Mark Brown

@markoneinfour

Mental health/tech stuff. Sell ads for local newspapers, keeping local public interest news alive. Former writer in residence @centreforMH. Ask me to write MH things. Director Social Spider CIC. DMs open. Podcast @BBCOuch (he/they)

3,879 Following8,997 Followers3,967 Posts

YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and markoneinfour.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· 29d

Rereading The Atrocity Exhibition by Ballard again for the first time in about 20 years. It's great as ever. But having spent two decades with his essays and shorts since last reading I realise it's the ultimate JG Ballard mix tape, a continuous DJ set of his own obsessions and past and later hits

The cover of an early 2000s Flamingo edition of The Atroxity Exhibition. A spine on a field of white, an inset of a crashed car

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jul 8

Got a record in the post this morning! Had for years, gone in a house move slimming down, now returned to me. I just adore the cover of this and found I had a deep, deep longing to have it back again

The cover of little creatures by taking heads. It is in untutored art style with many little bits of text across it of a religious nature the members of talking heads are mostly hidden behind mountains with faces on them, except Chris who is behind a church and David who holds up a globe dressed only in underpants. The landscape is filled with little people and animals and ornate temples and more plain churches. In the distance, beyond the mountains little people go about their business. Above are clouds with smiles and a few UFOs

The back cover of Little Creatures. The members of talking heads in brightly coloured embroided clothes, arms by their sides as on the cover of More Songs about Buildings and Food. They look like they might be on the way to Sunday church and despite having neutral expressions their clothes are joyful.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jul 3

Just away to see Ganesh Mam

Some children in dufflcoats with sports bags enter the grates of Canning Street primary school, a Victorian red brick school. In the distance you can see the last remaining back to back of the Benwell slum. Clearance of the 1970s.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jun 4

Perfect bed for

A screen grab of a search result showing a Kevin O'Neill illustration of Tomas de Torquemada from 2000ad comic's Nemesis the Warlock. He is holding a finger up saying 'be pure! Be vigilant! Behave!' he is wearing a helmet that is triangle shaped that covers his entire face.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· May 25

Page 54 is 'Some Thoughts on Fire screens by Trevor Holloway' "In their off-duty periods, fireplaces usually have a forlorn and unlovely appearance. No self-respecting handy-man should tolerate such a dismal state of affairs" WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME ABOUT FIRE SCREENS TREVOR HOLLOWAY I AM EIGHT

SOME THOUGHTS ON FIRE-SCREENS

by TREVOR HOLLOWAY

THERE are few sights more cheer-ing in winter than a well-filled grate of glowing wood or coals; but how depressing an empty, un-screened fireplace looks in time! In their off-duty periods, fireplaces usually have a forlorn and unlovely appearance. No self-respecting handy-man should tolerate such a dismal state of affairs, so let's get busy and see if we can't find some way of screening these gloomy cavities.

Fire-screens are quite simple to make, and the scope for varied design is almost limitless. In case you may need a little inspiration, here are a few suggested designs among which you may see one that takes your fancy. In these days when "do-it-yourself" methods are so popular a wide range of materials is available in

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· May 25

Here's the contents page of Dean's Premier Book For Boys, so you have an idea of what's in it (Elephants! Jets! Swimming in a football pitch! Woodwork!) but, wait, what's that on page 54?

The title page of Dean's Premier Book For Boys. CONTENTS

THE BRINTON BUNCH

FLYING SAUCER

A BIT OF HOUSE DECORATION

EXPEDITION TWENTY

SOAP SPRINGS ETERNAL

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

COLLECTING CIRCUSANA

SOME THOUGHTS ON FIRE-SCREENS

KIT OF THE JUNGLE TRAIL

OUT OF BOUNDS

THE BOYS OF THE BAR-X

OUR WINTER VISITORS

"BELL" PUZZLE

A WIND ROARER

THE SILVER STAR

GARRY AND THE WRONG HORSE

LOOKING AT CASTLES

OBLONG MAKING

ADVENTURE IN THE PYRENEES

RAY'S SHORT CUT

MUTINY ON THE Discovery

A MINIATURE TREE

THE UNEXPECTED

HORSESHOES FOR LUCK

THE KILLER DOG

MY LINE OF BUSINESS

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· May 25

Picked this up from one of my local free libraries: Dean's Premier Book For Boys (published 1960). There's something in it I have been laughing about all weekend...

