Well, that’s been a wild one… But I thought it would still be nice to do this. Obviously you all are going to need recommendations of things to read and watch for a little while.

(1) Things which I have read

Ahahahhaha. Ahem. Has anyone else found it really really hard to focus on reading recently? I really want to read, but also it feels a bit like a luxury and the last thing on my to do list, and when I do sit down I either twirl around the internet, or stare into space - maybe at a candle.

HOWEVER. Before everything really hit here, I read Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, which has just been shortlisted for the International Booker. I loved it. It’s a picaresque kinda story featuring Tyll, a joker and jester, in Europe during the Thirty Years War (early 1600s). It’s episodic and yet holds together, it’s slightly satirical about religion, politics and society, but also desperately sincere. Its really rewarding, and I want to re-read it a lot. Something about the atmosphere of it has really stuck with me.

Then I started in on Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, the final part of the Thomas Cromwell series. It’s ma-hoo-sive. It’s also really good, and I want to read it, but between the current environment and the fact that I know it is all going to end badly for Cromwell, who is a fave of mine, means I also don’t want to read it.

So, instead, I’ve been reading Chalet School books. For those unfamiliar with them, these are a set of boarding school stories from the mid-C20th, about a school that starts in Austria, then has to move during WWII, and ultimately ends up in Switzerland. They are deeply familiar to me and very reassuring with all their tropes and morals and coincidences and yes I would still like to go to boarding school in the Tirol even if I never want to be a teenager again. I suspect I shall be reading more of these in the next few weeks. I commend your favourite children’s fiction to you at this time.

(2) Things which I have watched

In the first part of March, when we in London were allowed out and about (probably foolishly), I made it to the cinema to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire — which you can now watch on at least one streaming service, and you should. It is absolutely as wonderful and beautiful and moving as all of the critics have said. It’s both strange and not to me to see a film with almost zero men in it, because it is so unusual and yet also a lot of my life.

I also went to the ballet and the theatre. At the Royal Ballet I saw Swan Lake, which I always love. I was desperately excited to see Frankie Hayward debut as Odette/Odile at the end of March, and of course that has been postponed, so I am glad that I took my mum to see Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov in it at the start of the month. We’re reaching the point where I’m planning on leaving London at some point (aka, when I can) and may not get to go see these things again any time soon, and if the last thing I see at the ballet as a Londoner is these two in this (the Black Swan Pas de Deux, MY HEART), I’ll have done well.

I am also extremely glad that I had tickets for Tom Stoppard’s latest, Leopoldstadt, for early March, because I would truly hate to have missed it. They were going to be filming if for the cinema — I really really hope they’d done the filming already. Stoppard is one of my very favourite writers, and I’ve never understood why he is so often thought to be intellect-over-emotion because his work so often makes me feel my feelings. This was quite different, in a lot of ways, to much of his earlier work, in that it feels like it fairly straightforwardly follows a family (specifically a mixed Jewish-Christian family from Vienna) from the turn of the twentieth century to the middle of the century, and yes, there are intellectual arguments about integration and anti-semitism in society throughout, but you obviously always know where it is going. At the interval, I wondered whether it was going to work: I was feeling a bit like we weren’t getting to spend enough time with the characters at each check-in to really emotionally connect with them. I was wrong. When it gets to where it is going, it provides a very visceral punch in the gut, and I found tears completely streaming down my face. It’s wonderful.

(3) A recommendation of some kind

Chances are you can’t go anywhere or see anything, so let’s stay home. I recommended your favourite children’s books earlier. Top tips from me (other than Chalet School) include Joan Aiken’s Dido Twite books, Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl and Chrestomanci books and some Swallows and Amazons. Maybe avoid your Alan Garner collection, I think that they might be quite unsettling.

I’ve also been listening to a bunch of podcasts.

I would particularly recommend the BBC’s Coronavirus Newscast (previously Newscast, previously previously Brexitcast) - which I am using as my primary dose of daily news. It records Monday - Friday evenings, so I listen to it on Tuesday - Saturday mornings.

I’ve also really enjoyed Reply All’s Attic and Closet Shows. I generally enjoy Reply All, but I don’t listen to it really regularly (I have a massive back catalogue to go through), but listening to Alex in an Attic and PJ in a Closet talk about how they’re finding everything and speak to some of their listeners about how they’re finding everything, all over the world, has been informative and soothing. Keep talking about your feelings, boys.

(4) In the pile for April

I’m finally feeling a bit more like reading. I’m also unemployed now (voluntarily: I’m supposed to be on sabbatical) and trying to build a rhythm for these long days at home, including reading. I just got Lamorna Ash’s Dark, Salt, Clear about Newlyn and fishing, and ordered Native by Patrick Laurie on the recommendation of James Rebanks and Nick Offerman on twitter. Otherwise, I’m just going to pick up whatever I fancy, just to keep reading - I do have a very large pile of unread books, so I will try and start there, but hey if I want to re-read Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller books, I will.

I’ve also signed up to the free month’s trials on offer from the BFI Player and Marquee Arts TV, as well as to Disney Plus, so I’m going to watch some arts films, some theatre, and some Mandalorian.

(5) A photo from the month gone by

Remember when we were allowed out? I went to the British Museum to see Edmund de Waal’s Library of Exile. It’s wonderful. I hope lots more people get a chance to see it.