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On Viewless Wings

@onviewlesswings.bsky.social
3.1K followers 5.4K following 3.7K posts

Writing, reading, running, teaching. Poetry PhD. Am actually writing. Interested in the amplification of working class voices, northern voices, & kind & talented voices. Writing, I swear. Meliorist, still.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 12h
I sometimes show my students McGonagall's Tay Bridge Disaster when we are discussing what we might mean by 'quality' in poetry, as an example of what is sometimes in teaching known as a WASOLL (What A Shit One Looks Like).
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 14h
I hope gaol time is part of the Man City conversation. This is organised crime.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My favourite line of literary criticism comes from Empson, who wrote: "You must rely on the individual poem to show you how it is trying to be good." I use it with my students, & have also found it to be a useful piece of life advice, if you extrapolate it to a moment, or a situation, or a day.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I keep coming back to this clip against the background of AI companies infesting higher education. And I feel like I need to show this in class to students, for them to understand why not to trust these bastards
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
No, Guardian - the correct question is not: "How did a solicitor who is the leader of the English Democrats and a Norwegian national fare on Brexit, surveillance and Ukraine?" The correct question is: why the absolute fuck are you using a fluff piece to platform the leader of the English Democrats?
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TurianShepard @turianshepard.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And so ends my big read of the #Discworld books! What an absolute joy it’s been. I’m a little sad it’s over!
The final page of Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Pope Innocent III,who died in 1216, spoke of a certain kind of older man, who is "easily provoked", "will believe anything and question nothing", is "stingy and greedy" and "praises the good old days and hates the present." Reform UK's voter base has been knocking around for a very long time.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
#ManCity : I recall a runner talking about finding out via text in Asda that she'd won a European Championship medal, because a runner ahead of her in a race 15 yrs earlier had been doping. No podium moment. No way of knowing where success might have led. There might a lot of that about.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Looking forward to the new adaptation of #EastofEden, on Netflix next week. Florence Pugh is great in everything, & she has the ice to play Cathy. Interesting that Zoe Kazan is directing: granddaughter of Elia, who directed James Dean in the film version. & who, lest we forget, named names at HUAC.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I think of my time as mostly spent not writing, unable to fit it in, this thing I want to do. But, y'know, I wrote 40,000 words last year, & I'm sure I'll hit another 60,000 this year. And 100,000 words across 2 yrs isn't nothing, with full time (more than full time really) work, & two young kids.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This made me smile.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This seems like a sad and strange situation. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Ranulph Fiennes’ stepson appeals for funds to ‘locate and safeguard’ the explorer
Alexander Millington-Cotes is concerned for welfare of the 82-year-old, who hasn’t been seen in public for two years
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Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"I understood that to live with a work of fiction ... one has to love it quite passionately and be comfortable with all its moods and habits, or – as Colm Tóibín puts it with delicious domestic flair – one has to stay for long periods of time in one’s “mental pyjamas”."
theguardian.com
‘My generation of novelists is dying’: Rose Tremain on 70 years of writing, and late-life inspiration
As her latest novel about Daphne du Maurier is published, the bestselling author reflects on age and creativity – and why at 83 she has no plans to stop
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Reposting, because a good pun will always impress me much.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Nineteen Premier League clubs announce sponsorship deal with new German beer Schadenfreude...
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
😕 www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Oxford lets OpenAI train its AI models on Bodleian Library
University staff voice concerns over reputational risk of partnering with company behind ChatGPT
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
An important article, and many of the comments in the comments section mirror my sister's experience. As with so many things, a difficult situation is exacerbated by it either being out of the public consciousness or, if it is in it, unhelpfully misrepresented. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot
Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Fuck he was good.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Quite the discourse going on here... www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
theguardian.com
Dominic West backs ‘top shagger’ Byron in poetry battle with Bob Geldof
Actor hails ‘proto-rock star’ as best poet, while musician argues for ‘Ireland’s Shakespeare’ WB Yeats at Somerset festival
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Today I got everything on my to do list done, and some other things. I've been in this profession since 2002, so I guess it was bound to happen sometime.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
👇
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Ageing: the condition of becoming less serious about all you were once far too serious about and more serious about all that you once undervalued.
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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Name recognition as a tawdry Kenneth Williams wannabe who pouts at the deluded on Britain's Got Talent does not make you a writer, and it's about time publishers got off the celeb publishing merry-go-round and made space for actual talent. There. I said it.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Common spelling errors I am noticing on social media: 'Definitely', spelled 'definately'. 'Separate', spelled 'seperate'. 'Pricks', spelled 'people with legitimate concerns'.
