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Owen Booth

@owenbooth.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.1K following 1.5K posts

Guaranteed relatable content from award-winning local author/ tired person

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Reposted by Owen Booth
Priceratops @rikkiprice.bsky.social · 7h
A sobering read
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 17h
Have a go on this previously unpublished story that was shortlisted for the V.S. Pritchett prize a couple of years back and almost became the title of a collection. Warning: contains scenes of male nudity. Please enjoy "Middle-Aged Sex Object"... owen872603.substack.com/p/middle-age...
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David Hayden @seventydys.bsky.social · 19h
‘Clouds of Albion’ a short story @stingingfly.bsky.social stingingfly.org/2023/11/15/n...
Clouds of Albion, for Max
David Hayden Nov 15, 2023
Fiction
Norman played dominoes in the kitchen, not waiting for the lost ones to show. Spots under his palms. Norman, the once upon a time beautiful boy, shattered twink, reverb child, horny fingered string bender, had lost his hair in one big surprise. Ivory rectangles clacked together to make patterns that Norman was sure would eventually be the key, the number, that might turn behind his eyes and release a flow of awe and rage and tunes from where they were trapped, whirring like thugs' knives forever in that alley in 1972. Over and over, he moved the tiles and stared into the new shapes chance had made. He liked a small glass to drink out of, as he emptied the skinny green bottle of red wine that tasted of raspberries and smoke.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 19h
Evening scenes, two for the price of one
Black and white stupid sunset Colour stupid sunset
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 20h
NAME A LEG YOU COWARDS
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 23h
Wordpress keeps getting worse but Substack is full of nazis but I haven’t got time to do my own website but all the literary magazines have closed down but traditional publishing - well, who knows what’s going on with traditional publishing anymore - but
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Ouch www.thebookseller.com/comment/who-...
Quote from anonymous commenter as published in The Bookseller: “When sales disappoint, it is the author's name attached to those numbers. Nobody adds an asterisk saying: this book received very little support.”
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Reposted by Owen Booth
Simon Spanton @simonguy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"I do not know what I expected. Perhaps to find a doddering and frail praying mantis, whispering about the station, blown by seawinds, a chalk-white ghost who would husk at me with voices of grass and reeds blown in the night." Ray Bradbury, Emperor of The October Country.
A photo of the 1984 Granada reprint of The October Country by Ray Bradbury. The cover art is by Peter Goodfellow.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Name a leg: Left leg!
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Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Before very long you people are going to be wondering what the hell to buy your dad or your aunty or your weird cousin for Christmas. And when that day comes - and believe me it will - you will wish you had ordered a custom crossword from me.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
But… but… why not do those important things in *this* parliament, while you have a huge majority?
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Art installation, terrorist incident or public convenience? It’s so hard to tell these days!
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A cash-strapped rural police force struggles to deal with Red Diesel gangs. Until its chief inspector realises can get the Met Police to deal with the problem... ...if he pretends they're Iranian. A new six part comedy starring Toby Jones.
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Tony White @tonywhite.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Literature Live — next episode of my monthly radio books programme is Monday 12 October 2026, 8:00–9:00pm. My guests this month are @lukekennard.bsky.social and @judecook.bsky.social — readings and chat with the emphasis on writers reading from their fiction. @resonancefm.bsky.social — don’t miss!
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Name a film with a woman director: Love Lies Bleeding - Rose Glass. Absolute banger. Sweaty, violent, low-down-and-dirty neo-noir/ love story/ surreal black comedy. Truly brilliant.
The image shows the official poster for the 2024 romantic crime thriller film Love Lies Bleeding.
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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
BREAKING: 94 year old Jewish human rights barrister, Margaret Owen arrested under the Terrorism Act outside Andy Burnham’s Labour Party conference. UK taxpayers are funding these arrests while masked men terrorise the streets in coastal towns. Lift The Ban on Palestine Action.
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Richard Burgon MP @richardburgon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
90 years ago today, 30,000 people gathered on Holbeck Moor in Leeds to stop British fascist leader Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts holding a rally. My grandad was there to help stop the fascists. I was so proud to speak at the unveiling of the plaque commemorating that historic day.
A plaque explaining: 

