We’d drunk our way through most of a second bottle of wine when Celia said she’d make food. I followed into her kitchen, the first time I’d seen it. I wished that mine was so well-stocked. She knelt in front of the fridge and pulled out items – some cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, rye bread. She found enough things to fill a couple of plates, which we ate at a worn table.

“I had a friend who worked as an exorcist,” said Celia. “Although she preferred the term ‘energy cleaner’. Apparently, you can figure out most things about a haunting from the state of their fridge.”

I thought of my own. The out-of-date milk, the takeaway containers I’d saved for tomorrow, the week before. The sad jars of pickle, only a couple of spoonfuls taken. The tub of kimchi that had died from ennui.

And I longed for a fridge like Celia’s, where she could rustle up a plate like this so casually, not having to pick among vegetables that had turned traitor. I knew we were not compatible, this fridge made it obvious, but I longed to ask her back to my house, because maybe if Celia fixed my fridge then she could salvage my entire life.

Background

Sure, it’s fun looking through other people’s bookshelves, but fridges are far more revealing.

Upcoming

I’ll be making a very short appearance at the second night of Rosy Carrick’s Poetry Gangbang which takes place in the Brighton Fringe Festival on May 22nd. It’s an epic 10 performer line-up, including Chris Parkinson and Lou Ice (who appeared in True Clown Stories). I’m off work the next day so I can stay up late and hang out afterwards.

I’ve spent the last week thinking about starting a new project. I want to sit down with a fresh notebook and write something fresh and new. And I realised that what I need is not a new idea but to bring more energy to the ideas I’m already working on. The writing I feel frustrated with now was once full of promise. I ought to try recovering that missing energy.

Recommendations

I’ve read some great books in the last month or so. Here are some quick reviews:

• The Amplified Come as You Are is Michael Azzerad returning to his Nirvana biography after 30 years. Hindsight is fascinating here, and it’s painfully stark how Cobain’s genius struggled against addiction and petulance. Azzerad is honest about the contradiction between his job as an unofficial publicist for the band and what was actually happening.

• Anna Bogutskaya’s Feeding the Monster was an interesting person view of horror movies. I particularly enjoyed the section discussing hunger and monsters. "Horror made me feel less alone"

• All Fours by Miranda July was a polemic in places, but the weirdness of the book carried it through. Very thought-provoking.

• I’ve enjoyed a number of Emmanuel Carrere’s books since his Philip K Dick biography I Am Alive and You Are Dead. I read V13 on a sleepless night - this account of the trials for the 2015 Paris attacks is horrifying but moving.

• Julia Armfield’s Private Rites is the story of three sisters in a city ravaged by climate change. The constant rain sets a damp, dreary mood that Armfield uses to great effect.

• We Used to Live Here was a brisk horror novel that emerged from reddit’s nosleep forums. Enjoyable, flawed, and probably something I need to talk about in more detail.