For your stray attention this weekend

Briefly: Join my Patreon community in time for our Christmas hangout! | My interview on Loudest Girl | Wintering has spent 8 weeks in the German bestseller chart! | Bye bye, blue bird | Retreat with me | Order a signed & dedicated copy or Wintering from Harbour Books (UK only, sorry!)

Hello,

Yesterday morning, we went walking by the River Stour amidst a beautiful hoar frost, the whole landscape almost fluffy with ice. The dog was gleeful, tearing across the crispy grass in excited figure-of-eights. I can’t resist but tell you that even the name is a little bit magical - hoar derives from the Old English word ‘hoary’, meaning old. It denotes a landscape that has aged overnight, growing an abundant crop of white hair.

So my thoughts, as they often are, have been with winter this week. There are some very good things to enjoy at the moment - this is a time of year when we’re moved to offer gifts of all kinds. I’m loving Anna Brones’s digital advent calendar, 24 Days of Making, Doing and Being, which is giving me a lovely place to rest my thoughts each day. And I’m very much looking forward to Robert Macfarlane’s radio adaptation of The Dark is Rising, coming to BBC World Service from 20th December.

For true winter lovers, this short by Inuk filmmaker Rebecca Thomassie shows the practicality of her people’s famed 50 words for snow - and the ways that knowledge is passed between generations.

But maybe that’s getting a bit too chilly. Amid a very different kind of winter, the librarians of Ukraine are preserving not just books, but a whole culture that’s at risk of being obliterated, quite intentionally. It’s a great reminder that people can express courage in many different ways.

I was thrilled to see that Kerri ní Dochartaigh has started a newsletter on here (Scéal), and even more thrilled to receive a proof copy of her forthcoming book, Cacophony of Bone. I can’t wait to read.

Finally, I loved listening to Sarah Wilson’s interview with Bayo Akomolafe - I don’t think I’m letting out a big secret to say I’ve picked Bayo’s excellent book, These Wilds Beyond Our Fences to share on R4 Good Reads in the spring, and he talks about Fernand Deligny in this interview, who I’ve just spent a whole week writing about. I love moments of confluence like that.

A couple of final notes from me: don’t forget my midwinter retreats (a kind person has donated an extra free place for someone in need, which you can apply for here), and you can order a signed and dedicated copy of Wintering from Harbour Books if you’re in the UK.

I’m off in search of more frost this morning. Remember: take care on the ice; and hot cocoa is winter medicine.

Katherine x

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