Eddie Botsio

Photographer, Writer, Journo, Freelance TV Exec Prod. Tweets personal blah

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

November 1971. Chiswick, West London.
Erin Pizzey is 32 years old. She is not a lawyer. Not a politician. Not a doctor.
She is a woman who talked Hounslow Council into lending her a cold, rundown building on Belmont Road — a former community hall — for almost nothing. Her original plan was modest. A warm room. A cup of tea. Somewhere for mothers with young children to simply get out of the house.
Then the door opened.
A woman stood in the entrance. She was covered, head to foot, in bruises. She was holding two small children. She was shaking.
She didn't want tea.
She needed somewhere to hide.
Erin let her in. She didn't turn her away. She didn't tell her to call the police.
Because Erin had already called the police. They told her the same thing they told every woman in Britain at the time: they could not enter a private home over a "domestic dispute." That was the law. The home was private. What happened inside it was a family matter.
When Erin contacted a female civil servant to report what she was seeing, the response was astonishing. The woman told her flatly: "There wasn't a problem of battered wives until you made one."
Erin put down the phone. Then she went back to her residents and made sure they were fed.
Within weeks, 40 mothers and children were sleeping in four tiny rooms. No funding. No staff. No legal authority.
She didn't stop.
By 1973, word had spread through quiet whisper networks — one woman telling another, "There is a place. Go to Chiswick. She won't turn you away." That same year, Erin hosted the first National Women's Aid Conference in the UK. Women from across Britain arrived, and they all recognized the same thing at once: what she had built needed to exist everywhere.
In 1974, the council set a maximum of 36 residents. At peak times, 150 women and children were living inside those walls — sleeping on floors, on chairs, in hallways. The building smelled of cooking, fear, and something else entirely: relief.
Erin was taken to court for overcrowding. She appealed all the way to the House of Lords.
She kept the doors open the entire time.
That same year, she wrote a book. Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear. It was the first published account of domestic violence in British history. It used real stories from real women inside the shelter. Overnight, a problem that had no official name was on front pages from London to New York.
The movement spread. Refuges opened across the UK. Then Australia. Then Canada. Then the United States. The pattern she created in four small rooms in West London — no blueprint, no permission, no funding — had been replicated in hundreds of shelters across the Western world.
MP Jack Ashley stood up in Parliament and said: "It was she who first identified the problem, who first recognised the seriousness of the situation and who first did something practical."
She was ranked 14th in a poll of the 100 women who shook the world. She was awarded the Italian Peace Prize. She received a CBE. The charity she founded — Chiswick Women's Aid, which became Refuge — grew into the largest domestic violence charity in the United Kingdom, with over 460 employees and an annual income of more than £33 million.
Erin Pizzey passed away on October 4, 2025, aged 86.
She never stopped.
It all began with one woman, one borrowed building, and an absolute refusal to say no.
Forty women and children showed up with nowhere to go.
She made room.

Share this if you believe one ordinary person, refusing to look away, can build a shelter that holds the whole world.

Follow us Lost in Yesterday

[Dr Ruby (she/her) jaboukies everything @PaperWhispers]

A reminder that Yves Sakila was killed in Ireland just a few weeks ago. Nobody has been arrested. The family have had to push for second postmortem because the first came back inconclusive.

https://t.co/AwLDfKOXg9

[Michael Warburton @For_Film_Fans]

It’s 1982 and the late great BOB HOSKINS takes Barry Norman along London’s South Bank and makes clear his feelings about the avaricious property developers who were about to swallow whole almost the entire area.

I miss Bob.

[Gary O'Donoghue @BBCBlindGazza]

The branch of Boots on Great Portland Street has just told me that I should have someone with me when I come out as a blind person. When I objected to them telling me howl to lead my life, they said it was for my own good. Unbelievable. Last time I go in there #boots

[Melissa Sigodo @melissasigodo]

A memorial service will be held at St Andrew’s Church, Brockley, London, today Sunday January 18.

[Barry Malone @malonebarry]

These are the Irish people I know.

Not the anonymous Temu Tommy Robinsons you find on here.

[Carolyn Hinds 🇧🇧 #FreePalestine #CongoInCrisis @CarrieCnh12]

The genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still ongoing in the silence of international media coverage. After Trump and the Rwandan president made thwir new deal, M23 and ADF increased their brutal attacks, murdering hundreds and displacing thousands of Congolese people

[Be A King @BerniceKing]

Sixty-nine years ago today, the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended—but its legacy endures.

It remains a masterclass in disciplined, strategic, nonviolent action, reminding us that real change requires collective sacrifice, clarity, and moral courage.

#MontgomeryBusBoycott #Nonviolence365 #BelovedCommunity #MLK

[Eddie Botsio @eddiebotsio]

@indykaila This aged well 😂

[Ben Crump @AttorneyCrump]

10-year-old “Sean the Science Kid” stole the show with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, calling memories a superpower and naming the hippocampus his favorite brain part. 🧠 The future of science is bright and young minds are already leading the way.

