Oliver Mantell
@olivermantell.bsky.social
Cultural audience researcher.
Interested in everything, including poetry.
Director of Evidence & Insight at The Audience Agency; Board member at Grimm & Co and Sheaf Poetry. From Reading, living in Sheffield.
[Header from Tara Bergin’s Savage Tales]
Interested in everything, including poetry.
Director of Evidence & Insight at The Audience Agency; Board member at Grimm & Co and Sheaf Poetry. From Reading, living in Sheffield.
[Header from Tara Bergin’s Savage Tales]
My guess is it’s the skeletal remains of the patella from a troll-like creature, finally explaining the etymology of ‘Orkney’…
November 27, 2025 at 12:09 PM
My guess is it’s the skeletal remains of the patella from a troll-like creature, finally explaining the etymology of ‘Orkney’…
My signature before and after your joshing… ;o)
November 24, 2025 at 11:05 PM
My signature before and after your joshing… ;o)
Looking at Fotmob, it could just be there wasn’t much Rotherham possession at that point(?).
Useful charts - could tell an interesting story overlaid with each other, too…
Useful charts - could tell an interesting story overlaid with each other, too…
November 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Looking at Fotmob, it could just be there wasn’t much Rotherham possession at that point(?).
Useful charts - could tell an interesting story overlaid with each other, too…
Useful charts - could tell an interesting story overlaid with each other, too…
The C16th Netherlands must’ve been a sight to see…
November 12, 2025 at 10:03 PM
The C16th Netherlands must’ve been a sight to see…
When targeted marketing fails…
As an England football fan ‘of a certain age’: Germany and Argentina shirts!?
As an England football fan ‘of a certain age’: Germany and Argentina shirts!?
October 15, 2025 at 8:43 AM
When targeted marketing fails…
As an England football fan ‘of a certain age’: Germany and Argentina shirts!?
As an England football fan ‘of a certain age’: Germany and Argentina shirts!?
The award ceremony will be tricky: if you know they’re in Stockholm, you don’t know who they are. If you know who they are, you don’t know if they’re in Stockholm…
October 7, 2025 at 11:29 AM
The award ceremony will be tricky: if you know they’re in Stockholm, you don’t know who they are. If you know who they are, you don’t know if they’re in Stockholm…
![Drake meme: 'Life of Showgirl' [no]; James Joyce Enigmas and Puzzles exhibition [yes]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tsuvlmtjocf4474trhafe73z/bafkreiftgujpyjglqdsza7hbnxh7qhnsjcxazrvjwgf6wjkjuxbe756lem@jpeg)
#SmallPoemSunday (from my collection Holding Pattern)
September 28, 2025 at 3:41 PM
#SmallPoemSunday (from my collection Holding Pattern)
Poetry Sub Club: a great sounding #poetry magazine swap/reading/discussion/submissions session in #Sheffield on Weds, organised by @concordmoose.bsky.social
(a couple more sessions are planned for later in the autumn too…).
(a couple more sessions are planned for later in the autumn too…).
September 26, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Poetry Sub Club: a great sounding #poetry magazine swap/reading/discussion/submissions session in #Sheffield on Weds, organised by @concordmoose.bsky.social
(a couple more sessions are planned for later in the autumn too…).
(a couple more sessions are planned for later in the autumn too…).
Took me a moment, but I’ve realised what that reminds me of…
September 15, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Took me a moment, but I’ve realised what that reminds me of…
“You can’t handle the truth…!”
September 11, 2025 at 10:54 AM
“You can’t handle the truth…!”
A poetic response to some of this flag business…
September 10, 2025 at 3:39 PM
A poetic response to some of this flag business…
Thanks: you tempted me into completing my first ever (?) cryptic crossword…
August 23, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Thanks: you tempted me into completing my first ever (?) cryptic crossword…
I try not to be too negative about the Labour government, since they’re trying to do a difficult job in challenging circumstances: but this is an unforgivable, unforced error.
Why, oh why, is this centre-aligned?
#NotAMetaphor
Why, oh why, is this centre-aligned?
#NotAMetaphor
August 16, 2025 at 4:21 PM
I try not to be too negative about the Labour government, since they’re trying to do a difficult job in challenging circumstances: but this is an unforgivable, unforced error.
Why, oh why, is this centre-aligned?
#NotAMetaphor
Why, oh why, is this centre-aligned?
#NotAMetaphor
Apparently I didn’t understand Swann’s Way *at all*…
![A Google search result showing a Reading Guide to Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust from Penguin Random House, describing it as a ‘highly complex, richly allusive novel [which] follows three Dubliners through an ordinary day…’.
