Good News

9 things to make you happy

1 - Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

The author, who I interviewed here last year, has a new collection of short stories coming out in April. I’m not usually a short stories person but her last collection, Single, Carefree, Mellow, was excellent and this one is too. Heiny creates whole worlds and fully realised characters in 20 something pages and achieves that rare feat of being reliably funny and tender in all of her writing. Seek it out.

2 - ‘My relationship is so old it could have left home’…Eva Wiseman

This is a beautiful, poetic and honest exploration of what it’s like to have been with your partner for bloody ages. My husband and I have been together for 20 years and married for nearly 12 so this spoke to me. Just lovely. (Thank you, Jules, for bringing it to my attention.)

3 - Flowers by Miley Cyrus

We had a birthday party for my 9 year old daughter last weekend and after the final sugar-fuelled kids had finally bounced out of the hall, we tidied up to the sounds of the last few bangers on the party playlist. Love this. Can’t stop listening.

4 - More flowers

A message from my friend Charlotte to tell me that it’s going to be an amazing year for Spring blossom because we’ve had a very cold March.

5 - New Lana

I’m excited to see that Lana Del Ray has new music out. Her albums, Normal Fucking Rockwell and Chemtrails Over The Country Club are on regular rotation in our house and the lyric, “Down at the Men in Music Business Conference” from her song White Dress makes me laugh every time.

6 - “Loss of enjoyment of life”

Love this detail in the brilliant Hilary Rose’s piece about the Gwyneth Paltrow court case. A retired optometrist is suing Gwynnie for crashing into him on a ski trip in 2016.

‘He originally sued in 2019, three years after the accident, for more than $3 million for a variety of reasons including the marvellously non-specific “loss of enjoyment of life”.’

I’m stealing this for future grievances.

7 - Pants!

My friend Emily has a new podcast, Hello Girls, about the secret life of underwear.

8 - Important Cookie Information

I was in Selfridges the other day when I realised that I was ravenous and needed sugar, fast. In this situation, what I really want is a cookie but most cookies are very disappointing. They’re either too dry and biscuity or too gooey. My sister and I take this very seriously and regularly share intel on such matters. Then I wandered past Blondies Kitchen in the food hall and saw a double chocolate cookie that was so thick it was basically domed. Reader, I bought one. And I think it was the best cookie I've ever eaten. Just the right amount of chew. Very chocolatey. White chocolate chips. 10/10.

Cookie packaging. Cookie not pictured due to hunger.

9 - PSA

The clocks go forward on Sunday! Longer, lighter days await.

What is making you smile this week? Share the love in the comments.

See you next time.

Hannah