The cover of Dwand's premier book for boys featuring in order: some native Americans pointing at a stage coach, some lads running and race and some race cars absolutely belting over what looks like a hump back bridge

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· May 7

The famous meme of a woman looking on aghast as a man (implicitly her partner) looking over his shoulder at a passing woman indicating a thirsty, horny aspect while looking at her rear. The woman is labeled with the text 'reform', the scopophilic gentleman 'bbc coverage' and the appalled woman labelled 'anything else'

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Feb 28

Saturday 28th of February 2026

The opening titles tv programme twin peaks (two misty mountains in the background, a road and desk trees with a sign welcoming visitors to the town) with text overlaid in the style of the original titles saying 'Gorton and Denton and Iran'

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Feb 25

This but massively racist, and actually talking to a load of people the same age

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Feb 4

Excited to announce today the launch of our new news website @banddstar.bsky.social! You can find it here: barkingstar.co.uk It joins @walthamforestecho.bsky.social, @enfielddispatch.bsky.social, @barnetpost.bsky.social, @haringeycp.bsky.social, @newhamvoices.bsky.social and @ec1echo.bsky.social

The homepage of Barking and Dagenham Star, with headlines about council finances, beavers and wild storks rewilding Dagenham, boosts for the boroughs shopping areas

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jan 23

Holy shit. We're back on the moral crusade against people who live with mental ill health revival wagon. Once every ten years like an ancient curse. 'it's our moral duty to make people already struggling feel much worse for their own good. Activate the reserve workforce for jobs that aren't there!'

The front page of the times, Saturday 24th January 2026. Main headline 'anxiety' to cause a lost generation on benefits'

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jan 20

If you listen hard you can kind of hear it. It's like a thousand fingers tapping you on the shoulder, like what the world must sound like for a tree

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Dec 31

Happy new year love Morcar

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Dec 26

The author is rather more breathless in this passage than in the rest of the book. You think 'surely this can't be what it sounds like?' but there are photos. With Lemmy.

Two photos on a book page. The top one is is of somewhere wearing a school satchel holding a lollipop and showing stocking tops and suspenders. The bottom is Lemmy from Motorhead surrounded by women not of school age dressed as school girls, all showing stocking tops.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Dec 26

There's lots of free libraries around mine. Out on a walk today I picked up a history of school uniform 'Blazers, Badges & Boaters: a pictorial history of school uniform' by Alexander Davidson. It contains this account of a 'City restaurant' beloved of 'City gents'

Very popular amongst City gents is School Dinners, the central London restaurant. Here waitresses dressed like schoolgirls except for their black tights dole out school meals. In the background, a mock schoolmaster in gown and mortarboard flexes a cane. Customers are sent into the corner wearing a dunce's cap, and may be forced to do lines. This restaurant is often full.

What a feast misty-eyed old boys are in for, as they scramble into the cellar restaurant whose walls are crammed with school photos, story book covers and other such tributes to the school classroom.

As you sit down at the table to order, for example, Matron's Secret Recipe and St. Trinian's Choice, service is provided by delightful young waitresses with striped ties, tight grey pleated skirts, half-cocked boaters and lacrosse sticks, who attend to every (reasonable) whim. They will even rebuke customers for sneaking, or for bad table manners. In the true school spirit PeePee the little black waiter dressed like a schoolboy, passes amongst the tables causing merriment.

The menu consists of nostalgic dishes such as apple crumble, spotty dick and all those old school favourites, only this time marvellously cooked and extremely appetising. Meanwhile the waitresses lean over the table suggestively, and crack naughty jokes.

But the real fun starts with a 'Headmaster's caning'. The hapless victim, usually a birthday boy or bridegroom-to-be on his stag night, is hauled before the 'Headmaster' - School Dinners' general manager in a mortar board and gown.

