Sign in

Iain Rowan

@iainrowan.com
630 followers 551 following 347 posts

Writer, runner-up Costa Short Story Award, Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short `Fiction | ocean activist with CPWF UK (formerly Sea Shepherd UK) | Sunderland. iainrowan.com. Also write weird microfiction mapsofthelost.substack.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Most TV is just this now.
15362381743
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Arthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Amazing detail of lickspittle @telegraph.co.uk “journalism” in this week’s @privateeyenews.bsky.social
310332
Reposted by Iain Rowan
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 26/09/2026
Class solidarity.
hollywoodreporter.com
The Major Social Media Platforms Are All Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ (Exclusive)
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing "political" content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing.
642162612
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Clownf1st @clownf1st.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Too Much, Too Young Persons Railcard
56713
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
sure would be nice if the UK had a government instead of 17 Sun polls in a waistcoat
3656114
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Wanna feel old? This is what beloved kids’ toy Action Man™️ looks like today.
echo-news.co.uk
Major leak leaves 98-year-old man’s garden ‘waterlogged’ amid dispute
Southminster pensioner Dennis Rand fears his home could flood after a burst water main soaked his garden for seven months, amid Essex and Suffolk…
610112
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
‘I saw you across the harbour & wondered if you’d be interested in some of my new fish fingers’
636864
Reposted by Iain Rowan
John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 12/09/2026
BBC with new, hard-hitting interview with balaclava clad criminals who seized a port: youtu.be/lr_vl62JblQ?...
youtu.be
Just normal innocent men
YouTube video by Maz H
637870
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 12/09/2026
This house on Rightmove is a decrepit fixer-up until you reach and look at the third photo here, when it becomes a run-awayer.
121
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 12/09/2026
Track my mood every day using my copies of the Fontana series of Great Ghost Stories. Today’s a solid Volume 11. What about you?
110
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 11/09/2026
Still, in good news today our legislators have safeguarded me and those I love from a future of being able to choose not to suffer and die in event of weeks and months of pain when terminally ill.
020
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 11/09/2026
Every train company in the UK is the Eddie the Eagle of train companies. Every one of them. It’s at the point now when I expect to be late or miss a connection every time I travel. Useless, useless gougers.
021
Reposted by Iain Rowan
TechnicallyRon @technicallyron.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Took a picture of my friends dog at the train station and may have created the best horror movie poster ever
361466254
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 05/09/2026
As gangs of masked men block Dover port, I will just leave this here www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Campaigners receive longest ever sentences for non-violent protest after being convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance
3923951157
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 05/09/2026
I can disperse these clowns in 30 seconds, just give me a loud speaker and the authority to collect delinquent child maintenance payments.
401578282
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
ICYMI this is what the BBC were up to while Channel 4 were investigating Reform for allegedly breaking the law on party donations
8308123
Reposted by Iain Rowan
James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 03/09/2026
Having a relaxing first day off as the Clacton returning officer after a busy by-election. Phew, that was exhausting work! Wouldn’t want to go through all that again any time soon.
2657
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 03/09/2026
Good to see the Beeb picking up the big story about Reform and running with it.
000
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 03/09/2026
In other news tonight: BBC buy disconsolate Chris Mason an emotional support puppy. Every journalist, friend or family of journalist, or anyone who owns a notebook banned from the Reform Conference. Tired TV comedy writer with neck pain says oh no, please not the bin again.
010
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Jay Zedbee @jayzedbee.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Channel 4 reporter: Hello. I am Mr. Alias and this is my extremely suspicious comically large donation that i can only make in the form of a bag of money with a dollar sign on it. every other reform guy: seems legit! let me tell you every single way in which i and my boss have broken the law
191497327
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 01/09/2026
when you don't need a weather app (Cat and Dogs beach, Sunderland)
010
Reposted by Iain Rowan
shardcore @shardcore.org · 31/08/2026
morning
3402133
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
It's the only global what....?
961206183
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
🔴 NEW: Special advisers accepted hospitality from lobbyists and businesses 700 times + since Labour took power Glastonbury tickets, Taylor Swift, UFC fights + more SpAds sit outside the UK lobbying rules. So no one knows what was actually discussed🧵 democracyforsale.substack.com/p/the-700-fr...
democracyforsale.substack.com
The 700 freebies: how lobbyists and businesses courted Labour's special advisers
A Democracy for Sale investigation reveals the scale of hospitality accepted by ‘spads’ – and how little the public is allowed to know about it
27382250
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Today in badly-worded headlines: www.scmp.com/news/people-...
South China Morning Post.
Taiwan man wins lawsuit but gets jailed for recording wife's affair with robot vacuum.
24389107
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 28/08/2026
gorgeous
000
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Alex Davis @alexdavis1981.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
As the nights draw in, let's get into something spooky with four weeks of WRITING GHOST STORIES, all running online so you can join us from anywhere! www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-gh... #ghosts #ghoststory #ghoststories #spooky #haunted #haunting
eventbrite.com
Writing Ghost Stories - 4-week course
A four-week course exploring the essentials of writing a ghost story, taking in atmosphere, characterisation, pacing and much more!
022
Reposted by Iain Rowan
eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Don’t let folks tell you Gen Z students can’t read. Kicked-off my Duke first-year class with this favorite Lydia Davis story - projected text onto a whiteboard so we could annotate by hand. So many smart and insightful readings, by a group of 18 year-olds in their first week of university life.
If you ask her what is a favorite story she has written, she will hesitate for a long time and then say it may be this story that she read in a book once: an English-language teacher in China asked his Chinese student to say what was the happiest moment in his life. The student hesitated for a long time. At last he smiled with embarrassment and said that his wife had once gone to Beijing and eaten duck there, and she often told him about it, and he would have to say the happiest moment of his life was her trip, and the eating of the duck.

