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This week, I’ve been getting slowly back into work after a long break while nursing a sore toe, which means I’ve been very easily distracted.

This is the kind of story that makes me want to spread out my Ordnance Survey maps on the floor and go looking for secrets - Paul Plowman finds the names hidden in the cliffs of the Isle of Wight. Meanwhile, Wales’s very own version of Atlantis turns out to be less mythological than we once thought.

Will Dowd’s ‘moon-orbiting’ newsletter, The Lunar Dispatch, is always wonderful, and I loved this recent issue on the link between the moon, the Turing Test, and grief:

The Lunar Dispatch

Sturgeon Super Moon

Dear Lunatics, I missed last night’s fishy full moon. But don’t blame me, blame the British. All year, I’ve relied on the Royal Observatory in London to tell me the date of the full moon. I never imagined Greenwich Mean Time would mislead me. Yet last night, the full moon crescendoed at 9:36 pm where I live and 2:36 am where the Queen lives…

3 months ago · 69 likes · 23 comments · Will Dowd

While I was in Connecticut visiting Elissa Altman, I had the pleasure of sitting on her front porch watching hummingbirds feed. This lovely essay by Brian Doyle On hummingbirds, ‘flying jewels’, was sent to me by Heather (who goes by @wondercupboard on Instagram) after I raved about them. It captures so much of their flitting magic.

In a week when UK coastal dwellers have been reeling in horror at yet more sewage releases into our seas, I loved this witty, gentle creative protest that drew attention to pollution from chicken farming on the River Wye, with the help of the Virgin Mary herself.

Can I just laud Zeba Talkhani’s newsletter in general? She’s such a wide-ranging and astute reader, and it always makes me order a pile of books. Her recent post touches on what it means to be ‘cultured’, and she captures the insecurities that so many of us carry in the literary realm.

Zeba’s Newsletter

Notes from a heatwave

Hello, I watched Bergman Island last night. I loved how seamlessly it moved between two narratives (until they became one!) and the way it captured the evolving spaces between long-term heterosexual couples and the life-long pull of first loves. About halfway through the excellent film, when…

3 months ago · 1 like · Zeba

Finally, I can’t resist recommending this month’s Patreon bonus episode, which I loved making so much. It’s a conversation between me and my US editor (and great friend) Jynne Dilling Martin, talking through the process of bringing Wintering into the world. I think Jynne is gloriously frank (not least about my shortcomings) and it’s as good an insight into the backstage publishing process as you’re likely to get. There are some very exciting changes coming to my Patreon soon, but if you’re curious, this is a good place to start.

Wishing you all a good week,

Katherine

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Katherine May's Stray Attention

For your stray attention this weekend…