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mbonsall.bsky.social
Mike Bonsall
@mbonsall.bsky.social
650 followers 1.2K following 160 posts
Ballardian | digitizer | concordancer | code art
https://fentonville.co.uk/digital-ballard/
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mbonsall.bsky.social
Mike Bonsall @mbonsall.bsky.social · Apr 11
So this is my first, and possibly last, real book! Available on Amazon now and good booksellers soon

Inspired by JG Ballard's endlessly faceted works I've been trying for decades to make new ways of understanding them, with some interesting results

Many thanks to Rick McGrath for making it happen
cover of Ballardian Diversions by Mike Bonsall showing painting of 1920's British biplane. Back cover has author photo and text: After unsuccessfully studying psychology, medicine, art and information systems, Mike Bonsall finally gave in to his obsession with the work of JG Ballard, whose writing seems to hint at another world, just out of sight, that might somehow be reached by an ever-more intense interrogation of the text. After all, he reasoned, Ballard himself encouraged this experimental approach: "It's a little as if I were leading the reader to a deserted laboratory, and that I put a collection of specimens and all the necessary equipment at his disposal. It's his job then to relate these elements together and create reactions from them." This volume contains some of the more interesting results of his experiments.
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
jeremymillar.bsky.social
oh wow
November 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
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brendancbyrne.bsky.social
!!!!!!!
November 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
therafischwartz.bsky.social
SMASHING my fingers clean through the keyboard to hit the "pre-order" button on this
November 11, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
wavenode.bsky.social
I can’t wait for this. Nina’s most recent novel combines documentary, imagination and autofiction. Her use of complex, reflexive structure is hypnotic.
November 11, 2025 at 4:12 PM
mbonsall.bsky.social
The Illuminated Man: Life, Death and the Worlds of J. G. Ballard

a major biography

by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/illuminat...
The Illuminated Man
This book is about J. G. Ballard. This book is also about death, love and time travel.In 2024, Nina Allan's husband, the novelist Christopher Priest died. He ha…
www.bloomsbury.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
johncoulthart.com
BBC Future has used one of my popular Frankenstein illustrations (with my permission) in this web feature about the Mer de Glace:

www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
'The most desolate place in the world': The sea of ice that inspired Frankenstein
This French glacier has given rise to countless works of art in the past 200 years. Paintings, photos and satellites reveal how the site has dramatically transformed.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
danwhitehead.net
BBC Archive just uploaded The Lonely Shore (1962), a surreal 15-minute short that takes the form of a scientific report from an abandoned and desolate future Britain. Written by Jacquetta Hawkes, an actual archaeologist, and directed by Ken Russell, an actual madman.
1962: An Expedition to Post-Apocalyptic Britain | Monitor: The Lonely Shore | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
www.youtube.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:49 AM
mbonsall.bsky.social
London Review of Books

Fiction and the Fantastic: J.G. Ballard and Angela Carter

Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition and The Passion of New Eve, considered together here, are vivid, fearless, still shocking novels of ideas ...

www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...
Podcast: Marina Warner and Chloe Aridjis · Fiction and the Fantastic: J.G. Ballard and Angela Carter
www.lrb.co.uk
October 22, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
dbellingradt.bsky.social
Say hi. This is an example of how human labor will be remembered when all books are digitized and we all work with digital copies only. And maybe, hand on heart, this hand was intentionally raised to greet us from the past. #skystorians #bookhistory #digitalhumanities
A hand soaked with sweat, in a plastic glove, caught in the act while doing a digital scan of a broadside for a Munich based library. Source: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10811151?page=6,7
March 21, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
futurerevisited.bsky.social
OTD 1966. The start of second season of the BBC SF anthology series ‘Out of the Unknown’.
1. Image shown is the cover of the BBC Enterprises document used to promote copies of the episodes for overseas sales - thankfully, some of these copies survived & were subsequently returned to the archives.
October 6, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
harrysword.bsky.social
Great 'Time Out of Mind' episode from 1979 on Michael Moorcock. @joebankswriter.bsky.social and @reversediorama.bsky.social may appreciate.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhSF...
Time Out of Mind - Episode 3: Michael Moorcock
YouTube video by Cheryl Morgan
www.youtube.com
September 25, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
sciencemuseum.org.uk
Our new out-of-this-world gallery, Space, is now open!

Celebrating the first space age and the future of space exploration through incredible objects, be one of the first to experience this new gallery.

