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Dr Fiona Tolan

@fionatolan.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1.6K following 189 posts

Reader in Contemporary Women’s Writing, LJMU, UK. Contemporary British fiction, feminist theory, politics of cleaning. Posting in a personal capacity.

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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
Miriam Gershow @miriamgershow.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The most vulnerable essay I’ve ever written. What if you get a @nytimes.com (!!!) review for yr debut novel, but Janet Maslin uses Rate My Professor to deduce you’re an ugly loser? If you’re me, you let it haunt & haunt you. 🙏 to @exactingclam.bsky.social. www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-22...
exactingclam.com
Unusually Credible and Precise | Exacting Clam
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Amazing. Val Doonican just reminds me of being car sick as a kid travelling across Ireland in summer 🤢
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
“Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently”
Val Doonican Record album cover
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I got a great deal on 6 plants for new flowerbed. The plants just arrived (teaspoon for scale): 🌱
6 tiny plants that fit inside a small bowl
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Rereading Wuthering Heights because I’m going to be teaching it next semester. Haven’t read it for *decades* but feel like I know every word. I swear, you never know a text as well as the text you studied for A.Level.
Cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Wuthering Heights
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
THE NERVE @thenerve.news · 19/07/2026
NEW: Who funds Nigel Farage? And why has it taken till now for any journalistic scrutiny? @carolecadwalla.bsky.social who has tracked him for a decade exposes how the UK press & regulators looked the other way 🧵👇
Farage the money launderer and me: a decade of denial
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
But why else would I have checked luggage?
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
"His goal has been to write 10 books per week, which is the maximum Amazon allows." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/t...
nytimes.com
Someone Used A.I. to Write an Unauthorized Biography of Me. I Don’t Recommend Reading It. (Gift Article)
Someone used A.I. to write my biography. Thousands more of those books are polluting Amazon. Who is behind all this drivel?
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Wordle 1,852 6/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Outrageous! smdh #wordle
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The English Association @englishassociation.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
The EA, the Institute of English Studies, & University English are holding an online #emergency summit for all English colleagues to address the proliferation of redundancies, restructurings, other significant challenges to our & cognate disciplines across the sector. 👇🏼 mailchi.mp/1b1ef2d5a8a3...
mailchi.mp
Emergency Action On… the Situation for English (10:00 - 12:00, 16 July 2026)
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
“Citizen of nowhere”
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
Hyphen @hyphenonline.com · 07/07/2026
Three students at a school in Luton have become self-published novelists while juggling schoolwork and exams. Their books explore fantasy, psychological mystery and coming-of-age fiction. hyphenonline.com/2026/07/07/luton-s…
hyphenonline.com
Three girls from one Luton school become self-published novelists - Hyphen
Hamidah Odunuga, Ghania Kashaff and Iqrah Imaan Imran from Challney High School for Girls want to show other Muslim girls what’s possible
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
CarolineJMolloy @carolinejmolloy.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Seen lots of “don’t swim without lifeguards” messages - this is *exactly* why Lidos were built in ‘30s - til then kids & w/class folk swam in canals. The decline of Lidos is a public health scandal & we need public support to restore @simonforstroud.bsky.social savestroudlido.org/when-we-get-...
savestroudlido.org
“When we get down to swimming, we get down to democracy”: The story of the outdoor pool – Save Stroud Lido
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
When I once recommended an author cite my paper I wrote to the editor to apologise and explain it was literally one of only 2 articles I knew on the topic central to the article under review. It would have definitely helped the author support their argument & I was still embarrassed to be doing it!
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
It’s extraordinary that people can change party without having to resign and stand again
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
This is so bleak. I’m sorry to hear it.
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
Rob Chapman @scribblerrob.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
There's probably never been a better time to remind you that when David Hockney first took his Mum to California she remarked 'all this lovely weather and nobody puts their washing out'.
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Great essay, thanks for sharing
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
Fiery Mark @fierymark.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
This has lived in my head for 2 joyful years 🙏🏼 @jonnymorris.bsky.social
Starmer & Zelenskyy discuss Sugababes
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
arr @arr.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
english isn't for cowards. if you're not saying 'torpify,' that's a skill issue. there's no Académie Française telling you what to do. if you try to type 'pallific' and freak out when you see a little red underline, maybe you're not ready to roll with the big dogs.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
You are creating that debate. There is no debate. There is a far right talking point and a media willing to traffic it into the mainstream.
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Chickens in Oslo
Large bronze statue of 3 noble-looking chickens
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
“Reform has the most extreme policy on energy and climate the UK has seen since modern science on the subject began. The party opposes solar; it opposes wind; it opposes batteries… Once again: Reform is largely funded by fossil fuels” Private Eye on the anti-thought, pro-corruption threat of Reform
MELTING TICE

RICHARD TICE, Reform
UK's deputy leader and spokesman on energy and climate, made an extraordinary appearance on Bloomberg's Zero podcast last week. A few things soon became clear: firstly, he hasn't read the science.