The Battle of Holbeck Moor

On 27 September 1936, 30,000 people assembled to prevent the leader of the British Union of Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosley, and his Blackshirts, from holding a rally.'They shall not pass.'
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The techbros don't want you to see this trailer. Pass it on.
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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.eurosky.social · 27/09/2026
Horrible to see that - in some sense - today's financial survival options for such a singular writer are either 1) accept $175k from a prize that requires you to destroy your fragile health with promotional requirements, or 2) accept $175k with no strings from a rightwing Koch-funded thinktank :-0
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Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I've written Joe Harkness's obituary for the Guardian. I hope it pays good tribute to a wonderful man who was brave, honest and made the world a better place. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Joe Harkness obituary
Writer, teacher and naturalist who explored the effects of the natural world on neurodivergency
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
EVERYTHING ON THIS LIST IS WRONG EXCEPT FOR THE STUFF THAT ISN’T
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Everyone knows that novels are terrible and short stories are great - so If you haven’t contributed to this fantastic project yet, do it! (I’m minded to include novellas in the short story category, not least coz I just wrote one)
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Absolutely magnificent. Walbrook delivers not one but two of the greatest monologues in film history.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Tip
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Let me explain (1/2574)
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It was a wonder. And there were stickers!
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Reposted by Owen Booth
hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
From tonight's Hookland talk on Re-enchantment as Resistance at @treadwells-books.bsky.social. 'Folklore is often the wild frontier of belief, the place where wonder may still live. Here be Woodwoses, here be Harrowhounds, the ghosts which whisper wisdom.' #FolkloreThursday
Folklore can ignite enchantment within us. Enchantment that fuels our imaginations. Enchantment that shifts our consciousness, allows us to envisage new and better worlds. It begins the process of manifesting the changes we desire. Re-enchanted, the world is full of new, feral possibilities. Re-enchanted our imagination is an accessible superpower. 

The stories we intentionally absorb, the stories we select to tell ourselves, they allow us to live in the world differently. They allow us to make and remake the world differently.

Folklore is often the wild frontier of belief, the place where wonder may still live. Here be Woodwoses, here be Harrowhounds, the ghosts which whisper wisdom. We need this space. We ache for the sublime. For re-enchantment is an assertion of wonder and the numinosity of our relationships with landscape. Re-enchantment is an assertion of our collective ability to both imagine and experience better worlds. As a refusal of despair, as a lensing of hope. In re-enchantment we stop dreaming of inevitable apocalypse and find the permissive space to tell stories of hope.

