In August
A photoshoot in an a 16th-century inn, cups and prizes, plus this month's obsessions
This month’s new/renew subscriber giveaway box comes courtesy of Conic Films, celebrating the new adaption of The Summer Book - see below! - and all annual subscribers receive my free ebook, Notes & Fragments • Send in your dream getaway for my podcast bonus episodes here!
At the end of July, I spent a day having my photo taken. This is not something I look forward to: a whole day of having to think about how I look to the outside world. But, needs must. When it comes to author portraits, either you take the ‘forever young’ approach of using the same photo for the rest of your life, or you refresh your images every few years. I - devoted to an excessive kind of truth - choose the latter.
So in the interests of ageing like an actual person, I spent a day with the brilliant portrait photographer Alun Callender, trying to suppress my self-consciousness enough to get the job done. He actually made it really easy and it felt like a creative collaboration by the end of the day. I had some portraits taken in my normal clothes, but the ones I like best were taken in a truly silly ballgown that I hired for the occasion - think Goth Princess. Sometimes it helps in these moments to pretend to be someone else.
I wanted to show you some backstage shots from our gorgeous location, The Mint House. This is a 16th-century former inn in Pevensey, East Sussex, which is currently being restored by a passionate team. It’s fast becoming a centre for folklore and storytelling, and it’s worth a follow on Instagram or Facebook if your live anywhere nearby. But it’s also a deliciously inside-out building, full of worn textures and the marks left by human hands over many centuries. It was such an honour to spend a day there.
You’ll see the photos soon enough because some very special news is coming on Friday!
Recent offerings
Please add your thoughts to the group chat on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book!
What I’ve been up to
As well as recording podcasts, I’ve been working on plans for a few live events this winter. If you have a favourite local arts theatre or performance venue, let me know! I need to get pitching…
I’ve also been hard at work recording new episodes for the podcast, which returns in September after an unplanned hiatus (life, lifing). We have some truly incredible guests this season - I can’t wait to share the conversations with you. But until then, please do send in your dream getaways, which I read out in our bonus subscriber episodes. We’re looking for fresh and original takes on the idea of rest - be as imaginative as you like!
And at last - after a lot of faffing to get the design exactly right - we have our beautiful Clearing mugs in hand! I send one out to each listener whose dream getaway is chosen, and so they are very special indeed. If you’re owed a mug - sorry it’s taken so long, and I’m getting them in the post this week!
New/Renew Subscriber giveaway
Congratulations to Katharine who won June’s new subscriber draw! (And thank you for sending in a photo - we all got very excited about that.)
And this means a new box is ready to give away to one lucky person who starts or renews a year’s subscription in August. This month’s come’s courtesy of Conic Film’s whose adaptation of Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, which finally comes to UK cinemas this weekend (US readers have been able to watch it for a while now). The box contains some exclusive film merch, a copy of the book and some rather lovely chunky socks, ready for the chill to set in. I’ll throw in some Clearing postcards and stickers too!
No need to enter; just subscribe and we’ll enter your name into the draw.
August notions
Wondering whether I should give in and wash the car. Everything is so dusty.
Flowers. My garden is scorched, but I lived my best life for an hour at Denstroude Flower Farm, where you can pick your own bouquet. It was full of middle-aged women in full crisis mode because there were so many lovely blooms that they couldn’t choose. My people!
The sound of crickets rising from sun-bleached grass.
Cherries. I love them for breakfast on top of cottage cheese (which may just be a weird thing I do. I adore cottage cheese).
The Talk 90s To Me podcast. Miranda Sawyer is a goddess, and I guess I’m nostalgic, I don’t know. But I found the interview with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie fascinating - ambition and egolessness. An unexpected combination. (Wait, I think the cottage-cheese thing may be 90s nostalgia!)
Pillow sampling. In need of a new pillow, I’ve tried out wool and buckwheat fillings (I like my pillows so firm they’re practically rigid). Both were good, but I think the buckwheat edges it for me. It kept my head cool and didn’t slump overnight. Definitely not for everyone, though.
The Great British Sewing Bee. The new season is PERFECTION.
Thinking I might knit something, but not quite making the final commitment.
Obsessively researching what I’ll see at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Not washing the car. It’ll live.
The Colophon
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My car is cosplaying as a sand dune/dust mound. But I’m with Quentin Crisp on this one:
There was no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse.”
I commend buckwheat pillows to the house. Crunchy (literally) but very good. Always a bit worried it’ll get eaten however.