Helen Barrett
@helenbarrett.bsky.social
Features journalist - NYTimes, Financial Times, Telegraph. On a book break, writing about the Beatles.
https://www.helenbarrettjournalist.com/
https://open.substack.com/pub/helenbarrett
https://www.helenbarrettjournalist.com/
https://open.substack.com/pub/helenbarrett
Pinned
Helen Barrett
@helenbarrett.bsky.social
· Sep 27
Memoirs from the dance floor — the nocturnal universes of New York, London and Berlin
Three very different accounts by Mark Ronson, Jodie Harsh and Liam Cagney create a history of club culture since the 1990s
www.ft.com
I wrote about a rush of new nightlife memoirs and the death of nightclubs for this week's @ftweekend.com books essay.
www.ft.com/content/a4ed...
www.ft.com/content/a4ed...
Also on cooling towers: if you see one of these kicking around in a charity shop or lying unwanted in a kitchen cupboard, you've struck eBay gold. Please alert me to your auction.
November 11, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Also on cooling towers: if you see one of these kicking around in a charity shop or lying unwanted in a kitchen cupboard, you've struck eBay gold. Please alert me to your auction.
Just 45 cooling towers left in Britain, all but one in the process of decommission and demolition. If, like me, you are fond of these silent sculptural giants scattered across the landscape, you will love @c20society.bsky.social supersized new book.
November 11, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Just 45 cooling towers left in Britain, all but one in the process of decommission and demolition. If, like me, you are fond of these silent sculptural giants scattered across the landscape, you will love @c20society.bsky.social supersized new book.
This is a wonderful read.
New article, definitely something for the social history fans - the monkey parade (or 'monkey run'). Teenagers promenading in towns and cities on Sunday evenings, flirting, cruising. It was dubbed the “monkey parade” or the “monkey run”.
davehaslam.substack.com/p/before-tin...
davehaslam.substack.com/p/before-tin...
Before Tinder, there was the Monkey Parade…
How our grandparents and their parents found romance.
davehaslam.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This is a wonderful read.
Reposted by Helen Barrett
On this day in 1970, Charles Schulz replied to a 10-year-old kid who had written and asked, “What makes a good citizen?"
November 9, 2024 at 9:40 PM
On this day in 1970, Charles Schulz replied to a 10-year-old kid who had written and asked, “What makes a good citizen?"
GenX so the answer must be Fleetwood Mac, apparently.
What is your biggest musical blindspot for someone precisely your age?
For me - an elder millennial - it is that I have never knowingly listened to INCUBUS, nor could I name even one of their songs if you put a gun to my head.
For me - an elder millennial - it is that I have never knowingly listened to INCUBUS, nor could I name even one of their songs if you put a gun to my head.
November 10, 2025 at 10:02 AM
GenX so the answer must be Fleetwood Mac, apparently.
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Good news, fellow taphophiles.
Conservation work has started on one of the most unusual mausoleums in the Roman Catholic world -- the Bedouin tent shaped tomb of Sir Richard Burton and his wife, Lady Isabel.
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/res...
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/res...
Restoration of Burton’s Mausoleum starts with aim to reopen the tomb for visits
Conservation work has started on one of the most unusual mausoleums in the Roman Catholic world -- the Bedouin tent shaped tomb of Sir Richard Burton and his wife, Lady Isabel.
www.ianvisits.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Good news, fellow taphophiles.
The lonely 12th-century Leper Chapel (St Mary Magdalene), with Roman foundations, near Ripon. The narrow window at standing height was for passing alms to people with leprosy.
November 9, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The lonely 12th-century Leper Chapel (St Mary Magdalene), with Roman foundations, near Ripon. The narrow window at standing height was for passing alms to people with leprosy.
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Found David Bowie's bookplate among his various notes etc and it's pretty fine
November 9, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Found David Bowie's bookplate among his various notes etc and it's pretty fine
Adding: "Journalists walking around the West End critiquing pedestrians" to this list.
