Journalism, plays, novels. A Common Woman chosen Kings Head Theatre ‘significant production’1984. FSWWJ, V-P. Member WGGB. Co-winner Clemence Dane trophy 2024.

Hertfordshire, UK
Joined February 2013
Mary Rensten retweeted
No other city in the world has 4 universities in the top 50. Congrats to Imperial, UCL, King’s College and LSE 👏🏾 Another feather in London’s (graduation) cap as the greatest city in the world 🎓
Four London universities secure top 50 position in world rankings trib.al/tWXTGDX
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Thanks David. I find a lot of writers on LinkedIn, including members of #SWWJ and #WGGB .
Replying to @MaryRensten
Bluesky is okay though nothing like as good as peak twitter
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Just to let my followers know that I am opting out on Twitter/X from now on, as I struggle to find posts relevant to writers amid the US and other politics. Hoping to meet you elsewhere on social media!
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I, Kevin Rowland (the son of Irish immigrants) and the main songwriter of ‘Come On Eileen,’ am disgusted to learn that Nigel Farage has used our song to make his entrance for his party conference. Myself, and all of Dexys are passionately against Farage’s politics. @ByDonkeys .
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Mary Rensten retweeted
These ramps save more than just a few creatures here and there They're part of recognizing that our infrastructure affects wildlife constantly When we design spaces—whether canals, roads, or buildings—animals have to navigate them too. Small adjustments can prevent real suffering
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Mary Rensten retweeted
This is so beautiful
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"Free-range" labels changed how we buy eggs. Now we need the same honesty for dairy. Don't let US-style mega-dairies hide on our supermarket shelves. Sign the petition to demand mandatory dairy welfare labels from the Environment Secretary 👇 act.38degrees.org.uk/act/bat…
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Mary Rensten retweeted
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Mary Rensten retweeted
The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big”. The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.
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Mary Rensten retweeted
**Des ouvrages millénaires !** À Rome, un aqueduc achemine de l’eau potable depuis plus de 2 000 ans et ne s’est jamais arrêté un seul jour. Il s’appelle **l’Aqua Virgo** et c’est le seul aqueduc antique de Rome encore en fonctionnement. Il fut construit en 19 av. J.-C. à la demande de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, le bras droit d’Auguste. Pensez-y : tandis que des empires s’effondraient, que des guerres éclataient et que des villes étaient abandonnées, lui continuait à acheminer de l’eau. Aujourd’hui, il alimente les fontaines les plus célèbres de Rome, notamment la fontaine de Trevi. Comment a-t-il résisté ? Les Romains l’ont construit presque entièrement sous terre, le protégeant ainsi de la dégradation et des invasions. Et pendant vingt siècles, des papes, des ingénieurs et de simples agents d’entretien l’ont entretenu, nettoyé et réparé. Il n’a jamais été abandonné. La légende raconte que le nom « Virgo » viendrait d’une jeune fille qui aurait indiqué la source à des soldats assoiffés. Que cela soit vrai ou non, le message est clair : lorsqu’un ouvrage public est bien conçu et entretenu par tous, il peut devenir éternel. Aujourd’hui, nous démolissons un pont après trente ans. Eux en ont construit un qui dure depuis 2 000 ans.
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Mary Rensten retweeted
PARMOD KALIA IS DEAD He died on 13 March 2026, aged 67, still waiting for the full compensation he was owed. Owed for a crime he never committed. Parmod Kalia ran a Post Office branch in Orpington for 11 years. Clean record, steady business, nothing unusual. Then Horizon showed up and decided he owed £22,000 he never took. He was accused of theft in 2001. Investigators got a confession out of him. He said later it was signed in fear, not guilt. He pleaded guilty because that is what people do when the system makes resistance cost more than surrender. He got 6 months in prison. It took until 2021 for Southwark Crown Court to quash the conviction. @PostOffice didn't even oppose the appeal. Twenty years to undo what one honest look at the evidence should have caught in a week. Through all of it Kalia worked as a foster carer, giving stability to vulnerable children while carrying a criminal record he was too ashamed to mention to the people closest to him. His friend Tim Brentnall said he brought calmness and warmth to whatever room he walked into. Funny how the system managed the opposite for him. Then came the cancer diagnosis. He told ITV News he was taking it one day at a time, hoping his final redress payment might arrive before he ran out of days. It didn't arrive in time. He was one of more than 4,300 subpostmasters still waiting on full and final compensation when he died. Post Office said if there had been retrials there was still a reasonable prospect of conviction, so Kalia wasn't owed full compensation for malicious prosecution. Read that twice. A wrongly convicted, terminally ill man was told the theoretical odds still weren't fully in his favour, so the payment could wait. Meanwhile MPs pointed out that Fujitsu @Fujitsu_UK still hasn't contributed a single penny to the nearly £1.5 billion redress bill for a scandal it built and sold to the Post Office. Not one penny. They can engineer software that jails hundreds of innocent people but apparently a bank transfer is beyond their technical capability. More than 700 branch managers were convicted between 1999 and 2015 because of Horizon's fictional shortfalls. Only a fraction have full settlements. The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry @PostOffInquiry keeps recording the names of people who died waiting. Kalia is just the latest entry on a list that should never have existed. He wasn't asking for a favour. He was asking for what he was owed, for a crime he never committed, from a system that has known it was broken for over a decade. SOURCES @BBCNews @ITVNews @ComputerWeekly @PostOffInquiry
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One of the best things about Scotland is the tap water. Publicly owned, delicious, paid for collectively, & govt oversight and regulation of the pay of Scottish Water execs. Water for private profit makes no sense. Scotland shows there’s a better model.
My family in Essex had NO TAP WATER for 5 FULL DAYS. Affecting: Drinking water Bathing Flushing toilets Cleaning DURING the heatwave My Dad is elderly & my sister is breastfeeding a newborn! They should have compensation!! Not higher water bills! ABOLISH PRIVATISATION!!
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Well worth, knowing!
🐝 🐝🐝 Saviez-vous qu’une cuillerée de miel suffit à maintenir une personne en vie pendant 24 heures Saviez-vous qu’une des premières pièces de monnaie au monde portait le symbole d’une abeille Saviez-vous que le miel contient des enzymes vivantes La meilleure façon de manger du miel est avec une cuillère en bois; si vous n’en trouvez pas, utilisez une cuillère en plastique. Saviez-vous que le miel contient une substance qui aide le cerveau à mieux fonctionner Saviez-vous que le miel est l’un des rares aliments de la planète qui peut à lui seul soutenir la vie humaine Saviez-vous que les abeilles ont sauvé des personnes de la faim en Afrique Saviez-vous que le propolis produit par les abeilles est l’un des antibiotiques naturels les plus puissants Saviez-vous que le miel n’a pas de date d’expiration Saviez-vous que les corps de certains des plus grands empereurs étaient enterrés dans des objets en or et recouverts de miel pour éviter la décomposition Saviez-vous que le terme « lune de miel » vient de la tradition des époux de consommer du miel pour la fertilité après le mariage Saviez-vous qu’une abeille vit moins de 40 jours, visite au moins 1 000 fleurs et produit moins d’une cuillère à café de miel, mais pour elle c’est une vie de travail Merci, précieuses abeilles...
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Mary Rensten retweeted
Replying to @mjfree
So sad. Why does it feel that no action ever comes from this.?
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Mary Rensten retweeted
Replying to @mjfree
When will the USA ever learn?
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Mary Rensten retweeted
Replying to @mjfree
It’s sad I assumed it was a school in the u.s. and I was not surprised at all.
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