Pictures: Expired polaroids of The Balloonist & Hidden Britain
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Event: A Concrete Atlantis Hauntological Holiday Happening, Thurs 11 Dec, 7pm, The Horse Hospital, WC1
A seasonal evening of barely-remembered formats and sonic seances featuring glimmers of the ghostly televisual past, psychogeographical spoken word, music and moving pictures. Hosted by Travis Elborough and Stonecirclesampler. In performance The Balloonist and the London premiere of Hidden Britain’s Wren’s Nest.
£10 + booking fee – tickets here
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Picture: Full set of the ‘Improbable’ Atlas series on sale in the British Library shop
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November 28, 2025 · 9:20 amPicture: Mapping the Mysterious at the British Library
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Pictures: Budgie and myself at Waterstones Gower Street
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Event: Interviewing Budgie, Wed 12 November 6.30pm, Waterstones Gower Street
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November 8, 2025 · 3:03 pmPicture: Concrete Atlantis Autumnal expired film polaroids
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November 8, 2025 · 2:09 pmPicture: Interviewing Paul Morley about David Bowie
picture thanks to David Simmons
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Event: A Concrete Atlantis Autumnal with Laura Grace Ford, Kemper Norton & Teleplasmiste, Friday 7 November, 7pm, The Horse Hospital , WC1N 1JD
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Read: My review of Surf’s Up: Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys by Pete Doggett in The Spectator this week
Link here but behind a paywall:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/unhappy-band-of-brothers-the-beach-boys-story
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Event: Tales of the Weird: An Autumnal Festival Sunday 2 November, The British Library
I will be speaking to Iain Sinclair, Sarah Hall and Andrew Michael Hurley on Sunday 2 November as part of the Tales of the Weird weekend at the British Library.
The full programme is here:
https://events.bl.uk/events/tales-of-the-weird-an-autumnal-festival
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Event: Paul Morley on Bowie, Thurs 6 November, 21 Soho, W1D.
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Picture: Kat Lister with Street Legal
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October 26, 2025 · 1:38 pmPicture: Interviewing Geoff Dyer at the Cheltenham Literature Festival
Picture credit: credit Still Moving Media for Cheltenham Festivals.
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Picture: Billy Collins at the Cheltenham Literary Festival 2025
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October 21, 2025 · 12:51 pmEvent: Interviewing Geoff Dyer at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Fri 17 October, 4pm
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October 16, 2025 · 8:36 amPicture: Talking to Martin Green, Patrick Whitaker & Tris Penna at The Sound Gallery at 30 event
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October 13, 2025 · 6:32 pmEvent: The Sound Gallery: 30 years on, Friday 10 Oct, 7pm, The Century Club
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Listen: Radio Sohemia, myself in conversation with Jerry White about The Battle of London, 1939-45: Endurance, Heroism and Frailty Under Fire.
Listen here:
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Picture: New Swedish edition of Atlas of Improbable Places
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September 14, 2025 · 12:22 pmEvent: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at 40: A Birthday Celebration, Tues 16 Sept, 7pm, The Horse Hospital
Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at 40: A Birthday Celebration Listening Party and in conversation with the author and musician Leah Kardos
Kate Bush’s groundbreaking album was released to immediate acclaim on 16 September 1985.
Hounds Of Love invites you to not only listen, but to cross the boundaries of sensory experience into realms of imagination and possibility. Poised and accessible, yet still experimental and complex, with Hounds Of Love Bush mastered the art of her studio-based songcraft, finally achieving full control of her creative process.
40 years to the day of its release join Leah Kardos, author of Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love (33 1/3) in conversation with the historian of vinyl records and the album Travis Elborough in an evening of deep listening and lively Bush appreciation.
Additionally to all this, the Ukrainian artist Daria Hlazatova will be showing some of her Kate Bush-inspired art.
