Simon Barraclough

writer, copyeditor, copywriter, poet, tutor, mentor

What if There Were No ( x )?

March 11, 2014

For my first poetry session at the Mullard Space Science Lab, I thought discussing some poems by the astronomer/writer Rebecca Elson would create a kind of 'singularity' of relevance. 

Read More
In MSSL, Poetry, Space Tags Rebecca Elson, MSSL

Some pictures from the space lab

February 24, 2014

he Mullard Space Science Lab is crammed with all manner of space paraphernalia and technical equipment, and nitrogen tanks, and bits of rocket, as you might expect.

Read More
In MSSL, Space Tags MSSL, Poetry

New residency at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory

February 4, 2014

I have just begun a one-year stint as poet in residence at UCL's Surrey-based Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL for short). This is my first big new (ad)venture in a while and I'm tinglier than 'Space Dust Alka-Seltzer', if there were such a thing.

Read More
In Space, Poetry, MSSL Tags MSSL, Space, Sunspots
Featured
Unextraordinary Light (for Euclid)
June 30, 2022
Unextraordinary Light (for Euclid)
June 30, 2022
Read more →
June 30, 2022
Dark River (London Film Festival 2017)
October 14, 2017
Dark River (London Film Festival 2017)
October 14, 2017

I chose Clio Barnard's new film because I loved The Arbor (2010), her innovative documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. I'm not crazy about British social-realist cinema but The Arbor was imaginative and formally inventive. I have also heard great things about The Selfish Giant (which I'm yet to see).

Read more →
October 14, 2017
The Party (London Film Festival 2017)
October 12, 2017
The Party (London Film Festival 2017)
October 12, 2017

I was once taken suddenly ill at a friend's house and, while visiting the bathroom to 'pray' in time-honoured fashion, I hallucinated Bruno Ganz standing behind me, in his calming Wings of Desire garb, making sure I was okay. It was lovely to see him, in the flesh, on stage at the premiere of The Party (UK, 2017).

Read more →
October 12, 2017
The Dead Nation (London Film Festival 2017)
October 11, 2017
The Dead Nation (London Film Festival 2017)
October 11, 2017
Read more →
October 11, 2017
Ana, Mon Amour (London Film Festival 2017)
October 10, 2017
Ana, Mon Amour (London Film Festival 2017)
October 10, 2017

If you fall in love with someone when they’re ill, you may fall out of love with them when they get better.

Read more →
October 10, 2017
London Film Festival 2017
October 7, 2017
London Film Festival 2017
October 7, 2017

I'm hoping that my mini-London Film Festival will distract me for a week from the clusterfucked basket case that is the UK right now. #somechance

Read more →
October 7, 2017
A poem for Enceladus
April 20, 2017
A poem for Enceladus
April 20, 2017

With the exciting news about the possibility of microbial life on Saturn's moon Enceladus peeping through the curtain of wall-to-wall gloom, I thought it time to post a gloomy poem of mine from the great science-fiction poetry anthology Where Rockets Burn Through (Penned in the Margins). 

Read more →
April 20, 2017
London Film Festival 2016: PHANTASM REMASTERED
November 1, 2016
London Film Festival 2016: PHANTASM REMASTERED
November 1, 2016

There's a Kafka short story called 'Blumfeld, an Elderly Batchelor' in which the protagonist is inexplicably followed around by a couple of floating balls:

Read more →
November 1, 2016
London Film Festival 2016: DEAREST SISTER
October 25, 2016
London Film Festival 2016: DEAREST SISTER
October 25, 2016

A friend once told me that Laos is the most bombed country on Earth. For a country one doesn't hear that much about in the UK, that fact astonished me.

Read more →
October 25, 2016
London Film Festival 2016: ZOOLOGY
October 17, 2016
London Film Festival 2016: ZOOLOGY
October 17, 2016

The tagline for this Russian-set film is 'It's never too late to grow a tail'. I think 'The tale of tails' would also work (and tip the hat to a great Russian film, The Tale of Tales), as would this homage to Sam Cooke: 'Don't know much about zoology' (well if Theresa May can quote him, hollowly, why can't I?)

Read more →
October 17, 2016

Copyright ©️ Simon Barraclough 2025