Gemma Abbott

@gemabbott.bsky.social

6784 Followers 2402 Following

Legal Director @thehowardleague.bsky.social. Trustee @dignityindying.org.uk. Views my own. She/her 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

A screenshot of this book cover. It is neon green, with a blue, pink and green picture of the back of a person who looks like the king in a pack of playing cards. They have their fingers crossed behind their back.
A screenshot of this book cover - a gold yellow with a contorted body on the front, wearing pressed, crisp cream clothes and an elegant snakeskin high heel. The person is on one leg and the other is raised high above them to the front, like they’re dancing.
A screenshot of this book cover - bold yellow with the title in red. The cover has a pigeon carrying some red cherries at the bottom
Screenshot of this book cover
A copy of this book sitting on the stones on Brighton beach. The cover is royal blue with the title in large neon green writing, below a fried egg. This photo came from the Amazon page for this book but you should buy it from anywhere else ideally 😆
Copy of this hardback book - the cover is cream with a picture of an apple and its leaves. The title is a bold orange. The edges of the book are the same gorgeous orange with white apples and leaves.
A copy of the book cover, which is a lovely pencil drawing of a cliff bath and sea, with scrolling waves, a diving dolphin, swooping sea birds and two shadowy people on the path.
The cover of this book in a square format. It is a close up of a deep blue water, cresting against a grey sky. The perspective is of someone half under/ half above. The author’s name and the title are in bold white against the blue. There is a Penguin logo bottom right
A lovely cover - there are two pinky/peach triangles mirrored top to bottom and meeting in the middle (looking like a sky and a path) and dark teal green triangles mirrored left to right and meeting in the middle. There is a man with his back to the viewer in the middle, with a white shirt and shorts, casting three shadows. The title is embossed gold and the author’s name is white along the bottom
A copy of the book cover - a dark blue sky with a smattering of white stars, which is the background to a branch of orange leaves, given the impression you are staring up at them from the ground. The author’s name and title are in white text
A screenshot of this book cover, which is a beautifully painted window with warm light streaming in and casting shadows of the window frame. The book name is written across the painting in a white serif font; the author’s name in caps along the bottom
A copy of the hard back cover of this book. It is white, with the title in huge caps, as if cut out from a photo of a snowy landscape with small red houses and fields. The author’s name is above in black.
Screenshot of the Audible book cover. It’s bright yellow with the name in white and the author’s name above in black. There is a person drawn in pale yellow against the yellow background - only her face, hair and arms are filled in. Her hair is black and her skin pale. She may be half-Korean, assuming she is the author/ narrator. She is looking down, sadly, and clutching armfuls of groceries.
Copy of the paperback of this book against a grey marbled background
A screenshot of the audible picture for this book. It’s a simple cream cover, with the New York skyline showing in a line drawing as if through a window (the book is told from a hospital bed looking out on the city). The font is a simple serif one - the author’s name in black caps above the title in red. It says “Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016”. The Penguin logo is at the bottom.
Gorgeous Fitzcarraldo Edition of this book. It’s a glorious peacock blue, with very simple white text with simply the title, the author and ‘Fitzcarraldo Editions’ at the foot
Graph showing disproportionally high numbers of Black children in custody Figure 7.6 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2022-to-2023/youth-justice-statistics-2022-to-2023-accessible-version#children-in-youth-custody
Paragraph from this evaluation https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf Which states “Responses to assaults and/or fighting may need particular attention, given that it is these incidents which tend to lead to more force on black or mixed ethnicity men. Our research indicates that officers are more likely to use high-impact techniques when responding to these incidents, and that more black and mixed men are experiencing more high-impact techniques. Research may be needed to better understand, even in situations where it is deemed necessary for some level of force to be initiated, why the type of techniques used appears to differ depending on the ethnicity of the prisoner. Indeed, this research signals that prisoner behaviour does not fully account for the levels of PAVA or Baton use experienced by black men in prison.”
