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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Wow. @longbarrowpress.bsky.social always make beautiful things but this set of three pamphlets by Matthew Clegg is just gorgeous. The accompanying postcards are going in a frame on the wall!

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This year’s Lowry Lounge @thebluecoat.bsky.social on Sat 31st Oct, featuring international guests and a magical altar. Demons may be raised… www.trybooking.com/uk/event/118...

trybooking.com

The 2026 Lowry Lounge: Malc, Magic and Mexico

Our annual celebration of Wirral-born writer Malcolm Lowry

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Tidying my office today I found this gem by @tomjenksuk.bsky.social . ‘Out in the gazebo, Crabtree builds his defence’. I remember seeing Tom read it and being rendered helpless with giggles. Very limited edition too so it’s undoubtedly worth a fortune now, not that I’m parting with it. Ah Crabtree.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Delighted to find my new book on display in Liverpool’s fab radical bookshop, News from Nowhere (alongside lots of other brilliant books). Now proudly sporting a ‘signed copy’ sticker! @livunipress.bsky.social

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I’m delighted that this book is now out in the world, and looking forward to launching it @thebluecoat.bsky.social on 8th Sept. Ahoy fellow Lowry fan @imcmillan.bsky.social - hope you might enjoy this too-loose-lowry-trek!

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Thanks so much, Nick. Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted the book to capture (and explore) - how it FEELS to read Lowry, and why. I am really hoping it brings new readers to his work because it’s so rich. @livunipress.bsky.social

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Here’s a quare one for you @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk. In ‘54321’, Manfred Mann tell us ‘The Trojans waited at the gate for weeks/ In a wooden horse to the city they sneaked’. Having propounded this radically revisionist theory they then ask ‘Who let them in? Was it the Greeks?’ …

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

First sighting of my book in the wild! Exciting! @livunipress.bsky.social

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Book launch, 8 Sept @thebluecoat.bsky.social - if you’re in Liverpool or vicinity, it would be great to see you there

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

My new book is published today!

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Rereading Stephen Sexton’s If All the World and Love Were Young, I’m struck all over again by what an extraordinary achievement it is - an elegy for his mother (and for his own childhood) written through the world of Super Mario. So inventive and so moving.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Scottie Scheffler always puts me in mind of a Depression-era Midwest farmer who’s just come in from a long day in the fields and is about to tell his wife that the alfalfa crop (or whatever) has failed and they’re gonna have to sell the farm.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Fascinated to hear that Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid is a possible replacement for Baz as England men’s Test coach. From one extreme to the other… (Dravid and Thorpe two of my early cricketing heroes. I love nuggetty batting.)

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Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

"'To the End of the Land' is a poem-sequence working eloquently as a choir." Thanks to Jake Morris-Campbell for his review of Helen Tookey & Martin Heslop's collaboration in the current issue of Poetry London. You can buy the pamphlet & CD here: longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

The pamphlet and CD editions of 'To the End of the Land' by Martin Heslop and Helen Tookey: the blue-grey coastal edge of Nova Scotia, with dilapidated wooden lobster traps in the foreground, sea and distant land beyond, and white clouds and blue sky above.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Texted my 23yo yesterday to tell her David Hockney had died. She replied ‘oh dear, that’s my day ruined’. She’s been a fan ever since seeing one of his pool paintings when she was quite little. I think that’s cool.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Yay, the World Cup starts today. I mean the women’s T20 World Cup, obviously.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Bought this from Oxfam but didn’t notice it was signed until I got home. I love Matthew Sweeney’s writing so it’s nice to have this trace of him (even though I’m not Paul).

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

The end of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Galley Slave’ (1957). The anti-robot academic is shown up as a liar and humiliated in court by Susan Calvin of US Robots, so on the face of it he’s the loser, on the wrong side of history. But I don’t think Asimov wants us to think it’s that simple…

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

This is such an interesting piece, thank you @louisekenward.bsky.social . Nine months into chronic pain, I’m still floundering, trying to find some way of learning to inhabit an utterly changed landscape (and possibly write from it). It’s so valuable to know that others are doing the same.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

‘A Meditation of Small Frogs’ by Charlotte Eichler, from Swimming Between Islands (@carcanet.bsky.social). @pollyrowena.bsky.social read this and thought of you!

