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Adèle Oliver

Deeping It analyses drill's fight against moral panic and its fraught relationship with the police and political authority in the UK, exemplified by constant censorship, racism, and moments such as when a drill duo became the first people in British legal history to receive a prison sentence for simply performing a song.
Policing, policy and criminalisation are the cornerstones of colonial suppression; art, self-expression and collective action are beacons of resistance. Deeping It places drill firmly in the latter category, tracing its production and criminalisation across borders and eras of the British Empire, exploring drill's artistic singularity but also its inherent threat as a Black artform in a world that prioritises whiteness.
Intervening on this discourse steeped in anti-Blackness, this Inkling 'deeps' how the criminalisation of UK drill cannot be disentangled from histories, technologies, and realities of colonialism and consumerism.

404 Ink

Inklings

Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & the Criminalisation of UK Drill

Arusa Qureshi

Flip the Script showcases some of the best rappers currently making music in the UK. It has taken a significant amount of time for women to get recognition in the genre, even though there have been phenomenal women in hip hop since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s - but why did we take so long in the UK?
Flip the Script gets to know the women who have paved the way, the successes and experiences of those that shape the thriving scene we have today. Arusa goes in depth with a number of female rappers who are making waves right now to find out about their relationships with hip hop, why they were attracted to the scene, what their thoughts are on the future of the genre and whether or not they feel a sense of belonging.

Using her own research, and with reference to pioneers and critical theory, she explores hip hop's history of misogyny and how women have traditionally been looked over by their peers, and celebrates the brilliant icons who have made this one of the most exciting genres to be part of. A must read for fans of music, feminism, and culture.

Flip the Script: How Women Came to Rule Hip Hop

Maud Rowell

Two million people in the UK live with sight loss, and many more worldwide. Yet the general population knows very little about the day-to-day life of the blind, who must move through a world not designed with them in mind, from city planning and technology, to pop culture and education. What's more, blind people often fall off the pages of our history books, despite being some of the most prolific figures in their fields.
In Blind Spot, Maud Rowell challenges readers to think differently about what they may take for granted, carrying them on a whirlwind tour through time and space - from Japanese tube stations to the 18th century museum - to showcase what the world looks like for someone who does not see. She offers practical insights based on her own experiences, as well as spotlighting incredible blind pioneers - explorers, artists, scientists, and more - through history and the current day, unearthed through her own research and interviews.
In educating us about the realities of sight loss, Maud shows us how to be aware of our own blind spots, offering the knowledge needed to become better, more tolerant members of diverse communities. Society needs to support everyone - it's time we caught up.

Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness

Anne East

Many individuals – especially of non-white heritage – are suspended in an identity limbo. The need to divide and separate our lives, even ourselves, into neat boxes means that many British-born people with no ties to their parental culture are left adrift within our society. This is Anne East's experience.
Neither able to claim one culture as her own or be fully accepted by all groups within British society as the Brit she is, it's a no man's land of cultural loss. In No Man's Land, Anne explores this chasm in more detail, how it is to feel one thing and yet be perceived as another, the emotions felt within this limbo, and why culture truly matters. More so, she considers how this has manifested through history, and the British Empire, with focus on the often unheard or ignored impacts on those of East and Southeast Asian heritage.

No Man's Land: Living Between Two Cultures

Thom James Carter

Since its inception decades ago, the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons has offered an escape from the real world, the chance to enter distant realms, walk in new shoes, and be part of immersive, imaginative tales as they unfold. More so, in Thom James Carter's opinion, it's a perfect vessel for queer exploration and joy.
Journey on, adventurer, as Dungeon Master Thom invites readers into the game's exciting queer, utopian possibilities, traversing its history and contemporary evolution, the queer potential resting within gameplay, the homebrewers making it their own, stories from fellow players, and the power to explore and examine identity and how people want to lead their lives in real and imagined worlds alike.
Grab a sword and get your dice at the ready, this queer adventure is about to begin.
(Please note this title is unaffiliated with Dungeons & Dragons.)

They Came to Slay: The Queer Culture of D&D

Josephine Jay

Adaline Bara

Hannah Feben-Smith

For adoptees, the word 'lucky' gets thrown around a lot. They're regularly told they're lucky to not be in an orphanage, lucky to have been brought into a family, lucky to be adopted at all. Often they're depicted in media as being broken, in need of saving and fixing. Then they're expected to become the hero of their own journeys and overcome their origins.
Whatever Next? considers how these traditional narratives surrounding adoption have both dominated and damaged adoptive communities for many years, and what we should do to avoid these pitfalls.
Inspired by the conversations within their Whatever Next? community project, Jo, Addie and Hannah explore the key tropes that adoptees grapple with and how these conversations are evolving, with the goal of kickstarting new dialogues around the adoption experience more broadly, and showcase how beneficial shared discussion can be.

