October Half Term 2026

It’s half term where I work for the next two weeks, so no new PU today. I’ll be back Monday November 2nd. Until then: breathe. Look around at the autumn leaves. Take a walk and enjoy the crisp chill in the air that tells us winter is coming. Read. Not just past PU posts (although the archives are full of treasures), but actual books. Some ghost stories for Halloween, perhaps? Or something harrowing, but true, about the state of the world we’re living in (Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s End Times Fascism is currently chilling me to my bones far more than any of the various horror novels I’ve been reading for spooky season!)

Maybe some poetry? Not just my own. I’ve been enjoying the work of newly crowned Birmingham poet laureate, Bradley Taylor. And for Black History Month over the last two weeks of term I’ve been exploring the philosophy we could find in the poetry of Birmingham anarchist and personal hero, Benjamin Zephaniah, with my students. (I had planned on writing a PU about it and likely still will, because Black History shouldn’t just be sequestered to October).

Anyway — enjoy the break and see you in November.