-Lydia Davis, Happiest Moment
613624
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
there are mists and oozes in this occulted world and all the ghosts live there
530835
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 27/08/2026
As well as the stunning photos like the one below, it's good to see this by Pietro Rojas shortlisted, this brown bear muzzled and strapped to a bike in a 'show' in Qatar as a reminder that it could equally be in 'Miserable Bastards Abusing Animals for "Entertainment" competition 2026'.
000
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 27/08/2026
As with so many others, years of strong talk for kudos and likes until the point at which power is achieved, when money talks even louder and politicians roll over so it can scratch their belly and tell them they're a good boy or girl.
000
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 27/08/2026
For years as a child I was haunted by a recurring dream of a terrifying silent angel standing by me on a riverside. It was more than a decade later that I saw Penda's Fen, and jumped out of my seat at this scene. I must have seen part of the film, way too young. Probably. "Child, be strange..."
110
Reposted by Iain Rowan
4fuxake @blueheartedly1.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This is incredibly amazing 💙👇
19473651366
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 27/08/2026
I just want to take a moment to congratulate the title. (I'm sure it's a great read , and one that is more necessary day by day, given the dark enlightenment freaks), but just to be trivial for a mo, that title...<chef's kiss>)
020
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 27/08/2026
any day now
010
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Ed Conway @edconway.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
✍️ Want to understand the bonkers nature of the modern economy? Take a ride with me on the 30,000 mile journey the cod in a fish finger takes between being caught off the coast of Scotland and consumed in a British home 🤯 Promise I'm not making this up👇 edconway.substack.com/p/the-30000-...
edconway.substack.com
The 30,000-mile fish finger
There’s a good chance the cod on your child’s plate has been around the world and back. Not that you’d learn any of that from the label...
45652297
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 27/08/2026
Drafting a new short story but trying something new: the pov is first person plural, which is going to be an interesting and fun technical challenge. The 'narrator' can only narrate what is collectively known. Greek chorus style, if the chorus were the odd liveaboards in a shabby marina.
020
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
COMING ON MONDAY Discomfort Blanket tackles The X-Files, in particular the genre-busting episode 'Jose Chung's From Outer Space'. Sure, I want to believe, but what the hell are we believing? EXCLUSIVELY on the BROKEN VEIL CHANNEL on PATREON patreon.com/brokenveil
4145
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 26/08/2026
Quite apart from the other impressions ownership gives...thinking you are some kind of super-cool technonaut when driving a fish and chip shop counter is a weird flex.
010
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 26/08/2026
Sharing this, as I've probably had a dozen of similar emails across the last two months, from people purporting to be real agents or editors...except they always had a gmail or aol (aol!) address. Pond-scum parasites. Don't be drawn in.
010
Reposted by Iain Rowan
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I appreciate that Dolly Parton refused to participate in "dress respectability" and, by her own account, modeled her aesthetic after a town "tramp," who she thought was beautiful. She separated aesthetics from character and understood "classiness" to be about how you treat people, not how you dress.
194354245284
Reposted by Iain Rowan
General Witchfinders - The British Horror Podcast and Zine @generalwitch.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
WIN 1 OF 3 BUNDLES OF 10 BRITISH LIBRARY TALES OF THE WEIRD BOOKS! We’ve teamed up with the British Library for a huge Halloween giveaway. Please re-post – the more entries, the more promos we can run! Enter here: tinyurl.com/GW-W3ird UK only. Ends 31 Oct. Good luck!
Promotional graphic for a book giveaway set against a purple background. Large bold text in the centre reads "WIN TEN TALES OF THE WEIRD BOOKS", with "WIN" and "BOOKS" in white, "TEN" in neon green, and "TALES OF THE WEIRD" in yellow.

