Archive • Afternoon Slow • Buttondown

A garden square gentles the pace of the city

December 1, 2024

Hello, Almost at the turn of the year. Then back the other way. Then off we go again. Remember Camus: ‘In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within...

Being rescued by the French

November 3, 2024

Apparently Hilary Mantel said that a writer should aim to make the reader feel “acknowledged, and yet estranged”. So, hello, and yet, WFT? Some things: I’m...

Uncomfortable and not numb

October 6, 2024

hello, I should start with an apology. Earlier this week I was supposed to do an online talk but I cancelled it at the last minute because of ‘illness’. The...

Sometimes just the sky

September 8, 2024

hello, September! The best month. I hope it’s going well so far. Sorry, theoretically, I should have sent this last week but theory only works in theory....

Trees for dancing

hello, Mostly joyful. Joy in clothes. “The underground master of big fits”. This is lovely. Scroll down and look at these clothes!Trees for dancing in....

Could only fall asleep if she had her tiny bottle of radium next to her bed

hello, The first of these newsletters under Labour. Things can only get better. We’ve just got back from a bougie bit of inter-railing around Europe. We...

hello, hello, like and unsubscribe Interesting happened! I think it was good. Huge thanks for coming. We’ll do it again next year. Watch this space. All five...

hello, Not long now to Interesting. There are still some tickets left. Come on, it’ll be a lovely evening. Honest. (And don’t forget. You’d be mad not to...

A fat quince on the dashboard of his Triumph Herald

hello, Have you got your Interesting ticket yet? If you're going to get one, please get it now, it'll make me less anxious. If you need some persuading ask...

A therapeutic alliance

How do you do? Here, at least, for 40 days and 40 nights, a hard rain has been falling. But now, there's a small spot of sunlight on the wall opposite me, so...

People slashed in specific patterns

February 4, 2024

Greetings, Full marks everyone, January is in the rearview mirror. Nothing but blue skies from now on. But before we move on, go back and read Anne's advent...

January 7, 2024

Greetings, New Year, new sletter. I am especially motivated by the fact that Jan 1 fell on a Monday this year. New beginnings! I love all that stuff. I am...

Love is the opening door

December 3, 2023

Good evening, Hope you're well. Our family has been ending the day with an episode of the Little House on the Prairie. If Netflix were going to do a...

November 5, 2023

hello, We've had the ado. I can do no better than copy Ben's own introduction: "Ghostwriter and critic Ben Thompson presents a DFS Algonquin Table for the...

Guitar = sourdough

October 1, 2023

hello, Some of you bought my book. Possibly all of you. You're very kind. Thank you. It's the first of October, so I'm writing this in the midst of my first...

Powered by human tears

September 3, 2023

hello, Big news - you only have a few days left to pre-order my book. After 7 September you'll just have to order it. Book promotion norms have fallen apart...

Conglomerate and vivid

Unsubscribe. Not so much a programme, more a way of life. How do you do? I think I missed last month. Sorry. Lots going on. Lots going on this month too but...

Too useful and mundane

Unsubscribe. It's the right thing to do. How do you do? I have been extensively holidaying the last couple of weeks. Sitting on trains, in squares and by...

Get mixed with Bartleby the Scrivener

Unsubscribe supertunica How do you do? Let's crack on. (1) Two of my favourite writers on status, fashion, culture and aesthetics. Very good. (2) The writer...

Dangling in the smallest room

Unsubscribe AF How do you do? I finished writing the Do Interesting book yesterday. For some definition of finished. So I'm a little written-out and this...

Unsubscribe AF. How do you do? (Just so you know, there's a mention of suicide in one of the quotes below) I'm meant to be writing a book. And I'm due to...

Happy Septuagesima

February 5, 2023

Unsubscribe now. It's like spring cleaning for your mind. How do you do? (1) This is Stanley Fish writing about Annie Dillard writing about writing: "In her...

Spending my winter on the moon

December 4, 2022

Unsubscribe. There's no time. hello, I love a good format and this time of year is brimming with them. There's Tom Whitwell's brilliant 52 Things I Learned....

Everyone declined

November 6, 2022

Unsubscribe. You know you want to. hello Suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, I remembered that one of the things I find most fun in life is just sharing stuff,...

