Lately...a round-up of excellent things
Beauty products, books, a winter beach escape, what I've ordered for the garden PLUS a very secret place to buy cashmere
The other day I noticed that there are so many new subscribers to Things Worth Knowing. I have no idea why this is, but I’m delighted you’ve found me and my little corner of Substack. So a massive HELLO and THANK YOU!
I’m not sure how I’d describe what we do here exactly. I know I write a bunch of stuff that I feel very strongly about. Then lots of you chime in with your own thoughts. So it’s part essay-machine, part community shin dog, part writing club. Oh and this week I’m really throwing the boat out and announcing my first ever IRL event for paid subscribers. I’ll be honest, I have absolutely no idea how this will go. But we shall see….The plan is to have these regularly by the way. I’m currently thinking maybe a trip to Sissinghurst together. Possibly a picnic in the summer. Certainly another little writing course with cake and tea down my way in Kent like last year. (I know this is a global community by the way, and since I travel regularly we shall look at doing events in other countries if the demand is there).
So anyway, paid subscribers should stay tuned for news later this week. And if you’re not a paid subscriber and want to come along then you can upgrade by hitting the button below. This will also give you access to this evening’s writing hour- details of which can be found here.
So back to the newsletter in hand. This week I’m doing one of those slightly annoying lists where I chart everything I’ve done/read/seen this month. Although the fact is I spent most of my downtime looking at cut flower catalogues and googling things like ‘What did Richard Gere look like at 45?’ Still, it’s January which means lots of reading, planning, booking trips for the year ahead…you get the idea. So here is what I’ve been up to and which may inspire your own rituals for the month ahead.
Books to read and book to inspire…
I'm not a massive reader of fiction. There, I said it. I’m sorry. It’s about time you knew this about me. But boy do I love non-fiction. This month on the recommendation of my very erudite friend Lisa (who incidentally writes the excellent
) as well as , I am reading Went To London, Took The Dog by Nina Stibbe. It is very funny. Laugh-out-loud, spit-your-tea out hilarious in fact, especially all the cameos from Alan Bennett, who seems to spend his days sitting about Primrose Hill making up extracts for his diary. Essentially it’s the diary of a 60-year old woman who after twenty-odd years away from London, finds herself back in a rented room in Kentish Town. I bought it in a lovely little book shop by the sea in Hastings last weekend. The shop is called The Hastings Book Shop by the way, and if you are ever headed that way I can thoroughly recommend it. The couple who appeared to run the place look like they had just stepped out of the Toast catalogue, which I generally equate with excellent curation skills. I also very nearly bought a book called Twelve Birds To Save Your Life by Charlie Corbett, but Lisa bought that and promises me she will lend it to me once she gets some life advice from a starling.Also if you are the sort of person who loves coffee table books- and I am definitely one of those people, I have three wonderful interiors ones to recommend. The first is called Our Way Home: Reimagining an American Farmhouse by husband and wife interior demigods Heide Hendricks and Rafe Churchill. I got turned onto them by Eva Chen whose house they recently renovated. Anyway this book is very good, very down to earth and very inspirational. Ditto Heidi Callier’s Memories of Home which interiors writer
recommended and I am obsessed with. Seriously. I’d never heard of this woman before, but every room is a winner. Finally I just pre-ordered the latest tome from Gil Shafter called Home At Last. It’s part of a trilogy of interior books charting his architectural work. This makes it sounds very dull indeed but if his other two books are anything to go by, it will not be. In fact his interior books are the ones I go back to time and again when looking for inspiration for my own home. It comes out February 23rd and you can pre-order it here. (Or better still, see if your local book shop can order it for you.)Finally January is a month of cooking for me. So I just ordered this book (above), Simply Scandinavian by Trine Hahnemann. Her books on Scandi cooking are the absolute best and I cannot wait to make every single dish in here, starting with the Scandinavian roast tomato soup this evening.
Expensive-looking bed linen
I planned to spend much of January in bed escaping the cold and gloom, which then made me realise I needed good bed linen in order to do that. Usually my pillow cases are by Volga Linen- and if you like smart, hotel-style bed linen, then this is the place to go. But recently I stumbled upon, whisper it, Zara Home. The homewares shoots are fabulous and some of the collaborations with architects such as Vincent Van Duysen, are pricey but rather lovely. I don’t go in for all the plates and glasses- I’d rather buy vintage or ceramic plates by local makers, but the bed linen has been an absolute revelation. (As an important aside, this lamp they do is also an absolute rip-off of a Rose Uniacke one, but £3500 cheaper- and I know many stylish people who own the Zara version). Anyway, bed sheets… Most of Zara’s sheets are 180 percale which is a little light for me, but I found these sateen sheets (above) in a beautiful Robert Kime-esque print and they are perfection. In fact I’m sat on them as I write this and if you had told me they were by Frette, I would have believed you.
Winter Beach Escape
I don’t know about you but I much prefer the beach in winter over summer. All those long, empty shores with just the hardened dog walkers and broken-hearted walking along the edges. This to me is perfection. So last weekend me and a friend trotted off to one of my favourite British beaches, Camber Sands in East Sussex. We sought refuge in a lovely little beach house with a roaring fire and white-washed floor boards. It is called Seashells and you can find it here. The owner, a former magazine editor and author, also has another property nearby called Pebbles in Winchelsea, which is an adorable village also by the sea. Both houses are elegantly done and minutes from the beach. I cannot recommend them enough for a reasonably-priced winter escape from it all.
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