Weekend supplement
more of a catch-up, really
Good morning! I went to Manchester and back yesterday to talk about Home, the book, on Loose Ends. You can listen this evening at 6.15pm, or any time you like after that via the BBC iPlayer.
Also the book is A Pleasing Number on the hardback non-fiction bestseller chart. I’m not allowed to be more specific until the chart officially comes out tomorrow, annoyingly.
Not Top 10! Let’s not get overexcited. But not far off, which I am exultant (yes, exultant) about because when the other books published in ‘your’ week and in ‘your’ category are copper-bottomed Christmas blockbusters by e.g. by Ozzy Osbourne and e.g. James Corden, it is the easiest thing in the world to sink without trace.
This is the thing about being published in October - it’s you plus everyone off the telly. You have to balance the David and Goliath aspect with the flatteringness of publishers thinking you even stand a chance. (I’ve been compiling a list of great recently-published books that aren’t by household names and I’ll post it closer to Christmas).
Anyway - THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart if you’ve bought Home, or are thinking of buying it, or have seen it out in the wild and smiled at it and made a mental note. THANK YOU also to all the people who have said and continue to say incredibly nice things about it here on Substack and elsewhere - I am very very very grateful. Some of things make me feel a bit tearful, because my whole heart is in that book.
You can buy it here. If you’re in London, there are currently signed copies at Daunt Books in Marylebone and after lunch today, Saturday, there will be some at West End Lane Books in Queen’s Park (which is called Queen’s Park Books). Waterstones also has a signed edition. And you can always get a copy with a personalised message in it through Aldeburgh Books, using the link above - drop them an email telling them what you want me to write.
Also I’m being interviewed at Much Ado books in Alfriston - one of my top 5 favourite bookshops anywhere - next month, by brilliant
, but it’s sold out. Look how lovely Much Ado is, though. Go anyway:If that’s making you want to visit, which you absolutely should, stay at The Star, which is also unbelievably nice, allows dogs and is a dream of cosiness in winter. In fact I would deliberately go in bleak weather, because the whole place seems made for roosting indoors while it lashes down outside. I strongly favour a fortifying, mostly-supine minibreak at this time of year, to prepare the body for the rigours of the run-up to Christmas.
I write these posts for paid subscribers once a week, and for free subscribers once a month. This is a paid post. The most recent free post is here. All posts auto-paywall after 4 weeks. They’re normally full of things I’ve enjoyed reading, buying, thinking about, looking at and so on during the week, but this one is more of a chat because I’ve been racing about.
Here are a very few things I liked this week. Also I still have
’s outstanding shopping picks to post but haven’t had time to sort out the pics - I will do that next week too, I promise.Meanwhile, having realised this week that trench coat and bare ankles weather is over for this year, I have re-activated the dormant Christmas section (find it on the navigation bar on my homepage) and will be adding to it from now on. But do have a look before then if you’re a relatively new subscriber - most of the posts aren’t year-specific and the past couple of years’ may help/inspire you with anything from gift ideas to cooking. The really useful get-ahead Christmas food post is here.
I’ve put a couple of Christmas bits in my shop, too, and will keep adding more, so that’s the place to look for baubles and so on. (Nothing to do with Christmas, but while you’re there, these Russell & Bromley boots are unusually comfortable straight out of the box, as are these flats, which I found via
. They’re like wearing slippers).