Whatever Next?: On Adult Adoptee Identities

Tanaka Mhishi

In the UK, around one in six men will experience some form of sexual violence. Many of these men who experience sexual abuse are dismissed, only brought up as the butt of a joke, an exception to the rule or, perhaps at worst, are used as a rhetorical tool against female victims.
Conversations on sexual violence have understandably focused on women's voices and experiences, with data indicating that women are still the majority of victims and not enough is being done to prevent this violence. As most perpetrators of this violence against women are men, it becomes almost easy to mistake that male survivors stories are exceptions or irrelevances. The fact is that we share a world and our experiences are closely interwoven.
Sons and Others challenges misconceptions and misrepresentations of sexual violence against men across media and society and offers a new way of seeing and understanding these men in our lives, asking how the violence they experience affects us all.

Sons and Others: On Loving Male Survivors

Nathan Charles

When you think of 'gambling' you might think of Vegas casinos, betting shops and football flutters but the risk of gambling is embedded in numerous corners of popular culture that many of us consume.
By considering the concept of 'soft gambling', No Dice asks how we could possibly link the Pokémon Trading Card Game with gambling. Can we compare Netflix to a night at the theatre? When does fictional gambling within video games go too far with their infamous loot boxes? Does such risk affect everyone or are socio-economic divides driving further inequality?
No Dice explores the messy world of gambling and risk that we encounter regularly, from childhood through adulthood, considering if it is worth the risk and if we even know what risks we might be taking.

No Dice: Gambling and Risk in Modern Culture

Karl Thomas Smith

Grief is all around us. Even at the heart of the brightly coloured, vividly characterised, joyful films of Studio Ghibli, they are wracked with loss – of innocence and love, of the world itself and our connection to it. Whether facing the realities of death, the small and continual losses we encounter through our daily lives, or the anticipatory grief of the environment's ongoing decline, each has a distinct presence in these beloved films, with their own lesson to hold close in our lives, and comfort to be found.
Now Go enters the emotional waters to interrogate not only how Studio Ghibli navigates grief, but how that informs our own understanding of its manifold faces. Touching on some of the cornerstone films and characters — from My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and beyond — and their intersections with his own life, the broader spectrum of loss, and how we can move forward, Smith invites us to consider how these beacons of joy offer us a winking light in the darkness.
(Please note this title is unaffiliated with Studio Ghibli.)

Now Go: On Grief and Studio Ghibli

Karl Johnson

Loki, ever the shapeshifter, has never been more adaptable across pop culture. Whether it's deep in the stories from Norse mythology, the countless offshoots and interpretations across media, or even the prolific Loki that has come to dominate our screens via the Marvel Cinematic Universe, each serves its own purpose and offers a new layer to the character we've come to know so well.
By exploring contemporary variations of Loki from Norse god to anti-hero trickster in four distinct categories – the God of Knots, Mischief, Outcasts and Stories – we can better understand the power of myth, queer theory, fandom, ritual, pop culture itself and more.
Johnson invites readers to journey with him as he unpicks his own evolving relationship with Loki, and to ask: Who is your Loki? And what is their glorious purpose?

The Loki Variations: The Man, The Myth, The Mischief

Anahit Behrooz

Friendships can be the foundation of our earliest memories and most formative moments. But why are they often seen as secondary to romantic, or familial connection, something to age out of and take a back seat to other relationships? BFFs is an examination of the power of female friendship, not as something lesser, but as a site of radical intimacy, as told through the cultural touchstones around us.
From coming-of-age tales through physical intimacy and discovering personhood to break ups and parting of ways, Behrooz considers the vast significance of our friendships through the work of Toni Morrison and Elena Ferrante, Booksmart and Grey's Anatomy, Insecure, The Virgin Suicides and beyond.
To have a life rich in love is often viewed through a specific lens; BFFs shows us that friendship can offer a more expansive and emancipatory understanding of female intimacy, and can be the most important, loving relationships in our lives.

BFFs: The Radical Potential of Female Friendship

Kajal Odedra

Hair is potent. Its presence and its absence has profound influence upon our lives, across race, gender, sexuality, status, and more. It will grow in places you don't like and it may desert you – suddenly, or gradually. Whatever your experience, you have had a relationship with hair and its power. Kajal Odedra considers how hair has shaped society today, from the 'perfect' blondes in the school playground to the angry skinheads on the streets. Mohawks, wigs, afros, these are just a few of the ways in which hair has been part of history and wider activism. The word 'essay' derives from the French 'essayer', meaning 'to try' or 'to attempt'. This is Odedra's 'try' at hair – part memoir, part observation across history, politics, religion, and culture. Hair/Power explores the power, control and ultimate liberation that hair can provide.