Except from use of force evaluation that says “Prisoners from four sites, including white prisoners, spoke of targeted force towards ethnic-minority individuals describing it as 'disgusting.' At least one prison had held forums with prisoners to further explore the issue. They'll go for the black guy first. (Prisoner)”
Stats showing disproportionate use of PAVA spray and batons against young people in prison - figures 9 and 10 of the attached https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf
Figure 7 from this document showing you are disproportionately likely to have PAVA used against you if you are Black https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf
Figure 4 from this document showing disproportionate use of force of all kinds against Black people in prison https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf
A copy of the hardback, sitting on a maple wood table. The book is black - on the left hand side the title runs down the page, in alternating green, pink and red colours. The rest of the book cover is a black and white photo of a young woman with cropped hair and big eyes, standing on a busy urban street at night, holding a kitten with a soft bag thrown over one shoulder.
Photo of the hardback of this book, resting on a white marbled surface. The book is a matte black, with a giant shiny cold bar across it. The title is in gold on the bar. The author’s name is in shiny embossed gold below.
A photo of this book resting on a pink surface against a dark teal wall. The book is pink, with a large mesh shopping bag - full of limes and starting to tear - dominating the page. The title is in bold letters above and below the lines. The author’s name is in red bold font below.
A screenshot of the book cover. It is a photo of a towering pile of five sugary doughnuts with icing, resting on top of one another on a small purple plate. The background surface and wall are sugary pink. The title is above the doughtnuts in black serif writing. The author’s name below in black bold caps. The caption reads “Her life is so full, why is she so hungry?”
A photo of the paperback, resting on a pale green surface against a pale green wall. The cover is cream, with a bold red stripe down the left hand side. The author’s name is in a simple serif font in black and below is the title in red. There is a simply line drawing of a lighthouse in black and some red lines for the sea. There are two endorsements: - 'An extraordinarily rich and detailed portrait of both a marriage and a community' David Nicholls - 'Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force' The New Yorker Along the top it says in red caps “Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction”
Cover of the book. It is a creamy white, with a large flame - inside the flame is blue, then pale/ peachy orange, then a bright red-orange, then a paler yellow-orange on the outside. The author’s name is in black text at the top, with the subtitle ‘bestselling author of Americanah’. The title js on top of the flame in black.
Screenshot of this book cover. It is a bright yellow and the title is along the top and the author’s name is along the bottom, in bulging pink caps (they look like blobs, aptly). Under the title is a subtitle in pink - “A Love Story”. Above the author’s name is a caption “A rollicking fun, funny, poignant coming-of-age story” Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
A screenshot of this book cover. It is black and white - the white sweeps across the book in diagonal stripes, almost like tape. The image at the top is a tall-ish angular building with many windows and billowing chimneys. Below there are many, many people in a crowd, looking forward. They are distinguishable in you zoom in but they look almost faceless given how many there are. There is also a masked person riding a horse, wearing what could be a soldier’s uniform. The title and author’s name are in blue caps across the white stripes. There is a blurb that says “I wept and laughed and wished I had written it” - Miriam Margolyes.
A copy of this nook cover. It is a painted white, with a brushstroke of red, orange and black in the middle showing a young woman’s face looking out as if through a curtain. The book title and author’s name are in black against the white.
A photo of the book cover. It is a murky, textured green, with a blurry pastel rainbow growing from a darker brown patch at the bottom of the page. The author’s name is in yellow and the title in pale blue below. The lime green “Women’s Prize long list 2025” sticker is on the bottom right. There is a quote in white along the top that says “This is an extraordinary novel. It is shattering, almost unbearable, yet - so good, so clear - it is unputdownable." - Roddy Doyle’
A screenshot of the book cover It is a warm yellow. A woman stands in the middle of the page, wearing blue cat’s eye sunglasses and a draped robe in a pale grey silk. She looks naked underneath - the robe is draped off one shoulder and open almost to her waits. She has red nails and is smoking a cigarette in a black holder. Her lips are red and her hair a reddish brown, styled in a wave. She looks cool. Behind her are depictions of soldiers fighting on horseback with shields and swords and bows and arrows. The contrast between historical depictions and her modern style are stark. The author’s name and the book title are in a bold white serif font.