Ten paperbacks from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection frame the text, displayed in two rows of five with colourful illustrated covers:

Top row: Circles of Stone (blue), Cornish Horrors (teal), Into the London Fog (yellow), The Platform Edge (pink), and Summoned to the Séance (orange).

Bottom row: Spectral Sounds (purple), Phantoms of Kernow (cyan), Return of the Ancients (yellow), Medusa (green), and Eerie East Anglia (teal).
35547
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Protect the Wild @protectthewild.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Two beaver kits have been born in Norfolk: the first in over 500 years! Their parents mysteriously turned up at Pensthorpe nature reserve last December and built a lodge on the Wensum. The nearest population of wild beavers is on the river Stour in Kent, 130 miles away!
34316
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 24/08/2026
Oh no, the north-east England QAnon massive are going to be frothing at the mouth when they see this. (And yes, they do exist. Not so massive though)
000
Reposted by Iain Rowan
National Emergency Briefing @nebriefing.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
145 MPs now call on gov to level with the public about the threats from climate change and nature loss and the benefits from genuine emergency action. Is your MP on the list? Enter postcode see: www.nebriefing.org/parliamentar... It’s #TimeToStepUp #NationalEmergencyBriefing
nebriefing.org
Check here to see if your MP has signed
For MPs and Peers to express support for briefing the nation on the threats from climate & nature breakdown to the UK’s security, food supply, health and economy.
85836
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 14/06/2026
Happy news today to have my story "Hell Is Empty" accepted by the brilliant Supernatural Tales. Gone back to writing short fiction this year, and that's the first one to move so far.
041
Iain Rowan @iainrowan.com · 29/05/2026
010
Reposted by Iain Rowan
National Emergency Briefing @nebriefing.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Screenings of the People's Emergency Briefing in Ireland, Germany, France and Belgium as well as further afield. Governments aren't being transparent with the public about the severe threats to society posed by climate & nature breakdown. Until that changes, civil society is stepping up. #PEBuk
12616
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Sorry to hear about Jeff Bezos's rocket exploding prematurely. A good technique to prevent that from happening is to try thinking about something you find totally unarousing or even repulsive, like giving workers a living wage or paying a fair share of taxes.
25685701849
Reposted by Iain Rowan
Emma Haslett @emmahaslett.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
People here are exhausted. Every time we want to swim in the sea, we need to check an app to make sure Southern Water hasn’t pumped sewage into the sea. Now we’re in a heatwave, South East Water has turned off the taps. We have no choice about who we pay for this service. We feel powerless.
15621