Ben East
@beneast.bsky.social
Journalist. Writer. Cyclist. Canary.
I am the first to say we need to move to cleaner forms of energy production. But when the 'answer' is to put 3.5m high solar panels on prime agricultural land the size of Heathrow airport, is it any wonder there's so much opposition? My dispatch from Lincolnshire. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...
October 30, 2025 at 6:26 PM
I am the first to say we need to move to cleaner forms of energy production. But when the 'answer' is to put 3.5m high solar panels on prime agricultural land the size of Heathrow airport, is it any wonder there's so much opposition? My dispatch from Lincolnshire. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...
Emboldened by having more than 89 words with which to write book reviews, here's what happened when I read
James Briggs lovely From Ibiza To The Norfolk Broads. eastangles.substack.com/p/from-ibiza...
James Briggs lovely From Ibiza To The Norfolk Broads. eastangles.substack.com/p/from-ibiza...
October 13, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Emboldened by having more than 89 words with which to write book reviews, here's what happened when I read
James Briggs lovely From Ibiza To The Norfolk Broads. eastangles.substack.com/p/from-ibiza...
James Briggs lovely From Ibiza To The Norfolk Broads. eastangles.substack.com/p/from-ibiza...
How a lyric book with Wednesday's new album got me thinking about how American and British rock songwriting are really quite different. open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
Sweet song is a long con
On Southern Gothic, Cosmic Americana, Wednesday and when songs become stories
open.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 4:25 PM
How a lyric book with Wednesday's new album got me thinking about how American and British rock songwriting are really quite different. open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
Reposted by Ben East
An eloquent, insightful and heartfelt reflection on 13 years as the Observe book critic. And the mostly lovely of ways to find out your book won't be reviewed in the Observer.
Today my final Observer books review column is published. Reflections on the last 13 years and why arts journalism is important at my new Substack... which I'd love you to subscribe to!
open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
As one chapter closes...
Reflections on 13 years as an Observer books columnist. Why cultural criticism is important. And what happens next.
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM
An eloquent, insightful and heartfelt reflection on 13 years as the Observe book critic. And the mostly lovely of ways to find out your book won't be reviewed in the Observer.
Wrote about the successful delivery of a £4bn supersewer for @telegraphnews.bsky.social. Speaking to CEO Andy Mitchell, he wanted to "repair a broken love affair between London and its river."
To hear a civil engineer talk in that poetic, almost lyrical way was hopeful. substack.com/@benjamineas...
To hear a civil engineer talk in that poetic, almost lyrical way was hopeful. substack.com/@benjamineas...
East Angles (@benjamineast)
I wrote about the successful delivery of a £4bn super sewer this week. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/uk-london-super-sewer-system-hs2-crossrail/ You might be wondering what exactly this ...
substack.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Wrote about the successful delivery of a £4bn supersewer for @telegraphnews.bsky.social. Speaking to CEO Andy Mitchell, he wanted to "repair a broken love affair between London and its river."
To hear a civil engineer talk in that poetic, almost lyrical way was hopeful. substack.com/@benjamineas...
To hear a civil engineer talk in that poetic, almost lyrical way was hopeful. substack.com/@benjamineas...
Today my final Observer books review column is published. Reflections on the last 13 years and why arts journalism is important at my new Substack... which I'd love you to subscribe to!
open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
As one chapter closes...
Reflections on 13 years as an Observer books columnist. Why cultural criticism is important. And what happens next.
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Today my final Observer books review column is published. Reflections on the last 13 years and why arts journalism is important at my new Substack... which I'd love you to subscribe to!
open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
open.substack.com/pub/eastangl...
I've been doing monthly reviews of books in @theobserveruk.bsky.social for nearly 15 years. Never before, though, has a book I marvelled at got on the @thebookerprizes.com longlist two days later! Benjamin Wood's Seascraper is a great book by the way...
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Books in brief: Seascraper, Goliath’s Curse and History f...
New books by Benjamin Wood, Luke Kemp and Roman Krznaric reviewed
observer.co.uk
July 29, 2025 at 1:49 PM
I've been doing monthly reviews of books in @theobserveruk.bsky.social for nearly 15 years. Never before, though, has a book I marvelled at got on the @thebookerprizes.com longlist two days later! Benjamin Wood's Seascraper is a great book by the way...