A screenshot of this book cover. The top half is cream, with the title in vivid green caps. There are three reviews: - "Rarely has the wildness and bewilderment of youth been conveyed with such richly textured heat' GARTH GREENWELL - ‘Full of style and soul’ - RAVEN LEILANI - ‘a no bullshit must-read debut’ - KAVEH AKBAR The bottom half is the same vivid green, with a pink photo of a young woman in silhouette - she is leaning back and her hand is covering her face. The author’s name is in white caps across the picture.
A screenshot of the cover of this book. The background is a warm orange that merges into pink down the page. In the centre is a large circle with a blue sky background and bars across it. There are white clouds against the sky. The title is in large white caps above and below the circle. The author’s name is pale blue below. There are two reviews that says: - “Extraordinary” - Rumaan Alam - Gripping, Kafkaesque” - Jennifer Egan There is a lime green circle saying ‘Women’s Prize Long list Fiction 2025’.
A screenshot of this book cover. It is a royal blue, with a golden sun radiating golden rays, with the sun filled with angels with golden halos. All the angels are dark blue but one is conspicuously pale and bling. The title is in pink against the blue, below the sun, and the author’s name in pale blue below. The reviews state: ‘Crisp, transportive, uplifting. The fresh, irreverent voice of Tibb Ingleby is sheer brilliance. I loved it!' Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry 'The most lovable little protagonist I've come across in years' Sandra Newman, author of Julia There is a green sticker on the book to denote the longlisting for the Women’s Prize 2025
Screenshot of this book cover. It is an ombré rainbow from pink to blue to yellow to green in ice-cream shades. On the front is a beautiful tree in black, with branches and leaves spreading symmetrically across the page. Out of the bottom of the trunk is the title. The author’s name is below, against the green.
A copy of this paperback resting on a grey tartan rug (with an orange stripe). The cover is largely of a grey, tumultuous sky, which gives way to a foggy sea and up close, a dark rowing boat and a person in shadow leaning against it, their arms crossed. The book title is in bold blue letters across the middle; the author’s name on the bottom right hand side in a brighter blue. There are multiple reviews across the page: - “Riveting” Sarah Jessica Parker - “a tender, humane book” Sunday Times - “A masterful, discreetly sublime book” Hernan Diaz - “A writer of immense talent” Guardian - “not to be missed” Annie Proulx
A screenshot of this book cover. There is a strip of shocking pink across the top and bottom. In between is a black and white photo, almost sepia toned, of rocks, a great sea and a clear sky with a few wispy clouds. There is a woman hugging two small children, just in shot on the right-hand side. The book title is large and pink across the middle, with the author’s name in black above. There is a green circle in the bottom left that says “Women’s Prize Longlisted Fiction 2025”. Along the top, it says “the Sunday Times bestseller” in white. Along the bottom it says “completely relatable - Sunday Times” and “Riveting and deeply humane - Observer”.
A screenshot of the cover of this book. It is a beautiful, colourful scene that could be flowers but when you focus you realise they are flames and explosions - a riot of yellow, orange, red, pink, green, purple and black. The title and author’s name are in a simple white font in the middle.
A screenshot of the cover of this book on Audible. The left hand two-thirds are a deep blue, with the author’s name in yellow and the book title in white below. The final third on the right is a sketch - blue ink on white with a few pinks and yellows of a table at a wedding, with a couple of champagne flutes, a plate with wedding cake, a place name saying Gail and some pink flowers in a vase (they look like poppies).
