I Hope They Never Grew Out Of Their Pedantry

The most popular link last week was this analysis of the new "boom boom" aesthetic, with this piece about the cloistered nuns of Tyburn second.

What I'm up to: The paperback of my latest book, A Body Made of Glass, has been published this week in both the UK and the US! (There will also be an Australia/New Zealand edition, but it's not out until July.) Paperbacks very rarely get reviewed these days, so I was both surprised and happy to see this excellent review-essay in the Los Angeles Review of Books: We Are Never Well, nor Can Be So.

Neither the covers nor the text of the book's two editions have changed, other than to add some lovely quotes from people like John Green ("I loved it") and Lucy Worsley ("essential reading"). To celebrate publication, there is a giveaway where you can win a signed and personalised copy of either paperback edition: this is the form and it's open for entries until 20th March. And if you'd like to purchase a copy, all the links to do that are collected here.

1. I hope the children who wrote to Alfred Hitchcock to correct his grammar on a billboard for The Birds — he put "The Birds is coming", they said it should be "The Birds are coming" — never grew out of their pedantry.
2. Olivia Laing on how to eat while writing a book, for maximum nutrition and minimal time/effort. "Sandwiches from the garage, at least on a metaphorical level, are exactly what’s needed."
3. Photographer Sage Sohier gives the backstory to what she considers her best photograph: "Gordon and Jim after coming out to Gordon’s mum."

4. Rick Astley singing Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club". I promise this isn't a rickroll. I am now rooting for them to do a duet.
5. I don't normally read many thousands of words about the (parlous) state of contemporary art, but this piece is so well-written and argued that I was at the end before I'd even registered what I was doing.
6. Kate Wagner, the visionary behind the blog McMansion Hell, has had a tough few months recovering from a fall and a concussion. Her essay about having to cease all work and writing in order to recover is very good.
7. Monty Don, writing in 2005, tells us how to dress for gardening:

"If you are not familiar with their joys, highrise trousers are fantastically comfortable and keep your lower back warm. My children still squirm with embarrassment every time they see me in them (which is most days) but that is probably some kind of seal of approval. If you are uncertain about the required cut, check out photographs of agricultural labourers in summer (ie jacketless) circa 1880-1914."

8. I enjoyed Eric Wagner's account of his tradition with a friend that they call "Winter Stupid". This is just them going and trying to camp for a weekend, in winter, in the Washington/Oregon backcountry. The tent fell on them this time, but at least they didn't inhale any white gas fumes like on a previous occasion!
9. I did not and will not watch a single second Meghan's Netflix show, but I did read many takes about it, and this was my favourite.

10. A niche fascination of mine is the early generation of people who managed to make a career out of being internet "content creators" and, if they stuck with it, what they think about this now. This woman vlogged her life consistently between the ages of 20 and 30. She now has some reflections on that decade lived out on the screen.
11. Justin Myers nails what I found so uncomfortable about that saccharine "coffee with your younger self" trend that has been going around social media.
12. Cozy Dumpster Fire: like the Netflix cosy fireplace, but more appropriate to the times.
13. An interview with one of the founders of Letterloop, a social media alternative that provides "private group newsletters for friends, families & teams". She seems smart and savvy and the product is interesting, but I can't switch off the voice in my head that goes it's a blog just call it a blog this is just livejournal!.