In this issue of the newsletter, I was all set to regale you with stories about ALFA, the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, and its “softball strategy,” which in 1974 led it to create a team to play in the city rec league. (On June 23, I attended an ALFA reunion on Zoom, which gathered together a whole bunch of the original members, 50 years to the day after their first meeting. The group disbanded in 1994, but that doesn’t make their achievements any less impressive.)
But I’m not going to because … I have some personal news. Rosemary and I are moving to Edinburgh, Scotland!
If you’re a pal of mine and you hadn’t heard about this possible relocation, I apologize. We filed the application for Rosemary’s visa back in March, and we should have had a response within six weeks, but because of the Ukrainian conflict, the U.K. visa-issuing authorities were overwhelmed and took much longer than usual to make a decision. We didn’t know if the application would be successful, so we didn’t shout it from the highest peak. But since we got the green light, consider this me yelling the news from one of those cool New York City rooftops with fairy lights and amazing views that you see in pharmaceutical commercials.
I never thought I’d return to Britain—I let my U.K. passport lapse years ago (having to renew it caused yet another delay!), and I’ve spent more time in Japan than in the U.K. since 2008, though the pandemic put a stop to that.
The pandemic also made a lot of us realize that we don’t need to be in very high-cost-of-living cities to do our jobs—whatever that may mean. I’m too much of a New York supremacist to diss the city by focusing on its price point without apologizing for doing so. It’s a fantastic place to live, but it costs an absolute fortune, and for various reasons (part pandemic, part book-writing), I really haven’t been taking advantage of all the great things it offers. When we thought about relocating to save money, we couldn’t think of another American city that we’d want to live in that would be cheaper. (No shade on the rest of the country. Being a non-driver, by choice and for the protection of the citizenry, excludes a lot of places that are surely fabulous for many.)
This move also feels like a fun adventure. Other than a brief stint in London somewhere around 1990 and a couple of years in Madrid, I’ve lived in the States since I graduated from college. Why not give the old country a whirl?
Why Edinburgh? It’s a capital city, with an international airport; a whole heap of national galleries and museums; six universities, with all the bookstores, libraries, and other fun stuff that brings. It’s walkable and has a great transportation network. Also, it’s not Manchester. (I might have grown up in a two-up, two-down terraced house in a mining village, but I’m a posh girl now.)
I offer this description having spent approximately five days in the city, but those five days left a good impression. I’m sure my sense of the place will fill out and become more nuanced—and I’ll be happy to share that with you. But first we have to go find a place to live—and one that allows pets. For some reason, U.K. rentals are mostly furnished, which means they’re a lot less open to feline friends, even a well-behaved cutie like Kipper! Please be thinking good thoughts in the next couple of weeks as we trek around Edinburgh, trying to get someone to take our money. We’ll be back in Brooklyn to pack and ship and all that in late July, so I hope I’ll get to see many of you at least one more time before we take off.
Speaking of cats, now that this one is out of the bag, I promise this won’t become a moving to Scotland newsletter. I’ll be back to lesbian places next time around!
RECOMMENDATIONS: I spent the last few days sorting and packing, so I’ve watched more TV than has been my recent habit. One show that flew under my radar when it came onto Netflix in the spring was the Sienna Miller/Michelle Dockery/Rupert Friend/Josette Simon season of Anatomy of a Scandal. The subject is heavy—a politician accused of rape—but the acting is amazing. I am ashamed of how much I had underrated Sienna Miller—and I speak as a big Keen Eddie fan! She’s absolutely transcendent in this.
LISTEN TO ME: I haven’t been on a podcast in two weeks. (I’ll still be co-hosting Working and producing Outward, though—this is just a quirk of the schedule.)