After a week that can best be summed up as being tired, grumbling about being tired and trying to shake off aforementioned tiredness using the magic of nature (see this week’s newsletter for further details), reaching the half-term holidays was the sole quest. I certainly hadn’t banked on it starting with a poorly child, heavy cold and sickness seemingly conjured out of the air on the final day of term. I’m writing this in a snatched moment away from Florence Nightingale duties. Simultaneously nibbling chocolate buttons from fingers that, despite thorough washing, carry the heady tang of Vicks Vaporub.
Again I’d like to say a big thank you for engaging with these What This Week posts. Another great selection of recommendations can be found in the comments from last week.
Here’s the pick of my reading and watching week.
Watching:
Benediction (Netflix)—This is a really interesting film, but if I’m honest a little heavier than I was in the mood for. Jack Lowden stars as Siegfried Sassoon, with Peter Capaldi playing him as an old man. (A little tug on the heartstrings to see a Julian Sands cameo.) The film begins almost theatrically, jumping to various scenes from the poet’s life, and then settles into a more linear story from the time he was sent to Scotland to recover from shell shock. Watching this led me down a rabbit hole, looking up biographies and of course Sassoon’s poetry. I’m very interested in a recent book, Owen & Sassoon: The Edinburgh Poems, which brings together the work written by the two men while convalescing in the same hospital, as this was depicted in the film. I would recommend Benediction, but with the caveat that it might land better if you’re in the headspace to be a little stretched, rather than uplifted.
Julia (NOW)—Diving into this eight-part HBO series served me two-fold, bringing the more uplifting viewing I realised I craved after watching Benediction and keeping me connected to Sarah Lancashire after weeks of Happy Valley—I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Lancashire is equally magnificent as Julia Child in this colourful, warm and witty drama about the making of her cookery show, The French Chef. Lots of bookish references to enjoy, amazing food and strong women being epic. (French) chef’s kiss.
Wonder (Netflix)—Friday night is pizza and movie night here. The pizzas never change and the movies barely do, circulating between a trusted selection of Disney favourites and the earlier Harry Potters. What utter joy when my daughter selected Wonder this week, as they’re reading the book at school. I didn’t know it at all and was blown away. A beautiful story of a boy living with facial disfigurement caused by a craniofacial condition, who starts school after years of being homeschooled. Ultimately a story of the power of kindness and quiet strength. I cried A LOT (a seal of approval).
Reading:
This week I finished the wonderful Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. Mrs Palfrey moves to a hotel in Kensington to live out her days. We watch her trying to adapt to this new life and find her place within the cast of (unwittingly comic) old people doing the same. Then out of the blue, she meets someone who completely lights up her ever-shrinking world. This is very much my kind of book, quietly and cleverly balancing wit and pathos to absolute perfection. I will definitely dive deeper in a future newsletter.
I’ve also read Emma Gannon’s The Multi-Hyphen Method, which is a fascinating permission slip in book form to step away from traditional notions of what working life ‘should’ look like and build a career that supports and suits you.
So over to you my friends. Share your week with me … and in return I promise not to share my weird-tasting chocolate buttons!
(Includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an excellent bookselling website supporting indie bookshops)
Chocolate buttons + Vicks Vaporub = who needs Heston Blumenthal? 😉
Another great WTW post, Claire - I'm really enjoying these! 😊
I've been meaning to read some Elizabeth Taylor as she appeared on a list of the top 100 Women Writers everyone should read. As my book stack is massively long ... I've not added her to it yet!