april round up
April was all about Easter in Cornwall. It was a great week full of family, walking those North Cornish cliffs, Spring bringing everything back to life, blossom, making sandcastles on the beaches, surfing and swimming in the mornings and eating our body weight in treacle tart, pasties, Easter chocolate and fudge. The kids were in bliss with their older cousins and it was, as ever, hard to leave.
What I Read
Cleopatra & Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
At Certain Points We Touch by Lauren John Joseph
You Be Mother by Meg Mason
Cleopatra and Frankenstein was our book club book this month and took Coco Mellors seven years to write. It was full of wit and charm and New York.
Lauren John Joseph’s book chronicles their first love and the last rites of one of their great loves. It spanned London, New York and San Francisco and was full of feeling. I can’t stop thinking about it. Read about it here.
Meg Mason you little beauty. Everyone, me included, loved Sorrow & Bliss but I actually think You Be Mother may have pipped it for me, not that it’s necessary to compare them but I love her writing and want her to be my friend.
MONTHLY FAVOURITES
Watched… I found myself on a Nick Cave deep dive this month ahead of his new documentary; I watched both his previous ones 20,000 Days On Earth and One More Time With Feeling. My five year old’s current favourite song is Red Right Hand, which I fully approve of. I spent some time on his site where he generously replies to letters from his fans. His wife Susie Bick who runs The Vampire’s Wife, is as inspiring and creative and I love the blog on her site here.
I feel Brighton in their endeavours (and the docs) and I love his description of how he ended up here. He said it was always raining when he toured here but there was something which pulled them back.
Listened… Debbie Millman has been running her Design Matters podcast for 17 years! She is back with a new series. If you don’t know about her here is a good place to start. The story of her childhood is full of trauma but look at her success! I loved her on Brene Brown. I had a lot of lightbulb moments listening to this.
Turned up for… I think it’s only really my Mum who reads this (hi Ma!) and you do know but even some of my close friends don’t know that I grew up on a stud farm where we bred flat racing thoroughbred horses for a bit. Racing is part of our history as my Grandad was number one jockey in Ireland for a while in the 1950’s.
My Dad is part of a syndicate who own a flat racing horse called Wodeton and yesterday he ran at Goodwood and he only went and came second. It was an exciting race, he lost by a short head (about 6 inches). I even got to touch his lovely muzzle. If you know, you know. You can see him coming in after here.
