Laura Richmond
Like many autistic people, Laura Richmond has always felt like the proverbial square peg amid a sea of round holes. She’s never really fit into the parameters of any recognisable career, and generally she just makes it up as she goes along. She completed a PhD in medieval history in 2017. She has continued to publish historical research, and she has been a regular contributor and an advisory editor at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Currently, she’s a researcher, campaigner, and consultant who works to improve mental health care, especially for parents and families. She uses her own lived experience of autism and complex PTSD and works in partnership with several charities and universities. She also runs a dolls’ hospital. Her memoir, All My Worldly Joy, will be published by Wilton Square in January 2026. She lives in Southampton with her son and two cats.
Knew it! Appropriate conversation topics decided by top-secret committee
Headline by Sara Gibbs Everyone but you is invited to regular meetings where it is announced what is and is not socially acceptable to say, our undercover reporters have found. The format of these meetings revolves around the Oxford English Dictionary, which is taken page by...
Dyspraxic student livens up Sports Day by throwing javelin backwards into crowd
A dyspraxic student has not made herself more popular with her teachers and peers by accidentally hurling a javelin at them, it has been confirmed. Avery Mann, 14, prefers to stick to throwing events on Sports Day since she doesn’t like to be hot and...
Guess the bruise! Purple polka dotted autistic woman has no idea how that happened
An autistic woman is mystified as to why she’s woken up looking like an overripe banana, it has been claimed. Pippa Durham, 34, regularly discovers injuries that seem to have appeared by stealth when she wasn’t looking, and has yet to find a biologically plausible...
Spooky! Autistic woman dissociates so hard in dentist’s chair that she literally floats away
An autistic woman scared her dentist almost as much as he scares her, after she levitated toward the ceiling during a routine check-up, it has been reported. According to witnesses, the corporeal form of Paige Thomas, 27, did appear to be present in the dentist’s...
You’re welcome! “Bossy” autistic woman has planned your whole life for you
An autistic woman has taken the liberty of sketching out your next few decades, since you were not forthcoming in a recent conversation about future plans, it has been revealed. You may not have noticed that Ellie Mulligan, 35, was being sarcastic when she ended...
Baggy clothes next best thing to nudity, say autistics
Some autistic people have succeeded in wearing clothes without having clothes anywhere near them, sources have confirmed. The revolutionary new style reportedly allows autistic people to feel as free as they day they were born, without immediately losing their actual freedom on a public indecency...
Autistic woman disappointed to discover “adult colouring book” not sexually explicit
The adult entertainment industry is facing tough questions after concerns were raised about the underwhelming and entirely unsexy content of their colouring books, it has been revealed. Autistic customer Alma Montague, 41, expressed dismay with her recent purchase, which she was led to believe would...
Rigged! Completed tasks on to-do list keep getting replaced with new ones
You will never finish your chores and obligations because life is a succession of one tedious fucking thing after another until you die, scientists have confirmed. Dr. Brenda Hernández, who was first to propose the theory, explained: “You might be familiar with the story of...
Role model! Teacher inspires autistic teens to stop going to school
A teacher has been praised for promoting the belief that autistic young people can do anything they put their mind to – even, apparently, staying the fuck away from her. Karen Hoyland, 45, teaches Citizenship at a secondary school, where she prides herself on creating...
Help! Parents running out of euphemisms for undiagnosed autistic child
A couple are becoming increasingly unhinged in the language that they use to describe their daughter, who is obviously autistic but must never, ever, ever be named as such, according to sources. Becky and Lloyd Didcot, 39 and 41, feel that an autism diagnosis carries...