A photo of this book on a grey granite surface. The book is a lovely hard back, with triangles of red, orange, burgundy, navy and pink across the cover like broken glass. There is a circle in the middle in which a small figure stands, with their shadow in front of them (it looks like a spotlight on them). The book title is above and the author’s name large below. Above the title it states “'Engaging, intelligent and deeply satisfying. I rate him as one of our greatest living novelists” PETER JAMES Below the author’s name it says “from the acclaimed author of Restless and Any Human Heart”
Screenshot of this cover. Three quarters of it is an image of a white person sitting on the floor of a room, leaning against the wall, reading. You can only see their upper body and legs, no head or feet. They’re wearing what looks like a black dress, stopping a few inches above the person’s knees. The book looks like an old cloth bound one. Everything is tinged orange - the wall is tangerine coloured, the carpet an orange-y weave. The book title is in bold white caps against the black dress. There are two reviews in white: - “no one nails human behaviour with understated humour like she does” Stylist - “a rare, magical combination of accessibility, wit and serious thinking” Sunday Times Below this is a cream section, with the author’s name in bold peachy writing. Above her name it says “Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author” and just below this it says “one of my favourite author’s” Kate Atkinson.
A screenshot of the cover of this book. The cover is framed by a large stone wall, along the left vertical and bottom of the page, with a young white child in a red and white stripy t shirt and small black shorts standing on the wall and leaning against the upright. Behind the wall is a calm blue sea, with many seagulls on the water and in the pale blue sky, a huge one flying towards the boy. There is a small red boat on the horizon. The picture is slightly sepia toned - it looks like a scene from the 70s. The book name is in white caps and the author’s name in black. There is a review that says “Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment” Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses
A copy of the book cover. It is a dark purple, with two large eyes on it. One is looking sideways, set against a pink oval, that could be the skin and eye showing of a woman wearing a niqab. The other eye is framed by a black glasses lens. The book name is written in white across the page with one eye above and one below. The author’s name is in a pale purple above this. There are two reviews that say: - 'Funny, gripping and compassionate' Dolly Alderton - 'A fantastic writer: caustic, pitiless, unafraid... essential reading' Jonathan Coe
A photo of the cover of this book. It is fluorescent green and pink, with a black and white photo of an androgynous young person, with thick short hair, dark brows and long eyelashes. The font is bold and black. It says “Martyr!” across a green background at the top and the author’s name along the bottom. There is a bright pink triangle across the middle (cutting across the photo) with three reviews: “Elegant, dizzying, playful” - LAUREN GROFF “Brilliant and blisteringly alive... I kept forgetting to breathe” JOHN GREEN 'Smart, dazzling, different... It's like watching the novel itself be reinvented' ANN PATCHETT
A paperback of this book resting on a green wool blanket. The title is in bold text at the top of the book - black against creamy white. There is a photo of young adults resting on a wooden dock on clear, calm water. Trees and clouds are reflected in the water. The only person you can see in detail is a young black man sitting up, propped on his hands behind him. He’s wearing a long sleeved green top, a small black hat and sunglasses. A white woman with red hair is resting her head on his lap. Below the author’s name is in white caps against a blue background. Below it says “the Booker shortlisted author of Real Life” There are several reviews on the book: - “a panorama of youth” Guardian - Dazzling” Harper’s Bazaar - “Funny, merciless, brilliant” Curtis Sittingfeld
A copy of this book in hardback, resting on a yellow chevron-striped wool blanket. The book is bright yellow, with a large black jug on the front. There are two naked men in black - one on the left of the jug is touching the side of it. The other, with a beard, rests against the right of the jug, looking spent. The title is in large, white, embossed letters in the middle of the jug. The author’s name is written in script below the title. There are three reviews on the jug: - “Bold and totally unexpected. I was hooked from the first page” Douglas Stuart - “Madly ambitious. Shockingly funny. Just glorious” Emma Donoghue - “Very special, very clever, very entertaining” Roddy Doyle
A screenshot of this book cover on kindle. It is a white rectangle, with the title in alternating black and then pastel ice-cream shades along the top, and the author’s name similar below. The picture is of a white hand with a pale pink manicure, holding a pistachio green ice cream. The person is wearing a pistachio green, vertically striped and long sleeved top, tucked into an elasticated waist in a similar green. The person’s breasts sit low, just above the waist.
