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mbonsall.bsky.social
Mike Bonsall
@mbonsall.bsky.social
670 followers 1.2K following 170 posts
Ballardian | digitizer | concordancer | code art
https://fentonville.co.uk/digital-ballard/
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mbonsall.bsky.social
Mike Bonsall @mbonsall.bsky.social · Apr 11
So this is my first, and possibly last, real book! Available on Amazon now and good booksellers soon

Inspired by JG Ballard's endlessly faceted works I've been trying for decades to make new ways of understanding them, with some interesting results

Many thanks to Rick McGrath for making it happen
cover of Ballardian Diversions by Mike Bonsall showing painting of 1920's British biplane. Back cover has author photo and text: After unsuccessfully studying psychology, medicine, art and information systems, Mike Bonsall finally gave in to his obsession with the work of JG Ballard, whose writing seems to hint at another world, just out of sight, that might somehow be reached by an ever-more intense interrogation of the text. After all, he reasoned, Ballard himself encouraged this experimental approach: "It's a little as if I were leading the reader to a deserted laboratory, and that I put a collection of specimens and all the necessary equipment at his disposal. It's his job then to relate these elements together and create reactions from them." This volume contains some of the more interesting results of his experiments.
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
crash-cutup.bsky.social
She continued to urge me to see Helen Remington, and fought for his cameras climbed into the rear compartment.
January 31, 2026 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
pastpostcard.bsky.social
My appetite is not lessened and work seems quite horrid in prospect.
January 30, 2026 at 10:28 AM
mbonsall.bsky.social
JG Ballard - Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown

This is the latest of my attempts using digital media to engage with Ballard's work

You have to guess the sentence that starts this 1976 Ballard story to reveal the text, one para at a time

Let me know what you think

fentonville.co.uk/notes-towards
screenshot of my digital mini-game made from J G Ballard's short story 'Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown'. Players must drag and drop words from top of screen into the target area in the right order to reveal the original short story one paragraph at a time. If you want to cheat, the correct order is: A discharged Broadmoor patient compiles Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown, recalling his wife's murder, his trial and exoneration.
January 29, 2026 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
crash-cutup.bsky.social
The same calm but curious gaze, right hand moving above my knees steering Helen through the crowd of mechanics and hangers-on.
January 27, 2026 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
futurerevisited.bsky.social
Today’s story was Aldiss’s 1966 tale ‘Amen and Out’, which I forever associate with this striking New Worlds cover by Keith Roberts.
Always enjoy Aldiss‘s satirical eye, in this instance focused on the cultural impact in a future society of a failed Immortality initiative. Economically told & smart.
Cover of the August 1966 edition of the UK SF magazine New Worlds - showing a stylised representation of three human figures with complex patterns on their torsos and limbs, drawn by Keith Roberts. Figures represent the ‘immortals’ in the Brian Aldiss story ‘Amen and Out’.
January 25, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
crash-cutup.bsky.social
I watched I visualized her as a glamorous but overworked medical student, as if we were all waiting to embark on a voyage into the night.
January 20, 2026 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
hookland.bsky.social
At least UFOs have made driving the edge of Barrowcross more interesting. Used to be you'd turn a corner and only find a spectral Saxon or corpse cart. Now you might be bothered by spaceship from the Planet Skareg full of silver-suited wankers. – #DICallaghan talking with #DSNokes
January 17, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
johncoulthart.com
"He had known that his mind was going, yet had been unable to draw back." Uncredited cosmic weirdness for a 1960 reprint of The Challenge from Beyond, a round-robin story featuring contributions from Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, HP Lovecraft, A. Merritt and CL Moore.
A black-and-white ink drawing featuring a man with a forehead dissolving into a galactic swirl; another man flying upwards through space; a crack in the spacefield revealing alien architecture (?); a star shape at the centre of which is an alien creature holding a small box; a vast planet in the background.
January 15, 2026 at 3:06 PM
mbonsall.bsky.social
www.instagram.com/p/DTdFENnEd0B/
a room-sized cold war bunker, seen from the side and exposed by collapse of cliff into the sea, is about to fall away. Inset is a photo of two local historians who have studied it.
January 14, 2026 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
ballardbot.bsky.social
Of course, there should be no parking or traffic restrictions of any kind.
January 11, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
scarredforlife.bsky.social
In the 1970s, Blackpool's Louis Tussaud's Waxworks had a Chamber of Horrors, which included such delights as the Moors Murderers, a scalping scene, a torture chamber, and this horrendous traffic accident.

