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Helen Barrett

@helenbarrett.bsky.social
11K followers 2.6K following 7K posts

Features journalist. Book: 'Something: Nine Women Who Made the Beatles' - May 2027. rcwlitagency.com/clients/helen-barr…

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Reposted by Helen Barrett
Henri Matisse @henrimatisse.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The Toboggan, 1943 botfrens.com/collections/48/content…
The Toboggan
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 8h
'Girl-pop/soul' compilation from the vaults of Laurie Records, 1985, featuring young Tracey Emin as a retro-retro cover model.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 10h
The worst cover version you've ever heard: I will not be taking questions etc. etc. m.youtube.com/watch?v=JNYX...
m.youtube.com
Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends (How It Is, 1968)
YouTube video by Joe Cocker
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 10h
The garden bridge we didn't build next to it cost £43m. www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...
standard.co.uk
Waterloo Bridge could close 'within four years' with major repairs needed
An inspection of the bridge has found water damage and 2 millimetre cracks, with Westminster City Council asking for £6 million to fund the repairs
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 10h
Going to try it on my teenager. See how he gets on.
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
3 October 1840 is sometimes given as the date Sheela-na-gigs were ‘discovered’, but of course the people on whose buildings they appeared had known about them for a while. It’s really the first date they were officially recorded, because as far as anyone knows, they date back centuries (at least)
b/w photo of a Sheela from Lavey church Co. Cavan. A rudimentary figure with a roughly carved face, and thick arms, holding open her vulva
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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 03/10/2026
There’s a lot of grumbling in London about new flats being sold to Chinese investors. But you never hear from the Chinese buyers. I asked Helen Gao to travel around Beijing property fairs and learn how you sell life in Woolwich to the Chinese elites. www.londoncentric.media/p/london-pro...
londoncentric.media
How London flats are marketed in China
Chinese buyers of London homes say they feel like “chives” • Bafflement at Londoners’ love of old homes built during the “Qing dynasty” • Fascination with the enigma of the British electrician
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Peter Ormerod @bowiegod.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I’m delighted to say I’ll be appearing at a few literary festivals this month. It would be lovely to see you if you can make it along to one or more of them - details coming up
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Never change, FT readers.
- AT64
1 HOUR AGO (Edited)
London has become its own metonymy, the evocation of its foregone notion; its critics would say its own caricature. If one recognises the façades, one feels it's become a decor à la Potemkin village. Once authentically and most elegantly cosmopolitan, 'the' World-City if there ever was one, it has become indistinctly globalised, drowning residual britishness into resentment and an aggregate of clichés no one believes, let alone experiences, about an alleged multi-culturalism. London's lingua franca is that of a language one can only approximate: gibberish. Paris, Rome, Madrid are fundamentally different for they retain, despite their contemporary dysfunctions and absurdities, the actuality of their distinctive beauty and raison d'être. While London is a drifting raft.
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Paul Eric @pauleric70.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Reporter: "What do you say to those who are struggling to afford gas, groceries, diesel?" Trump: You're losers. It's the greatest. If you're struggling in this economy, you're a loser. There's your midterm messaging from the GOP 🤬🤡🎪
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David Quantick @quantick.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Good Lord: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mxf...
youtube.com
It's Easier
YouTube video by Stevie Wonder - Topic
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Remind me: where are we up to with Medpro, Michelle Mone and that £60m?
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Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If you're in the West End today, there's a beautiful collection of Ghanaian and other African record sleeves on show as part of an installation by Harris Elliott in the basement at The Casbah gallery on Little Portland St.
Various Ghanaian record sleeves Various Ghanaian record sleeves Various Ghanaian record sleeves
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eminemerald fennell @fireh9lly.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Here is an interview with Daphne and Celeste following the legendary performance at Reading Festival where they got pelted off stage by Slipknot fans
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Like most Londoners, I take elaborate detours to avoid Oxford Street. But it looks great in photographs. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/w...
nytimes.com
Take a Historic Stroll Down Oxford Street, London’s Shopping Artery (Gift Article)
London is making a stretch of the street, long central to the city’s identity and sense of style, car free.
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Martin Degville of Sigue Sigue Sputnik having breakfast in a Newcastle B&B, 1986, photo by Homer Sykes.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This summer seems endless.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Saw this at a packed screening with Madness last night. It's very, very funny - A Hard Day's Night's scrappy, anarchic little cousin. And a great London film. Restored and on general release this month.
'Take It or Leave It - the Madness Film' poster
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
‘The Sixties never happened in Blackburn.’ www.ft.com/content/4277...
ft.com
Deep into the Sixties: Britain 1965-66 — David Kynaston’s latest vivid history
The historian richly evokes the texture of a decade that was often dubbed ‘swinging’ — but was, for many, a time of unsettling change and death of tradition
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Buying an ice cream at Yorkshire Miners' Gala, June 1984, photo by Brenda Prince.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'll bet that's her Roller, too. 👑
Joan Collins in 1979, outside a theatre where a big sign reads: 'Joan Colins is The Bitch'.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Do read. Patricia is a brilliant journalist. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
‘Online sex workers literally have to bare it all’: why Patricia Nilsson is exposing the world’s biggest porn bosses
As a business journalist, Nilsson began rigorously reporting on the power players of the adult industry, who prefer to remain in the shadows. Along the way, she uncovered how porn has shaped the inter...
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Reposted by Helen Barrett
Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Club @rnrbook-club.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
📻 Travis Elborough was @RobertElms guest on Saturday discussing The Philosophy of Vinyl. Listen here (1hr 35m in). www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Robert Elms - 26/09/2026 - BBC Sounds
Everything you need to know about London from architecture to accents and great music.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"'The film [A Clockwork Orange'] made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me till I die.’ It’s exactly the kind of killing irony that might bring low a Burgess character." www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Ian Penman · AB Fab: Anthony Burgess heads south
For a certain kind of northern man, Burgess has always been – for once the term is apt – something of an icon. A bit...
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Johnny Mains @johnnymains.co.uk · 28/09/2026
Rabies posters - Royal Veterinary College (1980s)
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Meg @roaringmeg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
#Misericords Christchurch Priory #Hampshire
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Autumn look sorted.
Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) looking formidable in a trench coat and high suede boots. Some time im the 70s.
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Ian Duhig @ianduhig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Itō Jakuchū's 'Frog' of 1790 for me is the iconic image of numbed uncomfortable bafflement at the predicament of existence in the coming modern world, much as Munch's 'Scream' expressed it through horror.
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Carausius @carausius286.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A Roman mosaic of snails escaping a basket. 🏛️ Basilica Patricale, Aquileia 🇮🇹 🕰️ 4th century AD #MosaicMonday
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Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Beautiful everyday Ladybird things Before the blue Smartie Artist: Harry Wingfield (First Picture Book, 1970)
Photo-realistic illustration of a tube of Smarties with Smarties spilling out onto a white background 
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
People will pay to read really good work.
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Reposted by Helen Barrett
Sam Leith @questingvole.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
On my growing gloom about books
spectator.com
The real reason kids are giving up reading
Even popular books are getting shorter and easier to read: their sentences are shorter, their paragraphs are shorter
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Dan of the Year @downwithdan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ah yes the circle of life
• Dispatched
Sep 25 23:03 pm
In Transit
Sep 26 09:52 am
Delayed
Sep 26 10:57 am
Held By Carrier
Sep 26 15:07 pm
Destroyed
Sep 26 15:08 pm
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Johnnie Johnstone @johnniejohnstone.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Salvador Dali at a book signing. Philippe Halsman, 1963.
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John Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Had a great time at the Southbank Centre this afternoon talking Brutalism with Noris Obijiaku, Sandy Rattray, Eva Branscome, @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social and Rhael ‘LionHeart’ Cape. Here we are backstage lined up like we’re on Bargain Hunt. Thanks to everyone who came along x
Six smiling people in a line
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Mark Pimlott @pimlottmark.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Venezia I 2026
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Can't stop thinking about this story, esp. the co-owner who left to enroll in clown school. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/22/m...
bostonglobe.com
A Western Mass. lesbian bar required KN-95 masks. When it changed the rules, all hell broke loose. - The Boston Globe
Last Ditch Bar in Greenfield wanted to build community. They got a firestorm instead.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is excellent. Started reading and couldn't stop.
'Felled - the Killing at Sycamore Gap' by Andrew Hankinson
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Have some post-Tropicália from military dictatorship-era Brazil. m.youtube.com/watch?v=G-7U...
m.youtube.com
Secos & Molhados Sangue Latino
YouTube video by Lost Samba
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Singer and songwriter Bryan Ferry was born on this day 1945 in Washington, County Durham.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The other 60s.
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Eamonn-Forde @eamonn-forde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
😐
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I'm sure someone will be along to tell me Plastic wasn't a One-Hit Wonder, but this was unimprovable. Extra points for Legs & Co wearing plastic bin-bags and waving baguettes (he was Belgian, oc). m.youtube.com/watch?v=GW7d...
m.youtube.com
Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi - Top Of The Pops - Thursday 8th June 1978
YouTube video by mymusicfootage
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Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra @fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
You’ve never truly experienced A Hard Day’s Night until you’ve heard it in the original Shakespeare.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 24/09/2026
‘Marr played the beginning of “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”. “The guitar made me do it,” he said quietly. “I was always looking for the next song.” Andrew O’Hagan on Johnny Marr’s guitars, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
lrb.co.uk
Andrew O’Hagan | Johnny Marr’s Guitars
The Smiths kicked off the Scottish leg of their Meat is Murder tour at the Magnum Leisure Centre in Irvine New Town on...
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Johnny Nice Painter @ Eurosky! @johnnynicepainter.eurosky.social · 24/09/2026
Buy some RNLI Christmas cards or I will come round to your house and paint your living room and YOU DO NOT WANT THAT shop.rnli.org/products/chr...
shop.rnli.org
Christmas Carol Christmas Cards, Pack of 8
Wish someone a merry Christmas with these RNLI-themed cards, featuring a cheerful carolling scene outside a lifeboat station - and help support the lifesavers.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Van Morrison tonight. Wish me luck.
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John Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The latest Monstrosities Mon Amour is out, with novelist @willwiles.bsky.social choosing the bonkers postmodern extravaganza of Onyx House in Mile End, and the no less outrageous fantasy art of Boris Vallejo johngrindrod.substack.com/p/monstrosit...
johngrindrod.substack.com
Monstrosities Mon Amour: Onyx House, Mile End, with Will Wiles
#21 John Grindrod and novelist Will Wiles explore the postmodern outrageousness of Onyx House in Mile End and the kitschy, fleshy fantasy art of Boris Vallejo
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