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Reposted by Ben East
The Club World Cup is over. An advertisement for sport as entertainment product? How did Chelsea even qualify never mind win it - now they're £100m+ better off. 'Our' game wasn't always like this. Read 'Cutting the Mustard' to see how football was sold to the highest bidders @beneast.bsky.social
July 14, 2025 at 11:33 AM
The Club World Cup is over. An advertisement for sport as entertainment product? How did Chelsea even qualify never mind win it - now they're £100m+ better off. 'Our' game wasn't always like this. Read 'Cutting the Mustard' to see how football was sold to the highest bidders @beneast.bsky.social
85 years ago to the night my grandfather was at Dunkirk after a harrowing retreat through Belgium and France. Next month I shall try and honour him by riding his journey en velo to coincide with the Tour de France stage 3. And write about it too. Good on you Private Warner.
June 1, 2025 at 9:20 PM
85 years ago to the night my grandfather was at Dunkirk after a harrowing retreat through Belgium and France. Next month I shall try and honour him by riding his journey en velo to coincide with the Tour de France stage 3. And write about it too. Good on you Private Warner.
Fascinating spending time in the utterly magical valleys around Wild Haweswater speaking to the RSPB and farmers about what landscape preservation (don't call it rewilding!) means for sheep farming - and what the true soul of the Lakes really is...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...
The sheep-farming fight tarnishing the Lake District fells
Policies to remove sheep from the national park are seen by many as the final nail in the coffin for an industry already on its knees
www.telegraph.co.uk
May 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Fascinating spending time in the utterly magical valleys around Wild Haweswater speaking to the RSPB and farmers about what landscape preservation (don't call it rewilding!) means for sheep farming - and what the true soul of the Lakes really is...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...
Interesting that Reform overlooked Jason Moorcroft for the Runcorn by-election in the end. I went to speak to him in Frodsham and he had a lot of support locally. But it became more and more obvious that Farage didn’t fancy him. And Reform voters there weren’t that impressed with Farage.
March 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Interesting that Reform overlooked Jason Moorcroft for the Runcorn by-election in the end. I went to speak to him in Frodsham and he had a lot of support locally. But it became more and more obvious that Farage didn’t fancy him. And Reform voters there weren’t that impressed with Farage.
Back in 2019, when my child was just 3, I interviewed Onjali Q Rauf for The Boy At The Back of the Class. Yesterday he skipped home chatting about this great new book they'd started in class. Lovely to see such a hopeful, inclusive and kind book is enduring.
www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture...
www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture...
Onjali Q Rauf’s debut novel about refugee children promotes the power to heal | The National
Anti-trafficking campaigner Onjali Q Rauf tells us how the positive response to her first book, about a Syrian refugee child, has restored her faith in humanity
www.thenationalnews.com
February 13, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Back in 2019, when my child was just 3, I interviewed Onjali Q Rauf for The Boy At The Back of the Class. Yesterday he skipped home chatting about this great new book they'd started in class. Lovely to see such a hopeful, inclusive and kind book is enduring.
www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture...
www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture...
Well, I for one am really excited #ncfc finally got a defensive midfielder. He comes on and we lose a 1-0 lead, he starts and it’s our worst performance of the season! Sure it’ll end up being all wright on one night…
February 11, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Well, I for one am really excited #ncfc finally got a defensive midfielder. He comes on and we lose a 1-0 lead, he starts and it’s our worst performance of the season! Sure it’ll end up being all wright on one night…
Burns night party clobber
January 25, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Burns night party clobber
First batch of reviews for 2025 in The Observer; really liked Rowan Jacobsen’s take down of big chocolate/ quest for the ultimate bar in Wild Chocolate. Hope by Andrew Ridker is fun, perceptive and… hopeful. And Night Watch by Jayne Ann Phillips is a tough but rewarding civil war tale.
In brief: Hope; Wild Chocolate; Night Watch – review
The tragicomic collapse of a wealthy family; a genre-busting exploration of the cacao trade; and a tough Pulitzer-winning tale of the US civil war
www.theguardian.com
January 6, 2025 at 7:41 PM
First batch of reviews for 2025 in The Observer; really liked Rowan Jacobsen’s take down of big chocolate/ quest for the ultimate bar in Wild Chocolate. Hope by Andrew Ridker is fun, perceptive and… hopeful. And Night Watch by Jayne Ann Phillips is a tough but rewarding civil war tale.
I was pretty concerned after the jht presser that he was spooked by the qpr result / the continual shipping of goals - he absolutely signposted thet #ncfc performance tonight. Just have to hope that was a defensive reset type of game rather than a systems change.
December 10, 2024 at 9:41 PM
I was pretty concerned after the jht presser that he was spooked by the qpr result / the continual shipping of goals - he absolutely signposted thet #ncfc performance tonight. Just have to hope that was a defensive reset type of game rather than a systems change.
This is the second piece in a couple of weeks I’ve done where local people are saying national government are simply running all over any power they might have had to make their own decisions. One to watch for Labour. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12...
