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Tim Rding

@timrding.bsky.social
236 followers 261 following 405 posts

I spend most of my time teaching. Outside of that I read an awful lot, watch old movies, and love Doctor Who. I also like walking, cathedrals and eating well. As Rocky once said: “I’ve got gaps”

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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This was as every bit good as I wanted to be; especially from someone who desperately wanted to glide through life and keep herself contained. You can’t help but feel like you’re intruding as you read it.
A copy of Anita Brookner: Art & Life by Hermione Lee
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
First time watching this quite-good-n-it’s-own-way film for 25 years or so and it is genuinely shocking to read how many films I have never heard of Edward Burns has directed since.
A blu-ray copy of She’s the One by Edward Burns
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Happy Batman Day (which social media is telling me is a thing)!
A black and white painting of Robert Pattinson as Batman. I think I did this one mostly in liquid charcoal.
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I understand food trends are a thing, but it does seem odd to me to be pitching *black pudding* as a healthy option…
A packet of black pudding, a product made of blood and fat, being sold as being high in protein and iron
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I don’t think I’ve ever received a piece of post that quite so perfectly sums up my entire cultural interests
Two books: The Doctor Who Production Diary - The Troughton Years by David Brunt and Anita Brookner - Art & Life by Hermione Lee
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Loved this. It starts with a boar loose in a shop and then becomes something very, very different.
A hardback copy of The Girls by John Bowen
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Fantastic to see The Hay Wain as part of Ipswich’s Constable 250 celebration. Seeing all the preparatory work leading to it was great; it only really came together for him when he started painting at scale. A very noisy and busy exhibition though.
The Hay Wain by John Constable
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Things I was frightened of as a child: This, and only this, illustration by John Tenniel known to me and my sister as ‘Alice Long-Neck’.
Alice with a long neck by John Tenniel
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Some old paintings of mine seem to be getting some attention over the last few days. I haven’t painted for a good few years at this point, but I’d like to share this one of Diana Ross.
A watercolour of Diana Ross
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I was very taken with this. I found it constantly and gently surprising and I’ve rarely read a book which managed the passing of time so well. A real highlight of my reading summer.
A paperback copy of ‘Fenny’ by Lettice Cooper
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Still thinking of Hockney…
Billy Wilder by David Hockney (1982)
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I really enjoyed this. Very droll in the Barbara Pam vein, but also more pitiful, and the better for it.
A paperback copy of The Cost of Living by Kathleen Farrell
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I just adored her music and (I think) is the artist I’ve seen live the most times. I painted her a few years ago:
Emmy the Great in watercolour and pencil
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Somehow this book has a more devastating ending than Villette… there’s a inescapable sense of poor decisions made as the result of the loneliness of old age that sits throughout the book, but the ending is just unspeakably sad.
A hardback copy of The Next Big Thing by Anita Brookner
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Enjoyed a Robin Williams 35mm double-bill at the Prince Charles where he played a not very good teacher in Dead Poets Society and a not very good therapist in Good Will Hunting
A watercolour painting I did years ago of Robin Williams
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Everyone I trust is saying wait ‘till it’s on Disney+, but on the other hand: large rooms with air conditioning… (A Mandolorian piece I was commissioned to do a few years ago)
A watercolour and pencil drawing of The Mandolorian and Grogu
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
A memoir that is strangely most alive when Storey writes about the shadows cast by his brother’s early death and his own mental health. At the start, the book crackles and whips; the text seems alive with the immediacy of childhood. But it all fizzles out once the teenage years come along.
A hardback copy of A Stinging Delight by David Storey (subtitled: a memoir)
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
And in the interests of fairness: here is my own flat art of the two leads from a few years back.
A watercolour of Ian McKellen
A watercolour and pencil of Michaela Coel
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
This made for a great double bill; not just for their takes on a fading industry, but what they say about the impotence of leading men, highly romantic camera movements and how a good needle drop can make a scene. They are very much in dialogue with each other.
4K copies of Body Double and Boogie Nights
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
HE IS RISEN! Hallelujah!
A picture of the screen of William Hartnell from the newly return episode of The Nightmare Begins
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Great book from the best about art and integrity. And bonus points for a perfect summary of TNG on p. 173.
A copy of The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
A painting I once did of Audrey Hepburn in red
A painting of Audrey Hepburn in red
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Maybe the single greatest paragraph about England ever:
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Been fortunate to read lots of very good things recently, but this stood out. Taylor was exceptional at balancing wit and heartache, and she was so perceptive about both.
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
I’ve been on a bit of a Sidney Lumet kick recently and have loved how deeply he explores how over time circumstance causes compromise.
Blu-rays of Prince of the City, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and The Verdict; all directed by Sidney Lumet