Honest, helpful, kind

October 2, 2022

Unsubscribe. You know you want to. hello Suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, I remembered that one of the things I find most fun in life is just sharing stuff,...

Immaculate vibes

September 11, 2022

100% unsubscribe Many of us grieving for someone today. Sympathies. I proclaim 5 things Thank you to everyone who came to Interesting. I think it went OK....

Mount Cadillac's beautiful pink granite

Unsubscribe before it's too late Hello hello 5 things I'm thinking a lot at the moment about family, friends and colleagues. About the joy of having them and...

Team Draped all day

Unsubscribe you fools Hello hello Lots of books in this one. Think of it as a Summer Reading Special. 5 things Watching Wimbledon reminded me of this bit...

a bird stands for something

UNSUBSCRIBE because this one meanders hello, June. Jubilee. Weather/times like this always make me think of these lines from Forty Years On: MOGGIE: Then in...

The whole pie with jam in

hello hello, 5 Things I have a minor hobby replying to climate skeptics in the letters page of our local paper. I'm trying to work out the best language to...

too much about HR at lunch

hello again, I didn't write last month because Putin had just invaded Ukraine and paying attention to this sort of stuff seemed wrong. A month later, and...

The padding trade

February 6, 2022

hello, I have a big pile of unread New Yorkers above my desk. I like to go out first thing in the morning for coffee and to read one. But my eyesight can...

Stay tuned for fashion goals

January 2, 2022

Hello It’s 2022. Every year now sounds like a futurist from the 80s trying to pick a year that’s not 2000 or 2050. I read a lot about archetypal plots when I...

Because the soup is getting cold

December 12, 2021

hello, It just occurred to me. This is supposed to happen the first Sunday of the month isn’t it? Ah well. Sorry. World turned upside down. The times, they...

November 14, 2021

hello, Sorry about missing you all last month. Interesting times! With some ado, here are 5 things: I received more than one piece of enthusiastic feedback...

Dogs are barking but the train keeps moving

September 5, 2021

hello, Dogs are barking etc is one of those phrases that rattles around my head. It appears to have Arab origins (except as ‘..the caravan moves on’) but has...

Can you see my screen?

5 things: Listen to this fantastic, tiny! radio feature about “Parson’s Pleasure, a male-only nude bathing place on the outskirts of Oxford.” Sexuality,...

Far from the Google Cloud

hello, I’m writing this on the first day of holiday. I’m obviously not really that far from the Google Cloud I just thought it was a good line. If anything...

This meeting has been ended by host

hello, I was tempted to send this late, just so I could invoke this: Katie Henry @KT_NREI have never in my life identified more with a piece of writing than...

hello, A paper in Nature (‘People systematically overlook subtractive changes’) reports on experiments which show how people find it more obvious to solve...

This content doesn't seem to be working

hello, I am aware that Substack has become problematic. The technical team is looking into migration options. 5 things: The best quiz question I’ve heard in...

How's your interregnum?

hello, Unsubscribe. You don't have time for this. 5 Things: Carol Kay is a legendary bassist. She played on every good record. This tiny moment of instagram...

February 7, 2021

The shortest month. I’ll keep this brief. Postlight shared Pleasant Internet Things. What a good idea. Not least because happiness is contagious. Here are...

Your primary tab is empty

January 3, 2021

Happy New Year everyone, here we go again. 5 things: If you have a resolution that involves less doomscrolling can I recommend Favejet? It’s the best way to...

December 6, 2020

Hello, I’ve recently read advice that says the first thing you should do with these things is remind people who are you and why they subscribed to your...

Running and shouting with a large group of people

November 8, 2020

hello, Technically this is late. Should have happened last Sunday. But, something (laziness) stopped me doing it. This Sunday is different. This is a...

Exploding old toilets

October 4, 2020

Here in the UK it felt like Autumn arrived very suddenly. There was an extra bonus day of lovely warm September and then grim rain arrived and hasn’t gone...

Short one this month

September 6, 2020

September! The best month. I will never not be cheered at the prospect of not going back to school or university. Buried inside a BBC documentary about...

Oprah using screens

You may not have noticed but this didn’t happen last month. It hadn’t been an easy week and just as I sat down to newsletter we had a power cut. I took that...

A main plank of the BBC lawyers

hello, I have a friend who dives into a spreadsheet when they’re stressed or overwhelmed. When they need a few minutes of controlled space in their own head....