🎥: CNN

[Antoine Semenyo @antoinesemenyo]

Last night at Anfield will stay with me forever - not because of one person's words, but because of how the entire football family stood together.

To my @afcbournemouth teammates who supported me in that moment, to the @LiverpoolFC players and fans who showed their true character, to the @premierleague officials who handled it professionally - thank you. Football showed its best side when it mattered most.

Scoring those two goals felt like speaking the only language that truly matters on the pitch. This is why I play - for moments like these, for my teammates, for everyone who believes in what this beautiful game can be.

The overwhelming messages of support from across the football world remind me why I love this sport. We keep moving forward, together. 🙏🏾⚽
.
.
.
.
#FootballFamily #OnwardTogether #AFCB

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

BREAKING: A total of 211 members of Congress voted to block the release of Epstein files.

Here are the names:

Aderholt
Alford
Allen
Amodei (NV)
Arrington
Babin
Bacon
Baird
Balderson
Barr
Barrett
Baumgartner
Bean (FL)
Begich
Bentz
Bergman
Bice
Biggs (AZ)
Biggs (SC)
Bilirakis
Boebert
Bost
Brecheen
Bresnahan
Buchanan
Burchett
Burlison
Calvert
Cammack
Carey
Carter (TX)
Ciscomani
Cline
Cloud
Clyde
Cole
Collins
Comer
Crane
Crank
Crawford
Crenshaw
Davidson
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Donalds
Downing
Dunn (FL)
Edwards
Ellzey
Emmer
Estes
Evans (CO)
Ezell
Fallon
Fedorchak
Feenstra
Fine
Finstad
Fischbach
Fitzgerald
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Flood
Fong
Foxx
Franklin, Scott
Fry
Fulcher
Garbarino
Gill (TX)
Gimenez
Goldman (TX)
Gonzales, Tony
Gooden
Gosar
Graves
Greene (GA)
Griffith
Grothman
Guest
Guthrie
Hageman
Hamadeh (AZ)
Haridopolos
Harrigan
Harris (MD)
Harris (NC)
Harshbarger
Hern (OK)
Higgins (LA)
Hill (AR)
Hinson
Houchin
Hudson
Huizenga
Hurd (CO)
Issa
Jack
Jackson (TX)
James
Johnson (LA)
Johnson (SD)
Jordan
Joyce (OH)
Joyce (PA)
Kean
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kennedy (UT)
Kiggans (VA)
Kiley (CA)
Kim
Knott
Kustoff
LaHood
LaLota
LaMalfa
Langworthy
Latta
Lawler
Lee (FL)
Letlow
Lucas
Luna
Mace
Mackenzie
Malliotakis
Maloy
Mann
Mast
McClain
McClintock
McCormick
McDowell
McGuire
Messmer
Meuser
Miller (IL)
Miller (OH)
Miller (WV)
Miller-Meeks
Mills
Moolenaar
Moore (AL)
Moore (NC)
Moore (UT)
Moore (WV)
Moran
Murphy
Nehls
Newhouse
Norman
Nunn (IA)
Obernolte
Onder
Owens
Palmer
Patronis
Perry
Pfluger
Reschenthaler
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rose
Rouzer
Roy
Rulli
Rutherford
Salazar
Scalise
Schmidt
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Self
Sessions
Shreve
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smucker
Spartz
Stauber
Stefanik
Steil
Steube
Strong
Stutzman
Taylor
Tenney
Thompson (PA)
Tiffany
Timmons
Turner (OH)
Valadao
Van Drew
Van Duyne
Van Orden
Wagner
Walberg
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Westerman
Wied
Williams (TX)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Yakym
Zinke

[Scotland’s Story @80_mcswan]

If you want Michelle Mone removed from the House of Lords and repay the £136,000,000 owed to taxpayers, please RT!

[Eddie Botsio @eddiebotsio]

Thanks to @felixhallclose for patiently guiding me through the process @CameraClubUK https://t.co/sG0DBHdraw

[Eddie Botsio @eddiebotsio]

https://t.co/sG0DBHdraw

[Darshna Soni @darshnasoni]

“If you speak out, you are crushed.” Coming up on #c4news, our exclusive interview with Khizra Bano - once feted by West Midlands Police as a shining example, the senior officer says she was forced out for helping blow the whistle on racism, misogyny and discrimination.

[Omolola @OmololaToriola]

Got laid off last week, so I’m stepping out of my comfort zone to share this:

I’m currently looking for roles in content marketing, social media, Ghostwriting copywriting, or content writing.

If you know of opportunities or can RT this, I’d truly appreciate it.

My next role might be in your network! 🙏🏼

[Eddie Botsio @eddiebotsio]

@mlothianmclean Read one of your columns. Well written, insightful and funny. Keep going. 👏🏿🙏🏿👍🏿👊🏿

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

IMO, once you think of dress as social language, it's very easy to understand everything else, such as how to put together outfits and how trends emerge. 🧵