January 2020.

My late contender for the best album of 2019 is Aldous Harding’s Designer. It’s a rich, deep, folky, arty album full of lovely hooks and sophisticated melodies. I loved her last album but this one eluded me to begin with.

I started to read Ben Lerner’s massively acclaimed new novel (a ‘truly great American novel’, a ‘masterpiece’, blah blah) The Topeka School but I just found it dry and boring and gave up half way through. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood because I know he’s really good. Instead I did what I have never done before and read a book about business;  This Could Be Our Future; A Manifesto For a More Generous World by Yancey Strickler (the founder of Kickstarter) does what it says on the tin. He has strong ideas and he’s living them and I quite enjoyed it. But it’s Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age that I tore through this month; this is a book about race and class and friendship for people that like Sally Rooney.

I made a long playlist, full of old and new songs and designed for life in the woods at Glen Dye. I truly love all of this music https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5XnT3SqnimQsDeid3GJE1p?si=gfty3xWXSw-lW3Xl2UWiVQ

Chocolate of the Month. Twirl. The finest snack for around £1 and the best thing about motorway services.

Cheese of the Month. I’m going with Stilton, which is the most Marmite of all cheeses. I like it when it’s relatively mild and creamy. Actually, technically, this British cheese comes in white and blue varieties but the former seems a bit pointless to me.