Ian Critchley
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iancritchley.bsky.social
Ian Critchley
@iancritchley.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1K following 410 posts
Writer and Editor | Winner Hammond House, HISSAC | Stories in Best British Short Stories, Mechanics Institute Review, Structo, Lighthouse, Litro, Fiction Desk and others | Short story chapbook published by Nightjar Press

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iancritchley.bsky.social
What a joy this adaptation of @ronanhession.bsky.social's novel Leonard and Hungry Paul is. Utterly charming and very funny. Highly recommended @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social
TV adaptation of Leonard and Hungry Paul
October 30, 2025 at 9:15 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
I love the idea that if the Internet completely crashes some people will get together in a pub to decide what to do
Extract from Guardian article: If the internet were ever fully shut down, it is unclear if it could be started up again, says Murdoch. “No one has turned off the internet after it’s been turned on. No one is really sure how it could be turned on again.” In the UK, there is a non-virtual contingency plan, or at least there was. If the internet shuts down, the people who know how it works will meet up in a pub outside London and decide what to do, says Murdoch.
October 28, 2025 at 5:36 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Really enjoyed this collection of stories - the first anthology from @uncertainstories.com. Strange and spooky and unsettling
Front cover of Broken Ground, an anthology of stories published by Uncertain Stories. Image is a composite of things including a tree, a cube, stone etc.
October 28, 2025 at 12:27 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Very grateful to @manchesterreview.bsky.social for these lovely comments about my story 'Ghost Walks' in their review of Best British Short Stories 2025 @saltpublishing.com www.themanchesterreview.co.uk?p=13063
Another unusually surprising story was Ian Critchley’s, ‘Ghost Walks’, telling the story of a woman having a moment of Déjà vu as she revisits York, where she once spent her student days and met her future husband. What, at surface level, can be read as a deceptively simple ghost story turns into a complex exploration of identity, marriage and retrospection on the lives we thought we would live in the halcyon days of youth.
October 27, 2025 at 10:10 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
A good haul from yesterday's @smallpublishers.bsky.social - books from @nightjarpress.bsky.social @cbeditions.bsky.social @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social and @scratchbooks.bsky.social
Four books: The Building Inspector by Myriam Frey, Spent Light by Lara Pawson, The Truth Has Arms and Legs by Alice Fowler and The Unreliable Nature Writer by Claire Carroll
October 26, 2025 at 8:34 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Another exciting piece of #bookpost - Tim MacGabhann's collection of stories published by @scratchbooks.bsky.social. Very much looking forward to reading these
Front cover of Saints, a short story collection by Tim MacGabhann, published by Scratch Books. Image shows an ancient statue of a man or god
October 23, 2025 at 12:24 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Book post! The final volume of @nicholasroyle.bsky.social's trilogy of uncanny stories set in London, Manchester and Paris. Lovely ohotos too! @confingopublishing.bsky.social
Front cover of Paris Fantastique, a collection of short stories by Nicholas Royle, published by Confingo. Cover is typographical on an olive background. Accompanied by three black and white photographs. One shows a strange figure in a window, the second shows a woman walking under a picture of Franz Kafka, and the third shows three sets of feet behind a barrier near a shop called Le Mirage
October 22, 2025 at 12:55 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Delighted to receive a copy of Broken Ground, the first in a new series of anthologies from @uncertainstories.com. Plus a bonus story by @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social!
Broken Ground, an anthology of short stories from Uncertain Stories, plus a short story chapbook by Richard Smyth and two postcards. Artwork by Lucy Scott
October 11, 2025 at 9:19 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
My contributor copy has arrived!

Pub date 13th October @saltpublishing.com Pre-orders: www.saltpublishing.com/products/bes...
Front cover of Best British Short Stories 2025, edited by Nicholas Royle and published by Salt. Cover design is purely typographical with an orange background.
September 30, 2025 at 8:20 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
I keep misreading the title as Novelist on a Vacation, which would no doubt be a very different book
Front cover of Murakami's collection of essays, Novelist as a Vocation. Various colourful circles and an image of a black cat.
September 25, 2025 at 8:37 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
New purchases from @saltpublishing.com!
New books from Salt Publishing. The Mellow Madam by Michael Arditti and The Homecoming by Zoë Apostolides
August 30, 2025 at 9:20 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
'In Co-op a ghost lingered by the crisps. Another vomited in the pouring rain on the pavement outside Go Local.'

