What, like it's hard? Everyone glamorous is pretending. For sure. It's easy to look good if everyone wants you to: when the designer fits the dress to you, when somebody is paid to make sure your shoes match your look, when the photographs of you will sell, then it becomes an industry to get you... Continue Reading →
Girl Dinner with Late Romantic
A recipe that isn't a recipe. It’s the moments we are alone that we truly decide who we are. When my husband went away this week, I found myself living just as quietly as I do when he’s here: I listened to music, I cooked my favourite lazy food, and I went to bed early.... Continue Reading →
The Books I’m Reading in 2026
10 books on my TBR
I don’t care about canon.
Or: Fanfic in opposition to auteurship.
10k Hours as a Value System
According to (perhaps a misunderstanding of) K. Anders Ericsson[1], it takes 10000 hours to become a master at something. 10,000 hours is a long time: 5 years at 40 hours per week (the average workload), or over a year without a break or rest of any kind. That takes tenacity, it takes commitment… but it... Continue Reading →
Sell Me Up The River
The difference between this kind of backstabbing and other ways of being exploited.
Pumpkin Spice Season
Who among us does not love the syrupy, seasonally bound gloop? Whether it's the messy crème egg, the cranberry sauce which belongs only on the Christmas table, or the much hyped, much maligned PSL. I am a great fan of the pumpkin spiced latte: I love pumpkin, I love spice, I love autumn-winter, I love... Continue Reading →
I Fell In Love With The Girl At The Pen Show
October 10th to 12th was the London (Autumn) Pen Show. This is like any trade show: you have vendors who like to sell you things, customers who want deals on those things, and a few onlookers trying to build brands, follow next year's marketing trends, make relationships with mutually beneficial businesses… or who just want to hold the bags of somebody they love, looking for a place to sit. I went for the Sunday as a customer.
I Can Fix The House Of Lords
Britain's House of Lords is a second chamber made of compromise. We as a nation understand the value of a second chamber: it is essential for governmental checks and balances, for debate, and so that the government of the country cannot be swayed by current moods in electoral politics blinding us to widespread issues or... Continue Reading →
Janis Ian, Anna Karenina, and Sadness
It cannot be said that Tolstoy understood women, yet his famous introduction to Anna Karenina can just as well be applied to women as families: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Are women not the head of the household? This is a complicated statement, but even in... Continue Reading →
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