Lawyer & campaigner
Former Legal Director @GoodLawProject
‘That period woman’ from Free Periods/ Red Box Project
Posting mostly about law, politics, social and climate justice, feminism and sports…
Based in London, from Scotland 🏴
She/her
Gemma Abbott
@gem_abbott@mstdn.social
- 6K Followers
- 362 Following
- 739 Posts
“The best least-known novel of the twentieth century” says Ali Smith
I think she’s right! Hadn’t heard of it, now can’t stop recommending it. O Caledonia by #ElspethBarker is pretty much perfect. “A surreal, hilarious and dark story of a troubled adolescence deep in the wilds of Scotland” - Maggie O’Farrell
I want to read everything #ClaireKeegan has ever written. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a writer so sparing with her words to such impact. Every single line is measured to perfection. Just glorious.
#TheLastColony by #PhilippeSands is extraordinary. And I find myself wondering (once a legal campaigner, always a legal campaigner) what the plan is to force the next Govt to stop ignoring the rights of the Changossians - it will surely be much harder for Starmer et al to continue to ignore UN rulings to return #TheChagosIslands as May & her successors have done?
I quite enjoyed #WhatAShame by #AbigailBergstrom but didn’t love it. Perhaps I was a bit older than the intended audience. I also felt a bit cheated by the promise of the protagonist using “ever more extreme methods of attempting to move on” - nothing felt *that* extreme to me!
Not just any jumpsuit either. One with a TIE at the neck. Doing a wee in this would take 5 minutes at least.
This surely wins a prize for the least practical uniform ever designed?!
My favourite book of 2023 so far - genuinely extraordinary
“A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott’s Invisible Child reads like a page-turning novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family and the cost of inequality—told through the crucible of one remarkable girl”
#WhatImReading #BookRecommendations #InvisibleChild #AndreaElliott
Have you read #TheSilenceOfTheGirls by #PatBarker? I’m only about 5 years late! I don’t know how I missed it, but saw the sequel in a ‘best of 2022’ round up (also now on my list)
I LOVED this - a feminist retelling of the Iliad, from the perspective of Briseis (Achilles’ ‘prize’ & ‘bed slave’)
#WhatImReading #BookRecommendations
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/22/silence-of-the-girls-pat-barker-book-review-iliad
Last one I’ve finished since Christmas - #TheMadWomensBall by #VictoriaMas
(I was gifted this; I don’t think I’d have chosen it tbh. I found it provoking in terms of the subject matter/ the historical context but didn’t love the book itself. A fairly quick read though, so worthwhile)
https://www.bigissue.com/culture/books/the-mad-womens-ball-examines-feminism-and-madness/
Another reason (perhaps) why I’ve been online less - #RadicalAttention by #JuliaBell
“In a world of infinite distraction, how can attention become radical?” - https://www.pagesofhackney.co.uk/webshop/product/radical-attention-julia-bell/
I was struck by the overlap between this & #MenWhoHateWomen - I hadn’t set out to read on a theme but I guess the tentacles of our toxic online world reach everywhere
I’ve had this book by #LauraBates on my teetering “to read” pile for over a year, but was spurred by #GretaThunberg taking down #AndrewTate, prompting a fresh round of discussion of #misogyny & the #manosphere
It’s a hard read but I’d recommend it if you want to better grasp the scale of the danger posed by #MenWhoHateWomen - especially if you have young boys in your life, whom you want to support to navigate the online world more safely