Winner of the 2026 Walter Scott prize for historical fiction for 'The Matchbox Girl' about Dr Asperger @BloomsburyBooks Agent: @rcwlitagency
Stroud, Europe
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Signing 1,300 copies for the wonderful @GoldsboroBooks 'The Matchbox Girl' @BloomsburyBooks is out from 6 November. It tells the story of the real Dr Asperger and what happened to the Curative Education Ward at the Vienna Children's Hospital when the Nazis annexed the city.
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Alice Jolly retweeted
Please support this important campaign: megaphone.org.uk/petitions/s… via @megaphoneuk
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Alice Jolly retweeted
This looks like abuse of public funds.
A Vice-Chancellor earning over £500,000 claims expenses for his wife’s travel, including a “philanthropic engagement” in New York and a “spouse programme” in Switzerland
How is this acceptable? Is it not fraud?
thetimes.com/uk/education/ar…
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Alice Jolly retweeted
Many university administrators can no longer distinguish truth from lies
Convenience has become their only principle
They say whatever serves them in the moment
They contradict themselves without blinking & call it leadership
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Alice Jolly retweeted
I do not think it is good that the Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa Policy at Anthropic is a sitting member of the UK's House of Lords.
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Alice Jolly retweeted
Members of the UK's Society of Authors voted overwhelmingly to pass a resolution rejecting AI companies' claim they can train on ©️ work without a license. It passed 97% to 3%.
Don't let AI companies tell you it's just big rights holders who object to unlicensed training. The creators themselves strongly object.
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How can you 'protect and support' people you have robbed? I am deeply shocked by this. Can someone explain to me how you use AI ethically when the whole system was built on breaching the copyright of creators and paying them nothing?
The Society of Authors (SoA) launched a global, ethical AI charter at the Creators Emergency Summit in London on 13th October, aimed at “defining how generative AI services should be deployed to help protect and support human creators”. 👇 ebx.sh/YEz4Pg
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Was whistleblower at Uni of Oxford. Repeatedly told I was 'protected.' Never saw it. Let's stop encouraging people to whistleblow and ask why we have such poor leadership at the top. Powerless individuals shouldn't be sent into bat against those who can pay for expensive lawyers.
Notice something wrong at your university?
Perhaps you witness bullying of a colleague, data fabrication or a professor having an affair with an undergraduate student?
You do what you're supposed to do
You report it, right?
nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
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Alice Jolly retweeted
Notice something wrong at your university?
Perhaps you witness bullying of a colleague, data fabrication or a professor having an affair with an undergraduate student?
You do what you're supposed to do
You report it, right?
nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
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Will be speaking @Foyles in Charing Cross Road this Sunday 18th October for the amazing Ozlit. Will be talking about 'The Matchbox Girl' @BloomsburyBooks with Heather Morris (Piano Teacher of Montparnasse) chaired by Sally Bayley. Do come!
foyles.co.uk/events/ozlit-fe…
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Very excited to be at Ozlit Festival @Foyles Charing X Road this coming Sunday 18 October. Speaking with Sally Bayley and Heather Morris about 'The Matchbox Girl' @BloomsburyBooks
foyles.co.uk/events/ozlit-fe…
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Alice Jolly retweeted
It's the British disease
Senior leadership means never having to face the consequences
Not just in devastated universities like Nottingham
It's everywhere in the UK, the Post Office, NHS, Civil Service
Those responsible are never held accountable
timeshighereducation.com/new…
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Hats off for having the courage to raise this. It is not you or your book. It is the system. A hand full of people effectively decide what 'fails' and what succeeds. I am sickened by the so called 'book world.' (Even though I look like a person who should be 'winning').
I've got to admit failure.
My second book, The Progress Trap, despite having various excellent testimonials and a superb jacket and presentation from Polity Press, has failed.
Aside from the disappointment, it's interesting to reflect on why.
I'm not really sure. I thought it was a cracking book: better than my first, which attracted a lot more attention.
Maybe I gave too much attention - at the last minute - to the current moment and current politics, which distracted readers and reviewers (of which there were very few) from the main arguments.
On one level I might put it down as a lesson learned: that you need to focus on the main task rather than run after 'relevance'. The trouble is that such failure lasts. There will likely be no other books and I'll have to try and find some sort of gainful employment.
C'est la vie.
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Glad the truth about OUP is coming out, and solidarity to their striking workers. Had by far the worst publishing experience of my life with them many years ago. Editing farmed out to private company in South Asia, text itself not copy-edited *at all*. Horribly exploitative model
I was shocked 4-5 years ago when told that OUP no longer copyedits its books.
Even in monetary terms what is more valuable, the cost of copyediting or a reputation as a top academic press?
Part of a general institutional decline that reflects a widespread failure to educate.
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Alice Jolly retweeted
Ethan Scott Brown took his life after being told he was ineligible to graduate from University of Glasgow
Internal inquiry found errors in way his degree had been graded & that he had enough marks for 2:1
Shocking & sad
@Dying4aDegree @ForThe100_
theguardian.com/education/20…
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Martha Kearney joins the Walter Scott Prize judging panel and shares her thoughts on historical fiction and the Prize.
Photo credit: Sarah Lee
walterscottprize.co.uk/the-2…
@Marthakearney #BookJudge #WalterScottPrize
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Alice Jolly retweeted
Powerful statement from mathematicians around the world.
“We urge mathematicians to discontinue their work with OpenAI and to return to a vision of science that centers human understanding.”
The backlash to AI is only just beginning.
terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/…
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Alice Jolly retweeted
I am so sick of my workplace (a university if you can believe it!) force-feeding AI into everything we do - "so that you know how to apply AI responsibly". Given this technology is based on IP theft and is an environmental disaster - how about not using AI...period!!
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Alice Jolly retweeted
What has happened to Nottingham University is a huge scandal
Those responsible have moved onwards & upwards
There's no accountability for senior management in UK Higher Education
Mistakes are rewarded, cost is borne by the victims through job losses
21percent.org/?p=3647
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Alice Jolly retweeted
Yesterday, the government published its ‘AI Adoption Plan’ for the creative industries.
Somewhat incredibly, it says we should be pushing AI adoption before the government resolves the issues around copyright.
This would be great for the AI industry, and terrible for creatives.
Important for people to know what the government is pushing here. Short thread on its contents ⬇️
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Alice Jolly retweeted
'This technology' is built on theft, and the BBC should not be experimenting with it, full stop.
#BBCLauraK: “Would you allow a programme to be made and presented by AI?”
BBC Director General Matt Brittin: “I would do, within guardrails”
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6gr…
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