Lee Ward
@leewardmister.bsky.social
It's books and music all the way down.
Only now, some 40 years on, do I connect the writer of that short story with the author of Mythago Wood. Wow.
I could recommend "A Personal Anthology" every week but this week's, by @iancritchley.bsky.social , is a particular treat. How could you not love a selection that includes the short story that was printed in the manual of the 1984 space trading game "Elite"?
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
open.substack.com/pub/apersona...
A Personal Anthology, by Ian Critchley
I recently stopped reviewing books.
open.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Only now, some 40 years on, do I connect the writer of that short story with the author of Mythago Wood. Wow.
Reading a book that feels like it's set in the uncanny valley. It's meant to be contemporary, but a 20yo girl will keep lighting a silk cut and saying "Of course I'm not happy! I don't even exist! I made a bargain with God and I lost!"
November 12, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Reading a book that feels like it's set in the uncanny valley. It's meant to be contemporary, but a 20yo girl will keep lighting a silk cut and saying "Of course I'm not happy! I don't even exist! I made a bargain with God and I lost!"
Is the Prescott Report in the public domain yet? I.e. is there a way to read it without having to sign up to the Telegraph.
November 10, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Is the Prescott Report in the public domain yet? I.e. is there a way to read it without having to sign up to the Telegraph.
I realise audiobooks have made me a better reader: I now more clearly hear a voice when reading. And you can cast your own narrator in your minds ear: what would this sound like if Alex Jennings were reading it? Or Lydia Leonard. And so on
November 9, 2025 at 10:32 AM
I realise audiobooks have made me a better reader: I now more clearly hear a voice when reading. And you can cast your own narrator in your minds ear: what would this sound like if Alex Jennings were reading it? Or Lydia Leonard. And so on
Bluesky search, JFC. Won't be searching for BBC again in a hurry.
November 8, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Bluesky search, JFC. Won't be searching for BBC again in a hurry.
Reposted by Lee Ward
Someone might read this and say "Hey, Where is Guys Like Me? Where is It's Not, where is You Do? Where is Freeway? Where is Little Bombs" But I say, Hey, there are enough amazing Aimee Mann songs to go around because the woman can do no wrong.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
A voice that still carries: Aimee Mann’s greatest songs – ranked!
Thirty years on from the release of her acclaimed album I’m With Stupid, we count down the sucker-punching best tracks by the US singer-songwriter
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Someone might read this and say "Hey, Where is Guys Like Me? Where is It's Not, where is You Do? Where is Freeway? Where is Little Bombs" But I say, Hey, there are enough amazing Aimee Mann songs to go around because the woman can do no wrong.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
If there were five better books than Helm this year…. Can’t wait to read them
The waiting is nearly over! Our judges - Mark Haddon, Megan Nolan, @simonokotie.bsky.social, and @asack.bsky.social - have read, deliberated and decided.
Winner announcement TONIGHT around 7.30pm🔥
Winner announcement TONIGHT around 7.30pm🔥
November 5, 2025 at 2:17 PM
If there were five better books than Helm this year…. Can’t wait to read them
Gah, seems from the H is for Hawk trailer they've binned all the T.H. White stuff. That's what made the book work! Cowards, etc
November 5, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Gah, seems from the H is for Hawk trailer they've binned all the T.H. White stuff. That's what made the book work! Cowards, etc
Getting turned away from a club and then accepting a lift "to some other club" from a pair of semi-professional drug-dealers.
What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done? I don’t mean “cheating on your partner” stupid, I mean stupid stupid. Like, once, I had this bubble bath which smelled absolutely delicious, so I took a big glug of it. That kind of stupid. (It did not taste delicious.)
October 31, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Getting turned away from a club and then accepting a lift "to some other club" from a pair of semi-professional drug-dealers.
The real problem here is of course: what to read next. I can see myself hurling a succession of slim autofictive novellas out the window til I find something that scratches the itch.
Books read in 2025: Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry. Sad to take leave of Call and Newt and Lorrie and Clara. But the chief lesson: never disturb a nest of water moccasin.
October 28, 2025 at 4:14 PM
The real problem here is of course: what to read next. I can see myself hurling a succession of slim autofictive novellas out the window til I find something that scratches the itch.
Reposted by Lee Ward
For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.
Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Team Ico’s masterpiece by looking back with 11 people who worked on it (and three who didn’t).
www.designroom.site
October 14, 2025 at 2:03 PM
For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.
My other opinion about books is that this poem by Fiona Benson is magnificent. 'Haunted little veterans'!
October 14, 2025 at 10:44 AM
My other opinion about books is that this poem by Fiona Benson is magnificent. 'Haunted little veterans'!
My principal opinion about books as objects is you should read this book about books as objects
October 14, 2025 at 10:19 AM
My principal opinion about books as objects is you should read this book about books as objects
annoyed about this all over again. you just hear them going 'Bill Nighy! Trebles all round!' and not 'is this actually going to work? Like, at all?'
Crazy idea, but for the cost of getting Bill Nighy to read the footnotes, could surely have taken the time to properly format Sian Clifford's script so there aren't moments where you can essentially *hear* the fact there was a pagebreak?
