Privileged to have attended @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social inspiring, funny, urgent Children’s Laureate lecture yesterday. The packed audience was captivated, like hundreds of kids being read a bedtime story! What a brilliant job he has done while in the role.
Ben Holden
My latest deep dive into a great novella (here, into the Thames too). Please join me…
open.substack.com/pub/novellac...
The week my kids have Oxbridge interviews, the legendary prof who took mine way back when - and immediately put me at ease - has died. John Carey was as generous as he was brilliant, supporting my own books years later (he chose Ben Jonson for Poems That Make Grown Men Cry). A kind, inspiring man.
It is my great honour to have been appointed Chair of @librariesconnected.org.uk - as explained further in this blog…
librariesconnected.org.uk/news/public-li…
A beautiful, inspiring array of tributes to my late mum’s partner, Andrew Clements, who died last weekend. If only he could read them. The snapshots vividly capture brilliant Andrew, whom I already deeply miss.
This has to be the least onerous book club out there. Whether you’re a bookworm keen to explore a great short novel in depth, a lapsed reader in need of a quick fix to get back on track, or simply bored stiff of scrolling, Novella Club is just the ticket.
open.substack.com/pub/novellac...
Ben Holden
Inspiring day at annual Sir Harry Evans Truth Tellers Summit capped by @tinabrownlm.bsky.social introing Matthew Rhys reading Harry’s immaculate prose. Also wowed by Nobel Peace Laureate @mariaressa.bsky.social on ‘information armageddon’ and Walter Isaacson on the intersection of tech & culture.
Enjoyed stumbling across this 1996 takedown of ex-Prince Andrew from my old man, as featured in Andrew Lownie’s recent biography Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.
Ben Holden
Inspiring event hosted by Libraries Connected at amazing Manchester Central Library to mark 175 years of the Public Libraries Act. Great to hear Minister Baroness Twycross call libraries ‘the purest expression of democracy in action’. They remain our brightest beacons for true ‘national renewal’.
