Thank you for following Uncanny Landscapes. Here’s a new episode of the podcast; an interview with writer Sam Reid. As you know, this is a free project, both newsletter and podcast - nothing is purposefully paywalled. If you’re able to support my work through a donation (aka paid subscription) - thank you!! I truly appreciate it. And if you’re not, perhaps you can support by telling a friend (or two, or 100) about the Substack’s free subscriptions and accompanying podcast.
The podcast (and all back ‘issues’) are also available at:
https://uncannylandscapes.podbean.com/
… and on most podcast platforms. As always, books, records and events ‘n’at here: https://linktr.ee/oldweirdalbion
Links:
The Pin Jar at Rough Trade Books
Field Zine
Sam Reid on Instagram
Sam at Real Magic Weekend in Wendover, UK
Dead The Long Year at Far West Press (USA) and Waterstones (UK)
Before talking about the great Sam Reid, a quick mention for some stuff I have coming up for my own new tiny-li’l book, Dead The Long Year, which comes out November 18th from Far West Press. It’s a psychedelic, psychogeographic historical-fiction novella slash ghost story about art and magick in Bohemian London, 1912.
There are book-launch events in London on 2nd December at Burley-Fisher Books, with the brilliant Hope Wolf and I in conversation; in Norwich on 4th December at Holloway Books with a screening of the new film We Are Making a Film About Mark Fisher; and in Pittsburgh, USA, on 12th December at Bottom Feeder Books with my fellow former Johnsons Big Band partners Dave Griffith (reading) and Chris Cannon (music as Business Jazz). Hope to see you somewhere!
Sam Reid is a writer who has lived his whole life on the edge of town in East Sussex. His new book The Pin Jar is a glorious exploration of the connection between storytelling and landscape; of dialect and accent; of the difference between ideas of ownership and nationalism and a truer sense of belonging. But it’s also just a great read - funny, strange, haunting, truly a story for Autumn’s shifting and Winter’s shadows.
The Pin Jar is very specific to its locality in Sussex, and yet it’s a story that means something to anyone seeking an understanding of ‘belonging’ to, in and with a place in the disjointed and uncanny experience of 2025. I highly recommend it, but don’t just listen to me, listen to Sam talking about this book and then take a few hours some full-moon night to read it. Enjoy.