He is bent over and given a mock caning by two 'schoolgirl' waitresses, while the Headmaster beats a gong to accompany every stroke. The caning last long and appears hard. The diners ex-public school City people, and, increasingly others, are in a seventh heaven! What a delicious trip down memory lane this is! Of course, it is fun, not real perversion, and many business deals are swung in this atmosphere.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Oct 30

Lewisham 21st May 2022

Graffiti on a building reading 'Royal Nonce' below graffiti reading 'ACAB!', urban traffic in foreground.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Oct 10

Radio mast

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Oct 10

Been away at a youth hostel for the night. Was subject to the shreik of owl in the bright moonlight, saw bats and jackdaws and larks, dst under a radio mast and managed to bring home a Devils Coach Horse in my bag

A devil's coach horse beetle, long and black with strong pincers, looking sorry for itself trapped in the bottom of an empty mug

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Sep 16

I continued a private tradition at the weekend of listening to new Manic Street Preachers albums while up a hill. Resistance is Futile was around Windermere. The Ultra Vivid Lament was in the dark at Firle Beacon looking out to Newhaven. Critical Thinking: Mount Caburn in the mist

A hillside path, a fence, all obscured by rain and mist

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Sep 3

Went to the covid memorial wall today for the first time today. So many names, so much loss. I really miss my sister.

The covid memorial wall opposite the houses of Parliament. Thousands and thousands of red hearts painted onto a wall stretching into the distance.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Aug 26

Can we all just stop and applaud Foresight Pease Pudding and its staunch refusal to update any of its serving suggestions and general aesthetic since the 1970s. Thanks

A half tin of Foresight Pease Pudding, with seventies style serving suggestions like 'put it on a cracker with a bit veg or a prawn on top' or put it on a plate with lots of artfully arrangesld slices of tomato and sprigs of parsley. And very seventies fonts.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Aug 22

Said sky, sans bat. If you want to see some bats in Lewisham, get down to Manor House Gardens just as the sun goes down. They hunt over the pond as the herons look on

An empty dirty coloured sky above a 1940s prefab.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Aug 22

Thinking about the whole decline in reading for pleasure thing. British homes don't have enough space for bookshelves. And I mourn the demise of the big silly books that readers digest did, or that you bought in garden centres or supermarkets. Big, fat, larger than an annual.

A shelf of big silly books like 'folklore myths and legends of Britain', 'Britain in the seventies', 'man watching' by Desmond Morris, 'papercraft' and 'the body's disorders'

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Aug 13

Hugely pleasing charity shop buy today. This post employs a device known as Anamorphic projection. (so the lyric sheets says. Hold your phone to you eye at right angles to see Maddy Prior, Tim Hart and Robert Johnson in true perspective)

The cover of steeleye span's LP 'All Around My Hat' with sticker saying 'includes their hit single' All Around My Hat'

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Aug 12

With the only proof of Jeremy's lyrical contribution (the words, "ATOL Protected, ATOL Protected") being that they were written on a an old airline ticket of Mark's as the two of them traveled, Jeremy fought for his right to be remunerated fairly. Initially Hans balked at the idea of crediting Jeremy, stating that the net had "run out of space" and the internet didn't "have enough bytes to add his name." But thanks to Molly's intervention (despite her dislike for Jeremy) the credit was changed, and all was settled in short order at a child's play center.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jun 18

Really interestingly, Take A Break magazine is backing a campaign with the Royal Psychological Society (#makeit10) to make social class a protected characteristic under the Equality Act

A page from Take a Break magazine with the headline 'It's time to talk about class...' and the stand first 'research shows that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds face discrimination in education and in the work force. Here's why we need to change the law to talk about social mobility'

The cove rof June 19th 2025's Take A Break magazine. Main headline 'shopping centre monster snatched my sister'

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jun 17

I've just eaten one of these delicious things from Finland and I'm wondering what it is about the history of British confectionary that makes chocolate and liquorice an uncommon combination in the British Isles. Were the chocolate makers and the liquorice makers at opposite ends of the country?

The now sadly empty wrapper of a 'double layer liquorice' Tulpa bar manufactured by Cloetta.

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· Jun 14

I am sat at the base of a radio mast surrounded by skylarks. No action by HAVOC though.

Two large radio antenna surrounded by barbed wire fences against a blue sky

Mark Brown@markoneinfour· May 24

The second was this busy little worker