Four years on an iPhone in bed later, Who Wants Normal? is finally out in the world today. Part memoir, part guide, it features 50+ of Britain’s best known disabled women. I hope it makes you laugh, possibly cry, and feel seen. Order all formats here:

It’s Mabel’s 4th birthday today and she’s waiting at the door for her gifts somewhat expectantly.

What do you want to know?.

Here’s the column online:

I love this illustration by Thomas Pullin in today’s Guardian to accompany my column on the surge in private healthcare amongst the young. Just the right element of menacing.

“Existing as a disabled woman in the world can feel like straddling a constantly moving line: we must prove that we are “normal” while somehow not feeling shame that we are different.” . My piece in the September issue of @BritishVogue is now online:

“Private healthcare in the U.K. is increasingly framed as a necessity rather than a luxury. The strategy is clear enough: starve the NHS of resources, drive down quality and availability, and patients will get used to looking elsewhere.” . Today’s col.

Half of millennials in the UK are planning to use private healthcare in the next year. For this week’s column, I wrote about why that’s bad news for the NHS’s future (and a sign of the slippery slope certain forces are working very hard to grease).

I’m in the September issue of @BritishVogue with a personal piece on writing Who Wants Normal? and the (often complex) relationship between disability, health and body image.

Join Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and other leaders to remember and honor the stories of great Americans in our new video series:

Normally it’s just bills and the DWP.

I love it when a doctorate comes in the post. Thank you, @sheffielduni!

“It seems those so-called legitimate concerns now include the fear asylum seekers are coming over here to rape our women and girls.” . Today’s col. on the anti-migrant protests and the big lie being peddled by media, politicians, and far right alike.

This is why you don’t hear Jenrick or Farage et al ever talk about rape trial backlogs or refuge funding (and indeed, why they actually support policies that reduce women’s rights). Male violence only matters to them when the males are asylum seekers or migrants.

This is the crux of the lie: “women are at risk from *these* men.” In reality, women are at risk from any demographic of men. You don’t need to look at a small boat to find a rapist. Just walk into your local pub or shop. The issue with male violence is men - not race.

Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s praise for men who “protect their wives” from asylum seekers reflects the point in my column. “It’s an extension of the old racial prejudice ethnic minorities are a sexual threat to white females - and the white males who claim possession of them.”

As the anti-migrant protests continue, stoked by politicians, the media and far right, there’s a toxic lie taking hold: asylum seekers are a danger to British women and girls. My col. in today’s paper.

I wonder if Helen and the Tories would also like to criminalise tax cutting advice that runs every spring in the broadsheets? When the wealthy and healthy do it, it’s information. When the poor and disabled do it, it’s scrounging.

PSA: If you can’t normally afford hardbacks, Who Wants Normal? is briefly 40% off on Amazon.

This is a horrific story: a disabled man has stopped taking his medication in order to end his life because he can’t access NHS or social care. And yet having spoken to so many people left in the most dire conditions, I can’t imagine he’s the only one.

So lovely to see this spread on Who Wants Normal? in this month���s @DisabilityRMag. I chatted about writing 80,000 words on an iPhone, trying to make the British media more diverse, and why this book definitely has more jokes in it than my first.

Bitcoin’s on fire at $112K! Time to flip the charts on BTCC!.Exploring Cryptocurrency with Jaren Jackson Jr.🏀.

Thank you so much to @sheffielduni for awarding me an honorary Doctor of Letters. I’m so touched. It was a privilege to give a speech to the graduating class (all those years of US high school dramas weren’t wasted).

“Perhaps children who are not immunised should be excluded from nursery. What all too often happens is that the child who cannot be immunised is excluded. Is that right?”. V thoughtful letter from Great Ormond Street profs in response to my measles column.