Re-enchantment is personal metamorphosis. The space in which we grow glowing red eyes to patrol our communities against this long night of authoritarian pisspuffinry. The space in which we develop iron-hard fur, immune to the curses reductionist racists, misogynists, homophobes and AI cultists throw at us. Re-enchantment as the permissive circle where we can voyage into ourselves and find the marvels and bravery we need to deal with this age of violent bruising. This is why I walk the territory of folklore. Wear my witch-cloak of swan feathers, hold hag stone to my eye. This is why I created Hookland as a home for stories, a community for Fully-grown Changelings.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is predictably wonderful. And bonus points to @willwiles.bsky.social for the Chris Achilleos shout out
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Jude Rogers @juderogers.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
...so read my long love-letter to this show, in which I explore all its complications and unanswered questions, here. juderogers.substack.com/p/the-unansw...
juderogers.substack.com
The unanswered questions of 70 Up
The death of Nick, goodbye to Neil, and the power of watching fourteen real lives in time-lapse – the return of my Mid-Week Culture Culture Blast
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Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hello, here is your occasional reminder that a whole load of my essays, reviews, short stories and other things can be found HERE, on my web-site, thank you for your attention to this matter. richarddsmyth.com
richarddsmyth.com
Richard Smyth
Writer for hire. Reviews, essays, features.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
READ THIS BOOK YOU IDIOTS
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Equinox? Shitquinox more like. Took me two days to come up with that. And now it’s too late. Plus, “Fuckquinox” would have worked better. I hate everything.
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Matt Jakubowski (he/him) @mattjakubowski.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Some days it feels like the people who once told us TV was going to rot our brains are now the people who have to use Siri to find their own fucking socks.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
ALSO penguin has just republished Oakley Hall’s magnificent “Warlock” which is a great excuse for you to read it if you haven’t (or read it again if you have) www.penguin.co.uk/books/480655...
penguin.co.uk
Warlock
The taste and smell of Warlock was not merely that of its dust, but the taste of apprehension, the smell of fear and anger like a dangerous animal snarling and stinking in its cage . . . In the dust-...
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
What do you mean I’m only supposed to read one book at a time? How would I get through them all???
The covers of the books “The Wax Child” by Olga Ravn, “Tree of Smoke” by Dennis Johnson, and “Hard Rain Falling” by Don Carpenter
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This may actually be all you need to know about any writer…
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Apropos of nowt really, here are a few of the random things that I’ve accidentally had random things published in
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Sal Cap0ne @salimotxo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
All the Cusk chat making me think I should give her another go. I read the first one BITD and thought she came across like someone you were at university with who was a right piece of work and then my friend said 'I was at university with her and she was a right piece of work' so that was that.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Really sad to hear that Joe Harkness has died. One of us. Here’s an interview with him from last year. He did more good in the world than he realised. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Intrinsically connected’: how human neurodiversity could help save nature
Biodiversity is linked to people’s diversity, and nature lends itself to people who are different, says author Joe Harkness
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Short deleted chapter from current project, posted for your entertainment owen-booth.com/2026/09/21/y...
Screenshot of text that reads as follows: “The rocket had been designed by your business partner, who was a grizzled former test pilot and engineer with twelve space missions under his belt and his own aerospace company into which you'd invested - by that point - over five hundred million dollars.
The crew consisted of the two of you plus six assorted celebrities - pop stars, actors and social media influencers - who had all been paid over a million dollars each to join the promotional trip - and who had all eaten the same fateful macrobiotic breakfast before boarding that morning.
The ship was called "Marybelle" in honour of your mother.
Like the rocketship, your mother had been sleek, beautiful and expensive. And like the vacuum of space, she had been cold, empty and cruel.”
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
New Mary Gaitskill story! granta.com/intercession/
granta.com
Intercession
‘She really did not know what to think about any of this. And still she had to walk through it. A lot of it.’ Fiction by Mary Gaitskill.
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 19/09/2026
as.ft.com/r/f257abde-7... Morning all
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Luke Turner @luketurner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is insane. "My productivity as a journalist nosedives" well no shit if you're stalking YOUR OWN SON on the internet?! There's a certain breed of Times/Telegraph/Mail middle class journalist who all need therapy (rather than the coping mechanism of terfing or 'My School Run Lesbian Romp' etc)
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Appalled
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Always nice to be interviewed.
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cultauthor.bsky.social @cultauthor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Hookland will never establish diplomatic relations with Piddington.
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Mark Hebden @unionlib.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Scotland: We want to leave the UK BBC: Huh? Wales: We want to leave the UK BBC: What? Northern Ireland: We want to leave the UK BBC: Lolz Some shithole in Oxfordshire: We want to leave the UK because racism BBC: REPORT THE HELL OUT OF THIS #Piddington
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I was to some extent involved in this! You should probably go see it! irhttps://lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/darren-jacksons-wedding
lyrictheatre.co.uk
Darren Jackson’s Wedding – The Immersive Comedy Where You’re on the…
After the award-winning success of Granny Jackson’s Dead, the Jackson family return with Darren Jackson’s Wedding—a chaotic, immersive theatre experience.
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Richard V. Hirst @richardvhirst.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Pretty much every day I think about the time when Amazon sent William Shatner into space for a laugh and he came back sounding like Nick Cave's newsletter.
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Owen Booth @owenbooth.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This was what the good old days were actually like and it was great
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