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
How many ways can a pedestrian be annoying? At least 19
Slow walkers and speed-weavers are being shamed on the streets — am I part of the problem?
www.thetimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Adding: "Journalists walking around the West End critiquing pedestrians" to this list.
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Claude Francis Barry’s paintings of WW1 are amongst the most accomplished of his works, with his images of searchlights across London being the most evocative - here (1918) he used small concentrated dots of colour to create an atmospheric haze of light.
November 7, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Claude Francis Barry’s paintings of WW1 are amongst the most accomplished of his works, with his images of searchlights across London being the most evocative - here (1918) he used small concentrated dots of colour to create an atmospheric haze of light.
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Over a tenth of UK electorate is in the NT membership, but only 1/60th of NT voted.
The 2:1 anti-Restore Trust split among these 50k people happens to reflect general public views of Nigel Farage
The failure of Restore Trust was because Farage mobilises his opponents by mobilising his supporters
The 2:1 anti-Restore Trust split among these 50k people happens to reflect general public views of Nigel Farage
The failure of Restore Trust was because Farage mobilises his opponents by mobilising his supporters
November 9, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Over a tenth of UK electorate is in the NT membership, but only 1/60th of NT voted.
The 2:1 anti-Restore Trust split among these 50k people happens to reflect general public views of Nigel Farage
The failure of Restore Trust was because Farage mobilises his opponents by mobilising his supporters
The 2:1 anti-Restore Trust split among these 50k people happens to reflect general public views of Nigel Farage
The failure of Restore Trust was because Farage mobilises his opponents by mobilising his supporters
Reposted by Helen Barrett
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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A walk around the delightful village of Masham (that's Mass-ham, *not* Mash-ham, as I was told very firmly).
November 8, 2025 at 6:44 PM
A walk around the delightful village of Masham (that's Mass-ham, *not* Mash-ham, as I was told very firmly).
Reposted by Helen Barrett
November Evening in a Welsh Wood, painting by James Thomas Watts (1850-1930).
November 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
November Evening in a Welsh Wood, painting by James Thomas Watts (1850-1930).
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Dear Hilda Am having a good time, my tongue has not stopped.
November 8, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Dear Hilda Am having a good time, my tongue has not stopped.
OMG the projection.
November 8, 2025 at 8:21 AM
OMG the projection.
But it's much more liberal than you think, you can even make jokes about women drivers. Or something.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/w...
As Saudi Arabia Cracks Down on Drugs, Executions Near a Record High
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:54 AM
But it's much more liberal than you think, you can even make jokes about women drivers. Or something.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/w...
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Newyddion gwych! / Great news! Newport’s former Inmos Microprocessor Factory, by Richard Rogers & Partners with Anthony Hunt, has now been listed as Grade II*. Built 1980–82, it’s Wales’ High-Tech landmark, with structure and services on show and a flexible interior built for innovation.
November 7, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Newyddion gwych! / Great news! Newport’s former Inmos Microprocessor Factory, by Richard Rogers & Partners with Anthony Hunt, has now been listed as Grade II*. Built 1980–82, it’s Wales’ High-Tech landmark, with structure and services on show and a flexible interior built for innovation.
Tomita, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Uriah Heap (inevitably), War, Dr Feelgood. Can’t read the others -- anyone?
November 7, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Tomita, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Uriah Heap (inevitably), War, Dr Feelgood. Can’t read the others -- anyone?
Reposted by Helen Barrett
“Why are you banging your head against the wall?” asked Frog.
“I hope that if I bang my head against the wall, it will help me to think of a story,” said Toad.
“I hope that if I bang my head against the wall, it will help me to think of a story,” said Toad.
November 7, 2025 at 8:37 AM
“Why are you banging your head against the wall?” asked Frog.
“I hope that if I bang my head against the wall, it will help me to think of a story,” said Toad.
“I hope that if I bang my head against the wall, it will help me to think of a story,” said Toad.
The very wonderful, very gnomic Fiery Furnaces at the Barbican this evening, very far away.
November 6, 2025 at 9:49 PM
The very wonderful, very gnomic Fiery Furnaces at the Barbican this evening, very far away.