What's got my attention this week #56
Links and recs to get you through the weekend
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SCROLLING
• You are never too old to change your life.
• Are Nicole Kidman and Anne Hathaway righting some age-gap wrongs this summer?
• Mary HK Choi had long suspected something was “off”, then she got an adult autism diagnosis at 43.
• What would our clothes look like if more women designed them? £
• The tyranny of forever striving. (As a compulsive striver I felt this.)
• can’t decide whether or not to go under the knife.
• The benefits of a to-feel list.
• Women are furious! Great interview with .
• Tissues at the ready: “recreating a beloved trip with my father before dementia takes his memories…”
• “Why do I let myself sabotage my own best-laid plans.”
• on Jill Biden’s unfortunately timed US Vogue cover.
• Really smart piece by on the ludicrous noise around Taylor Swift’s child-free status.
• Sometimes forgiveness is overrated.
• Powerful piece about the rise of the NDA.
• Could you do the no-spend challenge?
• Love this by on midlife body image and outdoor baths.
• Why older women are bulking up. (All the better to punch you with!) £
• A selection of Virginia Woolf’s most savage insults.
• What is avocado hand, and why do so many people have it?
• One of my favourite substack finds is , here are her ten most unhinged moments in period drama.
(A note about the links: some are behind a paywall, but almost all (eg The New York Times, New Yorker, The Cut, and many, but not all, Substacks…) all a few free articles if you register. Those that definitely don't are marked £.)
READING
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?, Nicci French
Before there were psychological thrillers as far as the eye could see, there was Nicci French. The crime writing couple Nicci Gerrard and Sean French now have 25 intricately plotted, grip-you-by-the-throat suspense novels under their belt and, as well as spawning an entire section in the bookshop, remain right at the top of their game. Charlotte Salter has it all (of course) but then she’s a no-show for her husband’s 50th birthday party and her family’s lives fall apart. 30 years later, Charlie has never been found. Then podcasters decide to look into the mysterious disappearance, drum roll… Brainy, twisty and utterly gripping, as per usual.
• Buy Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? in paperback from amazon or bookshop.org.
WATCHING
Wimbledon, Euros 2024 & Storyville: Inheriting the Castle
I might have mentioned it’s my birthday this weekend. I might also have mentioned that I’m an introverted party-dodger, so I will be spending it celebrating on the sofa and probably the nearest windy Scottish beach. It’s the middle weekend of Wimbledon, Andy Murray will be playing possibly his last ever match (but hopefully not) in the mixed doubles with Emma Radacanu and it’s the Euros quarter-finals so yelling at the TV will be high on the agenda. If you’re alarmed by all this sport-watching, you’re not alone, so am I. It started when I spent several weeks lying on the sofa recovering from an operation, that happened to coincide with the London Olympics, during the summer of 2012. I rapidly became one of the few people in the world who understood the rules of Keirin and would happily explain them to anyone who’d listen. (I blame the Tramadol.) Anyway, since then I’ve found sport on TV strangely soothing background noise. But don’t worry! I’m also planning to catch up with Inheriting The Castle (El Castillo) on BBCiplayer, a Storyville documentary about Justina who was left the huge country house where she worked when her boss died. Just one proviso: she couldn’t sell it. Biggest ever payday or total curse? It’s giving Grey Gardens vibes.
LISTENING
• Tortoise Media’s latest Slow News podcast, Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman and, to be honest, getting pretty bloody depressed. My first reaction when I heard about this was, “Oh no, not him too!” (In case you’ve never heard of him, he’s the globally bestselling author of Sandman (Netflix), Good Omens (Prime), American Gods (Prime), Coraline (turned into a film by Tim Burton) and many more, most of which are on my bookshelves.) This is a disturbing, and far from straightforward, story of power and control that investigates allegations made against him by a young woman who was his child’s former nanny in New Zealand and a former (also much younger) girlfriend in the States. All four episodes dropped at once earlier this week and it comes with a well-deserved trigger warning.
AND ON A MUCH CHEERIER NOTE, ON THE SHIFT PODCAST THIS WEEK…
…Australian novelist Kathy Lette tears the patriarchy a new one! We talked about why life is in two acts, it’s just a case of getting over the painful perimenopausal interval, reaping the benefits of the invisiblity cloak, ditching things that no longer spark joy (including husbands…) and why the success of her new novel is the sweetest revenge on the agent who said no-one was interested in middle-aged women and the publisher who dumped her!
• What are you watching/reading/listening to this weekend?
* A note: this post contains affiliate links, which means that a very small percentage of any sale goes to help fund The Shift.
Hi Sam, can I also put a shout out for women who are short, not petite as such just short? At 5 ft 1 I wish I had delicate bone structure but I don't. I am an ordinary size 12 but my arms, torso and legs are short. Being 50, and trying to pick from the miniscule petite ranges is depressing. They always contain the most frumpy and depressing items. We need petite tops and coats if they are not going to make smaller people look dumpy or have to roll the sleeves up but often there is no petite option. And don't get me started on embellished hems that disappear because you have to shorten the item 🙂
Kathy Lette "ditching things that no longer spark joy (including husbands…" After seeing that I ran downstairs and made my wife a cup of tea : )