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Monisha Rajesh

@monisharajesh.bsky.social
952 followers 231 following 203 posts

Sunday Times bestselling author of Moonlight Express: Around the World By Night Train, Around the World in 80 Trains and Around India in 80 Trains

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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I’ve banned my kids from watching Sailish shows. The sexualisation of his young daughter for clout is sickening.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 06/10/2026
Israeli settlers beat press photographer as soldiers watch in West Bank
theguardian.com
Israeli settlers beat press photographer as soldiers watch in West Bank
Jaafar Ashtiyeh was covering violence against olive farmers when settlers set upon him with the butts of their guns Armed Israeli settlers beat a photographer in the presence of Israeli soldiers, hospitalising him, as he covered worsening settler violence against olive farmers in the occupied West Bank. Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old veteran photographer for Agence France-Presse in Palestine, was assaulted by a group of settlers, who beat him with the butts of their guns, despite him being marked as press. He was assaulted in view of about a dozen armed Israeli soldiers. Continue reading...
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Oh dear, I missed this. I dont blame parents for reaching for the closest thing they see on the shelves but its booksellers who make the difference again by hand-selling. A good one can really change a shop.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Eeesh. I remember Amelia Jane books. There was a fight in the doll’s house and she screamed at the golliwog ”I will cut off all your hair so you look like a black chinaman” and I’m very glad they no longer exist in that form. No kid benefits from that.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I had a couple of HPs at my parents’ and had no issue with them reading them but I won’t put a penny towards her now and explained why to the kids and they get it. There are so many other brilliant books that they've never shown much interest in HP.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
When the kids were really little I wouldn’t read certain books to them. But with Dahl, for example now, they bring them to me and we talk over why some stuff is offensive. I won’t tell them not to read things but offer alternatives. JKR is different though. I won’t have them in the house!
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Lisa Guerrero @lisaguerrero.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Not only did I meet Robert Kraft, I worked for him. His kid Jonathan asked me to “remove the black music” from my gameday playlist in ‘94 & I refused so they fired me. I was the cheerleader director at the time.  I sued them for wrongful termination and won. So yes, I know that motherfucker. 
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Thank you Michael!
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kerraway.bsky.social @kerraway.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Bargain of the moment in Waterstones shops: the paperbacks of 'Moonlight Express' by @monisharajesh.bsky.social and 'The Finest Hotel in Kabul' by Lyse Doucet are in the 'buy 1, get 1 half-price' offer. I can heartily recommend both: deskboundtraveller.com/my-books-of-....
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thank you, Tom!
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Tom - the BookCellar @tombartley.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Just completed Moonlight Express by @monisharajesh.bsky.social. A brilliantly transporting read, which has immediately inspired two journeys for slowing down and avoiding flights in 2027. We have only a handful of signed copies left after Monisha’s brilliant event earlier this month.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Paid my taxes so these freeloaders can exist.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
“Working members“ of the royal family is an oxymoron. They don’t work. They’re all freeloading parasites.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
🚂🚝🚆🚞
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Thrilled to see Moonlight Express in the Sunday Times Bestsellers for a second week in a row!
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
She is. And this isn’t her first rodeo. This is what she does.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The white person who starts the whole affair always manages to flip the narrative and become the “target of a witch hunt”, blaming anyone who calls out the behaviour as bullying while they carefully reposition themselves as the real victim.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Ah! Thank you. I hope it brings back some fond memories.
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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
One of the things us an industry need to stop doing is perpetuating the 'they say this on social media, but they're a sweetheart in real life' about awful people I've had other journos say this to me about some of the most pernicious grifters over the years, some of who crossed many lines this week
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
My book is out in paperback next week. If you want to understand how the media works (and what’s going wrong) it’s the book for you. Samira Ahmed said it’s “brimming with intelligence, energy, ethics and impeccable research." geni.us/BreakingMicW...
The cover of Breaking, the background is red, the title is on a piece of ripped white  paper and written in blue newsprint font. The subtitle reads: How the Media Works, When it Doesn’t, and Why it Matters.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Thank you so much
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
That’s super kind, thank you
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Thank you!
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
So thrilled that Moonlight Express is no. 6 on the Sunday Times bestseller list! Thank you so much to everyone who has bought and recommended the book.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I would love to come up north but am at the behest of publishers schedules and school holidays with my kids at home.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Readers in Cambridge, I will be at Waterstones tonight from 6pm discussing Moonlight Express, and then in Bristol tomorrow night at the Book Cellar. A handful of tickets left so please come along!
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Newham Bookshop is one of the loveliest indies in London, and it may have to close down. PLEASE support them if you can and share widely.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Tomorrow evening I’ll be talking about Moonlight Express at @waterstones Kensington High Street with @shafikmeghji.bsky.social so please come along and join us for what will be a very fun event talking all things sleeper trains! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening...
eventbrite.co.uk
An Evening with Monisha Rajesh - Kensington
Join us for a wonderful evening of conversation with Monisha Rajesh, as she discusses her recent book Moonlight Express
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Shafik Meghji @shafikmeghji.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Looking forward to speaking to @monisharajesh.bsky.social about her brilliant book #MoonlightExpress tomorrow evening at @waterstones.bsky.social Kensington in London 🚞 Still time to book your spot 🎟️ www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...
waterstones.com
An Evening in conversation with Monisha Rajesh | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones
Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about An Evening in conversation with Monisha Rajesh today.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Thank you!
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Hi Nanjala, I’ve sent you an email about the essay if you haven’t received it yet?
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Thank you! It is still one of the most unbearable situations I’ve found myself in. And just two weeks ago I left Kumamoto, right before the earthquake.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
How lovely! Thank you both so much
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Thank you!
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Spooky Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Rod Liddle thought migrants from India wouldn't have a clue about politics or voting. They'd think they were ordering the Bombay aloo. "I suppose this last comment will be considered a racist aside" he writes: yes, it is explicitly racist.
And my suspicion is that quite a few of those who voted by post in Peterborough, with help from community leaders, may have been people who do not speak English and may well have thought they were ticking a box to choose their favourite vegetable side dish – tarka dal, brinjal bhaji or Bombay aloo. I suppose this last comment will be considered a racist aside.
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Spooky Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Your reminder that Rod Liddle thought all minority groups could be belittled and mocked. In that respect he was equal opportunities. 0/10 for originality for using The One Joke.
Rod Liddle
I’m identifying as a young, black, trans chihuahua, and the truth can go whistle
Sunday November 11 2018, 12.01am, The Sunday Times 
https://www.thetimes.com/comment/article/i-m-identifying-as-a-young-black-trans-chihuahua-and-the-truth-can-go-whistle-tq550nx5f
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Spooky Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Your reminder Rod Liddle not only said he couldn't have become a teacher because he "could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids" in The Spectator, but he also wrote laws banning child pornography are "absurd" in The Guardian. Abhorrent.
SPECTATOR