October 13, 2025 at 9:54 AM
annoyed about this all over again. you just hear them going 'Bill Nighy! Trebles all round!' and not 'is this actually going to work? Like, at all?'
Feel slightly bad for Maria Corina Machado. Every post about her win is really about someone else.
October 10, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Feel slightly bad for Maria Corina Machado. Every post about her win is really about someone else.
Would love to care about anything as much as British blueskiers care about who runs CBS News.
October 6, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Would love to care about anything as much as British blueskiers care about who runs CBS News.
Reposted by Lee Ward
I finally got a chance to write one of my dream assignments, an in depth evaluation of Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor whose achievements and methods cast a long shadow over the field, and whose work is often misunderstood.
slate.com/culture/2025...
slate.com/culture/2025...
Only One Performer Has Won Three Best Actor Oscars. Is It Fair That He’s Also a Joke?
He might be the greatest actor of all time—and the most misunderstood.
slate.com
October 6, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I finally got a chance to write one of my dream assignments, an in depth evaluation of Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor whose achievements and methods cast a long shadow over the field, and whose work is often misunderstood.
slate.com/culture/2025...
slate.com/culture/2025...
Who is 'jay' and what is the bad thing they've done?
October 4, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Who is 'jay' and what is the bad thing they've done?
A more honest piece would have talked to people who live in the Chilterns, who live in fact in the Misbourne valley–like me!–and asked their opinion. Which would basically be partridge-shrug.gif
October 2, 2025 at 9:36 AM
A more honest piece would have talked to people who live in the Chilterns, who live in fact in the Misbourne valley–like me!–and asked their opinion. Which would basically be partridge-shrug.gif
OMG it's Steven J. Lockjaw
Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom Rally was sponsored by a convicted fraudster allegedly behind cryptocurrency ‘rug pulls’
The far-right rally was bankrolled by convicted fraudster alleged to be behind two cryptocurrency scams, Byline Times can reveal
bylinetimes.com/2025/10/01/t...
The far-right rally was bankrolled by convicted fraudster alleged to be behind two cryptocurrency scams, Byline Times can reveal
bylinetimes.com/2025/10/01/t...
Tommy Robinson's 'Unite the Kingdom' Rally Was Sponsored by a Convicted Fraudster Allegedly Behind Cryptocurrency ‘Rug Pulls’
The far-right rally was bankrolled by a convicted fraudster alleged to be behind two cryptocurrency scams, Byline Times can reveal
bylinetimes.com
October 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
OMG it's Steven J. Lockjaw
Something very telling about Farage saying Reform would clean up next May, at "our equivalent of the mid-terms". Very America-brained.
September 30, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Something very telling about Farage saying Reform would clean up next May, at "our equivalent of the mid-terms". Very America-brained.
Big piece in the Guardian yesterday about a girl suffering from "chronic Lyme disease", immediately thought of this brilliant piece: www.thecut.com/2019/07/what...
What Happens When Lyme Disease Becomes an Identity?
The tick-borne disease that’s now a movement.
www.thecut.com
September 28, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Big piece in the Guardian yesterday about a girl suffering from "chronic Lyme disease", immediately thought of this brilliant piece: www.thecut.com/2019/07/what...
"Thessalie Wayward, a successful stage mentalist". He's still got it!
Hey look if Pynchon's new one is getting nicked for a smegma joke, we'll be in damn good shape
"His comedic sense is considerably more fallible—'Shadow Ticket' is not the first of his novels with a sophomoric smegma joke—but, when it lands, it lands"
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
"His comedic sense is considerably more fallible—'Shadow Ticket' is not the first of his novels with a sophomoric smegma joke—but, when it lands, it lands"
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reading the New Pynchon Novel in a Pynchonesque America
“Shadow Ticket,” Pynchon’s first book in a dozen years, unfolds its conspiracies in Depression-era Milwaukee and beyond, but it lands in a moment when reality seems to have caught up with his fictions...
www.newyorker.com
September 24, 2025 at 9:48 PM
"Thessalie Wayward, a successful stage mentalist". He's still got it!
I'll be honest - it's not clear to me that this is AI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwzc...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwzc...
Michael Jackson - Thriller, if it was recorded in the 50s
YouTube video by marceve76
www.youtube.com
September 18, 2025 at 6:33 PM
I'll be honest - it's not clear to me that this is AI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwzc...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwzc...
Reposted by Lee Ward
Brilliant piece on the casual erasure of of a female artist from a landmark moment in pop culture. And the answer to the question, Why don’t Peter Blake’s other album covers have the power and impact of Sgt. Pepper?
Years ago I wrote this piece about national treasure and dreadful old c**t Peter Blake. Have just dredged it up for my new best friend @typetheclouds.bsky.social who had the good sense to buy my fucking book™ at the Hastings book fair.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/ja...
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/ja...
The Curious Case of the Disappearing Artist
We all have pet causes. Mine include Amnesty International, Yorkshire Cat Rescue and re-writing the artist Jann Haworth back into art history.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
September 14, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Brilliant piece on the casual erasure of of a female artist from a landmark moment in pop culture. And the answer to the question, Why don’t Peter Blake’s other album covers have the power and impact of Sgt. Pepper?