The Lancashire villagers about to be outnumbered by prisoners
Angela Rayner has given the go-ahead for a super-prison to be built on cherished green belt land – but the plans have infuriated locals
www.telegraph.co.uk
December 9, 2024 at 5:09 PM
This is the second piece in a couple of weeks I’ve done where local people are saying national government are simply running all over any power they might have had to make their own decisions. One to watch for Labour. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12...
I always love reading these as I come across some incredible pop song that somehow had passed me by. But… you can’t have a top 20 with entries where you can’t decide on the best song by one artist so just put them all in! It’s more like the top 30…
December 6, 2024 at 7:18 AM
I always love reading these as I come across some incredible pop song that somehow had passed me by. But… you can’t have a top 20 with entries where you can’t decide on the best song by one artist so just put them all in! It’s more like the top 30…
This is a brilliant piece and exactly how I felt about the show in Manchester. I took my son and we were 20 years too old and too young for it. But we loved it all the same, even though it was so different from what a traditional pop concert might once have been.
I wrote about Brat, and being in your early 30s. "I was 32 when “Missing” came out..And it is similarly fixated on that transitional life moment – a dance-floor anthem about longing for a childhood friend, while also feeling angst about being unable to “move on”. www.newstatesman.com/culture/musi...
Charli XCX’s victory lap
A recent London show proved Brat is the album of the year, and she is the artist of the moment. Am I too old to join in?
www.newstatesman.com
December 2, 2024 at 11:34 AM
This is a brilliant piece and exactly how I felt about the show in Manchester. I took my son and we were 20 years too old and too young for it. But we loved it all the same, even though it was so different from what a traditional pop concert might once have been.
Went to see Paddington in Peru. It’s fun in lots of sub Indiana Jones ways, but it doesn't really hit home comically or emotionally as the other two. Still, Julie Walters DJing drum’n’bass to the junglist massive of the home for retired bears is gold…
November 30, 2024 at 8:02 PM
Went to see Paddington in Peru. It’s fun in lots of sub Indiana Jones ways, but it doesn't really hit home comically or emotionally as the other two. Still, Julie Walters DJing drum’n’bass to the junglist massive of the home for retired bears is gold…
Absolutely fascinating day in the Conwy Valley tracking down the hideout of FBI Most Wanted Daniel San San Diego. Beyond the Hunted style escapades, the villagers were lovely and did know him… but only had the lightbulb moment this week about who he actually was. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...
‘It’s been quite a commotion’: The FBI manhunt that ended in a tiny Welsh village
When an alleged terrorist was arrested near Conwy after more than 20 years on the run, it surprised everyone – not least the neighbours
www.telegraph.co.uk
November 28, 2024 at 9:20 PM
Absolutely fascinating day in the Conwy Valley tracking down the hideout of FBI Most Wanted Daniel San San Diego. Beyond the Hunted style escapades, the villagers were lovely and did know him… but only had the lightbulb moment this week about who he actually was. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...
Given the Plymouth fan said on Radio Norfolk they’d only win if there was no-one there to see it, then I’d say 461 brave souls was probably 200 too many, eh @chrisreevo.bsky.social ?
November 26, 2024 at 9:33 PM
Given the Plymouth fan said on Radio Norfolk they’d only win if there was no-one there to see it, then I’d say 461 brave souls was probably 200 too many, eh @chrisreevo.bsky.social ?
Had such a lovely day in Lincoln. Lark Books is the kind of book store I’d like to own if I had the nerve (and backing). Given it’s literally around the corner from
Waterstones I really hope it works out. And just down the same street Back To Mono is a complete treasure trove of a record store.
Waterstones I really hope it works out. And just down the same street Back To Mono is a complete treasure trove of a record store.
November 26, 2024 at 9:21 PM
Had such a lovely day in Lincoln. Lark Books is the kind of book store I’d like to own if I had the nerve (and backing). Given it’s literally around the corner from
Waterstones I really hope it works out. And just down the same street Back To Mono is a complete treasure trove of a record store.
Waterstones I really hope it works out. And just down the same street Back To Mono is a complete treasure trove of a record store.
First post is on Bluesky is going to be a bit of a wedge issue but I spent the day in Salford on the Lime e-scooter trial and found it's a far more nuanced picture than a simple 'they're a menace to pedestrians'. Read the whole story if you can...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...
Why e-scooters could be legalised (even though they’re a road traffic nightmare)
As the Government looks to legislate the controversial scooters, irresponsible user behaviour still presents multiple risks
www.telegraph.co.uk
November 20, 2024 at 10:42 AM
First post is on Bluesky is going to be a bit of a wedge issue but I spent the day in Salford on the Lime e-scooter trial and found it's a far more nuanced picture than a simple 'they're a menace to pedestrians'. Read the whole story if you can...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...