Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall. Jeanie shared her reading list from September that contained five British books, including a collection of holiday mysteries from P.D. James and a book of photos and quotes centered on the city of Bath. Tina is enjoying The Elements by John Boyne so much that she can’t put it down.

When I zoomed out to see the worldwide map of No Kings protests this Saturday, October 18, I was pleased to see that the US is getting support from Dublin, Bristol, Southampton, and London.

I wondered how the phrase “no kings” worked in England. After all, there are plenty of people in the United Kingdom who support their constitutional. monarchy but watch with dread as the US sinks into authoritarianism. They solved that problem by labeling their protests “No Tyrants.”

Dublin, Ireland, though, embraced the “No Kings” label. Their event begins at noon and will take the form of a protest outside the US Embassy.

Bristol’s “No Tyrants” protest will take place in a local park. The sponsoring group hosted a Tesla Takedown in March that caught the attention of the local newspaper. This quote helped me understand how Brits view current events in the US:

Elon Musk, with his Nazi salute and support for mass deportations from the US, as well as his onslaught on the civic right to protest and trans rights, has become an international champion of the far-right politics of hate and division. When he stokes racism and Islamophobia in the UK, such as around so-called ‘Pakistani grooming gangs’, it shows the urgency here in the UK of a mass politics of hope with anti-oppression at its heart. We send our solidarity and stand with all those protesting outside Tesla buildings!

The Southampton protest will happen at an intriguing location: Mayflower Pilgrims Memorial. This tower was constructed in 1913 to commemorate the starting port of the Mayflower, carrying Pilgrims to the New World.

In London the protest outside the US Embassy will also be the occasion to launch a new campaign called Human Write #. Here is their description:

“HUMAN WRITE #” is a protest installation spanning two continents. We’re raising our collective voices to send messages directly to the White House. Forget AI, social media and the world of algorithms and influencers. HUMAN WRITE # is about real people getting their message across one letter at a time.

How does it work? Participants will be offered a blank card and a seat at one of the many typewriters displayed. Write your personal protest message to Donald Trump — exercising your right to free speech. Sign your card “Human Write” instead of your name (to protect your privacy). Your card will be numbered and photographed for a digital archive, and then sent to Washington DC, where we will hand-deliver thousands of messages from around the world.

I’m heartened by the support of our British and Irish neighbors at this moment when the Republican President and members of his corrupt regime are consolidating authoritarian power.

My plan for Saturday is to attend our usual Black Lives Matter vigil — we’ll observe our 11th anniversary next month, so it feels important to keep it going. But we’ll be done in time for me to join the last hour of the No Kings protest along a major road in St. Louis County.

Where will you be this Saturday?