iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Cooking up latest newsletter with some writing tips, reading reccs and event news. I need to exfoliate these pixels off. www.damianbarr.com/subscribe

damianbarr.com

Subscribe — Damian Barr

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is a story about finding treasure among trash, about being open to magic and the joy of the dump-it site. Wild story ! So proud to play a part. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

'More will turn up' - Work by Scottish artists unearthed for homecoming exhibition

Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde were among the most celebrated figures in British art.

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Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It's remarkable to watch people on the left launch with gusto into a campaign to delegitimise and undermine trade unions, using lawfare and relentless media attacks, because they've been persuaded that hating trans people should be their top priority. The right must be rubbing their hands with glee.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is a story about finding treasure among trash, about being open to magic and the joy of the dump-it site. Wild story ! So proud to play a part. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

'More will turn up' - Work by Scottish artists unearthed for homecoming exhibition

Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde were among the most celebrated figures in British art.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Cake, weird black gloves and an amazing team. All curating essentials. Artists, Lovers, Outsiders opens at the Dick on Friday and on Friday night I’m on in Glasgow with @nicolameighan.bsky.social tickets via @waterstones.bsky.social

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Excited about this and also about going to one those places that sounded made-up when I heard it on Scottish telly. Plus it had a good old church

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 20/09/2026

"Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational triumphal arch!"

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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Harbinger of Doom Liz Truss has come out in support of Ed Sheeran.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

In today's 'writing' I got turned down for a residency, sent an invoice and chased another, booked a not-writing gig for next year, forgot my password for something and finally got to my latest draft only to find it's not so terrible after all. #amwritingEVENTUALLY

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Calling my GP and it seems they have introduced an AI assistant.....*screams in human*

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Canongate @canongate.co.uk · 27/08/2026

Meet Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun: artists, lovers, outsiders. From 1930s Glasgow to wartime London, THE TWO ROBERTS is a captivating novel inspired by their wild lives, shortlisted for the Nero Book Award ‘Crackles with creative rebellion’ DOUGLAS STUART

A paperback copy of The Two Roberts by Damian Barr floating against a grey background

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

note to self: always pack more socks than you think you need. Paperback tour! @foylesforbooks.bsky.social @waterstones.bsky.social and many others! Thanks @canongate.co.uk

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Helen Garner on the cons and pros of being a writer. (From ‘On Turning Fifty’, from True Stories: Collected Short Non-Fiction)

and grim stubbornness required in order to keep going; the episodes of elation, the occasional sense of hitting your stride, or of being in tune with the force that creates the feeling that now you've got it, now you can't put a foot wrong then the guilt you feel, when your work's going well, that you are allowed to spend your days having this much fun and ultimately being paid for it, while others have jobs in offices or schools, and bosses, and laid-down work hours they have to stick to—then the arrival next morning at your desk, the dropping away of the floor from under your feet as you see the thinness of what yesterday seemed so rich and right; the picking up of the pen, the dogged keeping going-the sickly envy of people with jobs, because they have got bosses to tell them what to do next, and work hours that finish at a certain regular time so they can go home, and holidays, and secretaries, and superannuation-and they're allowed to ask for help; the pathetic pleas for encouragement you make, invariably to the wrong person—a child, a husband, a parent— someone who can't possibly know the right thing to say, or who is in the grip of some barely conscious hostility towards you that they can't help expressing at the most destructive possible moment; the hatred of your own name, because of its connection with this slogging labour and with the expectations which you have caused the outside world to have of you, and that you're afraid you'll never live up to; the despair of feeling trapped inside your own style.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My Writing Life. ‘Writing is a privilege, but not only for the privileged – it is work and I deserve to be paid properly for it, however lucky I feel to be doing it. Writing is not publishing. Writers are artists, and artists do not need to be tortured.’ www.rlf.org.uk/posts/my-wri...

rlf.org.uk

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Sheila O’Flanagan @sheilawriter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It’s National Libraries Open Day in Ireland on 26th September- pop in to your local library and read as much as you like for free! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

theguardian.com

Singapore pays people to pick up a book in battle against doomscrolling

Affluent city-state hopes plan will improve critical thinking and imagination ‘in a world of extraordinary abundance of stimulation’

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Timeline cleanse: my sunflowers are hanging on. These are the blooms that came from the seeds harvested from the blooms that came from the seeds I planted with my wee mum as she was dying.

An orange and yellow and red sunflower blooming among fading leaves.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The balaclava blackshirted thugs are a result of a decade of politicians, tabloids and the broadcast media telling racists they have "legitimate concerns." The normalisation of actual fascism rhetoric and action has led to this and is a far greater "legitimate concern" than any migrant on a boat.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

This coverage is so horrifying to watch. I keep wanting to look away from it but I can’t. We can’t. Not if we are to stop it here. It is disgusting and the minimising of it by R*form politicians and others says everything about the violence of their politics.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Only a couple of hours left of my exhibition at Nottingham Castle! It’s been such a privilege staging this show there. Big gay working-class art joy! It goes on now to Ayrshire for a homecoming. observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

observer.co.uk

The dark, wayward works of the Two Roberts | The Observer

The inseparable Scottish artists and lovers are celebrated in a landmark English show at Charleston

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A reminder for all the people who are still using genAI images to express their opposition to right-wing crap. Please, find another way.