Fun for all the family!
January 11, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
futurerevisited.bsky.social
Now up to Ballard’s ‘Passport to Eternity‘ in the ‘Complete Stories‘ tome, something of a playful pastiche of the more florid elements of ‘Pulp SF‘ (with various descriptive tropes gleefully lampooned).
Arguably ‘untypical‘ Ballard, but I’m enjoying the light & shade as I move through his work…
Image from the June 1962 issue of the SF magazine ‘Amazing Stories’ (illustration credited to ‘Adkins’), on the title page of J.G. Ballard’s story ‘Passport to Eternity’. The illustration shows a man whose head is covered by a cap to which various cables are attached - he is staring out towards a set of porthole type windows through which stars are visible. An ‘alien’ onlooker is visible in the foreground.
January 10, 2026 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
malcolmdevlin.bsky.social
One for those 'most anticipated books of next year' lists. Allan on Priest on Ballard and everything in between.
The Illuminated Man. Life, Death and the Worlds of JG Ballard by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan. This book is about J. G. Ballard. This book is also about death, love and time travel. In 2024, Nina Allan's husband, the novelist Christopher Priest died. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which had metastasised into the bones, the same disease that killed the man whose biography he'd spent his last months working on - the cult author, J. G. Ballard. J. G. Ballard possessed one of the most astonishing imaginations of our age, and he had an intense and turbulent history: a childhood spent in the encroaching shadow of World War II, teenage internment in a Japanese prison camp - an experience famously fictionalised in Empire of the Sun. Ballard's novels are among the finest and most unusual fiction that has ever been published. Whether in the hyper-surrealism of High Rise or the erotic violence of Crash, he upended the morality and reality of our world. Christopher knew many of Ballard's friends and colleagues personally. As a young writer, it had been Ballard's stories, most of all, that had helped cement his passion for science fiction. With much of their early work published in the same magazines, Priest knew about Ballard's world from the inside. He set out to write a biography that would make people understand what he already knew: that J. G. Ballard wasn't just a cult writer - he was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. When Nina and Christopher first met, they bonded over their love for Ballard's writing, rereading his novels and stories together many times. When it became clear that Christopher would not have time to finish this biography, Nina promised him that she would complete it, patching together with her own voice the gaps that remained. If the book began as a tribute from Priest to Ballard, it is now also a love story written by Nina for Christopher. With access to never-before-seen material, The Illuminated Man explores the history and themes of Ballard's life and - with Ballardian strangeness - celebrates and mourns for those that are gone. This is the story of two deaths, three science fiction writers and one attempt to turn back time.
December 20, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
mckenziewark.bsky.social
JG Ballard kinda called it already, in 1973. This is the first *paragraph* of the introduction to CRASH.
December 22, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
colossive.com
It's obscene that people are sleeping rough in weather like this.

For the next few days we'll donate the proceeds from digital sales of Ad Astra Per Croydon to @sheltercharity.bsky.social

It's only £2, so pls consider it even if you've got a copy. And pls repost!