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

At least Mr Earbrass never had to compile an index for one of his books. Definitely the worst part (am currently indexing my forthcoming Malcolm Lowry book). From the genius that is/was Edward Gorey.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

‘Jagger, 82, who has lived on the north bank [of the Thames] since the early 1960s, as have bandmates Brian Jones and Keith Richards…’ (Guardian). Er…

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

If I knew how to set up a poll, I’d set one up: Which Wes is worse? (a) Wes Streeting, (b) Wesley Crusher

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I’d been puzzled for a while about why I was seeing endless posts on here about American sports. Finally realised it must be because I had the thing set to ‘Discover’, so I switched it back to ‘Following’, but now I slightly miss all the excitable posts about baseball teams I’ve never heard of.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Thought I would do a little photoshoot of some of the lovely @longbarrowpress.bsky.social books I’ve got. The Blue Hour is a particular favourite of mine.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Please support @longbarrowpress.bsky.social - they publish excellent and beautiful poetry books and their care and attention to detail are second to none.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Hello @policedoghogan.bsky.social just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your gig in Liverpool on Friday. Funny and moving and really uplifting. (Slightly disappointed that Tim isn’t still doing his nduja joke, but you can’t have everything.)

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I’m reading Pain Woman Takes Your Keys by @sonyahuber.bsky.social (thanks to a ref in @pollyrowena.bsky.social’s Some of Us Just Fall) and just YES, THIS, EXACTLY. So grateful for both of these books as I flounder around trying to work out how to live with ongoing pain.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Star Trek is no longer on Netflix and I’m still somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, so this was a necessity

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Deep breath… I’m newly living with chronic pain and finding it incredibly difficult. I’m very thankful for @pollyrowena.bsky.social’s memoir/essay Some of Us Just Fall and poetry collection Much with Body, which are helping me to feel less alone. (I also love the poems about tiny frogs…!)

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

I’ve really enjoyed Hemisphere, by @petegreensolo.com (published by @longbarrowpress.bsky.social ) - it’s a set of prose poems describing imaginary travels, but in the process ruminating on all kinds of things. Moving, in more than one sense!

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

I really hope someone brings this to Jarvis’s attention because he would surely LOVE it.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Support small publishers! Including the very excellent @longbarrowpress.bsky.social. Lovely to see our exploration of the Nova Scotian landscape travelling around.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

This was a great event in a lovely venue. Home-made cakes and bicycles repaired! (That’s one for any Jennings fans out there.) Thanks to Mary, and Brian, and everyone who came along.

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Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

"Those places are so resonant, they speak of the past, but that inevitably makes you think of the future..." @helentookey.bsky.social and @martinheslop.bsky.social on their new text/audio collaboration 'To the End of the Land'. Full interview here: longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/on-the-air

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

For those of you in Liverpool, this is in stock at the fantastic @deadinkbooks.bsky.social on Smithdown Rd, along with all kinds of intriguing books you won’t find in other bookshops… so get down there and check it out!

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Published today! Text and sound work by me and Martin Heslop, derived from a residency at the Elizabeth Bishop House in Nova Scotia, beautifully produced by Longbarrow Press.

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Longbarrow Press @longbarrowpress.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

"It’s as though you’re able to stand outside the present and see yourself as a kind of ghost..." @helentookey.bsky.social and @martinheslop.bsky.social on their new text/audio collaboration 'To the End of the Land'. Full interview here: longbarrowpress.substack.com/p/on-the-air

An edge of land in Nova Scotia: broken, splintered trees in the foreground; dark earth; a distant, curving line of trees; part-blue, part-clouded skies.

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

So pleased to have this work coming out with the fantastic @longbarrowpress.bsky.social!

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Really looking forward to this event at @deadinkbooks.bsky.social Smithdown Rd on 24th - Jake will be reading from his fantastic new book and we’ll be chatting about it:

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Helen Tookey @helentookey.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Oops, pressed post too soon. Thanks to the AHRC for supporting this project. It started from thinking about Lowry’s stories in Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place, which refer to the Isle of Man and have an overriding concern for the natural world.

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