A brilliant essay by
@sammyfeldblum.bsky.social on what the unravelling of Thames Water tells us about privatisation, market failure and the place and politics of water in the climate crisis
"There is a perversity to its very existence as an economic good: water falls from the sky, for free, and its daily availability is crucial to human survival, yet it is everywhere subject to the convolutions of political economy."
@sammyfeldblum.bsky.social on Thames Water and the politics of water
Nothing to Lose but Our Mains
The unraveling of Britain’s largest water utility is not just a corporate scandal but a case study in how privatized water systems strain under climate pressure, aging infrastructure and the limits of...
John Berger, one of Europe’s most influential post-war writers and intellectuals, was born 100 years ago on 5 November 1926 in Stoke Newington, and happily the subject of many planned commemorative events in the UK and across Europe this year.
“The poet does not use poetry, but is at the service of poetry. To use it is to misuse it.”
- Denise Levertov
I love the images in this poem. Also something clever about the repetition and effect of the line breaks in the final stanza
#poetry
#poemofthedayBooks of 2025:
The Meaning of Growth - Richard Douglas
A Climate of Truth - Mike Berners-Lee
Climate Injustice - Friederike Otto
Brightening from the East - Ken Worpole
Homework - Geoff Dyer
Books of the half-decade :
Late Soviet Britain - Abby Innes
Twilight of Democracy - Anne Applebaum
Including my personal pick, from the great
@kgeorgew.bsky.social'It was in July, 1922, a hot day, I bought a Bartholomew map of Essex, inch to the mile, coloured for elevation. The blue creeks, the wide expanses of green for marsh, all delighted me.'
'I knew that extraordinary sensation of being where I wanted to be...socketted in the universe.'
Essex Marshes
Will Hutton
“When the story of the 2024 - 29(?) Parliament is told one of the strangest chapters will be the refusal to close down foreign donations to British political parties”.
What on earth do Labour MPs think their ministers are doing here?
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
Reform’s record £9m crypto donation is just the latest offering from abroad | The Observer
Surprised and delighted to be alongside Philip Hoare as writing one of the New Statesman’s ‘Books of the Year 2025’, chosen by Geoff Dyer. Dyer is kind and generous to us both, characterising Hoare’s writing as ‘ecstatic, kaleidoscopic and visionary’, and mine as consistently thoughtful and moving.’
Jeremy Seabrook died one year ago today aged 85. One of the most original & pioneering voices for social justice, human rights & dignity in post-war Britain. He asked: “Why is it that the rich must become immeasurably more rich before the poor can become even fractionally less poor?”
Damilola Taylor: The fight to protect young lives
www.bbc.com/news/article...
And the full-frame image from his memorial on the Peckham Estate
#DamilolaTaylorMy new book, all about how, in the 1970s and 80s, the good architects and planners of the Peterborough Development Corporation tried to create pedestrian-friendly places to live. Available here:
theradburnidea.bigcartel.com/product/the-...
‘Designing social housing for later life is too often reduced to a simple provision of service. Appleby Blue, however, is a provision of pure delight . . . high-quality spaces that are generous and thoughtful, blending function and community . . .’
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Spa vibes with a grow-your-own-dinner option: Britain’s best new building is a revamped almshouse
With its shimmering ginkgo trees, tinkling pools and a rooftop garden, the Appleby Blue Almshouse housing complex for older people is a worthy winner of RIBA’s prestigious Stirling prize
I'm too inactive here, but just to say I have an exhibition opening this weekend, plus events etc coming up... If you are in an Essex direction pls come by!
firstsite.uk/event/into-t...We should all be deeply grateful for Emma Warren’s timely cultural history of the youth club (
@faberbooks.bsky.social), writes social historian and former youth worker Ken Worpole (
@kgeorgew.bsky.social)
www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/09/up-t...Please join us at Swedenborg House on Thursday 25 September 7pm-9pm (doors open 6.30pm) for 'BUILDING A WINDMILL | KEN WORPOLE & MELISSA BENN IN CONVERSATION.'
FREE. For more information please visit:
www.swedenborg.org.uk/events/build...
@kgeorgew.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.socialJust published, two inspiring collection of essays on the prospects for rural Britain in the future. Vol 1: Land, food & farming. Vol 2: Housing, planning & construction. From Assemble, Little Toller Books and the inestimable Common Ground. Fabulous photos by Kaye Song, designed by Polytechnic.
Child and art, Child Welfare, Netherlands Stamps, 1964. Designed by Ootje Oxenaar
designreviewed.com/artefacts/ch...Thanks to
@thetcpa.bsky.social for commissioning this article for the latest edition of their Journal. Hope you enjoy the read. 😊
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...Why Unicef almost always concludes that Dutch children are the happiest in the world. Me on what makes a good childhood, based partly on having grown up in the Netherlands
@financialtimes.com on.ft.com/45o0cjh
The magic of childhood in the Netherlands
[FREE TO READ] And what other countries can learn from it
Looking forward to seeing old friends at the wonderful Wivenhoe Bookshop on Friday, 5 September, 2025 at 7pm. I'll be talking about rural socialism, artists's colonies, post-industrial landscapes, and eco- futurism, all part of the county's febrile 20th century history.