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huck mason @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
rip annie dillard
One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Building the Angel of the North, 1998, photo by Trevor Ermel.
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History and Heritage Yorkshire @handhyorkshire.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🧵J.M.W. Turner’s iconic painting Ulysses deriding Polyphemus, Homer’s Odyssey has arrived at York Art Gallery, ahead of the opening of its new major exhibition, Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman on Friday. On loan from the National Gallery, the painting takes centre stage
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851. Ulysses deriding Polyphemus - Homers Odyssey, 1829 © The National Gallery, London. At York Art Gallery, credit York Museums Trust
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History and Heritage Yorkshire @handhyorkshire.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🧵Early subscription libraries in Yorkshire emerged in the 18th century. These libraries allowed middle-class members to pool money to buy and preserve books. The most important example is The Leeds Library, founded in 1768 and the oldest surviving proprietary subscription
The Leeds Library, founded in 1768 and the oldest surviving proprietary subscription library in the country. Image: Michael D Beckwith, Public Domain.
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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes
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Beth Levin @betheena.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Finding pathos in dogs and undeveloped handwriting” A poem by Louis MacNeice
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I mean, fine, George, but I haven't forgotten that it was you and that other posh boy dickhead mate of yours who precipitated this everlasting shitshow by offering a referendum to appease that other posh boy gurning dickhead with his sodding waxed jacket and 1/ www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
George Osborne calls for UK to rejoin EU customs union and boost trade
Ex-Tory chancellor says economy has ‘fallen off a cliff’ since Brexit but rejoining union could be ‘quite simple’
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ScouseScene @scousescene.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Liverpool Football Club has officially opened a permanent mental wellbeing hub at Anfield, providing supporters with a safe space to talk, connect and access specialist support on matchdays. #lfc ❤️ Read more in the comments...
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Always enjoy watching the #GreatNorthRun on the telly. I've run it 15 or 16 times but not for a few years now. Always loved the day and felt like it punctuated my life: running it with my Dad, Mum watching, the kids coming along to watch as they grew, then running it in Mum's memory.
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Simon Knott @simonknott.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Inside the brilliant Culture House, Sunderland, which opened this morning. Four floors of libraries, galleries, arts and science labs, screens, performance spaces, children's discovery spaces and the archive centre, not to mention cafés and a sky garden!
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Trump announces he is going to make fetch happen. Any day now.
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
As both an academic and a writer, I am repelled by the "this looks like a long document. Would you like me to summarize it for you?" that seems to appear at the top of every pdf viewer now. NO. The *entire point* of good writing (either books or journal papers) is that every sentence has a purpose.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Even Oswald Mosley must be turning in his grave at this shower.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
STUDIO BOSSES: We need ideas for a sequel CAMUS: One must imagine Sisyphus Daffy
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The news is telling me that the AfD in Germany is far right but masked blackshirts blocking roads in England are protesters with legitimate concerns.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Spielberg called him the best actor in the world. His autobiography, A Spectacle of Dust, is great. To me, he will always be Danny in Brassed Off. And Brassed off will always be a great and important film.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
100% this. 100% this. Stop telling me I need to push this nonsense in my classroom.
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Odd Future Wolfgang Pauli @ofwp.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Every new "innovation" in teaching amounts to teachers doing twice as much work to track something that has nothing to do with their job and won't improve student learning
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
My students already know how to use AI! What they don’t know is the stuff I need to teach them in my classes
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I like this a lot. My mum worked in a chip shop for decades, and I had a morning job there from when I was about 11, putting the spuds in the rumbler to peel them. Carried it on through university holidays and even after. I can smell the salt sizzle on the scraps.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The glass ceiling is absolutely a thing, but we should talk more about the glass floor: the effect of precarity on risk taking, creative work, & just the mental load it takes. Imagine what a person could achieve if they knew the floor would never crack beneath them.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
'Trying', on Apple TV, is so very good, Esther Smith in particular, but so very good all round. Apple TV do do these things very well.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
There are some people I forget exist and then remember with a kind of oh, yeah, Christ. Nadine Dorries; Toby Young... Does anyone else have these moments?
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A discussion worth having. (Though I think the English GCSE's issues are more to do with its structure and requirements than its text choices.) What would you choose? What would you drop? www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...
theguardian.com
‘Bold, brilliant, thrilling’: leading authors on the novels every school should teach
A new term, a new PM … time for a new English curriculum? We ask writers from Ben Okri to Samantha Harvey to pick books that will inspire a lifelong love of reading
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Sure. It's the protests that did the marring, not the mob assault of the protesters.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Marina Hyde in the Guardian today, when asked who she would want to be Prime Minister, says J K Rowling.
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