Hello, welcome back to my Corona Diaries! It’s been a while hasn’t it? But let’s be honest, everyone was really just OVER it, right? No one was waiting for me to chime up and start wittering on about lateral flow tests and masks. But I’m afraid that now I’ve finally had a bout of COVID I have returned!

We kicked off the UK Tour of If This Is Normal last week at The Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol and what a delightful experience it was. I couldn’t have asked for anywhere nicer to start off - their technical director Chris was an absolute star, patiently and enthusiastically programming the lights and making sure we had everything we needed. Also, the restaurant/bar attached to the theatre is great, with a cool collection of local beers - both alcoholic and lo/no alcohol options.

As I sit on my sofa, coffee on one side, a cacophony of paperwork on the other, quietly freaking out at the fact that tomorrow we’re heading off on tour, it seems fitting that I’m the most recent guest on the Just Get A Real Job podcast.

You might have seen this news already if we follow each other on the old social medias but I thought it deserved a blog post all of its own.

A couple of weeks ago I gleefully announced that after more than a year of zero theatre work my play If This Is Normal was going out on a UK Tour starting in April 2022. Now I’m delighted to also be able to share the wonderful news that all three of our original cast will be returning to the show.

After months of using this website to submit you to my every thought about books and life, it’s an absolute delight to be able to use it instead to tell you that I’M GOING ON TOUR! I

Saturday 18th December. 2021. It’s freezing cold and I nestle down into my thick scarf as we walk down the street, passing a cute cafe offering a full Sunday roast for £6.50, and arrive at the outdoor section of the shopping centre complex.

In Iceland there’s a Christmas tradition called Jolabokaflod, which apparently translates to Christmas Book Flood. I’m sorry, did you hear that? CHRISTMAS. BOOK. FLOOD.

I didn’t actually think I would go abroad this year, and had all sorts of convoluted feelings about doing so but, as is evident, wanderlust won out. We decided on Malta after a painfully long decision process in which our excitement at planning a trip was challenged somewhat by the panic-inducing amount of choice suddenly on offer. We could go almost anywhere!

Hello, hello. Nothing to see here. Just me, popping by on October 19th to deliver my September Culture Wrap Up. You nearly got it a couple of days ago but as this delightful website opted to delete the post I wrote yesterday, we’ve now surpassed the halfway-through-October-mark. However, I do think it was worth the wait as September was a classy as heck month for culture for me and I have lots to tell you about.

I usually can’t wait to put together my reading wrap ups at the end of each month but for the last few months, around May onwards, I’ve had an absolutely terrible few months reading wise.

Another month, another wrap up! March has heralded the glacial opening up of our world! That, accompanied by an improvement in weather, has meant that my life of being near constantly glued to a screen or book is, well not over, but certainly adapted. Still, some delightful culture has been consumed and enjoyed. Here we go!

Right. It may have felt like it lasted forever but January is finally over! It has been…okay!

Since I’m the person who gives friends advice on what book to read next - whether they ask or not - and the suggestions are usually very much enjoyed, I feel perfectly suited to put together a bookish gift guide for you and yours.

This, it has to be said, hasn’t been a solid year for career highs. Or highs in general really. We all know that.

There’s an entry in my now long neglected diary which is introduced in such a reverent way that you’d think I was announcing I’d won a Nobel Prize. So, if you were sneaking into my personal journals (don’t do that please) you might feel it a little anticlimactic when the next line announces, “Last night I told my boyfriend I have OCD”.

I hate to admit it but I’m a sucker for all the cutesy merch that’s generally created nowadays around a movement. Whether it’s feminism, veganism or literature I’m constantly having to stop myself from being wooed into buying some tokenistic symbol that apparently represents my belief system.

I recently started a podcast. Yes, I’m one of those people now I’m afraid. I’ve wanted to do it for a while but it wasn’t until the delightful Joe Bell of Sideburn Panda hopped on board that it actually happened (probably because he’s simultaneously super hardworking and incredibly calming). So now we have a podcast.

It took me a long time to understand what the word intersectional meant. I’m embarrassed by that because I have no excuse.