Hair/Power: Essays on Control and Freedom

J. David Reed

It's one of modern history's most beloved sci-fi creations and while the Doctor is revered world-round, what about their companions, friends and acquaintances along the way? For all the time travel and extravagant alien worlds, Doctor Who is often at its best when it looks to you, the average viewer, and how the lives and values of us human beings are actually spectacular.
The cup of tea or coffee we make in the morning, the relationships we carry and lose in life, the routines we love and hate, the vinegar-soaked chippies we have at night – they might look mundane against the spectacle of the Doctor but what if it's us, the humans, who are the fantastical ones?
In We're Falling Through Space, J. David Reed investigates how Doctor Who uses its larger-than-life lens to consider how the mundane is a lot more special than we might realise. As one of the Doctors put it, 'Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before.'

We're Falling Through Space: Doctor Who and Celebrating the Mundane

Zara Rahman

As we go about our day-to-day lives, digital information about who we are is gathered from all angles via biometric scans, passport applications, and, of course, social media. This data can never fully capture our complex, fluid identities over decades of our lives. Yet, this data populates numerous databases we may not even be aware of that can make life-or-death decisions such as who is allowed access to welfare benefits or who is granted food parcels as they pass war-torn borders.
Machine Readable Me considers how and why data that is gathered about us is increasingly limiting what we can and can't do in our lives and, crucially, what the alternatives are.

Machine Readable Me: The Hidden Ways Tech Shapes our Identities

Selin Bucak

When we hear news stories about displaced people, people running away from war, living in exile, they're always accompanied by big numbers, presented as waves of immigrants. The Last Day Before Exile re-focuses the narrative to the human side, sharing some of the hardest moments of their lives, where they had to make the decision to stay or go.

Tracing the steps of professionals who have moved from the Gaza Strip, Pakistan, Morocco, Iran, Afghanistan Turkey, and Ukraine, Selin Bucak shares stories of rebellion, fear, and, in some cases, victory.

To truly understand what immigrants often have to go through at the hands of governments, legislation, and war, we need to put ourselves into the shoes of the people living in exile.

The Last Day Before Exile: Stories of Resistance, Displacement & Finding Home

Jean Menzies

For a period in time that gave us Sappho and the love affair of Achilles and Patroclus, the Ancient Greek relationship with queer folk is more complicated than at first glance. Tales as old as antiquity persevere, whether the goddess of love Aphrodite, Tiresias, the prophet who spent time as both man and woman, or the infamous Heracles. But, what can these ancient stories offer our contemporary world?
Historian Jean Menzies dives into the world of queer retellings and the Greek myths being told anew by LGBTQ+ writers. From explorations of gender and identity across millennia, to celebrating queer love in its many forms, All the Violet Tiaras invites readers to discover the power to be found in remaking these myths, time and again, carving a space for queer stories to be told with all the complexity and tenderness they deserve, with a goddess or two for good measure.

All the Violet Tiaras: Queering the Greek Myths

Heather Parry

In the future, we'll all be having sex with robots… won't we?

Roboticists say they're a distracting science fiction, yet endless books, films and articles are written on the subject. Campaigns are even mounted against them. So why are sex robots such a hot topic?

Electric Dreams picks apart the forces that posit sex robots as either the solution to our problems or a real threat to human safety, and looks at what's being pushed aside for us to obsess about something that will never happen.

Electric Dreams: Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism

Naomi Westerman

Playwright Naomi Westerman was an anthropology grad student studying death rituals around the world when her whole family died, turning death from the academic to the deeply personal. She struggled with grief and talking about, particularly as a young woman, realising while death is everywhere in our culture, grief is harder to find in specialist ways.

This Inkling combines academic study with memoir to discuss the popularity of murder as entertainment in true crime podcasts; women working in the death industry; Naomi's love of horror and what it's like writing horror movies for a living when your mum was maybe murdered; the rise of death peer support groups; and death rituals in other countries. Happy Death Club provides a frank, touching and sometimes hilarious look at death, grief, and bereavement.

Happy Death Club: Essays on Death, Grief & Bereavement Across Cultures

Alli Patton

What happens when aggressive, riotous punk music becomes the peacemaker?

Chronicling a history of punks at war, Blitzkrieg Bops studies bands who have soundtracked a movement —including Pussy Riot, Stiff Little Fingers, National Wake, Wutanfall, Los Pinochet Boys, Rimtutitkui, The Kominas & more — creating music to overthrow corrupt governments, stomp out oppressive regimes, fight the establishment and, in turn, fight for their lives.

Blitzkrieg Bops: A Brief History of Punks at War

Adam Zmith

Why are feet so hot? When Jesus washed his bros' feet, what kind of love was he showing? Why did feet show up in poetry written during a medieval outbreak of gonorrhoea? How did early sexologists convince us that loving feet is deviant? And what did Victorian lesbians make of all this?
These are the questions thrusting Adam Zmith into a history of toe-botherers who will guide the reader through the sex archives, the online forums and a millennium of art, with his trademark queer lens.
Solemates will bring to light the history of this peculiarly popular kink. From Tarantino films to Bible stories, from Renaissance paintings to OnlyFans, Solemates is the rich and messy tale of our obsession with everything below the ankle, and what it reveals about how we view our bodies and our sex lives.

Inklings - The book series

Inklings - The book series

Inklings books in order

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