Entry included with your free museum admission ticket – book now: https://bit.ly/4mIEaP7
Visitors stand in the Science Museum's new Space gallery, observing an Apollo 10 command module, a Soyuz space capsule and a spacesuit. Also prominent are a 3D projection of the Moon and large rocket and satellite components. Two visitors look at a large Saturn rocket thruster and a section of the BepiColombo spacecraft in the Science Museum's Space gallery. Two visitors to the Science Museum's Space gallery sit on a bench, observing and pointing at a 3D projection of the Earth that appears suspended in the air. Another visitor observes from a standing position. A background wall shows the surface of the Moon. A visitor to the new Space gallery at the Science Museum stands looking at Helen Sharman's spacesuit, white with blue and red trim and with a Union Flag patch visible on its left arm. In the background are the Soyuz space capsule, another visitor examining it, and its draping parachute.
September 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM
mbonsall.bsky.social
Decontamination Suite, Greenham Common Air Base

A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Suite that formed part of the Cold War US Airbase at Greenham Common with guided tours through the facility

www.heritageopendays.org.uk/submission-e...
Decontamination Suite, Greenham Air Base
A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Suite that formed part of the Cold War US Airbase at Greenham Common with guided tours through the facility explaining the history of the build...
www.heritageopendays.org.uk
September 19, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
retrotechdreams.bsky.social
Yoot Tower (1998), the sequel to SimTower
September 9, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
spacecatt.bsky.social
My collection is neat and complete, and now I can read all of them in chronological order (by release date)
Full set of matching JG Ballard books
September 8, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
news-flows-ir.bsky.social
The Irish Independent’s View: Violence has no place in politics, no matter what side of the divide you are on

The writer JG Ballard felt the American dream had run it course. The “home of the free” was now more likely to supply the world’s “nightmares”, he wrote.
The Irish Independent’s View: Violence has no place in politics, no matter what side of the divide you are on
The writer JG Ballard felt the American dream had run it course. The “home of the free” was now more likely to supply the world’s “nightmares”, he wrote.
www.independent.ie
September 12, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
sfencyclopedia.bsky.social
John Clute sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/clute_... joint editor of the SFE, was born on this day; he's wrote a few entries too: 7,856 solo & 1423 in collaboration (over 3.1m words). He also co-edited Interzone 1982-1984. Some related artwork (Judith Clute, St John Child, Richard Kadrey & Robert Mason):
September 12, 2025 at 3:29 PM
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mjohnharrison.bsky.social
Profile Books catalgue, Spring 2026, via @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social
Ad for a novel, "The End of Everything" from Profile Books, June 2026, including synopsis, bio & a photograph of the author by Hugo Glendinning
September 3, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
jeremymillar.bsky.social
Spaceman meme: One astronaut looks at the earth from space and says: 'It's like living in a JG Ballard novel.' Behind him is another astronaut, with a gun pointing at the first one, saying, 'Always has been.'
August 27, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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adaspota.bsky.social
J.G. Ballard’s Experimental Text Collages: 'Project for a New Novel', his 1958 Foray into Avant-Garde Literature.

#JGBallard #Ballardian #ExperimentalLiterature
September 1, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
johncoulthart.com
New blog post: Crystal worlds
Crystal worlds
The Crystal World by JG Ballard. An illustration by Virgil Finlay for the Summer–August 1966 issue of Things To Come, the Science Fiction Book Club mailer. 1: Crystal words JG Ballard didn't have a pleasant experience with LSD when Michael Moorcock procured a dose of the drug for him in 1967, describing his acid trip in later years as a "psychotic nightmare".
www.johncoulthart.com
August 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
mbonsall.bsky.social
IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:

Letter written July 18, 1969
To: H. R. Haldeman From: Bill Safire July 18, 1969. IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER: Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice. These two 1nen are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown. In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations . In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind. PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT: The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be. AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN: A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with the Lord's Prayer.
August 25, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
ballardbot.bsky.social
Built in the 1930s, Hitler's autobahns were both high-speed panzer arteries and ancient runic megaliths laid down like stone dreams that pointed towards the east.
August 25, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
skeuomorphology.bsky.social
The winner of the 2025 Orwell "1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual" Prize is JG Ballard.

Again.
August 23, 2025 at 6:08 PM
mbonsall.bsky.social
Echoes of JG Ballard's Kingdom Come

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The questions about St George's and union jack flags lining British streets
With St George's and union jack flags appearing on many lampposts, we visit the epicentre of the phenomenon to find out why.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 24, 2025 at 6:30 AM