One hundred and one nights

I’m out in lovely Belfast folks which to me smells like Pear’s soap at the sink and wheaten bread in the toaster. It was coming here this time last year that I missed my flight because I was so engrossed in making an ebook for the first full year of Peaceable Land.

I think I won’t do an ebook this year. Not because the first one was “absurd”, “spectacularly self-regarding”, “astonishingly naked hucksterism” or anything else people said. Rather because I hope the best of this last year’s output is quality enough to be collected, one day, in an actual book, and I’ve suffered awful visions of publishers discovering my copyright-ruining ebooks: “Sorry. You did what?”

I feel proudest of the large features like Kate Clanchy has nothing to teach us (November), The English have begun to hate (November), Kentish Berserk (December), The world’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok (January), and The passion of Will Self (March). And so far as I can tell from your comments and reading data, those are what you folks like most as well.

For PL’s third year I’ll shift from weekly to fortnightly. From July I will be back with my parents and my girlfriend will be in her office on Saturdays. I will use those wide open Saturdays to work all day on the essays, interviews and reports I want to write. There are so many.

I remember well how lonely it was knowing no one else who liked the kind of thing we discuss on PL. Now there have been 100 issues and there are 800 of you. I can’t believe how lucky I am. It means so much that I am getting emotional even about trialling a mildly altered publishing cadence!

Anyway we’ll see how that goes and I hope you’ll like what I come out with. Before July I am going to have to figure out writing a post from the Canterbury trail! I look forward to seeing lots of you on Wednesday and to reporting it back to the rest of you soon after.

Thanks so much and have a nice weekend,
GM