colossive.com/product/ad-a...
Ad Astra Per Croydon: The Lost History of London's Forgotten Spaceport (DIGITAL EDITION) • Colossive Press
A lavishly illustrated look at the history of Croydon Spaceport - London's lost link to the stars. A tribute to the pioneers of the municipal space movement.
colossive.com
January 5, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
ballardbot.bsky.social
I never said we should shy away from or retreat from technology.
December 30, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
crash-cutup.bsky.social
She had insisted that we accompany Seagrave to his home, while a doctor and two ambulance men to the hospital.
December 27, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
hookland.bsky.social
One of the delights of my life was sharing a car with Ballard along the Westway discussing where various gangsters were buried, which bit was Concrete Island et al.
October 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
lccmunicipal.bsky.social
The opening ceremony brochure for Westway and the West Cross Route from July 1970. “Guests will be invited to […] proceed with a police escort to Westway where the Minister will be invited by the Leader of the Council to cut a ribbon on the westbound carriageway and to declare the new roadways open”
The cover is an uncredited black and white sketch of Westway looking westwards from the Paddington end. Opening of Westway and West Cross Route. Order of Proceedings Guests will assemble in the Ballroom of Lord's Tavern. 10.15 am The Leader of the Greater London Council, Mr Desmond Plummer, TD, DL, JP., will welcome the guests, and will invite the Minister of Transport, the Right Honourable John Peyton, MP, to speak. The Chairman of the Environmental Planning Committee, Mr Robert Vigars, will speak in thanks to the Minister. 10.40 am approx. Guests will be invited to board cars and coaches and proceed with a police escort to Westway where the Minister will be invited by the Leader of the Council to cut a ribbon on the westbound carriageway and to declare the new roadways open. After touring the new roadways guests will return to Lord's Tavern where light refreshments will be served until 12.30 pm. Guests are asked to assist by entering and leaving the vehicles as speedily as possible. Taken from: Westway and West Cross Route opening day proceedings Published by: Greater London Council Date: July 1970 This new section of Westway and the first part of the West Cross Route were designed for the Council by Messrs. G. Maunsell and Partners, consulting engineers, in association with Mr P.F. Stott, Joint Director of the Council's Department of Planning and Transportation, Mr D. Dennington, the Council's Traffic Commissioner and Director of Development, and Mr C.A. Belcher, the Council's Director of Mechanical and Electrical Services. The consultant architects, who also prepared the landscaping proposals, were Messrs. William Holford and Partners in association with the Council's Architect, Sir Hubert Bennett. Mr K.H. Blessley, the Council's Valuer and Estates Surveyor, carried out the acquisition of the necessary property. The main contractor was John Laing Construction Limited. Westway consists of two and a half miles of elevated road, the longest of its kind in Europe. It provides a direct link from the A40 at Wood Lane to Marylebone. where the Council has also implemented extensive improvements in recent years— Marylebone Flyover and Euston Road Underpass have been constructed, and Marylebone Road has been widened into a dual-carriageway. The first section of the West Cross Route runs from the elevated roundabout east of the White City as far as Holland Park Avenue. In all, the two roads cost some £33 million. The roads are part of the GLC's developing road pattern in West London, and will cater for much of the traffic now filtering through residential streets. Plans are in hand for another section of the West Cross Route as far as the river, and for links from there with Battersea Bridge and Wandsworth Bridge, and this will assist further in the GLC's aim to improve the environment of this area of London. The eventual extension of the West Cross Route south via a new river crossing together with the extension north to Willesden, where it will connect with the link to the M1., forms part of the GLC's primary road programme for the future. An outline map of the West Cross Route and Westway. The map shows the proposed (but unbuilt) extension of the West Cross Route southwards.
December 26, 2025 at 10:14 AM
mbonsall.bsky.social
encyclopediaofsciencefiction.substack.com/p/ballard-br...
Ballard, Brexit, and Filling the Gaps
Post by John Clute
encyclopediaofsciencefiction.substack.com
December 25, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
ballardbot.bsky.social
The future will be a struggle between huge competing systems of psychopathology.
December 23, 2025 at 10:07 AM
mbonsall.bsky.social
Season's Greetings and Ballardian Quiz!

This year, as well as a card, I've made a Ballardian quiz. Can you spot where the 20 Ballard quotes are from? I don't expect anyone to get 100% (I couldn't). The quiz has an American flavour, can't imagine why

Have a go here: fentonville.co.uk/xmas-quiz
A Ballardian Xmas eCard featuring the head of a crash test dummy looking straight out of the image and wearing a Santa hat. The background is a road research lab. The words HO HO HO are made out of tyre tracks and tyres.
December 19, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
arbeitology.bsky.social
Ballard is like Baudrillard, I dont want to admit he's right, but living in britain, he becomes more right every day
December 18, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Mike Bonsall
benaustwick.bsky.social
@mbonsall.bsky.social ! Always thought it was one of his best
December 18, 2025 at 9:59 AM
mbonsall.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago | Aditya Chakrabortty
The racism, the predatory politics, the banality and cruelty: we struggle to make sense of it, but JG Ballard foretold everything we are living through now, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
www.theguardian.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:59 AM