Weekend supplement
+ yet more present ideas
Good morning. It’s my birthday eve! I don’t understand people who don’t get excited by their birthdays - ‘it’s just a normal day’ sort of thing. 1) No, it really isn’t, and also 2) you shouldn't ever go Bah, humbug about yourself.
Also, how’s this ↓ for an early present? Thank you so much, Tessa Broad, for this completely unexpected piece of loveliness - you’ve made my day. Sorry to be awful, but Home, the book, does make a very good Christmas gift. More on this next week 😬.
This week Sophie Kinsella died, this being the pen name of Madeleine Wickham, who wrote the brilliantly funny, deceptively frothy Shopaholic books. Here’s a really wonderful and memorable obituary by her friend Jojo Moyes.
It’s really worth listening to this interview with her on Woman’s Hour last year - it starts at about 20.59. It will enhance your life, and if you’re thinking ‘yes but not now, it’ll be too sad’ - it won’t. It won’t make you feel depressed, only admiring and even inspired, which is an odd thing to say about someone talking about their incurable brain tumour, but you’ll see.
What she says about ‘happiness plus’ is so wise - it’s the only way to live your life, I think, regardless of health or the lack of it. You don’t need to climb Kilimanjaro or become prime minister or win a Nobel prize, etc etc, to feel the sense of a life well lived - though of course hats off to the people who do do those things. But true fulfilment is rarely spectacular. It comes from just living your ordinary life, your ‘small’ life, with the people you love and who love you. That’s it. It looks like nothing but it’s everything.
The book she is talking about in the interview is this one.
I also loved this piece by Jenny Colgan.
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 below. All posts auto-paywall after 4 weeks.
More free things to read:
If you’re after present ideas but don’t want to take out a paid sub, have a look at
which is stuffed to the gills with gifting possibilities, whether you’re after
And here are some things I liked this week.