Currently

Watching – Slow Horses, AppleTV+

If you somehow have managed to not watch Season 1-3 of Slow Horse please do yourself a favour and get an AppleTV+ subscription so you can bask in its excellence. It is my favourite show for a long time. They release it weekly, old school-style, which is so infuriating as we just want to binge it all but they are saving us from ourselves and allowing us to savour it. Gary Oldman is just brilliant as the washed up spy in charge of the rejects of Slough House. Kristin Scott Thomas is formidable and wonderful as second desk at the Park (not actually the head of operations on paper but completely in charge). I love the cast, the writing, the tension – it’s just perfect telly.

Reading – Babel by R. F. Kuang

It is take me a while to get through this but it is so well devised. Set in Oxford in a universe where silver bars have a special power to enhance whatever they are near (makes ships go fast, makes gardens grow, even makes people heal), it follows an orphan boy brought from Canton by a mysterious benefactor. It gives Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy vibes.

Listening – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

I listened to most of this on audiobook but read a few chapters too. I had been meaning to read this book for years and I am sorry I took so long. It was not at all what I expected, knowing little about the story going into it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It makes me what to research everything about it and annotate the book from cover to cover.

Eating – Pumpkin muffins

My family have been raving about my pumpkin muffins – made using a simple Good Food recipe – so I have made multiple batches. They are light, spiced, and very satisfying.