Sounds familiar from somewhere else…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tsuvlmtjocf4474trhafe73z/bafkreiadek5yifpdzanqekdnmstvjdbi2umqmmlmifgg7zptqteqw4wojy@jpeg)
August 10, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Apparently I didn’t understand Swann’s Way *at all*…
Pushing the limits of the word ‘lyrics’…
July 18, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Pushing the limits of the word ‘lyrics’…
If you don’t look like a seagull got trapped in your studio, are you even an Artist at all…?
July 9, 2025 at 9:07 AM
If you don’t look like a seagull got trapped in your studio, are you even an Artist at all…?
There’s a #poetry social in #Sheffield next Thursday (3rd) at The Wig and Pen / Beaten Track on Campo Lane from 6.30 - all welcome.
Includes a chance to say what you’d like Sheaf to do to support poetry in the city.
Includes a chance to say what you’d like Sheaf to do to support poetry in the city.
June 25, 2025 at 9:37 PM
There’s a #poetry social in #Sheffield next Thursday (3rd) at The Wig and Pen / Beaten Track on Campo Lane from 6.30 - all welcome.
Includes a chance to say what you’d like Sheaf to do to support poetry in the city.
Includes a chance to say what you’d like Sheaf to do to support poetry in the city.
I really enjoyed this historical novel set in Singapore during its transition to independence: it gave a vivid sense of the tensions between the losses and gains that came with modernisation and ‘progress’ - with a powerfully developed and evocative central metaphor…
June 15, 2025 at 7:06 PM
I really enjoyed this historical novel set in Singapore during its transition to independence: it gave a vivid sense of the tensions between the losses and gains that came with modernisation and ‘progress’ - with a powerfully developed and evocative central metaphor…
At @sheffieldmuseums.bsky.social Metalwork Gallery, I’m presented with a metaphor for all the work (‘auxiliary trades’) that make art (or poetry) ‘easy to get a handle on’ and useful (where, perhaps, all the ‘affordance’ is):
‘hafting’ - the specialist trade of cutting, shaping and fitting handles.
‘hafting’ - the specialist trade of cutting, shaping and fitting handles.
May 23, 2025 at 11:00 AM
At @sheffieldmuseums.bsky.social Metalwork Gallery, I’m presented with a metaphor for all the work (‘auxiliary trades’) that make art (or poetry) ‘easy to get a handle on’ and useful (where, perhaps, all the ‘affordance’ is):
‘hafting’ - the specialist trade of cutting, shaping and fitting handles.
‘hafting’ - the specialist trade of cutting, shaping and fitting handles.
Just found this picture by one of my children, from Oct 2020, and it is a *mood*…
May 17, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Just found this picture by one of my children, from Oct 2020, and it is a *mood*…
#Poetry event coming up in Chipping Norton with Matt Black and Robin Vaughan-Williams.
Of interest / could you share, @oxpoetrylibrary.bsky.social ?
Of interest / could you share, @oxpoetrylibrary.bsky.social ?
May 8, 2025 at 8:31 PM
#Poetry event coming up in Chipping Norton with Matt Black and Robin Vaughan-Williams.
Of interest / could you share, @oxpoetrylibrary.bsky.social ?
Of interest / could you share, @oxpoetrylibrary.bsky.social ?
I took down a handful of CDs this morning, only to discover that <<each of the cases is empty>>.
Milestones.
Sketches of Spain.
Kind of Blue.
Blue Train.
The Avant-Garde.
All gone.
Who did it? Why? How? Was it nefarious, or is there an innocent explanation?!
It’s a small-stakes whodunnit…
Milestones.
Sketches of Spain.
Kind of Blue.
Blue Train.
The Avant-Garde.
All gone.
Who did it? Why? How? Was it nefarious, or is there an innocent explanation?!
It’s a small-stakes whodunnit…
April 17, 2025 at 10:37 AM
I took down a handful of CDs this morning, only to discover that <<each of the cases is empty>>.
Milestones.
Sketches of Spain.
Kind of Blue.
Blue Train.
The Avant-Garde.
All gone.
Who did it? Why? How? Was it nefarious, or is there an innocent explanation?!
It’s a small-stakes whodunnit…
Milestones.
Sketches of Spain.
Kind of Blue.
Blue Train.
The Avant-Garde.
All gone.
Who did it? Why? How? Was it nefarious, or is there an innocent explanation?!
It’s a small-stakes whodunnit…