Helen Barrett
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helenbarrett.bsky.social
Helen Barrett
@helenbarrett.bsky.social
Features journalist - NYTimes, Financial Times, Telegraph. On a book break, writing about the Beatles.

https://www.helenbarrettjournalist.com/

https://open.substack.com/pub/helenbarrett
Pinned
I wrote about a rush of new nightlife memoirs and the death of nightclubs for this week's @ftweekend.com books essay.

www.ft.com/content/a4ed...
Memoirs from the dance floor — the nocturnal universes of New York, London and Berlin
Three very different accounts by Mark Ronson, Jodie Harsh and Liam Cagney create a history of club culture since the 1990s
www.ft.com
RIP Pam Hogg. I interviewed her a few years ago. She was ferocious, funny and a fucking excellent designer.

www.ft.com/content/6c78...
Designer Pam Hogg: ‘Kids at school called me a witch. But I loved it!’
The punky outlier who gave us Kylie Minogue in a catsuit is back in London with a show that plays on her sorcerous image
www.ft.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Shocked to see this old Spanish Peanuts book translates back into English as YOU'RE GOING TO BREAK YOUR NECK, CHARLIE BROWN
November 26, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
More than 150 members at Tate Galleries are taking seven consecutive days of strike action from tomorrow (26) until 2 December. Pickets will be taking place at Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, and Tate Modern – so please support them.
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
November 25, 2025 at 10:25 PM
This is great.
For Owen Hatherley, a delightful Surrealist automaton in Southampton City Art Gallery is testament to the twin forces that have shaped his hometown in the 20th century: mass migration and municipal socialism
A Surrealist gem in Southampton
A delightful automaton by the Czech artist Jan Žalud is testament, writes Owen Hatherley, to the two forces that shaped the city in the 20th century: mass migration and municipal socialism
buff.ly
November 26, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
November 25, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Tell me you’ve used AI to tweak an archive photo without telling me you’ve used AI to tweak an archive photo. Breeds musnuey, indeed.
November 25, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
The RCA isn’t always included in these summaries, probably because it’s small and the overall figures are low, but the % impact is potentially the worst of all. As a PG only specialist institution it’s funding model is also different to other universities, i.e. no fees via UG student loans.
2023 news report on variations in share of income from international students
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
November 24, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Alison Knowles (29 April 1933–29 October 2025)

At The Wire website, Irene Revell reflects on the life and work of Fluxus co-founder Alison Knowles, who died in October

www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/t...
Alison Knowles (29 April 1933–29 October 2025) - The Wire
Irene Revell reflects on the life and work of Fluxus co-founder Alison Knowles, who died in October
www.thewire.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Me reading your feature on "day-to-evening dressing for the party season".
November 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Really enjoying this. Bravo @holsmith.bsky.social for putting residents at the centre of tired debates about architectural style and dismantling received wisdom with archival evidence, especially on Ronan Point.
November 24, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Rochdale chippy owners Jimmy and Elsie Greenwood with their coal-fired fryer, May 1973.
November 23, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Winds, fires, bamboo. Obviously the metaphors are a side issue but I'm enjoying how spectacularly clunky and introduction-to-creative-writing they all are.
November 24, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
I have a limitless appetite for Beatles alt takes and outtakes anyway, but in era of AI-generated music I’m finding the new Anthology release especially poignant as reminder of how humans create things, collaboratively, iteratively, being silly, making mistakes …
November 23, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
'Night Lights of Piccadilly'
(from 'This Is London', 1959) by Miroslav Šašek
------
🎵 'Kinky Reggae' by Bob Marley and the Wailers
youtu.be/s0Ds9hec-CY?...
November 23, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Staying on a barge. Highly recommended -- if only for the sound of rain on the roof at night.
November 23, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Kingston latest: Mat Collishaw's accursed AI-ish Christmas mural has gone. That was quick.
November 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Marianne Faithfull's chinoiserie desk with gilt and leather detailing is up for auction with a starting bid of £10. It's crazy how little old furniture is worth, even with provenance (the desk appears in the video for "Nowness".
November 23, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
I flew to Canada this week to go to a Paul McCartney concert and I wrote about it here:

open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
going through hell, keeping going
on art, grief, and the emotional heroism of just bloody keeping on making your work
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Little-known fact that delighted me recently: Feldman worked with Brian Epstein in the same Charing Cross Road bookshop in the late 1950s. (Little-known to me, at least.)
November 22, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Since August, we’ve witnessed how this government’s UK–France deal puts people in danger. Their new asylum reforms will only push more people — including the most vulnerable — into detention and expose them to serious risks of harm. Our full statement: detentionaction.org.uk/2025/11/21/o...
November 21, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
Terrifying, maddening and utterly heart-breaking. Truly incredible journalism to expose and document this.
November 22, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
If anyone takes this much care to help you with your writing, you are truly blessed.
November 21, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Helen Barrett
I found the one exception to my belief that journalists should be paid for their work
November 22, 2025 at 6:42 AM