Reasons to be cheerful

Ok, so it was a terrible week.

But in other news, not such a bad one.

My friend Katherine sent me her Christmas poem and it left me feeling elated. That I had already read the poem of the year – in early January!

Peter the actor emailed to say he will have a memoir out later this year. Hats off, Peter!

Shimi gave me The Longest Year by Hammock for Christmas and it is beautiful.

Raphael Warnock got elected to the Senate.

Kester’s Good Fridays WhatsApp group.

I finally got round to buying Jane Siberry’s Angels Bend Closer. Oh my. Oh my is it good.

Kate Clanchy’s writing. Patrick Gale’s writing. Oh my.

Rebecca Solnit for calling it out.

Missing David Bowie’s example.

That’s the thing: life, for Bowie, was a series of encounters with people and things that made change possible, not a series of transactions designed to get one over on other people. I’ve missed him more than ever since he died because, seen in the whole, his life stands in rebuke to the philistinism, cynicism and bad faith that’s come to dominate public life.

Lynsey Hanley, Guardian, 8 January 2021