TONIGHT at 7pm! Sarah Brooks, author of ‘The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands’ is joining me online for our last Dialect Dinner of the year! 3 imaginary courses served up with a side of literary discussion - £5 or payc. Come and pull up a virtual chair
www.dialect.org.uk/events/diale...

Beware uneven ground holes

My new goal in life is to stick out as unapologetically as this branch that they purpose built a little hole in the hoarding for

Mentally I am here

Found an only slightly chewed up deer leg on the canal path by Sapperton tunnel this morning, and the dog’s behaviour was bizarre (well, more than usual). All round a very relaxing stroll to Gloucestershire’s most cursèd abandoned portal, 10/10 (hell-hound friendly) 👍🏻

Wild to me that after just over 350 years all the romans in Britain got a letter from the emperor saying ‘everything’s gone tits up guys sorry and best of Romano-British to you’ and without a system of government it took about 5 minutes for the Cotswolds to go full Mad Max 🤘🏻

A rare sighting of the beast

8am every Saturday I host an online writing hour for Dialect, to bang out some words in the quietest bit of the weekend (before the kids get up). It’s our most popular session, absolutely love the ritual of it, the accountability, and the incredible people I get to chat with. Winter nourishment:)

Fridays are Crow Fridays over in the Dialect community WhatsApp, where we all have a good crow
about the literary stuff we’re pleased with. I was very chuffed about scoring this beautiful book in Oxfam this week. A crow about a book about crows is a bit meta but can’t recommend it enough 🖤

Fourth point is that Cooper and the brilliant screenwriters have managed to sneak some incredible truths about art and the human condition and pop culture and TV *into a TV show that everyone thinks is just about rich people shagging* and I have to say, fair fucks to them

Is Gemma Maclaren of Middleton Property Advisers a Jilly Cooper character? The whole show is so archly meta I can’t decide. However the third point is obvs that *whatever your social status* you’re going to need jodhpurs to fit in here

www.standard.co.uk/homesandprop...

Secondly my WhatsApp chat with other women who live here is now basically a post graduate thesis on pop culture, feminism, Rupert Campbell Black’s trousers and the rural housing crisis (1986-2024)

Firstly, and maybe most importantly, Jilly Cooper is a literary titan, I will die on this hill
amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

I live right where Rivals is set so I just binge watched it & can confirm it’s a work of ART but also I have bad news

Full moon over Stroud

NOT NOW, MYTHICAL HARBINGER OF DOOM

Self portrait with Heavens