Weekend supplement

shorter edition

Good morning! Today’s supplement is written at the speed of light and not even re-read for typos, for which apologies, but I reckon speed of light is better than late or even ABSENT, which was a real possibility this week.

We have fantastic boots and affordable knitwear, phantom daughters, DIY natural cleaning products that properly work, the glories of London, a really delicious chicken and spinach recipe, a party dress, Deborah Levy, why fashion is making women ‘look like a lesbian’, cutlery, main character syndrome, a terrific hen book, and a load of interesting links. This post really is shorter than usual for the reasons outlined here, but I’ll make up for it next week.

Last night I discovered that season 5 of Slow Horses is only being shown one episode at a time, which pierced me to the core. But what an opener. (The plot is based on Mick Herron’s London Rules. It features a ‘populist’ politician who is incapable of accepting moral responsibility for what he has unleashed). Here is an interview - gift link - with Christopher Chung, who plays Roddy Ho so brilliantly. Chung is a personal trainer at a gym in Hampstead! Though not for much longer, I shouldn’t think.

I write these links posts for paid subscribers once a week, and for free subscribers once a month. This is a paid post. The most recent free one was last Saturday. All posts auto-paywall after 4 weeks.

Bragging about my book

From Kate Watson-Smyth, which in this context is a bit like saying ‘from the Pope’:

BOOK OF THE MONTH

HOME by the Substack writer India Knight, who is deservedly no 1 in the platform’s Design category, and whose new book just says everything I want to say but in much wittier and more eloquent fashion. There are few pictures, although my paid subscribers were invited on a tour of her home here so you can get a sense of how she does it.

This is, she says, a book about feeling – and she’s so right. I wrote in the intro to my own last book that Home is not just a noun, rather it’s an adjective and an emotion. As she writes so eloquently of course, home is where the heart is but it is also where “the stuff” is. And the stuff is what makes it home.

I’m torn between wanting to dive in and devour every page and holding back because I feel I should read it with a notebook and pen beside me.

It’s out on 16 October and you can pre-order here.

From Emma Gannon:

I’ve been reading India Knight’s book HOME and it is honestly one of the cosiest, funniest, loveliest things I’ve read for a while. I don’t normally want to read hardback books about interiors if I’m being honest, but this isn’t that. This is a very personal box of tricks—India tells us all the little pieces of advice on how to have a cosy, enjoyable home, where you can cook, eat, host, relax in equal measures and not stress out too much about any of it. She has decades of knowledge and experience and it’s just so WISE. I can’t recommend it more. The cover makes me instantly happy just looking at it too.

From Caroline Eden:

From JP Clark:

I’m getting much more comfortable with showing off, which doesn’t come naturally to people my age. Wouldn't it be funny if I really embraced it and posted every single nice thing anyone has said and just went on and on and it was the whole post? I could do an audio of me reading them out, even, in a special serious voice. Hahaha! God.

Anyway: the point is a) people seem to like it and b) pre-orders really really help me, so if you fancy a copy…

Also, it’s just occurred to me that if you enjoy this newsletter but can’t afford yet another bankrupting Substack subscription (I hear you), it might scratch that particular itch for a one-off £22. It’s this Substack as a book, really - everything I know about living well and finding contentment within your own four walls, from paint advice to life lessons.

Here are some other things I liked this week.

Arthur Parkinson’s new hen book

Arthur’s writing and, initially, Instagram, have taught me everything useful I know about keeping chickens (and making gardens in pots). His latest book, Hen Party, is out next week and is it just absolutely lovely.

First, it is a gorgeous object, thanks to his charming illustrations (Fortnum’s have them on tea towels). Second, it is a blissful read, thanks to his turn of phrase (‘the Jubilee colouration is absolutely marvellous, with feathers the colour of a very rich fruit cake tipped with white’).

Third, it is a repository of essential information, written with palpable love for, and deep knowledge of, his subject. It tells you everything you could possibly need to know about over 50 different hen breeds, from their personalities to the colour of their eggs via all their quirks and funninesses and peculiarities, which he is, very engagingly, highly alert to. It also contains the very best advice you’ll find anywhere about the actual keeping of chickens.

He is a terrific, instinctive writer, wholly himself - you feel his whole personality coming off the page within two sentences - and his Substack is here.

This cutlery

£10 for 16 pieces from IKEA.

This candle in the shape of a cake

From, inevitably, my friend Pascale’s shop. Equally inevitably, it’s the most expensive one, but I’m putting it here more as a visual delight/piece of art (they’re handmade in Puglia since 1840) than as a suggested purchase. More affordably, here are a pear, a tart and an egg (peppered). You wouldn’t light them, obviously, but how lovely would one be perched on a pile of books?

Also if you’re in Norwich, the upstairs of Pascale now has impeccably-selected womenswear - she was a fashion designer before turning her hand to homewares - but that’s not online at the moment.

‘My nonexistent daughter’

So moving and beautiful by Annie Macmanus.

My Nonexistent Daughter

After the paywall: the goodness of London, two recipes, DIVINE boots, natural cleaning, quinces, jumpers, a dress, another favourite post, and links to a dozen or so excellent things to read. If we’re parting company here - goodbye! - remember that the world’s best nighties (and best bed wear generally) are 15% off with the code INDIAH15 until the end of this month. And do have a look at the rest of my shop, you might like it.