Category Archives: Newsletter

and the downfall of puppy brain If you follow me on social media, or y’know know me IRL, then you already know that at the end of March my girlfriend and I got a puppy. A little silver dapple smooth-haired miniature dachshund, who at the moment is heavy on the miniature but growing every day.Continue reading “Dave”

or why I’m fed up of looking at my real face I think I’ve seen my face more in the last eleven months than I ever have before. And not how I’m used to seeing it either — reflected in the mirror or in a carefully filtered selfie — but projected back at me throughContinue reading “the age of the selfie is over, long live picrew”

I have always lived in houses or flats joined to other houses or flats. What I mean to say is, I have never lived in a home wholly detached from another. And so, the everyday sounds of others have formed the backdrop of my life. Growing up in Leicester, where nearly everyone knew everyone elseContinue reading “semi-detached”

a *very* subjective and incomplete list I started this newsletter — over two years ago now — in part because when it comes to stories the ones that I love the most are the little ones, the side-quests, the B-plots, the small moments, the low stake events. I want a monster of the week notContinue reading “twentytwenty's top tiny narratives”

dyke about (virtual) town What does it mean to dress gay? Can you tell someone’s sexuality by how they dress? The answer is of course not and 100% yes. Since mask-wearing has become commonplace I’ve been called ‘sir’ and ‘mate’ a lot more than usual. Most recently at the library last week to which theContinue reading “dressing gay in videogames”

life lessons from Jane Austen’s Persuasion Persuasion is the best Jane Austen novel for many reasons, not least because it’s Austen at the height of her powers. Persuasion was the last novel she completed and it’s a triumph of feeling, wit and character. I read it again recently needing something familiar and comforting and alwaysContinue reading “what jane knew”

or why I’ve been watching so much reality TV in lockdown You can now listen to an audio version of this newsletter below: Since the start of lockdown, for over five months now I’ve made Jackie and myself nearly the exact same breakfast every weekday. It consists of some kind of toasted bread (bagel/sourdough/sliced white/freshContinue reading “the happiness of genre”

In June, Jackie and I cleared the back corner of the half of the garden of the flat we rent in the hope of growing a lawn instead of the tangled mess of weeds and ivy. I was, I’m afraid to say sure it would fail. We failed to do several things properly: we failedContinue reading “failing at failing to grow a lawn”

by Sara Baume “I feel a great responsibility for time” Sara Baume writes halfway through handiwork, a sentence which I read and immediately put the book back down to think about. Impossible to read a sentence like that and not feel the great weight of time settling over you in that moment. Perhaps it is the fateContinue reading “handiwork”

Walking the city Before The Great Pandemic of 2020, I was quite down about living in Leeds city centre. It wasn’t anything the city had done, it was more that I left it every morning to go to work and came back when it was dark. At the weekend I was so tired I rarelyContinue reading “walking the city – sara sherwood”