Book here:
https://www.thehorsehospital.com/events/kate-bushs-hounds-of-love-at-40
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Pictures: London Historians’ Ian Nairn Day
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Read: Interview about the Artists’ Journeys, originally published in the Sunday Post
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Picture: Ian Nairn walk around Soho and Mayfair
Picture thanks to Lukas @20society
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Event: Spectres of Spitalfields Walk, Sun 24 August 2.30pm
Places limited, so book here: https://wegottickets.com/event/669117
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Event: Modern Buildings in Soho & Mayfair: In the Footsteps of Ian Nairn Walk, Sun 17 August – fully booked
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August 7, 2025 · 5:05 pmPictures: Peter Astor’s Unsent Letters album launch
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Pictures: The Idler Festival 2025
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Event: Modern Building in Soho & Mayfair: In the Footsteps of Ian Nairn walk, Sun 17 August 2.30pm
The fearless architectural critic and broadcaster, Ian Nairn, briefly a familiar face on British television in the 1970s, succumbed to drink and despondency just ten days shy of his fifty-third birthday, dying on 14 August 1983.
But back in 1964 and at the height of his powers he authored, Modern Buildings in London, a brilliantly opinionated primer to the best of contemporary architecture in the capital that was issued by London Transport – and even sold from automatic vending machines in key London stations.
Join Travis Elborough, the award-winning author of the introduction to the latest edition of Modern Buildings in London, for this tour of some of the West End buildings that caught Nairn’s eye, including Denys Lasdun’s 26 St James’s Place and New Zealand House by Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall & Partners (RMJM).
Book tickets here:
Event: Ian Nairn Walk: Modern Buildings in London Sun 6 July, 2.30 pm, Soho
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Event: Clevedon Literary Festival, England on Sea, Sun 8 June 2pm
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Read: My review of two new books about the railways in Britain in this week’s TLS.
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Listen: The Rise and Fall of the Antique, BBC Radio 4 Extra
My series The Rise and Fall of the Antique is getting a repeat airing on BBC Radio 4 Extra at 9.30 am every day next week, from Monday 26 May to Friday 30 May.
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Read: My review of Peter Carpenter’s Bowieland for the TLS
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Picture: Photo by Declan Clarke
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May 15, 2025 · 12:54 pmBooks: Artists’ Journeys That Shaped Our World – now out in paperback
Full details here:
https://www.quarto.com/books/9780711268708/artists-journeys-that-shaped-our-world
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Pictures: Jack in the Green, Hastings
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Event: The Life and Work of George Orwell, D J Taylor in conversation with Travis Elborough, Tues 6 May, 6.30 pm, The Fitzroy Tavern, W1T 2LY
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Event: Call Me Ishmaelle with Xiaolu Guo Tues 29 April, 18.30pm, Hatchards, Piccadilly
Reimagining the epic battle between man and nature in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Xiaolu Guo has crafted a dramatically different, feminist narrative that stands alongside the original while offering a powerful exploration of nature, gender and human purpose.
As the American Civil War breaks out in 1861, Ishmaelle – a young woman disguised as a cabin boy – boards the Nimrod, a whaling ship led by the obsessive Captain Seneca, a Black free man of heroic stature who is haunted by a tragic past. Here, she finds protectors in Polynesian harpooner, Kauri, and Taoist monk, Muzi, whose readings of the I-Ching guide their quest.
Through the bloody male violence of whaling, and the unveiling of her feminine identity, Ishmaelle realises there is a mysterious bond between herself and the mythical white whale.
Xiaolu will be in conversation with Travis Elborough, the author of numerous books including, most recently, Writers’ Journeys That Shaped Our World, beautiful illustrated atlas that follows in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the journeys that inspired their greatest works.
https://www.hatchards.co.uk/events/an-evening-with-xiaolu-guo-at-hatchards-piccadilly
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Event: Youth Gone Wild: Teds, Mods, Rockers and the Styles That Shock Up the Nation, Thurs 24 April 7pm, Horatio’s Bar, The Palace Pier, Brighton
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Cassette: Limited edition The World of the Unknown Hauntology by Stonecirclesampler
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Read: My piece for The Quietus on Henry Badowski’s ‘Life is A Grand’
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Read: My review of Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Dr Who by John Higgs in The Spectator
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Pictures: Laugharne Weekend 2025
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Event: Laugharne Festival Weekend 28 – 30 March 2025
I shall be appearing at the Laugharne Weekend talking about Ian Nairn and interviewing an author or two – the programme here below:
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Read my review of Croydonopolis in this week’s TLS
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Watch: Pauline Boty: I am the Sixties, documentary airs on 3 March, 10pm on BBC4
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Travis Elborough 