Tice claims the UK. is "almost
unilaterally" beggaring itself by choosing low-carbon power (tell that to China, building hundreds of gigawatts of solar and wind each year). He hasn't read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) summary for policymakers. He says "thousands" of scientists disagree with accepted climate science but wouldn't - couldn't? - name any scientists who'd advised him.

He thinks net zero will bankrupt Britain (jobs in clean energy are growing faster than much of the rest of the economy). He threatened to walk out twice - once when presented with the IPCC's summary. When asked about batteries, which store solar and wind power safely and cheaply until the evening peak, he said: "We don't need batteries. It's ridiculous."

Reform UK has the most extreme policy on energy and climate the UK has seen since modern science on the subject began. The party opposes solar; it opposes wind; it opposes batteries, for God's sake. Its policy is "drill, drill, frack Lincolnshire".
Once again: Reform
is largely funded by fossil fuels.

The main defence Tice wielded was that the IPC recently abandoned its always implausible
"RCP8.5" scenario - the worst-case, which predicted coal use doubling or tripling this century.
İronically, Tice himself is the British politician who would do more than anything else to bring about that polluted world.

'Young Windy'
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Goths 🤜🏻🤛🏻 Redheads ☀️
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NPR @npr.org · 25/05/2026
The books had to be light and small enough to fit in servicemen's pockets. The motto of the Council on Books in Wartime was: "Books Are Weapons in the War of Ideas."
n.pr
In the 'biggest book giveaway in history' WWII soldiers received pocket-sized reads
The books had to be light and small enough to fit in servicemen's pockets. The motto of the Council on Books in Wartime was: "Books Are Weapons in the War of Ideas."
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
I can’t tell if that’s satire
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
All in a day’s work for this guy
Workman hanging from a harness working on the stone facade of the Bodleian library
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
Dr Seth Thévoz @seththevoz.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
It never ceases to amaze me how many election pundits don’t understand the dynamics of First Past the Post, and how vote-splitting works under the UK’s electoral system. John Curtice does. Listen to John Curtice.
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
#MayDay in #Oxford means squeezing past a crowd of tipsy dancing students when you need to get into the library at 9am ☀️ 🕺🏻 🍺
Colourful crowd of people standing in front of the Bodleian library steps
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Delivery day! 💜
Cardboard box with copies of book, Jackie Kay: Critical Essays
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
New Perkins Gilman just dropped! 🙌🏻
Cover image of The Yellow Wallpaper with words above: ‘check out Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s brand new title’
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
So pleased to see *Jackie Kay: Critical Essays* finally out in the world! It was a pleasure to work on & contains brilliant new essays and a wonderful foreword by Kay 💜
Front cover of book with photo of Jackie Kay
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Reposted by Dr Fiona Tolan
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
When Angela Rayner underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty, Richard Tice said it was "morally completely indefensible” and she should resign if she had “any moral decency”. Now we learn he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 he owed in tax and to then transfer the cash to Reform
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Why does it look like a sticker book for 5 year olds?
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
I don’t think the swooping fringe is very monk-like though… ?
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Is it just me or does this egg cup look like a happy Hitler?
Small wooden egg cup shaped like a person, with a black side fringe - looks a bit like a young happy Hitler
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
What, the sun-rain-wind-sun-rain-clouds-hail-sunshine weather?
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Social media can certainly make me feel bleak right now ☹️ - I find limiting time on here helps
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
My cat suggests everyone just BASTA 🐈‍⬛
Tuxedo cat sat atop a fish tank against a white background and under a red sign that reads ‘BASTA!’
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Great choices! 📚
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Her favourite nap spot 🐠
Tuxedo cat lying on top of a fish tank
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
She was born in Northumberland and now has a College named after her at Durham University
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Yeah, it makes me laugh how annoyingly random it is 😂
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Nice article. The 6-7 frenzy is younger than teenagers though - the tweens should get their glory!
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Just back from a winter solstice swim - a fast 1.5k in the Thames - perfect chilly Christmas start ❄️
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C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings @c21literature.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
One of our reviews editors @heyitsdenisew.bsky.social has a book out! Congratulations Denise!
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
Looks fab - congratulations!
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James Bailey @drjamesbailey.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
Here’s the cover for LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, out 16 April with @sceptrebooks.bsky.social Preorder here: lnk.to/LikeaCatLove... Please share! The book doing well means I can write another (and fulfil my dream of owning a pizza oven), so it’s pretty serious 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛ 🐈‍⬛
Orange and pink cover for Like a Cat Loves a Bird, a forthcoming biography of Muriel Spark, with a black and white photo of Spark holding a black cat on the cover
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Dr Fiona Tolan @fionatolan.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
This is the route I swam this morning (though under rainier skies) - a beautiful spot
Aerial shot of a winding River Thames banked by green fields
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Don’t fall for the authoritarian hype – Reform and the hard right can be stopped in their tracks | Gordon Brown
From the US to Europe and Asia, grievances are being exploited to gain power. But moderate voices are still in tune with the majority, says former prime minister Gordon Brown
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