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Articles by Neil Barraclough
TypeTown #35: "At the typewriter you find out who you are."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterās place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Welcome, friends to Sunday, fun day. Hereās hoping, at least. Over the last few weeks, artificial intelligence got a whole lot smarter. For those of us concerned about what it meansā¦ to our careers, our future, our kidsā futureā¦ weāre guessing an old Tom Robbins quote strikes a beligerent chord to many.
TypeTown #34: "All writers are crazy. Even the normal ones are weird."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Welcome, welcome. Itâs been a while. But here we are, fast learning the lessons of screenwriter and novelist William Goldman after unforeseen events kept us out of action last week. During a 50-year career, Goldman bashed away on at least five different typewriters, including a Hermes Baby, an Olympia SM9, and a Traveller de Luxe.
TypeTown #33: "I tried to find the smallest, lightest typewriter I could."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterās place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Ā”Buenos dias! A word of warning: weāre going to be quick this week. Mrs TypeTown is celebrating a BIG birthday and weāre not sure how long we can get away with this nonsense. So we start with American author Cormac McCarthy, whose love affair with typewriters has left quite the mark.
TypeTown #32: "This typewriter became a fetish object for me..."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Hello, hello. Weâve been wondering all week how to get todayâs TypeTown off to a great start. Then Margaret Atwood came along and put a rocket up our backside. So here we are, crashing headfirst into a figure who has emerged as one of the most prominent authors of our time.
TypeTown #31: "Don't look at me in that tone of voice."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Welcome one and all, but please donât dawdle. Take a seat and settle down. And in the words of our first subject this week⊠Dorothy Parker was a U.S. poet, writer and satirist who originally garnered attention for her ability to pierce the pomposity of the theatrical community of the 1910s and 1920s. Her first collection of poetry shifted 47,000 copies.
TypeTown #30: "Buy the ticket, take the ride."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Welcome, welcome. Fab to see you again. Alas, we have not started the year well. This issue of TypeTown is a sloppy 72 hours late. But weâre here, just about, straightening our tie, patting down our hair, and hoping you donât notice that our shirt isnât ironed. Somewhat ironically, we start with the philosophies of Hunter S.
TypeTown #29: "Life is about creating yourself."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriter’s place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Bienvenidos todos. The weekend starts here, so settle down with a Guinness and kick back as we remember a literary giant (don’t worry, the heavy stuff doesn’t last). Dublin-born George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was a playwright known for addressing political, social, and religious themes. In 1925, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
TypeTown #28: "I fell in love with the sound of an early typewriter..."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Hello, good day, and welcome to the first TypeTown produced from Old Blighty. Our move from Toronto last week delayed this edition. So in a blatant effort to secure your forgiveness, we start today with a picture of an Underwood typewriter, an inquisitive dog, and a literary powerhouse.
TypeTown #27: "I like to bang the keys."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Welcome back, amigos â and apologies for our recent absence. You can blame a rather spectacular bout of food poisoning. But a few days on and here we are, head up, back straight, and eating again without worrying about the consequences.
TypeTown #26: "Sometimes I sit down at my typewriter... and I wonder is it worth it."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriter’s place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Blow out the candles and make a wish, people. Somewhat staggeringly, TypeTown has made it all the way to its first birthday. A whole year of these ramblings is probably about 11 months longer than we ever expected. So thank you, thank you. For signing up. For sharing. And for contributing to our Earl Grey fund. We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.
TypeTown #25: "I'm a street writer who doesn't pretend to be anything else."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Welcome, welcome. We start this week with a British publishing sensation whose work was so steamy she even helped her assistant get pregnant. Jackie Collins didnât use a typewriter, preferring instead to handwrite 10-20 pages a day and then pay a typist to do the grunt work of making it look presentable.
TypeTown #24: "What I enjoy about writing is the time it takes."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Hola y bienvenidos todos. Todayâs TypeTown features two stories from the Spanish-speaking world, starting first with the death earlier this month of Javier MarĂas. During a long and successful career, MarĂas resolutely refused to abandon his Olympia Carrera Deluxe typewriter.
TypeTown #23: "I'm only really alive when I'm writing."
[Welcome to TypeTown, a fortnightly newsletter celebrating the typewriterâs place in history and modern culture. Click here to subscribe.] Ah, there you are. Lovely to see you again. We start this week with one of the greatest playwrights of the last century. Nearly 40 years after his death, Tennessee Williams remains a cultural giant.
What to Read: Neil Barraclough is tapping into typewriting history
This week, we interviewed Neil Barraclough, a copywriter who writes TypeTown, a publication celebrating the typewriter’s place in history and modern culture. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. TypeTown is an exploration of 20th-century cultural figures through their relationship with the typewriter. I’ve spent my entire career writing, first as a journalist and now as a copywriter. In summer 2021, we moved from the U.K. to Canada and had to quarantine for two weeks.
Coventry chief in war of words with Euro XIIIs organisers
Coventry Bears owner Alan Robinson has entered into a war of words with organisers of the new Euro XIIIs competition, following their decision to hold a player draft event in Birmingham. Robinson, who helped found the Bears and played for the club during its formative days questioned the idea of drafting UK-based players into amateur competition across Europe. He said: “That’s not developing the game.
Ben Currie linked with Leeds and one other club
Leeds Rhinos and one other Super League club are targeting Warrington Wolves back-rower Ben Currie as a signing for next year. Currie is off-contract at Warrington at the end of 2020 and has yet to make a decision on his future. Forty20 News understands Leeds and another Super League side, as yet unknown, are interested in landing the England international.
Eight expensive content marketing mistakes
Is your content marketing struggling for attention? When you’ve invested time, money and effort into a campaign you thought would explode, where does your post-mortem begin? It’s an issue that all involved in content marketing will face. Perhaps you’ve already got the battle scars (and the shake-inducing memories of that campaign that went wrong), or maybe your moment of terror is unfolding right now. We’ve pulled together eight of the most common mistakes we’ve seen.
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