What's got my attention this week #60
What's got my attention this week #60
Links and recs to get you through the weekend
SCROLLING
• Dance, spend time in nature, get naked. Body confidence tips from people who have it.
• Strong women are driving you-know-who crazy.
• Why women are more likely to cheat over 50.
• When did Gillian Anderson get so sexy?
• ADHD cases in women hits record high. £
• Where does boredom live on the emotional floorplan? If you’ve never encountered sex educator now’s your chance. No need to thank me.
• Forbes just released this year’s 50 over 50 list. What do we think?
• Adored this piece by on the inevitable push-pull involved in building up and letting go.
• Menorexia is a thing.
• Is authenticity the most overused word on the internet?
• When “write what you know” ends marriages and ruins friendships. (Maybe don’t read this if you live with a memoirist… Oh.)
• on the boxes Brits (in particular) live in.
• Shame is the distance between who we are and how we would like to appear.
• Why America (and plenty of other places TBH) is scared of single women.
• on the things that made her: gardening and telly.
• Whatever happened to the do-nothing-switch-off holiday? £
• I’ve been having a lot of conversations about stepfamilies recently, so this piece by about what it takes to create one struck a chord.
• In contrast to yesterday’s newsletter, wrote this gorgeous piece about the end of a garden.
• The 600 year history of the singular they.
• isn’t too “ladylike” to say fuck. And nor am I.
• The magical inbetweenness of the porch.
• Yes, , I too have an annual jigsaw habit!
(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
August is a Wicked Month, Edna O’Brien
The glory that was Irish novelist Edna O’Brien died this week, aged 93, and it made me realise just how few of her books I’d actually read. (Just The Country Girls and her stellar memoir, Country Girl, which I listened to on audible and totally rec….) So I’ve just started August is a Wicked Month, which follows Ellen who, separated from her husband and son, leaves the loneliness of London and heads to the Riviera where she rediscovers herself and her sexuality. First published in 1965 and immediately banned in several countries, O’Brien’s fourth novel feels just as relevant in 2024, if not as controversial. (It also feels completely in tune with the novels midlife women are writing right now, which is something I’ll be thinking and writing about more.)
• Buy August is a Wicked Month is available from amazon or bookshop.org.
WATCHING
Miriam Margolyes: A New Australian Adventure (BBC2 9pm Friday, BBC iplayer)
I’m a big fan of Miriam Margolyes, so I might even drag myself away from wall-to-wall Olympics coverage to tune into her new travelogue-documentary-investigation-romp. Where Australia Unmasked was an examination of class through the lens of Miriam’s fart jokes and self-deprecation, her New Australian Adventure does the same for adventure, inspiration and creativity in the face of adversity. It won’t surprise you to know that I particularly love the way Miriam’s long career has exploded in its final third.
• Catch up with my interview with Miriam where she talks about that and much more on The Shift podcast.
LISTENING…
• to
• one of the things I enjoy about my New Yorker subscription is being able to listen to their multi-thousand-word essays rather than read them (lazy, much), like this fresh investigation into the White House Farm murders and the potentially unsafe conviction of Jeremy Bamber for the murder of his adoptive sister, nephews and parents in 1985. I admit I didn’t find their radical new evidence that persuasive, but it was still engrossing.
AND ON THE SHIFT PODCAST THIS WEEK…
… total legend (and lifelong workaholic) that is fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, talks about surviving 50 years in the unforgiving fashion industry, being a “product of her mother’s ambition”, developing her signature look as a kind of armour and the rejection that was the making of 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.
Oooh. I love jigsaw puzzles too. There’s something so incredibly relaxing for my brain to put them together. And since I’ve had to spend the majority of the last four years laying flat, I found an app for my IPad called Magic Puzzles. It’s perfect. I can listen to podcasts or an audio book and do a puzzle.
Thank you so much for the mention Sam! ❤️🙏🏼