If you look for it, there is a deluge of confessional articles on the internet about the dark tarnished glamour of alcoholism. You know – the good bit? The bit before it all falls apart, the bit about being Kate Moss and a rock star and not caring. Euphoric, dazed, crashing headlong into the end. […]
Category: Living a good life
Secret Style Icon No.23: Albert Einstein
I’ve become infatuated with a theoretical physicist. I guess it’s the sort of thing that happens, in the end days of capitalism, as ice bergs melt and we continue to deny that climate change is happening and meanwhile put all our energy and resources into killing each other in much faster ways. I’ve been searching for words […]
On Rejection, Failure, Holding your Nerve, and Eating a Whole Baked Camembert
When I’m not painstakingly crafting sub-standard jokes or stealing something funny I heard someone say one time a while ago, and then wrapping it all up into a bundle so I can post it on this blog with a title that mentions cheese somehow – I spend my other spare time writing fiction. Ok, I […]
Be the Bear, and Other Mantras to Get You Through Winter
If you could hibernate through winter, would you? Find a nice cave, fill it with biscuits, put on a jumper, and sleep? Sleep lavishly. Slumber in an absolutely unreachable state. I know I would. I’ve written before about my annual sad feelings which always come around just in time for Christmas, and the things that […]
Autumn is Better Than Summer
Summer. It’s such a lie. Grey drizzle prevails throughout June. The sun makes a cameo appearance one icy, blustery day in July, and everyone in Scotland takes off their clothes. We shiver stubbornly, on beaches and in parks, across hills and glens. We go swimming in lochs, and get out quickly and pretend that we’re […]
The Friday Happy List: 17th July 2015
Welcome! Because The World is Not All Terrible: Happy Friday Treat Yo Self For those who have not watched Parks and Recreation religiously (if not, what is the point of you?), this is what happens on 13th October every year, when the materialistic and magnificently shallow Donna and Tom just go all out shopping. Donna […]
Review: The Party Givers’ Book by Mary Gallati, 1957
I try to buy everything I need or want from charity shops. Because: 1. Through excessive charity-shop lingering, I’ve slowly become dependent upon shopping in a 1980s timewarp. Everything is sequinned and £5 is the average cost of a dress. When I venture into normal high-street shops, there are NEVER ENOUGH sequins and it’s all […]
Secret Style Icons No.21 & No.22: Thelma and Louise
‘I don’t ever remember feeling this awake’ – Thelma It starts the way all films should – two gals, a convertible and a loaded gun, off on a road trip together. They’ve got high-waisted jeans and enormous swaying hair. They’re getting away from hard work, boredom and Thelma’s cretin of a husband. What could possibly […]
The Friday Happy List: 17th April 2015
Ok, let’s do this. 1. This cat nurse. I do like a hug, as much as the next human. But you know those guys who overhug? The ones who hug you before you know their name? The ones who hug you when you’ve just said ‘I feel really unwell’, because you’ve eaten too much pie? […]
Banned Books, Pseudonyms and a Secret Magazine
“Secrets, silent, stony, sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.” James Joyce, Ulysses Maybe it’s a symptom of living in almost certain safety, to find the idea of banned books romantic. Imagine: the soft crackling of a paper bag containing a hard-back first […]
Amy Jardine 