>

Magazine

>

Issue: "Why I went east"

>

Columns

Rod Liddle

A teenage girl, a maths teacher and a righteous tabloid fury

27 Sep 2012, 12:00am

From magazine issue:

Why I went east
THE

SPECTATOR

I never found out because the one thing stopping me from being a teacher was that I could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids. It seemed to me virtually impossible not to, and I was convinced that I'd be right in there, on day one. We're talking secondary school level here, by the way and even then I don't think I'd have dabbled much below year ten, as it is now called. I just thought we ought to clear that up early on. At my old comprehensive school a few teachers were known to be schtupping the pupils; one of them, a female teacher who was extremely foxy in a Pot Noodle scuzzy kind of way she copped off with some fifth-form lad, and another teacher (a man with a guitar and aGuardian

Should it really be a crime to look at child pornography?

Rod Liddle

Tue 14 Jan 2003 04.12 EST

f

→18 years old

I wanted to look at some pictures of child pornography from the internet this week and then tell you all about them, but I couldn'tHow absurd the law is. But at least it is an appropriate reflection of our collective neurosis and confusion about paedophilia generally. The one laudable and necessary aim - to protect children from abuse - has become warped by our consuming, obsessive hatred for those who find children sexually attractive. There is no causal link between viewing child porn and abusing children. And even if there were, it would not be sufficient, within the philosophy of our judicial system, to simply assume that an unpleasant penchant for the former
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Ha not sure what would make you nervous. I was honest about it all at the very least!
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Thrilled to announce that Moonlight Express is a Waterstones Book of the Month for August! lots of signed copies available for armchair travellers..
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
💯- I was there not too long ago and blown away. But it’s slim-pickings.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Haha oh my goodness I’d forgotten about this. Gosh that cathedra in Sofia was extraordinary and I still have little faith that our generation is leaving anything of note.
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Hi Felicity, thank you for such a lovely reply! I so hope you do manage to book a couple x
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
The good people at @stanfordstravel.bsky.social have seen my beautiful new paperback even before I have and I am very envious as I’m on a train in Japan. Please get your pre-orders in for Moonlight Express for the end of this month!
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 06/07/2026
UK charity funding school at heart of illegal Israeli settlement expansion
theguardian.com
UK charity funding school at heart of illegal Israeli settlement expansion
Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 to school in Hebron – where Israel has been accused of imposing apartheid – between 2019 and 2024 A British charity is funding a religious school at the heart of expansion plans for the illegal Israeli settlement in the Palestinian city of Hebron. Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 to the school between 2019 and 2024, the last year for which accounts are publicly available on the website of the Charity Commission, the charity regulator for England and Wales. Continue reading...
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Moonlight Express in paperback now available for pre-order! Out in a few weeks! www.waterstones.com/book/moonlig...
The image says THIS IS MONISHA RAJESH’s WITTIEST and MOST IRRESISTIBLE adventure yet. By William Dalrymple. Above a book cover that is mauve and peach and wit graphics from cities around the world.
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Campaign for Better Transport @bettertransport.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Tell us about your fave journey in 1 sentence - win all these books! Thanks for the signed books to @mickhamer.bsky.social @christianwolmar.bsky.social @monisharajesh.bsky.social @lauralaker.bsky.social @petedyson.bsky.social [Comp not associated with BlueSky] bettertransport.org.uk/better-trans...
bettertransport.org.uk
Competition: tell us your favourite journey
What's your favourite journey by sustainable transport? Tell us in one sentence, and you could win a transport-tastic book bundle in celebration of Better Transport Week!
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
This is brilliant!
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
So sorry, only just saw this. Definitely too tight. And you have to be at the departures for Eurostar 75mins before
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Monisha Rajesh @monisharajesh.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Great! Thank you
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