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Rob Spence

@spencro.bsky.social

1.8K followers 1.6K following 1K posts

Former Eng Lit academic. I have written about Ford Madox Ford, Louis de Bernieres, Wyndham Lewis, Penelope Fitzgerald, Robert Nye, but mainly about Anthony Burgess, a fellow Mancunian. robspence.org.uk Reviews at shinynewbooks.co.uk

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ShinyNewBooks @shinynewbooks.bsky.social · 9h

Shiny Thursday: @spencro.bsky.social reviews Brick Dust by Craig Jordan-Baker @epoquepress.bsky.social shinynewbooks.co.uk/brick-dust-b...

Brick Dust by Craig Jordan-Baker

Review by Rob Spence When I started reading this quirkily entertaining novel, I was reminded of a remarkable Turkish film I saw some years ago. The film, 10 to 11, written and directed by Peli

shinynewbooks.co.uk

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 17h

Latest review: an odd, but entertaining novel, which ranges from sectarian violence to morris dancing.
shinynewbooks.co.uk/brick-dust-b...

Brick Dust by Craig Jordan-Baker

Review by Rob Spence When I started reading this quirkily entertaining novel, I was reminded of a remarkable Turkish film I saw some years ago. The film, 10 to 11, written and directed by Peli

shinynewbooks.co.uk

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 17h

I’m a pensioner, and I was five years old at the end of the fifties. To have been at work in 1959, you’d have to be at least 15 years old. So the very youngest people who were at work in the fifties would be over 80 now.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks, that's very helpful.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 2d

You will. 14 Nov for us.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 2d

I'm currently in Italy listening to Radio Toscana Classica, which is kind of R3. They tend to play the whole thing. Also, no chat, just the composer and name of the piece and the name of the artists. www.retetoscanaclassica.it/ascolta-la-r...

Ascolta la Radio in streaming

Ascoltare lo streaming di Rete Toscana Classica è facile. Basta...

www.retetoscanaclassica.it

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 2d

TSE is, by some distance, the worst reader of The Waste Land, so I'd love to hear Edward Petherbridge read it in his Wimsey persona.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 2d

I recommend LibreOffice. Free, and does everything MS Office does, in similar ways.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 2d

David Copperfield, arguably Dickens's finest novel, is a bildungsroman about the growth of a writer.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 2d

We are in the same position as you, and leaving next month. Do post about the exit experience.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 3d

Indeed. Still a thing well within my lifetime in my home city: hub.salford.ac.uk/modern-salfo...

Wanted: Knocker-upper of Salford (1950s-1960s) - The Modern Backdrop

The Knocker-upper in this image was asked to wake people up before alarm clocks were commonly used. He would knock at bedroom windows with a long stick or use a pea shooter so that people would be abl...

hub.salford.ac.uk

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 3d

Maybe, though I would struggle to think of a legit occupation that might have been mistakenly transcribed as, e.g. "examiner of underclothing."

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 3d

Isn't it more likely that people invented humorous fake occupations if they resented the idea of a census?

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 3d

And yet, when you listen to the broadcast, the accent is barely perceptible. It still drew letters of complaint, of course, from the defenders of RP purity. Pickles is buried in Southern Cemetery.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 3d

Still a great pub!

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 4d

Tiddly winks was, briefly, a big thing.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 4d

Extraordinary! It is such a blinkered view of what culture can be, for anyone and everyone.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 4d

When I became a teacher in the late seventies, relevance was all the rage. If a kid lived on a sink estate, they’d have to read about kids on sink estates, e.g. “Kes”. No thought to firing their imagination, showing them different worlds. It’s pointlessly limiting of people’s horizons.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 5d

Midnight finish tonight at Pordenone. Powerful speeches by this year's Jean Mitry award winners, who stressed the vital role of culture in our troubled times. Well done Andrea Cuarterolo and Georgina Torello for their online journal and Paula Félix-Didier for her archival work. #cinemamutopordenone

Municipio Pordenone, Italy

Inside Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Italy

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 7d

I really think we should avoid categorising these payments as earned income. He's earned nothing.

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 7d

shinynewbooks.co.uk/giaime-along... Latest review: a thriller set in WW2 and the 1980s that has some contemporary resonances.

Giaime Alonge, The Feeling of Iron

Translated by Clarissa Botsford Review by Rob Spence The publisher's blurb for Giaime Alonge's first novel describes it as "a masterful blend of fact and fiction", and that's certainly accu

shinynewbooks.co.uk

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 8d

Well, don't get on a tram then...

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 9d

The musical accompaniment was fantastic for Zingari, wasn't it? And I was impressed by the sheer numbers - cast of thousands! Also impressed by the durability of Manzini's make-up!

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 13d

open.substack.com/pub/anthonyb... @lordbonkers.bsky.social This may be of interest: Burgess on Auden.

In Memory of W.H. Auden

Anthony Burgess pays homage to one of his favourite poets

open.substack.com

Rob Spence @spencro.bsky.social · 13d

And of course, there was a time when we’d have thought of 47 as old.