Screenshot of the audiobook cover. It is a cream square, with a small photo in the centre - the photo is of a small child in shadow, wearing a backpack, looking across a misty meadow at a building. The sun is low and golden, the sky changes from pale yellow to anaemic blue.
A screenshot of the cover of this book. It is cream, with the name in lower case pink writing at the top and the author’s name in lowercase black writing along the bottom. The image takes up 90% or so of the middle of the page, set to the left. It is mostly beautiful pink and orange flowers and leaves, in the hair of a woman. You can only see the top part of her face - she has with brown skin, with a dark brown eyebrow and dark brown eye. There is a review above the picture that says “One of the great multi-generational storytellers of our time - Abi Doré” and underneath the author’s name it says in pink “New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake”
A screen grab of the cover of this book from audible. The background is a black and white photo, wither real or staged, which I think depicts the protest outside the Libyan embassy in London from 1984 where the protestors were shot and PC Yvonne Fletcher was killed. There is a young man with dark hair and thick eyebrows, staring just past the camera. There is a yellow circle in the middle of the image, on top of which the author’s name in red is bold. The book title is below in white.
A paperback copy of this book resting on a brown sofa. It has a 70s feel - the book is a soft cream, with an illustration of a breakfast table with tinned peaches, two glasses of orange juice - one spilled - and an old fashioned radio. The name is beneath the picture in black and the author’s name below in red
A photo of a paperback copy of this book sitting on a walnut brown table. The cover is an anaemic eggshell blue with a large photo of a goldfish in what looks like the inside of a plastic bag (like if you won it at a fair). The title is in simple black caps at the top of the book and the author’s name at the foot.
A copy of this book in paperback sitting on a walnut sideboard. The book is a bright blue, with a darker blue outline of someone with short hair and open eyes lying down, resting their head on their outstretched arm, gazing at another person, who has small rosebud lips and long hair. The title is pink, the author’s name yellow. There is a review that says “Funny, joyous and wholly irreverent” - Irish Times
A photo of the skeletal West Pier in Brighton, which is surrounded by grey-blue water and sky
An overexposed photo of the hardback of this book, resting on a white surface against a yellow/white wall. The cover is an image from an open window, with a snowy scene outside. The snowy branches of an otherwise bare tree take up the foreground, a snowy house is beyond on the other side of the street. There is a yellow patterned curtain running along the right hand side of the cover. The title and author’s name are in a simple serif font in white.
A pile of books stacked on a walnut table. From bottom to top: - Murakami, The City and its Uncertain Walls - Gabriel’s Moon, William Boyd - There Are Rivers In The Sky, Elif Shafak - Glorious Exploits, Ferria Lennon - The Party, Tessa Hadley - Arlington Park, Rachel Cusk - The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor - Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag - Levitation for Beginners, Suzannah Dunn
Photo of a paperback of this book resting on a grey wool background. The book is colourful - with an orange stripe, moving into black then pink, then green then darker blue. The title is in white capitals and the author’s name below. Across the top it says “With a new afterword” and along the bottom “winner of the Pulitzer Prize”. In the middle it says in small white writing “Extraordinary - The Times”
A screenshot of the cover of this book. It is a blue tin, with a bird in flight in the middle against a peachy sun (I think it would make sense for the bird to be a magpie but I haven’t seen one with such green and blue feathers in real life. Artistic licence!). The book’s name is rounded above the bird in a shallow arc; the author’s name below in a straight line. It says “author of Small Pleasures” beneath the author’s name. There are two small badgers - one on each side - of the book’s name. There are plants with blue leaves and orange flowers, one on each side of the bird. The top of the tin is silver.