Hello! I've been away too long but let's not dwell on that. In this post, I want to shout-out some Substacks that I've been enjoying and that I think you may enjoy too. I started this Substack six months ago and already it feels like this platform has grown so much in that time and filled up with some truly brilliant writers.
So here’s my pick of Substacks I've been enjoying that I expect you may like too.
I love Sophia's writing - it's so funny and heartfelt and there's a benevolence behind it. I am a big believer that writing reveals one's soul. I think you can tell when a writer is a good person (Zadie Smith), a baddie (August Strindberg - this is a bit of an esoteric reference but he was most definitely a BAD MAN and I could tell by reading him), or complicated (Truman Capote) - the writing can still be sublime whichever camp the writer falls into but you glimpse their character in the prose. All that to say, when you read Sophia Money-Coutts, you can tell she is a good egg.
She wrote one piece about going to a dating coach and, at the very end, revealed she had recently met someone off of Hinge. The quiet but hopeful way she described falling in love stayed with me.
'It's taken me by surprise in the way that falling in love often does, because life suddenly feels shinier despite the gloom elsewhere, and I feel vulnerable in a way I haven't for years. But also very lucky. Everyone gets their turn eventually. It's just a question of when.'
Anyhow she started her Substack about a month ago and I've been enjoying reading it. I particularly liked this one she wrote about being trolled on Twitter for a piece about the working habits of Gen Z which was actually measured and interesting but of course went nuts on Twitter because of an inflammatory headline together with her silly name and the fact that so many people are morons. She received horrid messages. As someone who has received plenty of un-asked-for criticism direct to my inbox - the latest one was this week, shout out to Donald - it made me feel less alone.
But! She writes about so much more than that - whether to buy a dog or adopt one, a guide to New York, the world's only marmalade festival... fill yer boots!
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I stumbled upon this Substack when my friend Emma sent me this post where Ormerod details - in excruciating detail - how buying a flat in London and the struggle to sell it (yes, really!) almost pushed her over the edge. Her title says it all: Why Buying A Flat In London Sent Us Financially And Emotionally Tits Up. It's a brilliant piece particularly because this side of the story - when property buying goes wrong - is so rarely told. I feel like in the UK we are all indoctrinated into the cult of home ownership when, as Ormerod testifies, it can go miserably wrong.
Anyhow, I really like Ormerod's vibe - her honesty, her sharpness, her gamine haircut, her long manicured nails (aspirationails, she calls them), her writing... I mean, in all honesty, I think maybe I just want to be her - she's also a ghostwriter, a career I'm increasingly lured by. If a chic London mama writing about style, beauty, interiors, digital culture and life in general is your thing, she's one to read.
by Rebecca Reid
I was vaguely aware of Rebecca Reid before I came across her Substack (do you get the reference of the name?). She's big on Twitter and I think I'd seen her every now and again on shows like Good Morning Britain. But her writing is a revelation! I really wasn't expecting it to be so tender and honest and revealing and funny and beautiful.
She writes a personal Substack and it's about her life as a single mother to a young child living in London and trying to make a living out of journalism. I just love the way she writes about the financial anxiety of that and the madness of the work itself.
‘At the moment while I'm working to see if various projects get commissioned I feel like one of those men who sink their life savings into a scheme and keep telling their kids that it'll all come off soon and there'll be puppies at Christmas.’
'Fuck me, being frugal is miserable and hard. The other day I inwardly congratulated myself for having a no spend day, before adding it up and realising that between a cup of coffee, a couple of direct debits, some nappies and toddler snacks and my childcare payment for the day, I'd spent over £200.'
But I don't want to excerpt anymore - I feel you should read it all in context! She's just announced that she is writing a novel to be published by Bloomsbury and I can't wait to read it.
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My brain has been taken over by interior content as I'm trying (with a budget of minus £78) to do up my flat. My Instagram discovery page is all pretty pictures of Scandinavian style living rooms with Murano glass swirly ball light fixtures and pastel walls and mid-century wood pieces and Lord, I want it alllll. I've been enjoying the interiors content on Substack too. Rachael Cooney - I first came across her when I lusted over her sofa upholstered in Robert Kime stripes - does a great feature called Friday Finds where she scours auction houses, dealers and Facebook Marketplace for the best secondhand finds. As a dedicated thrifter, I love having a scroll through.
(Lordy Loo, it doesn't escape my notice that all the Substacks I'm recommending are written by women not all that different from me. Must branch out and develop more diverse tastes but for now - them's the picks).
Recommendations
Demon Copperhead
Oh. My. God. This. Book. All I can say is: read it, read it now! But actually, I'm going to say some more... This book - and it is chunky and probably over long and gave me 'big book fear' - is a homage to David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. But while Dickens's book was all about an abandoned child making his way in Victorian London (not a place kind to abandoned children), Barbara Kingsolver's version focusses on a neglected child (not fully abandoned at the beginning) trying to survive in poverty-riddled Appalachia, an area also in the grip of an opioid crisis (and it is a FUCKING TRAVESTY that not a single one of those pharmaceutical criminals who made billions - yes, billions - peddling their oxycontin and destroying lives has seen the inside of a prison cell).
It's an absolutely masterful book about such a likeable kid who has to use every ounce of resilience and resourcefulness to survive - but it's about so much more. I felt an ache when I finished it - a longing for the characters I had grown to love. Kingsolver populates this doorstepper of a book with charming, deceitful, nauseating, goodhearted, hilarious, loveable and deeply frustrating people - which was also Dickens's strength. And really, it says it all that her book can easily sit alongside his original. Incredible, honestly.
Empire Of Pain
Not new at all but absolutely the best book I’ve read in recent years and it wasn't even fiction! It's a deep non-fiction look at the Sackler family, who made a fortune in pharmaceuticals and eventually went on to make OxyContin, but it somehow reads like an unputdownable saga. Patrick Radden Keefe created a masterpiece. And it is a perfect companion to Demon Copperhead.
Tortured Poets Department
Well, Friday, was a big day, wasn't it? Argh, I have been listening to the album on repeat and I think that it could have done with a bit more editing and curation (did we need 31 tracks? I don't think so!). So far, my standouts are: Fortnight, My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?, I Can Do It With A Broken Heart and The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. I think the latter will become the anthem for ghosted girls and, you know what, ghosted girls needed an anthem! Do not ghost girls, it is very unkind!
That's it for now Substackers and I WILL be back next week. No more excuses! I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday wherever you are xxx
😱 I almost squealed when I saw this notification thank you so much Isolde. Any acknowledgment is always lovely to receive but especially so when it’s from a real life professional writer!
So many recommendations! Thanks!! also the book seems GREAT!