This documentary history of Frating Hall Farm in Essex, a unique pacifist community - taped interviews, photographs, letters, diaries - has now been given its own archive at Essex Record Office.
'What Worpole's account attests to is the paradise of making paradise...'
Olivia Laing, TLS, 2021
Interesting new publication from
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social arrived today. First in a series. You can find out more on their website 👍
☀️☀️ MORE SUMMER PICKS ☀️☀️
lrb.me/e63
David’s pick of summer treats, ft. new novels from Gary Shteyngart & Nicola Barker, an ecofictional fable from Sarah Hall, a final collection of essays from the much-mourned Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and a pair of primers on environmental futures from Little Toller
'No one knows where I am and that's the way I like it.' Congratulations to Jeff Young & Little Toller Books for winning the TLS Ackerley Prize last night for Wild Twin, the definitive British post-Kerouac road trip and dream diary.
Congratulations to Jeff Young, winner of this year’s TLS Ackerley Prize for his highly original and exhilaratingly written memoir ‘Wild Twin’, published by
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social
"As Worpole so beautifully puts it, ‘we are always living in different periods simultaneously; time is malleable within our inner selves. To be wholly modern would be to have no inner life at all." Lovely
@luketurner.bsky.social review of the new Ken Worpole
www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-... Caught by the River Book of the Month: April | Caught by the River | Caught by the River
“Landscape is a combination of the human world and the natural world and therefore people are very important in it” hard recommend for the great Ken Worpole on the
@oldweirdalbion.bsky.social podcast…
open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...
The New English Landscape with Ken Worpole: Uncanny Landscapes podcast S2E4
The influential writer and social historian talks about his life and his new book, Brightening from the East: Essays on Landscape and Memory
Our music features in this fascinating podcast from writers Justin Hopper and Ken Worpole. A wonderful conversation on notions of landscape and Essex (subjects very close to our hearts) give it a listen. XX
@claypipemusic.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...
The New English Landscape with Ken Worpole: Uncanny Landscapes podcast S2E4
The influential writer and social historian talks about his life and his new book, Brightening from the East: Essays on Landscape and Memory
Published in 1987, this overlooked London-Irish novel is marked by a Beckett-like mixture of comedy and tragedy. Written by publican & novelist, Jerry O' Neill, once of The Duke of Wellington in Balls Pond Road, two Irish labourers set themselves 24 hours to raise funds to bury their friend.
Nothing more serendipitous than ordering a recommended book that sounds quite interesting but probably published years ago. Then finding that it’s unputdownable, that it addresses much of your current thinking - and THEN, that it’s actually published today
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social #LandscapeNewly published by
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social, Book of the Month is Ken Worpole's 'Brightening From the East’, which tells stories of arcadian dreams among the shabby plotlands of eastern England. Read an extract on The Peculiar People of Essex:
www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...BOOK OF THE MONTH:
@luketurner.bsky.social reviews Ken Worpole’s ‘Brightening from the East’ (
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social), finding the richness of humanity brought to life in its pages
www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...A big thank you to Ken Worpole and Tim Burrows for a fantastic evening of conversation, at
#Westcliff Library last Thursday. A truly fascinating and entertaining discussion!
Thank you also to the lovely audience who enjoyed Ken’s insights into
#Essex and
#Southend through the years.
A treat to hear the great Ken Worpole speak last night about his new book, Brightening from the East. Landscape, memory, and nonconformity on the Essex coast.
Reading mood has returned, with
#bookreviews on the way. Next up are Brightening from the East by Ken Worpole, which is looking very intriguing, & We Came by Sea by Horatio Clare. Many thanks to Gracie at
@littletollerbooks.bsky.social for allowing me to review these.
#booksky #writingcommunityKen Worpole talking about his essay on John Berger from his latest book Brightening from the East.
With the brilliant Gareth Evans at a packed
@hackney-hist-fest.bsky.socialWhat children's games around the world can teach us
Let the children play
As conflict wracks the globe, two exhibitions - "The Family of Man" and "Children's Games" - offer a powerful vision of our shared humanity
Another kind addition from Andrew Whitehead to my collection of 20th century 'experiments in living' (J.S.Mill) in Essex by all manner of peoples. Do read 'No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen: back to the land in wartime Britain', beautifully published by Little Toller in 2021, now reprinted.
Terrific evening last night at the London Review Bookshop with Susie Thomas & Iain Sinclair discussing the new Faber edition of Alexander Baron's classic novel, 'The Lowlife'. Amazing how the 're-forgotten' novelist (in Sinclair's apt term) is enjoying a spectacular revival.
Congratulations to Jeff Young, winner of this year’s TLS Ackerley Prize for his highly original and exhilaratingly written memoir ‘Wild Twin’, published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
