Royal Oak pub in Erith, south-east London, last December she feared the locals would shun a gay woman with Georgian heritage as she thought it was a Reform heartland.
The regulars surprised her, confrontations were rare and she secured a 400K in funds
for a renovation to change the decor and
60-year-old carpet. But when Hazel had to bar one drinker for posting online hate about a Pride party at the Oak, the bigot organised a boycott of the London pub.
Hazel then feared she would lose her job because of the drop in takings.
"It was difficult to secure the huge amount of funding to be spent on the pub," Hazel says. "It's a shame people have to spoil it by willing me to fail. Before this it was heartwarming that there was such good integration with LGTBQ+ [people], with everyone playing darts."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:grjd3hcat2bq3azu77jkfjw4/bafkreieyspguxtawxo6ul7u3mjkg5hx2q4ffdrs2gchdim2nvdr6gz5hzq)