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I knew I would love this, as I love all her books, but this crept up on me and bowled me over. The first couple of chapters feel like a speed run through classic Brookner, but then it becomes a rich reflection on grief and how our lives can be suddenly upturned overnight.
A hardback copy of The Bay of Angels by Anita Brookner
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Lucien Freud: Drawing into Painting does a decent job of trying to capture the process an artist whose models could sit for at least 120hrs for a piece. There’s a sense of time passing in the gallery; an artist obsessed with the new.
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
I loved the heart and intelligence of this movie. A very special film.
The Criterion blu-ray of Love Jones
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Read this after the umpteenth rewatch of Brief Encounter: even her daughter can’t capture why a very comfortable, conservative life led to such luminous performances.
A hardback copy of a biography of Celia Johnson by Kate Fleming
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
A very old painting I did for a friend of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now
A watercolour painting of Marlon Brando
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
I’m not sure I could recommend this film, but it contains some amazing things; the soundtrack, the ending, its depiction of Hollywood in the 70s , its moments of surprise. But overall, it is a little bit sceevy.
A blu ray copy of Hollywood 90028
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
I feel like I’ve had The Perfect Kiss on loop in my head for the last week or so, so I decided to sit down and watch this…
A Blu Ray of 24 Hour Party People by Michael Winterbottom and starring Steve Coogan
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Beautiful book about the small, slight things that somehow manage to change and not change relationships. Every page is like a sliver; Lehmann writing more in phrases than sentences. Gorgeous.
A Note in Music by Rosamond Lehmann
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
I adored reading The Landbreakers a few years ago, so decided to hunt down Ehle’s follow-up. Here a man throws away his ordered life to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons.
A copy of The Journey of August King by John Ehle
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Lush Melodrama and angst over drapery… what more do you want from a film?
Warner Archive Blu-Ray of The Cobweb
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
I’ve got that bug that’s going round but I still devoured these. There’s a story called ‘The Drowned Man’ within these that I just found absolutely devastating.
The Springs of Affection and The Visitor by Maeve Brennan
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Not too sure about this one; an interesting lead gets lost as the flashbacks (progressing further and further back) begin to dominate. And the act of violence at the end of the book and subsequent resolution felt a little too tidy for me.
A hardback copy of Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Great film. Robert Redford was one of those actors acutely aware of his persona and presence and here he channels it to embody the shallow charm of a political grifter.
A DVD of The Candidate by Michael Ritchie
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Adored this drama about how we’re all performers in the end. Loved the brief moments of extravagance where fantasy slips through into reality.
A blu ray copy of Next Stop, Greenwich Village
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
It was a bit grey outside so I decided to watch some grey inside.
Blu-rays of The Dirty Dozen, Rolling Thunder and Hardcore
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
He felt like fiction.
A painting I did of David Bowie in green and pink.
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Which ends on these beautiful words:
The last words by P.D. James in her Adam Dalgleish series: And she had Clara. She slipped her hand into Clara's and felt the comfort of her responsive squeeze. She thought, The world is a beautiful and terrible place. Deeds of horror are committed every minute and in the end those we love die. If the screams of all earth's living creatures were one scream of pain, surely it would shake the stars. But we have love. It may seem a frail defence against the horrors of the world but we must hold fast and believe in it, for it is all that we have.
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Saw Marty Supreme last night. The only word I can use to describe it is ‘vulgar’ (in the best possible way). Sat open-mouthed at times in both joy and horror. The energy of this film!
A photo of the exterior of the Everyman Cinema in Winchester
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
My system for new films is as follows. After watching, films get filed away in wallets due to lack of space. If they were a bit of a gem they get put on the shelf. These were the few that made the cut this year:
Blu-Rays of Baby It’s You, The Whisperers and What’s Up Doc?
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
I was fortunate enough to read plenty last year. These were the books that have stayed with me:
New Cemetery by Simon Armitage, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns, Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys, One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes, Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au, Fat City by Leonard Gardner and Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
My favourite (/only) December tradition is reading collections of short stories. This hit the spot.
A hardback copy of Mr Wrong by Elizabeth Jane Howard
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
What a strange, unsettling, gorgeous book.
The Penguin Modern Classics edition of The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
This was a great watch. Lovely thriller with an unsentimental view of the movie industry, a compromised lead character and little need for subtext. Donna Reed is gentle and George Sanders is smarmy: perfection!
The Indicator edition of The Whole Truth on Blu-Ray
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Tim Rding @timrding.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
So very sad to read of the death of Rachel Cooke. An indelible, witty, generous writer. Dipping into this book to get a sense of herself self; I was drawn to these words she had chosen from Anne Sexton
The Virago Book of Friendship edited by Rachel Cooke ‘What is your death / but an old belonging’ by Anne Sexton for Sylvia Plath
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