Loved this tale of a woman returning to her home town and finding it both similar to and very different from the place she left. @nightjarpress.bsky.social

nightjarpress.weebly.com
Front cover of This Area Only, a short story chapbook by Joe Stretch, published by Nightjar Press. Image shows a shopfront with the words Edgeley Disco on a sign above.
August 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Sunday morning reading. Short stories inspired by Joy Division's album Unknown Pleasures @confingopublishing.bsky.social
Front cover of We Were Strangers, an anthology of short stories inspired by the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures, pubbed by Confingo
August 24, 2025 at 9:03 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Yesterday I experienced a coincidence that would be laughed at in a novel. I haven't thought about Sade for years but just as I was reading this article in a cafe, what should start playing over the speaker ...
Deftones singer Chino Moreno discusses his cover version of Sade's No Iddinary Love in a Guardian article. Says he doesn't think she has ever heard it.
August 23, 2025 at 7:58 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
I loved @ggaffa.bsky.social's previous @nightjarpress.bsky.social story, and this is as good if not better. A flight path signals something much deeper in the narrator's life, darker and more unsettling

nightjarpress.weebly.com
Front cover of Flight Paths, a short story chapbook by David Gaffney, published by Nightjar Press. Image shows a brick building with two windows above a sign saying 'Enigma'.
August 15, 2025 at 2:01 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Back at my favourite cafe
The courtyard cafe at Musee Carnavalet in Paris. 16th and 17th century buildings offset by a balloon with the word Joli, the name of the cafe/restaurant.
August 14, 2025 at 8:29 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
'Shortly after the end of things, the electrical appliances began humming.'

I loved this story about a grieving character's disintegration. Stark images: a radio broadcasting a strange message; the corpse of a young girl floating down a river

@rlsummerling.bsky.social @nightjarpress.bsky.social
Front cover of Through Narrowing Veins, a short story chapbook by RL Summerling, published by Nightjar Press. Image shows a metal fence with the word 'HORROR' written on it in red paint. Photograph by Nicholas Royle.
August 7, 2025 at 12:41 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Ghosts await a man heading back to his home town for his mother's funeral. Emotions and memories jostle in his mind as he heads inexorably towards his past and his future.

Superb sense of gathering dread in this story by @bookishleels.bsky.social pubbed by @nightjarpress.bsky.social
Front cover of Kodavision, a short story chapbook by Leila Martin published by Nightjar Press. Image shows a house with the word DREAD on the front gate.
August 6, 2025 at 1:17 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
This by @drewgum.bsky.social is so good - bold, imaginative and properly funny. Book a trip to Saltburn today @renardpress.com
Front cover of Saltburn, a collection of linked short stories by Drew Gummerson published by Haywood Books. Cover image is a seal and beach ball under a beach umbrella
July 8, 2025 at 10:55 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Day made! New Nightjars have arrived: by @rlsummerling.bsky.social, @bookishleels.bsky.social, @ggaffa.bsky.social and Joe Stretch @nightjarpress.bsky.social #shortstories
Four new short stories by Joe Stretch, David Gaffney, Leila Martin and RL Summerling, published by Nightjar Press
July 3, 2025 at 12:13 PM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Sunday morning reading - new stories from @drewgum.bsky.social @renardpress.com
Front cover of Saltburn by Drew Gummerson. Image shows a cartoon seal and beach ball under a beach umbrella
June 15, 2025 at 9:18 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
For a moment there I thought Rainbow was making a comeback
Stage review headline for Tick, Tick ... Boom!: Zippy musical is fitting show for relaunch of a cherished Welsh venue
June 7, 2025 at 8:07 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Sunday morning reading
Front cover of In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. Image shows the back of a lone female figure in a forest.
May 25, 2025 at 10:04 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
Not for the first time, I suspect that my life is not as exciting as other people's
Trevor Horn, producer I was in New York trying to produce Foreigner when Thereza Bazar from Dollar rang to tell me she was hanging out with Godley & Creme in the bar at the Meridien, and asked if I’d like to come over. Someone in the Foreigner crew had been trying to turn me on to ZZ Top by making me smoke this really strong weed called “Thunderfuck”, so I was pretty spaced out. Kevin and Lol said: “Don’t worry, so are we.”
May 20, 2025 at 10:45 AM
iancritchley.bsky.social
York Minster looking particularly lovely this morning
York Minster against a bright blue sky
May 11, 2025 at 9:21 AM