QUILTERS Documentary, 33m, on Netflix — lifers and long stayers at a Missourian maximum security prison quilt for children in foster care. “I zone out, and I just sew.,” says Chill. “For me, this my flavour. Butterflies.”
LOVED AND MISSED Novel, out 2021, by Susie Boyt. Had me rapt, and for such strange, comforting reasons. This is a book about an unlucky person who cannot change their luck. Ruth’s daughter is a heroin addict who loves her but is uninterested in her help. Ruth steals her granddaughter away to raise her. How do we live without luck? How do we continue to stay here when our hearts are broken? Questions close to home. The writing reminded me of Anita Brookner.
TO THE MOON AND BACK Novel, by Eliana Rampage, out 2026. Unbelievably beautiful, exciting, and complex, story about the first (fictional) Cherokee astronaut, Steph; also, her mom, sister, girlfriend, and the long, cold years of single-minded dedication it takes to get to the moon. So much packed into this page-turner, and elegantly so.
WHITE HELMETS Oscar-winning documentary, 40m, Netflix. Second watch. In the Syrian civil war, over 400,000 people were killed and millions fled their homes. The White Helmets are a civil defense group that watch for bombs and race to bomb sites to recover people from under the rubble. As informative and affecting as it sounds; also, a reminder of the many deaths Putin is responsible for, before and beyond Ukraine, as the White Helmets spy planes overhead and call out, “It’s the Russians.”
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest, with Leo. Exhilarating at times, with some watchable characters from Leo and Benicio del Toro, but such a sausage fest, with the weakest writing for women; also, had an opportunity to shoot for the mark and completely missed in terms of contemporary US politics. Lastly, it felt pretty racist, but Black Girl Watching elaborates on this far better than I could, so…
ONE FETISH AFTER ANOTHER, the following essay, by
Lastly: The Green Party
I’m forever telling younger writers and editing clients this – it’s not you. It’s the economy. It’s society’s priorities. Nobody is looking at the amount of work it’s literally possible for a person to do, or the amount of money people actually have, and building society around that. Except maybe for the Green Party. Did you know that in the last month, about 60,000 people have joined the Green Party? Membership is now at 115,000. I’ve been a member for 10 years. It’s ridiculously cheap. Join us (please) here.
I was raised in a Tory stronghold and the people I grew up with will vote Green over Reform, just like they did in Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire, where they had the opportunity in 2024. I don’t believe the Greens will suddenly get in power and fix everything, but I do believe that we have to have people in power who actually want to fix everything— and on a hopeful note, maybe this weak-willed Labour Party, so interested in responding to the jeers of Reform and ex-Tory voters, will enact proportional representation, and then we’ll all have an opportunity to vote Green, if we want to.