only part of the story

Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day - 20th January

There are an estimated 140,000 miles of footpaths in England and Wales, public rights of way that cut across all manner of private land, and due to various quirks of history they have never been fully mapped.

It’s been 19 years since an Act in Parliament set a deadline of Jan 1, 2026 to map every footpath, and after that, footpaths that are not mapped can be reabsorbed into the private lands they cross, ending ancient rights of way.

The Ramblers, a hiking society with radical roots that fomented the creation of the nation’s national parks, are leading the charge to complete the maps, through the Don’t Lose Your Way campaign.

While many of the footpaths they’re struggling to save have simply been forgotten, others have been deliberately obscured, often by farmers who want to keep strangers from crossing their fields, and resort to trickery like misleading signs and barbed wire to obfuscate the footpaths.

I’ve spent many happy hours rambling, mostly in Norfolk, where all the paths we took were well-marked, well-loved and well-maintained. The footpaths are a visible remnant of the ancient compact between private landowners and the common people, embodied in such documents as the Charter of the Forest, a much more important and radical document than the Magna Carta.

All of these books are queer, but they all have back blurbs that don’t say they’re queer. While this can be a pain if I’m scouting for queer SFF, it can come in handy for people in a situation where they don’t want to be reading queer books openly. 

Please do note that I don’t have hard copies of the books on hand so it’s possible that an author quote or something mentions one being queer (I feel like this isn’t super likely, but I don’t want to rule it out). Some might also have author biographies mentioning that the author is queer. Also, some may be shelved as LGBT on Goodreads or categorized as queer on Amazon. So if you’re planning on asking for any of these as holiday gifts, I would suggest going to the Amazon page or where ever your relative is likely to buy it from and double check that it’s something you’d be comfortable with sharing openly. 

I wish I had more pansexual books, but the ones I know of tend to mention queerness in the back description. 

With the exception of The Spy with the Red Balloon, these are all books I have read or are currently reading. If you want to recommend others, feel free to do so in the replies!

You can find my other queer book recommendations here.

Links to the queer books database (or Goodreads if the book hasn’t been added yet) are available below the cut. You can find information on content warnings there.

Are Academics ever kind?

Can Academia be a place of care and goodwill?

The Create Kindness Initiative and

Academic Kindness on Tumblr

have partnered together to host the first ever

“What is Academic Kindness?” Contest

We are looking for brief testimonials of academic generosity on how unsolicited acts of kindness have impacted you or those you work with in Academia. We also welcome short stories of how & why you may have been inspired to pay-it-forward to colleagues or students.

All stories & testimonials posted on Academic Kindness on Tumblr between October 15, 2019 and January 15, 2020 will be entered into the contest. 

Posts should be no more than 350 words and submitted at: https://academickindness.tumblr.com/submit

A copy of your post should also be emailed to [email protected] with your contact details.

Faculty and grad students at any institution of Higher Education worldwide are welcome and encouraged to submit their kindness story.

Two awards will be given:

one “most creative narrative” about kindness and

one for a story of “most generous act” shared.

Both winners will receive a certificate and

5 hrs of FREE editing from a professional copy editor.

(Here’s the chance to have someone else convert your APA citations to Chicago, or proofread your article.)

For more details about Academic Kindness on Tumblr see (https://academickindness.tumblr.com/) and the Create Kindness initiative can be found at http://createkindness.mystrikingly.com/

Questions regarding the contest should be directed to: [email protected]

“I’ve got a new business…”