The Batman meme taken from The Dark Knight Returns. He's breaking a shotgun in two, saying 'This is the weapon of the enemy. We do not need it. We will not use it.'

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

There's a name for it and begins with F.....

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Watched that Channel 4 News investigation last night and then watched it again. These are not men of the people. The braying accents muffled by deep-pile carpets. Thin shoulders that barely come over country house armchairs. White shins glimpsed between dress socks and tailored trousers. Oysters!

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Chuffed that the Two Roberts has been chosen as Book of the Month @foylesforbooks.bsky.social and Scottish Book of the Month @waterstones.bsky.social Thank you booksellers :) this really feels like the kind of thing that happens to other writers! So chuffed and honoured. Go gay stories!

A table of books in Waterstones’s. The books are the novel TheTwo Robert’s by Damian Barr. They are accompanied by a quote from Douglas Stuart.

Damian Barr in a terracotta shirt and grey jeans standing outside foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road in London. He is smiling at a window deviated to his novel the Two Roberts.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I’m crafting medals for all my fellow Bank Holiday workers. #amwriting

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Paperback out now! And autumn / reading weather* seems to have arrived. *all weather is reading weather.

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Cameron L. Mitchell @cameronlmitchell.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Don't dream it, be it RIP Tim Curry, you fabulous man

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lighthouse prince @historiancole.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

tim curry keeping up the bit twenty years after the fact by writing in his memoir that he and miss piggy had an affair during the filming of muppet treasure island is just so good and funny

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Ross Johnson @rosserford.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

We’re going to hear about how everyone loved Dolly, and that feels true. But it’s good to remember, and to her credit, that she was attacked for her AIDS activism, her vaccine advocacy, her LGBTQ+ support and even, more recently, for her reading initiatives. She ALWAYS stood firm when it mattered.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Heartbroken. She showed us how to be our best even when we are feeling our worst. Every song a story. And she gave books to millions of children. Thank you Dolly. I can’t believe it.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Writing tips, event news and other items in the newsletter I am sending out soon, soon, soon. www.damianbarr.com/subscribe

damianbarr.com

Subscribe — Damian Barr

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I'm at the 'Not only is every page of this terrible, I am terrible for even trying and will deservedly be stuck down by the gods' stage of writing my next novel. Which stage are you at? #amwriting #booksky

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The world is on fire. New technology is coming for us all. What's the point of making your art? The point is...well, I wrote a whole bit about two queer working-class artists faced this during WWII. And a novel about them too :) www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

theguardian.com

‘They had everything, then nothing’: the prodigies the art world forgot

Robert Colquhoun and Bobby MacBryde were once the golden boys of London’s art scene – photographed in Vogue, filmed by Ken Russell and lauded by Francis Bacon. So why did they vanish into obscurity?

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The Lancet @thelancet.com · 21/08/2026

On the cover this week, a new Editorial examines the deteriorating state of LGBTQ+ rights globally and its implications on health. Read this & more: spkl.io/633297Onhd

Cover of The Lancet's August 22, 2026 issue. Quote reads: "...movements that seek to undermine LGBTQ+ people are those that seek to control all of us—our freedom of expression, our personal medical decisions, and our privacy."

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TACC @tacc.org.uk · 20/08/2026

"...toilet facilities labelled with a 'female' sign remain available to cisgender women, trans women, and others for whom those facilities best align with their lived experience. Similarly, facilities labelled with a 'male' sign remain available to cisgender men, trans men, and others..."

quaker.org.uk

Quakers reaffirm commitment to trans inclusion in the wake of EHRC Code of Practice

Quakers in Britain has refreshed and reaffirmed its commitment to providing trans-inclusive facilities across its buildings.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

A week today! You can be holding my big gay love story in your own hands.

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

It feels almost trivial to be talking about books when the world is so scary. But I truly believe stories are what will save us - they connect us to each other, to the past and to the future. Writing gives me hope. I hope reading does the same for you. Out 27/8/26. buythebook.online/the-two-robe...

buythebook.online

The Two Roberts by Damian Barr | Buy the Book

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARD FOR FICTION 2026 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WINSTON GRAHAM PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026 …

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

As my mum was dying we planted sunflower seeds together. These flowers are blooms that grew this year from the seeds I planted with her last year. Grief is a garden. ❤️ 🧡 🌻

Red and orange and yellow sunflowers in a black and white vase which says ‘fabulous flowers’. The vase sits in a window sill with big skies behind it

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Damian Barr @damianbarr.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Cried when I found this in the archives while researching my novel, The Two Roberts. The ‘fellow artist’ was actually his lover of nearly thirty years. My novel brings their hidden love story to light and celebrates them and their amazing art.

A small newspaper article explaining the untimely death of artist Robert Colquhoun.

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